A Political Hurricane: Federalism in Northern Argentina in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

This paper analyzes the turbulent politics of the province of Salta between 1825 and 1831, a period marked by the conflict between those who supported a centralized political order and those who defended federalism. The former maintained that the only way to achieve the political organization of the republic was through the acceptance of a central power recognized by the provinces. One governor of Salta described federalism as a political hurricane that would destroy order and lead to anarchy.

“Citizen-merchants” belonging to the provincial elites sustained these wars through loans to the state, providing an example of the active participation of civil society in the political-military process. The contributors protected the goods they had lent by invoking the rights granted to them by law, the juridical basis of the republic, which was in some circumstances disregarded by the state itself, both provincial and national.

Finally, we argue that, during the years under study, the province of Salta, having become a political frontier with another emerging state, maintained governments loyal to a centralized power, among other reasons, in order to defend against a possible external attack a territory they considered their own, wished to organize juridically, and called a nation.