History

Written on 28 March 2011. Posted in Argentina

Brief general historical account

The first Spanish settlement was the Sancti Spiritu fort, established in 1527 near the site of what is now Santa Fe city. Santiago del Estero (1553), Córdoba (1573) and Buenos Aires (1580) formed the hubs of colonial domination, which was imposed on the northern half of modern-day Argentina under the authority of the Spanish Crown. Initially dependent upon the Viceroyalty of Peru, during the reign of Carlos III of Spain this territory came to form part of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata, created in 1776. In 1780, a great indigenous uprising took place, with its epicentre in Cuzco (now Peru). It was led by Tupac Amaru and affected the whole of what is now Argentina and Colombia. The Patagonian region (to the south of modern-day Argentina) remained under indigenous control until the last quarter of the 19th century and Chaco (in the north) until the end of that same century.

Two English invasions took place in 1806 and 1807, both defeated by the self-organised towns of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, a fact that has unified both cities to this day. In 1810, Buenos Aires was the setting for the May Revolution, which removed the viceroy and replaced him with a government Junta formed primarily of non-indigenous criollos (people of proven unmixed Spanish ancestry). This led to the War of Independence against Spain (1810-1824), and Argentina declared its independence on 9 July 1816.

Its first steps as an independent country were tumultuous. The conflict between two political groups with different projects (unitary and federal) threw Argentina into a series of bloody civil wars between factions and provinces (1820-1861) and into the Argentine-Brazil war (1825-1826). The governor of Buenos Aires province, Juan Manuel de Rosas, a federalist, precariously clung to power from 1830 to 1853 when he was overthrown in the Battle of Caseros by an alliance of various provinces plus Brazil, headed by Justo José de Urquiza, governor of Entre Ríos. The victors approved the 1852 Constitution, adopting a watered-down version of the federal system, but Buenos Aires province rejected it and seceded from the Argentine Confederation, which subsequently established its capital in Paraná. In 1861, Buenos Aires defeated the Confederation in the Battle of Pavón, thus unifying the country once and for all.

The "Bread Basket of the World"

The second half of the 19th century saw a period of modernization and economic prosperity in Argentina. With the strong investment in education and in the means of production, focused on meat and grain production for the European market, the economy achieved high levels of growth and attracted large numbers of immigrants.

Economic prosperity encouraged the growth of the middle classes, the creation of modern political parties such as the Unión Cívica Radical (Radical Civil Union) and the Socialist Party and the rise of the unions, not without social conflict and serious acts of repression. Wide-scale political reforms took place, including the introduction of universal suffrage in 1912 and the university reforms of 1918.

Dictatorships

The republican system has collapsed a number of times during the country's political history. A first coup d'etat brought the military to power in 1930. In 1945, following intense and wide-scale social pressure, Col. Juan Domingo Perón was elected president and, along with his wife, Eva Perón, was to head a political movement of immense importance in the country's history, 'Peronism' or 'Justicialism'. In 1955, however, Perón was overthrown by a military coup under the banner of the 'Liberating Revolution' and Peronism was banned. The country returned to a democratic system in 1958 but the military took power once more in 1966 (Argentine Revolution of 1966-1973). These years were characterized by an ever-increasing political violence.

In 1973, Peronism was legalized once more and triumphed in the presidential elections. On 24 March 1976 another military coup gave rise to the self-named 'Process of National Reorganisation', and it was during this period that the most serious and systematic violations of human rights took place (it is estimated that some 30,000 people were murdered by army task forces). In 1982, the government declared war on Great Britain to recover the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), a war which lasted two months. Its failure in this war was one reason why national elections were again held in 1983, returning Argentina to what has been an uninterrupted period of democracy ever since.

Historical developments of importance to indigenous peoples

Peace treaties versus 'desert' military campaigns: The newly-formed Republic was keen to extend its influence over the regions controlled by the native indigenous nations. The starting point was to create a rhetoric justifying this. Despite the fact that the Conquistadors and colonizers had signed various treaties, terms of surrender and peace agreements with their chiefs during the 18th and 19th centuries, these agreements were never implemented. And yet these now form real legal and political testimony to the ethnic and cultural pre-existence of indigenous peoples, today recognised in the National Constitution.

Between 1878 and 1884, the central government embarked on a war of extermination of the indigenous nations in the north and south of the country. In 1879, General Julio A. Roca advanced on the Mapuche and Tehuelche peoples, achieving their military subjugation. In 1884, General Victorica did the same in the north ("the green desert campaign"). The aim of the first was to remove the indigenous from their territories, while the latter sought to dominate the indigenous, transforming them into a rural labour force. After such campaigns, the treaties were clearly dead letter. Many studies have described these campaigns as acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing. The groups that survived were displaced to areas of geographic remoteness. Thousands of people were captured and moved; some men were drafted into the army while others were forced into domestic service in Buenos Aires and neighbouring towns. The stolen lands were sold at low prices to third parties, or given as gifts to influential landowners and politicians. The hunter-gatherer peoples of the Chaco were sedentarized through the creation of native reservations. Until the 1960s, these supplied large contingents of indigenous workers for work camps, sugar refineries and cotton harvests but thereafter industrialization led to a decrease in the need for hired labour.

Battle of Quera: In 1875, a group of Kolla communities living in what is now Jujuy province rose up against the national government, which was trying to sell their lands to non-indigenous individuals. They dug themselves in at the Abra de Quera, ready to face all those who opposed their demands with spears, sticks and arrows. But they encountered violent repression. The precise number of casualties was never made known in what was called the "Battle of Quera" (Guilarte 2003). Interestingly, the demand presented by the demonstrators was signed by them as "Indian people" in defence of their lands.

Peace Incursion: In 1946, around 200 Kolla were involved in a march from Salta and Jujuy provinces to Buenos Aires to demand fulfilment of an undertaking made by President Hipólito Irigoyen before the military coup in 1930, in which he promised to title their lands. This first great march, known as the "malón de la paz" ('peace incursion') was made up of young and old, adults and children alike from Abra Pampa (in modern-day Jujuy province) and the San Andrés and Santiago estates (now in Salta province). On their arrival in Buenos Aires, they were returned to their provinces by train, against their will.

First National Indigenous Parliament: In 1972, the Coordinating Commission of Indigenous Peoples of the Argentine Republic and the Neuquén Indigenous Confederation joined forces to hold the First National Indigenous Parliament or Futa Traun. Some indigenous people from other parts of the country also participated. In this first mass meeting, the participants made claims and demands related to land ownership, legal status, working conditions for indigenous people and access to basic state services such as health and housing. These demands were later to form the basis for National Law 23302 on Indigenous Policy and Support to Native Communities, promulgated in 1985.

Programme for Indigenous Peoples' Participation: A Programme for Indigenous Peoples' Participation (PPI) was implemented in 1996/97, the aim of which was to "produce indigenous proposals for implementing article 75 paragraph 17 of the National Constitution". Its pan-indigenous approach to mobilisation and methodology of collective production at five levels (community, zone, province, region and nation) meant that the PPI was the first opportunity the country's indigenous people had to find out about - and realise that they shared - a common history and demands. This basis enabled them to produce - not without contradictions, given the diversity of peoples, historic paths and local contexts - a minimum platform of demands. Despite the fact that the PPI was the only effective and large-scale process of the indigenous movement, it did not result in the much-hoped-for national representation. Once the document - containing a series of demands and proposals from the whole country's indigenous population - had been presented, the regions and provinces went their separate ways and the few organisations in existence continued to work in isolation from each other.