The era of modern Argentina is inaugurated by the Presidency of Sarmiento in 1868. Hitherto her business had been to work out her destiny with much waste of human life and wealth, now her task was to create both. Population[53] began to increase and industries flourished. Railways were extended and the administration was improved. It was a season of prosperity in almost every part of the world, and in this Argentina fully shared. Brazil had suffered much during the war, and Argentina profited by supplying its needs and also made up for her own losses by developing the vast pastoral and agricultural resources. The only political event of importance during Sarmiento's term of office was an insurrection in Entre Rios, where the veteran Urquiza was still Governor. One Lopez Jordan was leader of the revolt, and he succeeded in capturing and murdering Urquiza. The old man deserved a more peaceful end, for, though cruel, he had aimed at the public welfare, and he was one of those who did good service in establishing the Republic on a firm basis. After much bloodshed the rebellion was suppressed by young Julio Roca, a rising soldier.

Sarmiento's term of office came to an end in 1874. Mitre, favoured by the PorteÑos, and Dr. Avellaneda were rivals for the succession, and the latter became President, greatly to the annoyance of the PorteÑos. He introduced a more economical policy, and the country continued to prosper, but by far the most important event of the time was the reduction of Patagonia—an event the magnitude of which cannot even yet be estimated. It was less than a hundred years ago since the first small attempts at settlement had been made there, and Patagonia was still practically an enormous waste, a no-man's land, unmapped and roamed over by savage Indians. General Roca, now Minister of War, began to peg out claims for posterity. After Rosas had fallen from power the Indians had recovered most of the territory which he had taken from them, but now that Argentina was at peace the Government was more than able to hold its own, and in 1878 Roca employed the whole power of the country to subjugate Patagonia. He succeeded in making the Rio Negro the southern boundary. The Province of Buenos Aires claimed the whole of this new territory, but the other members of the Federation were naturally unwilling to see her thus augmented, and she had to be content with an addition of 63,000 square miles. The rest of the new land was divided into Gobernaciones, or Territories, as they would be called in the United States.

But he was to attain more notoriety in a less useful struggle. The perennial source of discord—the Provinces against Buenos Aires or the Federalists against the Unitarians—which ought to have been settled on the downfall of Rosas, was once more to convulse the Republic. Avellaneda, who was favourable to the Provinces, was determined to choose his successor, and the opposition candidate was Dr. Tejedor, who had the support of Mitre. Roca was the nominee of the outgoing President. The situation rapidly became strained, and in June and July, 1880, the partisans of either side took up arms and there was considerable bloodshed in Buenos Aires. The advantage rested with Roca's party; the PorteÑos were compelled to ask for terms of peace, and at last the difficult constitutional question was settled. Without delay Buenos Aires was declared the Federal capital, and although the PorteÑos were nominally defeated, their principles triumphed in reality. The result was the establishment of a strong central Government, and this was of the happiest effect in consolidating the Confederacy and in binding together its hitherto disjointed members.

This was a time of great material prosperity. Other opportunities will be taken of dwelling on this subject; here it is sufficient to say that industry and commerce expanded very rapidly. There was a huge boom; men seemed to be growing rich rapidly; it was a period of inflation and the President's attempt to establish the currency on a gold basis was unpopular and unsuccessful. But under his rule, and with the assistance of the able Pellegrini, the credit of Argentina improved and a loan of £8,000,000 was negotiated. On the whole, Roca's administration did him credit, although undoubtedly he might have taken more advantage of the exceptionally favourable circumstances, and introduced sounder and more honest principles of administration.

His successor, Dr. Juarez Celman, was a person of altogether inferior stamp. The fever for speculation grew rapidly, large additions were made to the national indebtedness, and the premium on gold doubled. The Government, as is usually the case with South American Governments, was below rather than above the public standard of conduct. Government, Provinces, and municipalities, led the way in wasteful expenditure, the inflation reached its height. The time of the inevitable crash drew near.

In 1889 public opinion, wiser than the Government, grew apprehensive, and the Civic Union was formed with the object of overthrowing the President and reforming the finances and administration. Roca and Mitre, sincerely anxious for the good of their country, were the leading spirits in the opposition, and in July, 1890, the Revolution began. Some fighting took place, but the spirit of faction was less ferocious than it had been a generation ago, and most men seemed to consider that the desperate financial condition needed radical measures. The resistance of the Government was half-hearted, and on July 30th Celman resigned.

Pellegrini, the Vice-President, succeeded him, and it was time for the national affairs to be placed in more capable hands. The treasury was empty, and there was a great burden of debt. The whole financial and monetary system was in confusion, and in September Pellegrini was obliged to issue notes for $50,000,000. This step provided money for the immediate necessities of administration, but it helped to precipitate the crash which came in March, 1891. This vast monetary convulsion will be long remembered in England, and it has served as a salutary warning both to European investors and to speculators in the country itself, who now recognise that credit and the reputation for honesty is one of the chief factors in a country's prosperity. The Banco Nacional, in spite of all efforts on the part of the Government to save it, was submerged, and the same fate met every other bank except the London and River Plate. As a matter of course, political trouble followed industrial trouble, and in February while Roca was driving in a carriage he was fired at and slightly wounded. It was, however, to him and Mitre that the people looked to extricate them from their troubles, and the PorteÑos nominated Mitre as candidate for the Presidency amidst great enthusiasm, but the Cordoba section was indignant, and Mitre was induced to withdraw on condition that the new candidate should be non-party and that the election should be impartial. At the beginning of 1892 Saenz PeÑa, the candidate favoured by Mitre and Roca, was elected, and Alem, the leader of the new Radical party, known as the Civic Union, was banished. Pellegrini's term of office had disappointed his supporters and few regretted his retirement.

The task of PeÑa was hardly less difficult than that of Pellegrini. The improvement in the finances and administration came very slowly, but the chief troubles were political, for Argentina had not yet adapted herself to the smooth working of federal institutions. Alem, who had returned from exile, was still preaching disaffection and taking advantage of the turbulent disposition of the various Provinces. In 1893 Costa, the Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires, who had a strong military force, planned the overthrow of the central Government, and his example was followed by Santa FÉ and several other Provinces. In August Costa was forcibly deposed, but the movement in Santa FÉ was fostered by Alem, and the Radicals were eager to overthrow PeÑa and his friends. Matters grew extremely serious, for there was disaffection in the navy, but on September 25th General Roca took command of the army, and on October 1st he rescued Rosario from the hands of the revolutionists. Alem and other leaders were imprisoned and the power of the Radicals vanished, but public affairs remained in a threatening condition.

Evidence was found of widespread corruption, and that there was no public feeling against it is shown by the following incident. Costa had left the affairs of Buenos Aires in confusion, and the central Government appointed Dr. Lopez to administer them. He found evidence of malpractices against one Colonel Sarmiento and charged him, but failed to secure a conviction. Thereupon Sarmiento provoked Lopez to a duel, in which the latter was mortally wounded, but Sarmiento received a merely nominal punishment. The Government was thoroughly distrusted; it seemed powerless to reform abuses, and there was little likelihood that if the ruling Ministers were removed their successors would do any better. Such progress as the country made was due to the efforts of private citizens and the improvement in the trade conditions of the world.

The detachment of PeÑa from political parties had been expected to prove advantageous, but in practice this was not the case, for the President, having no party, had no supporters in the Congress, and matters approached a deadlock. At the beginning of 1895 the President found it impossible to induce the Congress to vote the Budget, and there was also a split in the Cabinet about the fate of two naval officers condemned for participation in the Santa FÉ outbreak. PeÑa wished to confirm the death sentence; there was strong opposition, and PeÑa was probably glad of the excuse to resign and disappear from political life. This took place on January 21, 1895. The sentence upon the two officers was commuted to one of imprisonment.

He was succeeded by the Vice-President Uriburu, who had also been chosen on account of his neutrality; but he was more successful, and he had the powerful support of Roca and Pellegrini. During his first year of office it seemed probable that a foreign war would be added to all the other troubles of the Republic, for the boundary dispute with Chile was assuming a threatening attitude and continued to disturb public tranquillity for seven years. This subject can be treated more conveniently in the history of the next administration, when it was settled. In this year a boundary dispute with Brazil about the Misiones was settled by the arbitration of President Cleveland in favour of the latter country.[54]

Little progress in settling the nation's difficulties was made under Uriburu, but internal and external peace was maintained. In 1898 General Roca succeeded him as President, and it was generally felt that a man had appeared who was competent to steer the ship of State into smoother waters. He had been of great service during the troubles which had attended the resignation of Celman, and had kept the disorderly elements in check. He had, all through the troubles of ten years, been on the side of law and order, and he was practically the leader of a national party.

In May, 1898, the President in his message to Congress denounced judicial corruption, and the publicity which he gave to these abuses resulted in several improvements; but there is still much matter for adverse criticism in the administration of justice in Argentina. The improvements in Government methods led to gradual general improvement, which, however, was also the result of natural causes, and Argentina became undoubtedly the most prosperous country in South America. The fear of political disintegration has become a thing of the past, owing to the preponderance of the capital in wealth and influence, but neither Roca himself nor any other successor has been able to banish a serious evil from which Argentina suffers, and which, though not causing civil war on a large scale, brings about disquieting strikes and riots. This is due to defective methods of government. The President may be said to have been the "saviour of his country" in the sense that a weaker or dishonest man would probably have plunged the country into both domestic and foreign war, and neutralised all the progress of a generation. But he could not bequeath political capacity to his colleagues, nor could he eradicate many bad traditions of long standing.

His last work was the settlement of the boundary dispute with Chile. It is not necessary to go into the history of the subject previous to the Treaty of 1881. In the old Spanish days there had been uncertainty about the boundary, and during the existence of the two Republics the quarrel had never slept. "During the whole of its progress the Argentine Republic contended that her western boundary from north to south was the Cordillera de los Andes, and that, in consequence, she had dominion over all the territory eastward of the crest of the Cordillera, the greater part of the Straits of Magellan, and the whole of Tierra del Fuego. Chile on her part accepted the natural boundary of the Cordillera, to a great extent, but maintained that this boundary did not rule in the southern part of the continent; that in Patagonia the territory on both sides of the Andes were Chilian, from the Pacific to the Atlantic; that the Straits of Magellan were Chilian; and that Tierra del Fuego was also Chilian."[55]

The two Republics made a Treaty in 1881. They agreed that down to 52° S., i.e., to the Straits of Magellan, the boundary was to be the Cordilleras de los Andes. The line was to pass over the highest points of the watershed. The southern boundary was also determined. The Treaty represents a concession on the part of Chile, who gave up her extravagant claims to the east of Patagonia. But she still claimed that the line should follow the highest points in the watershed, while the Argentine Government insisted that the line should run from highest peak to highest peak.

This Treaty was ratified, but not carried out. In 1883 the Argentine Government informed its Ambassador at Santiago that the time had come to trace the boundary line. But procrastination is a South American characteristic, and the affair drifted on until, in 1888, a Convention was made. In accordance with the Treaty of 1881, this Convention appointed experts to trace the line. The matter, in fact, was one of great difficulty, for unfortunately it turned out that the watersheds and the highest summits did not coincide, and the experts disagreed hopelessly.

The question of the rivers had raised fresh obstacles, and the experts had brought matters to such a tangle that it was necessary in 1893 to draw up a Protocol to explain them further. The main principle which it fixed was that in case the high peaks of the Cordillera should be crossed by any river, that river should be cut by the boundary line. The experts continued their work, which was extremely arduous, for the boundary line ran through unexplored forests and mountains. But in 1895 feelings ran to a dangerous height in both countries, and the people of Argentina declared that the Chilians were assuming an aggressive attitude and were likely to attack them. They were made the more uneasy by the discovery that the army and stores had, like everything else, suffered from long years of misrule, and Congress voted fifty million gold dollars for military preparations. In July, 1898, a further controversy arose. The Puna de Atacama is a great salt waste of rugged tableland, volcanic, grassless, and inhospitable. Working from the north, the experts had found no great difficulty until they reached this savage territory. Here there was a deadlock, and the Chilians claimed the whole district. Possibly the belief that the disputed territory contained considerable borax deposits accentuated the quarrel, but the main source of it was national pride, for the majority of the Andine territory was of small value. The experts south of the Atacama waste proceeded more smoothly till they reached Patagonia. "Here,[56] indeed, the fundamental condition of identity between the "highest crest" and the "water parting" (or "divide," as it is called in North America), existed in full force, and no ground for dispute presented itself, the "main range" of the Andes being exceptionally well adapted by position and structure for an international boundary. It was the divergence of these two essential conditions in Patagonia which imperilled the peace of South America. The Patagonian rivers were found to flow from east to west right athwart, or transverse to, the general trend of the Andine mountain system from north to south. They were found to break across the great mountain masses, and to intersperse wide valleys, across which the boundary must either be carried from one mass of peaks to the next or else be made to skirt the indefinite edge of cordillera and pampas, where the two insensibly combine and where the rivers rise. A very little examination proved the incompatibility of "higher crests" with "water parting" as a fixed principle of demarcation in these parts."[57]

With this fruitful field of dispute before them it is not surprising that angry feelings were engendered, especially among the Chilians, who have narrow territory, and were unwilling to give up a square mile without a struggle. In August Chile despatched an ultimatum demanding arbitration, and Roca induced his Cabinet to assent to the demand.

The smaller question—the Atacama territory—was referred to the United States. Mr. Buchanan was appointed arbiter, and he was assisted by one Chilian and one Argentine Commissioner. Mr. Buchanan drew a boundary line which he considered to be just, and by an ingenious device contrived that both the agreement and the disagreement of the Commissioners should preserve its integrity.[58] The dispute was thus happily settled, and not long afterwards Roca met the Chilian President at Punta Arenas, and an agreement to restrict armaments was made.

But the Patagonian boundary was a matter of much greater difficulty. It was referred to Great Britain, and in December, 1899, the Commission in London issued a most exhaustive report. It was necessary to proceed very slowly in such a perplexing matter, and public feeling was greatly excited, both countries appearing to be eager for war. Such a catastrophe seemed to be probable, for SeÑor Alcorta, the Argentine War Minister, was extremely bellicose, but on January 31, 1902, Sir Thomas Holdich was sent with a small Commission to endeavour to determine the boundary line, and it was intimated to[109]
[110] both Governments that if hostile preparations continued King Edward VII. would be compelled to withdraw from his position as arbiter. The tension was somewhat relieved by the sudden death of SeÑor Alcorta, and Roca acted a statesmanlike part in working for peace, and it was largely through his exertions that in June, 1902, a Treaty was signed to restrict armaments. When Sir Thomas Holdich's Commission gave its decision a few months later, the award was loyally accepted.

This settlement of a great question is one of the most signal triumphs for the principle of arbitration, for on this occasion neither party was willing to make concessions and the disposition of both was rather to war than to peace. The benefit of the settlement was incalculable, for it preserved the two most flourishing States in South America from a war which would have gone far towards ruining both.[59] This example has been of the utmost value to South America, and arbitration is undoubtedly beginning to replace the appeal to arms.

With this triumph of peace this modern history of Argentina may fitly be closed. President Roca, who had deserved so well of his country, was succeeded in 1904 by Dr. Manuel Quintana, who still holds that post, and his term of office has been one of great material prosperity for the Republic.