Argentina's first impression was of football, meat and other idiosyncratic terms, but now the new Argentine president's messy hairstyle and aggressive rhetoric have once again taken the country's place in the mainland news, and he occasionally says "I will not apologize for having a bad hand." I don't have to be ashamed to be a white man and have blond hair and blue eyes" to highlight his self-confidence, and then he criticized Francis as a "Jesuit who promotes XXISM" despite his Catholic identity to show his dislike of collectivism, such a crazy "Argentine Trump" threw out a prescription for shock therapy after coming to power with super popularity in an attempt to revive the economy, Trump praised him and said that "he will make Argentina great again", "again" shows that Argentina has been broad, and her per capita GDP is higher than that of Austria in history. Italy, Japan, Spain and other countries, the number of cars was the highest in the southern hemisphere, during which special reasons have experienced state intervention policies, and the country's inflation rate in 2023 is 211.4%, this sense of disparity is no wonder that Argentines are on the wrong side.
Javier Milley
1. The pre-capitalist period
In the 16th century, the Spanish colonized in present-day Argentina, but due to the lack of gold or other precious metal reserves, they were not taken seriously, so that they did not establish a perfect local administrative system, and were under the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of Peru. In 1776, the Viceroyalty of La Plata was established because the former Viceroyalty of Peru covered almost all of South America and was difficult to manage, the port of Buenos Aires (now the capital of Argentina) was of increasing importance to the export trade of other colonies, the transit trade promoted the construction of cities, and the fertile land of Argentina could meet the needs of agricultural and animal husbandry products of other Spanish colonies, and Argentina was gradually brought into the world economic system, Free Trade Regulations After ratification, economic activity in Argentina increased, and these social conditions, combined with a prosperous commercial economy, made it possible to develop technological innovations and advanced political ideas, which led to independence.
Jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of Peru
Because the trade of the Viceroyalty of La Plata was monopolized by Spain, the region could not trade freely with other countries, so a force for free trade was formed, and the Napoleonic Wars also hit Spain and the political ecology of the colony, and the military who supported the unity under the confederation system had an armed conflict with the royalists, and the war quickly turned into an independence movement. Argentina became independent in 1816, but the conflict between the authoritarian and federal factions in South America plunged the country's political situation into turmoil, and it was not until the constitution of 1853 established as a representative federal republic that stabilized. At this time, the main economic activity in Argentina was animal husbandry, cattle were the most common livestock, Spanish cattle arrived in Argentina in 1556, the Pampas savannah had an ideal climate and fertile soil so that the number of cattle reached 40 million in the 50s of the 19th century, it is said that "one cow can be found per hectare", which not only guarantees people's preserved fruit, but also exports meat.
Argentines eating beef
In addition to cattle, Argentina also has sheep, and due to its sparse population, animal husbandry, an economic activity that requires free-range weeds without much input, is more cost-effective, and the vast Pampas meets these conditions. In the 16th century, sheep were already brought to Argentina, but at that time, the restrictions on trade by the Spanish crown made this breed that did not consider food and focused on wool production did not receive much attention, the loosening of free trade in the Argentine War of Independence made the livestock and sheep industry flourish, only 100,000 kilograms of wool were exported in 1811, and the international demand for wool in the 40s of the 19th century led to sheep replacing cattle in importance and profitability, and in the 60s of the 19th century, with the outbreak of the American Civil War, the North American cotton industry was affected and the demand for wool increased, which also stimulated the Argentine livestock and sheep industry at that timeIn 1865, the export volume of wool has reached 40,000 tons, and the stock of sheep is as high as 40 million, which is similar to the sheep stock in the 40s of the 20th century in the mainland, which shows the development of animal husbandry in Argentina.
Merino sheep
Lack of resources, transportation difficulties, stagnation of agriculture and handicrafts continued to be a problem for the new country, and large tracts of uncultivated land were targeted by Argentina because they had to rely on imports for food. In 1853 hundreds of families of immigrants from Europe were granted the right to reclaim land in Esperanza, in the province of Santa Fe, and under the colonial contract each family settled in the area was granted a concession of about thirty hectares as well as animals and seeds, and one-third of the output was exchanged for the aforementioned goods within five years. Wheat and corn, ploughed by oxen or horses, sown by sowing, soon prospered, and in 1861 the city council was established, before the constitution explicitly encouraged European immigration, so the coastal provinces established agricultural colonies, recruited European immigrants, including Jews, to reclaim, hired gauchos (Argentine cowboys) to make up for the lack of labor, Argentina achieved agricultural self-sufficiency in 1878.
A copy of the colonial contract
Second, the period of export of agricultural products
In 1880, Julio Argentino Rocca of the National Autonomous Party was elected president of Argentina, known for his plundering of indigenous lands, and his rise to power coincided with better times, when Roca came to power when wool was still the country's main export, but the aforementioned agricultural situation made it possible to diversify exports. First of all, meat exports, in 1883 British capital invested in the installation of refrigeration plants in Argentina, which improved the ability of meat exports, mutton was favored because it was smaller and easier to freeze than cattle, meat sheep began to be farmed on a large scale, and in 1898 the export volume of mutton began to be greater than that of beef; the establishment of agricultural colonies in agriculture increased the cultivation area of wheat, corn, flax, oats and barley by more than sixty times, seeders, threshers, The combination of new technologies such as harvesters and the use of fencing in turn gave a strong impetus to this activity, and between 1891 and 1910 Argentina imported 200,000 harvesters and 11,000 threshers, and the mechanization of agriculture led to an increase in agricultural production, and the export of corn and wheat began to surpass wool at the end of the 19th century. Diversification of exports mitigates the danger of Argentina's over-reliance on sugar, as in Cuba.
Argentine meat freezer
The development of agriculture and animal husbandry is inseparable from the construction of infrastructure, during the Roca administration, the expansion of public facilities through debt, the railway network increased from 2,516 kilometers to 6,161 kilometers, and the generation of debt depended on a stable national financial system, in 1881 Argentina passed the National Monetary Law No. 1130 to unify the Argentine monetary system, adopting the gold and silver standard. In 1886 Rocca's successor, Miguel Juárez Selman, continued his risky deficit policy, the railway network was increased by another 3,800 km, for a total extension of nearly 10,000 km, the growth of exports attracted foreign investment, Britain went 40 to 50 percent of its global investment to Argentina, and the national economy grew by a staggering 44 percent between 1886 and 1890 However, government debt and market speculation led to an economic bubble, foreign capital began to reduce investment in Argentina, the government defaulted, and the emergence of the financial crisis led to soaring unemployment, and during this period, the Argentine president and local leaders supported each other through compromise to form an electoral oligarchy, and the disgruntled people launched the Park Revolution in 1890, which failed but succeeded in forcing Selman to resign.
Revolution of 1890
Although his successor, Carlos Pellegrini, remained a member of the National Self-Government, he adopted economic disciplinary measures, such as cutting the public budget, imposing a certain tax on exports and consumption, raising tariffs, and establishing the first currency board in Argentina. Financial stability allowed the government to obtain a loan of 15 million pounds, the peso appreciated, the agricultural export model reached its peak, and this good form continued after Pellegrini's resignation, GDP grew by 5% per year in the last decade of the 19th century, and the development of the economy attracted a large number of manufacturing enterprises to land, promoting the development of Argentine industry, in 1895 Argentina had 22,204 industrial enterprises, employing 145,650 people, with a capital of 284 million US dollars, and the average daily wage in the city was 2.5-3 US dollars, the mainland did not basically reach this level of wage income until the 90s, the growth of industry gave birth to the working class, the strike movement became more frequent during this period, the country introduced a number of laws to improve the conditions of workers, such as a six-day workweek, 60 hours, etc., and the export-led prosperity made Argentina the second only immigrant country to the United States at that time.
Emigration in Argentine ports in 1904
The outbreak of the First World War ended the country's prosperity, and the restrictions on exports bankrupted many businesses, while the accompanying reduction in infrastructure investment hit the country's construction industry, which fell by 82 per cent, and the economic downturn led to a surge in unemployment, which rose from 13.7 per cent in 1914 to 19.4 per cent in 1917. However, the demand for meat from the war expanded the livestock industry, and although the end of the war led to a surplus of animal husbandry, agricultural exports to Europe quickly recovered, making up for the lack of meat exports, reflecting the importance of export diversification. The political landscape of Argentina also changed during the First World War, with the radical civic coalition replacing the conservative National Autonomous Party, and radicalism showing an economic trend that deviated from classical liberalism, based on the idea of state intervention in the economy, with the government restricting meat speculation by way of price caps and trust management in response to the meat surplus, the nationalization of oil in the energy sector to achieve oil self-sufficiency, which was essential for the country's independent development, and the adoption of protectionism in industry, with the amendment of the Customs Law in 1923 to increase the appraisal fee by 60% , a 25% increase in the tariff levied on specific goods
Argentina in 1918
Argentina's economy is gradually recovering. In 1928, YPF, the state-owned oil company that had established a concession to exploit the concessions, managed to sell 100 million litres of gasoline and 25,000,000 litres of kerosene, which was enough to compete with other international oil companies in the country; Large breweries have been established, in 1927 the country's first high-tech company military aircraft factory was established, in addition to the local industry, Argentina's good economic momentum also attracted foreign manufacturing to build factories here, the United States gradually replaced Britain as Argentina's largest investor after the war, General Electric, Colgate Palmolive, Ford and other American giants landed in Argentina, and although there were thousands of casualties in society, along with democratic freedoms and the government's policy of tolerance towards trade unions and strikes, the number of unions increased to 731 in 1920, which promoted the growth of real wages, increased spending power by 37%, and in 1928 Argentina's GDP ranked sixth in the world, and by 1930 there was one car for every 35 inhabitants, which was a capitalist developed country.
Argentina in the 30s
3. The Great Depression and Economic Recovery
The collapse of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929 triggered a worldwide financial crisis, and in Argentina, where 80% of tax revenue came from foreign trade, social problems such as wage cuts and increased unemployment appeared, and political violence became more and more apparent. In 1930, a group of corporatists led the military led a coup d'état to overthrow the constitutional government, and a military junta headed by José Félix Uriburu was established, Uriburu said that "democracy is the government in which the best people exercise power, and the difficulty lies in how best to use it, which is difficult to apply in a continent where sixty percent of the illiterate people are illiterate" After martial law was promulgated, the anarchists were arrested and summarily executed, and Uriburu, although influential in the army, could not gain the support of the political parties, so the corporatist form of government was not successfully established, and his own death in 1932 restored the constitutionalism, but the conservative oligarchic democracy was re-established, which is known as the infamous decade for being full of electoral fraud.
José Felix Uriburu
The federal government's intervention in the economy has gone further in this decade. In terms of taxation, the legislation provided for centralized collection and then redistribution to the provinces on a participatory basis, rather than being collected by the provinces and surrendering the corresponding part to the central government, as was the case at that time; on trade, the Treaty of Rocca-Ranciman with Great Britain weakened the influence of the United States on the Argentine economy by promising not to raise tariffs in exchange for quota guarantees for exports to the United Kingdom; foreign exchange committees were established to control the depreciation of the peso in order to promote exports; The National Meat Board has adopted a unified purchasing and marketing approach to protect producers from falling international prices, public cash-for-work payments, the gradual replacement of railways by automobiles, and the establishment of the National Highway Administration to recruit workers to build roads, financed by gasoline taxes. In short, Argentina followed a pattern similar to Roosevelt's New Deal through fascist means, unemployment never exceeded 10% during the Great Depression, and the country's economy had largely recovered in 1935.
A group of Argentine unemployed people in 1930
After the Great Depression was overcome, the increase in demand for industrial products boosted the development of industry, and the tariff barriers established by further tariff increases also forced more foreign companies unwilling to lose the Argentine market to settle here, which not only solved employment but also promoted industrialization. According to the 1935 Industrial Census, there were 43,207 industrial enterprises in the country, employing 544,000 people and an output value of more than US$3.2 billion, and in 1939 the Argentine industrial sector expanded by 35% compared to 1930, accounting for 22.5% of the total output value, and compared with 1935 the number of factories increased by 25%, the number of employed persons increased by 35%, and the output value increased by 50% The outbreak of World War II limited the export of agricultural products, but the export of industrial products increased, led by the textile industry, followed by the food industry and the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, with the share of industrial exports rising from 2.9% in 1939 to 19.4% in 1943, and the number of workers increasing from 796,000 in 1940 to 1,025,000 in 1943.
Vocational school in 1945
Fourth, the era of import substitution industrialization
The outbreak of World War II forced Argentina to make a choice about taking sides, Argentina was a traditional neutralist country, but the United States tried to force Argentina to side with the Allies, and the conservative government also tried to move in this direction, which caused discontent among the middle and lower echelons of the military. A group of nationalists in the army who opposed the United States to join World War II formed a secret society called the "United Officers' Corps", these members were complex, including militarists, racists, anti-Gists, etc., but no matter who they were, their common goal was to overthrow the rotten conservative government, on June 4, 1943, a team of 8,000 people attacked the presidential palace, due to the indifference of the people to the government, the coup d'état was quickly successful, but with Pedro Pablo Pablo The military junta led by Ramirez was discovered by the British while trying to reach an understanding with Germany, forcing the new government to break off diplomatic relations with the Axis powers despite not entering the war, which led to a split in the military, so Ramirez retreated and was succeeded by Edmiro Julián Farrell, who declared war on Germany in March 1945 just in time for the end of World War II, making Argentina one of the founding members of the United Nations.
Pedro Pablo Ramirez
An otherwise inconspicuous figure in the junta began to rise: Juan Domingo Perón. Peron, who had previously traveled to Europe, had come to the conclusion that social democracy was a viable alternative to liberal democracy (hidden plutocracy) or totalitarian regimes (oppressive), so although he held the less important post of Minister of Labor and Social Security, he actively improved the living conditions of the working class and allied with them, such as the establishment of the 13-salary system, The introduction of the Rural Labor Law guaranteeing the right to rest of rural employees won him the favor of the working class, but the opponents of the junta arrested him, and the angry workers launched a mass strike on October 17, 1945, forcing the junta to release Perón and open elections the following year, in which Peron was elected president with 53.71% of the vote, and then threw out "the internal market", "economic nationalism", "the leading role of the state" and "the central role of industry". The four slogans sought economic diversification and independence, and the nationalization of banks before he came to power paved the way for his governance.
Farrell and Perón at an event in Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires (1945)
In order to achieve these goals, Perón began his First Five-Year Plan, the Argentine Trade Promotion Agency (IAPI) was established to centralize foreign trade and coordinate between the different sectors of the economy and to have a financing credit function, especially to purchase agricultural products at protective prices and sell them on the international market, IAPI earned the difference in price after reaching the best price with international merchants as a plan fund, and in 1947 IAPI received 1.2 billion US dollars. Because Britain and France were scarred by the war and found it difficult to maintain their overseas assets, the Argentine government took the opportunity to negotiate the purchase of railways and other assets at a more favorable price; in industry, the government provided subsidies to traditional sectors, and at the same time acquired and established a number of companies, including the military industry, IAPI sells large industrial enterprises, including iron and steel, to domestic companies as the sole importer of machinery and raw materials to make a profit on the difference, infrastructure modernization is necessary for the industrialization process, a series of public works have been initiated, such as the construction of a new gas pipeline that has reduced the cost of gas transmission by a third, and Argentina has become one of the three most advanced countries in the use of natural gas, along with the United States and the Soviet Union.
The first five-year plan is to publicize and promote IAPI
IAPI proceeds are also used for livelihood projects. During the First Five-Year Plan period, the government established study plans, unified the conditions for admission to higher education and created 14 new universities, the budget was raised from 48 million (1946) to 256 million (1950), and in 1949 Perón decreed the establishment of a scholarship system for low-income students and guaranteed free university education, and the number of Argentine university students increased from 49,000 in 1946 to 1950 96,000 people, Argentina became the country with the largest number of university students in Latin America in 1956, consumption subsidies for the production of certain consumer goods, which led to an increase of about 35% in average real wages from 1945 to 1949, priority in health care for preventive medicine, mass vaccination campaigns, tuberculosis mortality fell from 130 per 100,000 to 36 per 100,000, malaria, Diseases such as syphilis have largely disappeared, and the encouragement of trade unions to call for strikes when employers are unwilling to pay benefits or comply with new labor legislation has prevented the strange problem of "bad faith wage demand", and in 1950 the number of unions in the country reached 2 million, the most unionized country in South America.
The university town residential complex was designed in 1949 and construction began that year
In 1951, Perón was re-elected president, and he embarked on the Second Five-Year Plan, which aimed to develop the country's basic industries and modernize agriculture, but at a time when the country had huge social problems. Peron's policies were later known as Peronism, defined as a "third place" between capitalism and socialism Religion caused dissatisfaction among the traditional religious classes of the country due to the improvement of secular education, economic nationalization offended the middle and upper classes, the navy in the army was mostly from aristocratic backgrounds and thus diluted the support of the military, and politically the constitutional amendment to strengthen the centralization of power was unpleasant to the liberals, although he made some measures in favor of the workers, but the corporatist colors and repressive methods made some radical left-wing parties, including the Communist Party, also oppose Peron, and at the same time, the reduction of spending to make up for the consumption of the First Five-Year Plan also made him lose some of the support of the working classAs a result, the political situation in the country is once again in turmoil. In September 1955, the anti-Peronists in the army staged a "liberal revolution" coup d'état, and Perón went into exile......
Juan Domingo Perón and his second wife, Eva Duarte.
Bibliography:
1.wiki
2. Esperanza: the first organized agricultural colony in the country - Municipality of Esperanza (2023)
3. What is the agricultural export model and why has it changed the Argentine economy? - Melissa Aita Campos
4. What were the working conditions like in Argentina at the end of the 19th century?What were the needs of the workers?-Melissa Aita Campos
5. The world crisis of the 30s of the 20th century and the state intervention in Argentina - Mario Rapoport