Labradores y vecinos en la campaña bonaerense a mediados del siglo xix

Abstract

Well into the 19th century, and once the agro-export model had been consolidated in the Argentine pampas, the big estancia (ranch), extensive livestock farming and unequal distribution of land overshadowed other alternatives for development which had been taken into account at the moment of the genesis of modernization. This article aims to describe the leading role that the residents of the province of Buenos Aires played towards the middle of the 19th century, showing how the government needed the existing networks on the borders to build government. Taking as our starting point the mobilization of farmers from a prominent wheatproducing county demanding the subdivision and sale of public lands to the direct producers, we will attempt to demonstrate that important statesmen such as Mitre and Sarmiento —the first presidents of a unified Argentina— not only used these existing networks of power, but also evaluated the possibility of considering that agriculture, rural society and therefore a fair distribution of the land could be a possible alternative to the development of the pampas region.