Argentine nationalism is thenationalism ofArgentine people andArgentine culture. It surged during theWar of Independence and theCivil Wars, and strengthened during the1880s.
There were waves of renewed interest in nationalism in response toWorld War II, theNational Reorganization Process, theDecember 2001 riots. In another sense, the name "nationalism" is usually used to designate the exalted feelings of popular fervour after the Argentine triumphs in theFootball World Cups of1978,1986 and2022.
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Modern Argentina was once part of theViceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, part of theSpanish Empire. The capture of the Spanish king during thePeninsular War began theArgentine War of Independence. It was based on the principle of theretroversion of the sovereignty to the people: with the king absent, the sovereignty returned to its subjects who were then capable to rule themselves.
This led to conflicts among the provinces of the viceroyalty: some factions wanted to maintain the country under the centralist organization used so far, others wanted to use a federalist system, and others wanted to secede their provinces as independent countries. This led to theArgentine Civil Wars. TheSupreme Directors of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata were centralists, andJosé Gervasio Artigas were federalists. Those groups evolved into theUnitarian Party and theFederal Party respectively.[1]
The sense of national unity was increased during theFrench andFranco-British blockade of the Río de la Plata. Britain and France sought to preventJuan Manuel de Rosas from interfering in Uruguay with anaval blockade, having the side effect of boosting the popularity of Rosas and increasing national solidarity.[2]
In the 1880s Argentina seized Patagonia with theConquest of the Desert, and secured its modern national limits. It was feared that thegreat European immigration wave to Argentina would dilute national identity, soVicente Quesada and other historians promoted nationalism by establishing the idea of the viceroyalty as the "Grand Argentina", broke into several countries by the meddling of outside powers. This perception was reinforced by the diplomatic conflicts withBrazil of the time.[3]
Nationalism resurfaced during the 1930s. Opposed to Alvear's turnaround, in 1935, young Yrigoyenistas from a nationalist background founded FORJA (Fuerza Orientadora Radical de la Juventud Argentina, Radical Orienting Force of Argentine Youth), which had as leaders the Socialist Arturo Jauretche, Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz and Gabriel del Mazo. FORJA's motto was: "We are a colonial Argentina, we want to be a free Argentina." [10] Among other things, FORJA denounced the silence of the government on many problems such as the creation of the Central Bank, "economic sacrifices imposed in benefices of foreign capitalism",petroleum politics, arbitrary military interventions, restrictions to freedom of opinion, incorporation to the League of Nations, suppression of relations with Russia, parliamentary investigations, the Senate crime, etc. and speciallyduring World War II. Those nationalists thought that Argentina had an economic dependence ofBritain, and that the country should not help Britain in the conflict but stay neutral. This nationalism led to theRevolution of '43, and during it to the emergence ofJuan Domingo Perón. Perón reported the meddling of the ambassador of the United StatesSpruille Braden in the 1946 election, and won by a landslide. He nationalized several key tools of theeconomy of Argentina, and declared Argentine economic independence.[4]
The analogies between Perón and Rosas became explicit during theRevolución Libertadora, a coup that ousted Perón from power and bannedPeronism.Eduardo Lonardi,de facto president, used the quote "Ni vencedores ni vencidos" (Spanish:"neither victors nor vanquished"), which was used byJusto José de Urquiza after deposing Rosas in thebattle of Caseros. The official perspective was that Perón was "the second tyranny", the first one being Rosas, and that both ones should be equally rejected, and conversely both governments that ousted them should be praised. For this end they draw the line of historical continuity "May –Caseros –Libertadora", matching the coup with the May Revolution and the defeat of Rosas. This approach backfired. Perón was highly popular and the military coup unpopular; so Peronists embraced the comparison established between Rosas and Perón, but viewing him with a positive light instead.[6] Nationalist historians draw then their own line of historical continuity, "San Martín –Rosas –Perón".[5]
TheArgentine Army promoted nationalist values during theDirty War and theFalklands War. Both conflicts generated huge controversy. Nationalism declined in the following years as a result, increasingAmericanization during the 1990s.[7] Nationalism resurfaced again after theDecember 2001 riots in Argentina.[7]
Currently, Argentine nationalism is based mainly on thenational sovereignty of Argentina, thesueignty dispute over the Malvinas Islands, thedispute over the Georgias and Sandwich Islands of the South, theArgentine domain over Antarctica, theunion between theSouthern Cone and the discussion of the legacy of Argentineproceres such asJosé de San Martin,Manuel Belgrano,Juan Manuel de Rosas orJulio Argentino Roca, to whom different historiographical currents give different value in the formation of the postulated National identity.
