
Nacionalismo was afar-right Argentinenationalist movement that around 1910 grew out of the "traditionalist" position, which was based on nostalgia for feudal economic relations and a more "organic" social order. It became a significant force in Argentine politics beginning in the 1930s.[2]Nacionalismo was typically centred upon the support oforder,hierarchy, acorporative society, militantCatholicism, and the landed estates (latifundia), combined with the hatred ofliberalism,leftism,Freemasonry,feminism,Jews andforeigners.[3] It denouncedliberalism anddemocracy as the prelude tocommunism.[2] The movement was alsoirredentist, declaring intentions to annexUruguay,Paraguay,Chile and some southern and eastern parts ofBolivia and even theBritish-held territory of theFalkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and itsdependencies.
Nacionalismo was strongly influenced byMaurassisme and Spanishclericalism as well as byItalian fascism andNazism.[2] After the1930 Argentine coup d'etat,Nacionalistas firmly supported the entrenchment of an authoritarian corporatist state led by a military leader.[2]Nacionalistas often refused to participate in elections because of their opposition to elections as a derivative of liberalism.[2] Its advocates were writers, journalists, a few politicians, colonels, and other junior military officers; the latter supported the Nationalists largely because, for most of their existence, they saw in the military the only potential political saviour of the country.
Nacionalismo supported a "return to tradition, to the past, to sentiments authentically Argentine, ... [to] the reintegration of the nation with these essential values"; these essential values included Roman Catholicism, claiming that to the Church "the Nation should be linked as the body to the soul".[4]Nacionalismo opposedsecular education, accusing it of being "Masoniclaicism", and supported clerical control of education.[4]
Nacionalismo based its twin policy of opposition toliberalism andsocialism, which it combined with its promotion ofsocial justice, on the papal encyclicals of 1891 (Rerum novarum) and 1931 (Quadragesimo anno).[2]Nacionalismo supported improving relations between the social classes to achieve the Catholic ideal of an organic, "harmonious" society.[2]
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Beginning in the mid-1930s,Nacionalistas declared their concern for theworking classes and support for social reform, with the newspaperLa Voz Nacionalista declaring "The lack of equity, of welfare, of social justice, of humanity, has made theproletariat a beast of burden ... unable to enjoy life or the advances of civilization".[2] By the late 1930s, with industrial development increasing in the country,Nacionalistas promoted a policy of progressiveincome redistribution to allow more money to remain with wage-earners, thus allowing them to invest in and widen the economy, and increase industrial growth.[5]
In the 1940s, theNacionalistas rose from a fringe group to a substantial political force in Argentina.[6] In the 1940s, theNacionalistas emphasized the need foreconomic sovereignty, requiring greater industrialization and the take-over of foreign companies.[6] By the 1940s, theNacionalistas was effectively run by the military clique known as theGrupo de Oficiales Unidos (GOU).[7] The GOU was highly suspicious of the threat of communism and theNacionalistas supported therevolution of 1943.[6]
Nacionalistas took control of PresidentPedro Pablo Ramírez's junta in October 1943, changing Argentina's foreign policy by refusing to permit any further discussion with theUnited States on the issue of breaking Argentina's relations with theAxis powers.[8] The United States government responded by freezing the assets of Argentine banks in their country.[9] In power, theNacionalistas pursued a policy of social justice by supporting the appointment ofJuan Perón (who later became thePresident of Argentina) as the head of the department of labour on 28 October 1943.[10] Perón declared that theNacionalista government was committed to a "revolution" that would keep national wealth in Argentina, give workers their dues, improve living standards without provokingclass conflict, and attack both communism and international capitalism.[11]
Facing pressure from the United States for Argentina to dissolve relations with the Axis powers, President Ramírez yielded on 26 January 1944. This was followed byNacionalistas protesting this action and Ramírez banning allNacionalista organizations in February.[12]Nacionalista cabinet ministers resigned in protest, and theNacionalistas subsequently overthrew Ramírez, retaining their hold on power of the government.[13]
As an ideology,Nacionalismo wasmilitaristic,authoritarian, and sympathetic to the rule of a moderncaudillo, who the Nationalists were frequently either hoping for or reinterpreting history to locate in the past. Along these lines, a significant part of the intellectual work of Nacionalismo was the creation ofhistorical revisionism as an academic movement in Argentina. Nationalist historians published several works challenging the work of the liberal historians who had forged the dominant historical narrative of Argentina and presented 19th-century dictatorJuan Manuel de Rosas as the kind of benevolent authoritarian leader that the country still needed.[citation needed]
While the nationalists themselves never really managed to maintain political power despite participating in a handful of successful coups throughout the 20th century (see, for example,José Félix Uriburu), their lasting legacy is twofold: first, their enormous influence over the political discourse of contemporary Argentina, where right, left, and centre have all been heavily influenced by their discourse, in part through second-hand clerical and military influences and in part through Perón's adoption of some of their ideas and language.[citation needed]
Second, themost recent military coup in Argentina was largely directed and conducted by Nationalists in the Argentine armed forces and most certainly dictated by their ideological legacy[citation needed]. TheMontoneros who were their targets were also heavily influenced byNacionalismo, though their political convictions were very different from those of the military officers.[citation needed]