How Did Argentina's Early Rise To Modernization

Throughout the 19th and early 20th century, Argentina was considered by many to be the most economically and politically stable nation in Latin America. However, as the country moved into the late 20th century, it rapidly regressed in terms of modernization due to the rise of a bureaucratic authoritarian regime. In this essay, I will outline Argentina’s early rise to modernization, its regression, and the lasting effects of this regression on Argentina’s current economic and political state. During its colonial era, Argentina was little more than “a backwater in the Spanish American colonial empire” (Skidmore, 69) with a small, nomadic native population and large tracts of fertile lands. This changed in 1776 when Buenos Aires became “the entry port for European imports” (Skidmore, 69), shifting the economic base to the south. This created a rift between Buenos Aires and the rest of the country, with the wealthy primarily positioning themselves in
Political dissidence was not tolerated, and this is shown in both “State Violence” and The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival. According to Alicia Partnoy, a survivor of the regime’s torture, “almost 30,000 Argentines “disappeared” between 1976 and 1979, the most oppressive years of the military rule” (Partnoy, 11) and many were never found. Those taken by the government were brutally tortured, starved, and beaten with little to no explanation as to why they were taken. This government also “heavily censored the media and annulled the constitution” (Partnoy, 13), further proof of just how far backwards the country had regressed. The economy was also in shambles, and the entire country beared “the scars of police brutality” and “state violence” (Nouzeilles, 396). By the time this regime collapsed, Argentina had taken enormous steps backwards from