The history of South American republics is illustrated in the
Argentine republic.
It is a vast pampas or prairie, extending from Brazil to the Andes,
and from Bolivia with a southeasterly trend 2000 miles to southeastern
Terra del Fuego.
The climate of the northern portion is tropical; of the central part,
semi-tropical; of the extreme south, temperate or cold. The country is
generally well watered excepting in the northwestern part, where the
land is dry and alkaline, like the arid regions of North America. The
soil is a rich, deep loam, from four to six feet in depth, excepting
in Patagonia and the western pampas, where there is a coarse gravel
and detritus from the Andes. Instead of the dense tropical forest of
the Amazon valley, the pampas are covered by a coarse grass, three or
four feet high, growing in large tussocks and all the year round of a
dark green. The strong grass crowds out all trees and almost all
plants, so that scarcely a flower relieves the uniform, everlasting
verdure.
Instead of the arboreal animals of the Amazon there is the rhea or
American ostrich, "ship of the wilderness," adapted to the {20}
pampas, but unable to live in the forests. The gauchos have hunted it
for the last three centuries, but it is now passing away and will soon
be lost to the pampas, as the buffalo has been to the North American
prairie.
The pampas are far better adapted to the raising of cattle than our
prairies, for the grass is always green and the winters are milder.
Cattle, horses, and sheep imported by the Spaniards and turned on to
the pampas rapidly increased, and now immense herds feed on the
plains.
The Indians who inhabit the pampas, instead of being confined to one
locality and journeying only by canoe, like the Indians on the Amazon,
wander over the length and breadth of the pampas, hunting the ostrich
and cattle. The cattle are tended by gauchos, as the cow-boys are
called, half-breeds as wild as the herds they tend. Constant warfare
exists between the Indians and the gauchos, unless they unite to
attack the settlers. After one of the Indian raids the government dug
an immense ditch from a river to the Andes and drove the Indians to
the farther side, and since then there have been fewer raids--and
fewer Indians.
The land was held in large blocks of many thousand acres, worked by
overseers and gauchos. The animals were killed by hundreds of
thousands for their skins. This state of things is, however, gradually
passing away, for during the last twenty years emigrants from the old
world have settled in the country as farmers and planters.
The fourteen provinces which form the Argentine Republic have never
been welded into one nation, and have seldom had a moment's peace. The
gauchos have been a continual scourge, and the gaucho generals its
rulers and harriers combined. Unfortunately, here, as in other Spanish
states, one dictator has succeeded another. Thirty presidents, or
dictators, have reigned within fifty years. At one time five provinces
had each a separate dictator. The neighboring republic of Uruguay,
formerly a part of the Argentine Confederation, had 26 revolutions in
the twenty-three years from 1864 to 1887.
For some time Buenos Ayres and its dictator ruled the republic; then
the country provinces rebelled, and civil war ensued; one province was
arrayed against another, and all against Buenos Ayres. The provinces
prevailed and the gaucho general, Rosas, occupied Buenos Ayres.
Scarcely was this civil war ended when a war arose with the republics
of Uruguay and Paraguay.
{21} Money was required to pay the army and the cost of civil and
foreign wars. Every dictator had his friends for whom provision must
be made. Large debts were created; banks were chartered; $200,000,000
of paper money were issued. There were several different circulating
mediums; each province strove to outdo the others in the issue of a
currency which quickly depreciated. Companies for different purposes
were organized, and many were subsidized, directly or indirectly. We
are told that in one case $1,500,000 was paid for a concession, and
that "Turkish officials, who have hitherto been the champion artists
in backsheesh, leave off where Argentine blackmailers begin; the price
of a drainage scheme at Buenos Ayres would buy a whole cabinet of
pashas at Galata."
Railroads were built running from Buenos Ayres in different
directions, as each province demanded a railroad, with little regard
to its population or business.
A road was commenced to cross the Andes and open communication between
the Atlantic and Pacific over mountains which had never been crossed
by a carriage of any kind.
The country was not settled so rapidly as the rulers desired.
Inducements were therefore offered to immigrants. The passage money
from Europe and the expenses of the immigrant to his new home have
been paid and land for settlement sold at low rates. It is estimated
that over 1,000,000 foreigners have settled in the country during the
last twelve years, and the proportionate increase of population in the
same period has been twice as great as that of the United States.
Grazing lands have been sold at nominal prices to immigrants, or
leased for terms of years in lots of 6,000 acres at a rental of $100 a
year. Bonds were issued not only by the government but by the
provinces, by the municipalities and by the railroads, and all were
readily taken in England and Germany. To enable the emigrants to pay
for and to cultivate their land, the owner of real estate on
depositing his title deeds with the hypothecary banks and having a
valuation of his real estate, received cedulas, or bonds of the bank,
for one-half its appraised value; these cedulas for large amounts were
issued and sold in Europe; and thus, as ever, more money was required,
more bonds were issued. In 1889, a year of peace, the public debt was
increased 120 per cent., and it is now said to be over one thousand
four hundred millions of dollars, and the principal and interest of
two-thirds of this amount is payable in gold at a premium of 200 per
cent.
{22} In 1890 there was no money to meet the interest and general
prostration ensued.
It is difficult to ascertain the debt of the republic; but if the
accounts given in the English publications are correct the debt is
greater in proportion to its population and wealth than that of any
other country in the world. The only hope of the Argentine Republic is
to wipe out the debt by insolvency and bankruptcy.