Rivadavia, Bernardino

Key Information

Bernardino Rivadavia was the president of Argentina for a short period (1826–1827); however, his major contribution to Argentine’s political history was to serve as Minister of Government of the Province of Buenos Aires under the administration of governor Martín Rodríguez (1820–1824). During those years, he implemented political and religious reforms that gave the regime a liberal and enlightened imprint.

In a political context of factious struggle following the independence from Spain, the fall of the central government and the failure of the Constituent Congress of 1819 gave way to a territorial redefinition process, in which the states (provinces) reasserted their will for autonomy. The provinces had not been created by a state superior to them; on the contrary, the emerging national state coexisted with the provinces’ demands for autonomy, in a long process of agreements and confrontations (Goldman 2005).

Another decisive and equally important element of the...