BERNARDINO RIVADAVIA: BIOGRAPHY AND PRESIDENCY - HISTORY - 2024

Bernardino Rivadavia was the first president of the United Provinces of Río de la Plata between the years 1826 and 1827. After the May Revolution, this person held other important positions. These include minister, deputy, secretary of the First Triumvirate and diplomat.

He was considered a centralist: his policy consisted of Buenos Aires deciding the political interests of the nation over the rest of the provinces of the Río de La Plata. During his mandate, he established laws that reinforced economic control, and applied the first steps for the installation of free trade in all the provinces under this domain.

Bernardino Rivadavia actively participated in the politics of his country and in the war against the Empire of Brazil. Then he resigned his position and went into exile in Spain until 1845, the year in which he died.

Biography

Rivadavia was born into a cultured family. He was the son of Benito Bernardino González de Rivadavia. His father served as a lawyer for the Spanish Empire. His mother was named María Josefa de Jesús Rodríguez de Rivadavia y Rivadeneyra.

At 18 years of age, he began his studies at Colegio San Carlos. They were interrupted as of 1803, when Rivadavia decided to participate as part of the Tercio de Voluntarios de Galicia.

This group had as objective the defense of Buenos Aires, since the English troops tried to invade the territory. During the war, Rivadavia obtained the rank of lieutenant.

In the years from 1803 to 1810, Rivadavia devoted himself to commercial activities that led him to defend personalities like Guillermo White before the consulate.

On December 14, 1809, he married Miss Juana del Pino. She was the daughter of former viceroy Joaquín del Pieno. From this union 4 children were born.

Political life

Rivadavia had a preponderant participation during the May Revolution, which ended with the independence of Argentina.

On May 22, 1810, he participated in the open council session, where he expressed his rejection of the viceroy, who at that time was Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros.

In September 1811, various events occurred that endangered the May Revolution. In this environment Rivadavia was appointed by the open council as the representative of Buenos Aires. In the voting he obtained a total of 360 votes.

From this designation, Rivadavia stood out as secretary of the triumvirate created in 1811. During that time Rivadavia began his long political career, taking upon himself the most important decisions of the government.

Some of the decisions made by Rivadavia is the sentence to the 30 Spaniards. This group of Europeans tried to conspire to land more than 500 soldiers and take control over Buenos Aires and the rest of the territory.

Performance in Europe

After the fall of the Second Triumvirate, Rivadavia is designated to Europe. It is given the mission of achieving the recognition of the independence of the provinces by the European powers. This objective was not achieved due to diplomatic difficulties between both parties.

After this failure, Rivadavia returned to Buenos Aires in 1820. Despite this, during his visit to Europe he actively participated in various circles of intellectuals.

In Europe he had several encounters with figures such as the Earl of Tracy, who was an expert on liberal issues and a follower of Benjamin Constant. He also met such philosophers as Jeremy Benthaum and Antoine Destutt.

Return to Argentina

When Rivadavia returned, he found a nascent republic in complete chaos and a serious political crisis. Thereafter he was appointed as Prime Minister.

This is how he began to put into practice the various political and economic doctrines learned in the Old Continent. With this he managed to maintain stability and prosperity for Buenos Aires.

Since then he has been known for applying his liberal skills in managing the economy, education, income, the military, mining, science, and politics.

Characteristics of his presidency

At the end of 1824 the need to create a unitary government was imminent due to the conflicts with Brazil. That is why, starting this year, a new Constitution was drawn up where the figure of a president was created.

This position was held by Rivadavia in February 1826. Immediately upon his appointment he began a series of liberal reforms. These include the Capitalization Law, which decreed the city of Buenos Aires as the capital of the State.

This regulation generated much more discontent on the side of the federalists, since with this any type of independence claim of the smaller provinces was eliminated.

Reforms

Another of the reforms implemented was the nationalization of the army and land. With this decree he sought to put an end to the landowners and landowners, who had owned a large part of the republic's lands since the Conquest.

Among the reforms that had a direct impact on the national economy is the creation of the National Bank from 1826.

This allowed the government to obtain a capital that exceeded 10,000,000 pesos; it also allowed the ability to issue bills and coins.

Commercial freedom and the nationalization of ports allowed the old port class to have absolute control of the main commercial artery. It had been hit hard by the previous economic policies of the Spanish Crown.

This and other liberal reforms meant an advance to the new state, but they also generated strong internal disputes. All this led to Rivadavia making the decision to resign from office. This happened on June 27, 1827.

Exile and death

After leaving the presidency, he went into exile for Spain. After a time he planned to return to his native country, but on the orders of Juan José Viamonte, who was governor of Buenos Aires, he was not allowed to disembark.

For this reason, he returned to Spain at the end of 1842. Rivadavia died on September 2, 1845 in the city of Cádiz.

References

1. Ramos, Victor A. (2012). "Magazine of the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences".
2. Biography and lives, online biographical encyclopedia. Bernardino Rivadavia. Recovered in: biografiayvidas.com
3. Moreno, Victor (1999). Bernardino Rivadavia. Recovered in: Buscabiografias.com
4. Gallo, Klaus (2012). Bernardino Rivadavia. Recovered at: scielo.org.ar
5. Monographs plus. Rivadavia is elected president. Recovered in: monogramas.com