Propagation of war and social change: the constitution of a warrior society in the Río de la Plata, from the British Invasions to the independent State 1806-1852

ALEJANDRO M. RABINOVICH

Cambridge, EEUU

Workshop; Harvard University’s International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World; 2008

Harvard University

In 1806 the peaceful city of Buenos Aires was suddenly plunged into total militarisation by the invasion of a rogue British task force. From this initial spark, war would propagate itself over a huge territory for more than half a century, in a process which included the continental war of independence, civil struggles, frontier war with the Indians and the first international conflicts between the newly formed South-American republics and the European colonial powers. Throughout this period, the people of what was to be modern Argentina placed war at the very centre of social life. By studying the mechanics and structure of this newly established warrior society we shall be able to show how it actually reproduces war, beyond the exterior challenges or the international context. The analysis of these events will allow us to address several key matters of war and imperial dynamics in the Atlantic space: the patterns of propagation of the war phenomenon from the imperial centres to the peripheries; the adaptation and transformation of local societies and the incorporation of war as a "normal" component of social life; the democratic and revolutionary consequences of warfare experience and the indefinite prolongation of the state of war.