Bernardino Rivadavia

Bernardino Rivadavia (born May 20, 1780, Buenos Aires [Argentina]—died September 2, 1845, Cádiz, Spain) was the first president (1826–27) of the Argentine republic (then known as the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata). Although one of his country’s ablest leaders, he was unable to unite the warring provinces or to control the provincial caudillos (bosses).

Active in resistance to British invasion in 1806, he also supported the 1810 movement for independence from Spain, becoming secretary to the revolutionary junta. In 1811 he dominated the revolutionary triumvirate—organizing the militia, disbanding the Spanish courts, freeing the press from censorship, and ending the slave trade. In 1814 he was sent to Europe to secure British aid for the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, the original provinces of Argentina.

Returning to Buenos Aires after six years in Europe, Rivadavia, in 1821, was appointed a minister in the government of Martín Rodríguez and, in 1826, was elected president of the United Provinces. In Europe he had met and been strongly influenced by Jeremy Bentham and the French utopians Henri de Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier. Adopting some of their ideas, Rivadavia extended the franchise to all males at age 20, organized a Parliament and a system of courts, and supported legislation that guaranteed freedom of the press and secured individual and property rights. He earned the lasting enmity of the church by abolishing ecclesiastical courts and eliminating the compulsory tithe. His efforts to encourage immigration were unsuccessful, and his program of land reform eventually backfired, serving the interests of the landed oligarchy instead of the peasants. His cultural initiatives were perhaps his most lasting achievements: he founded the University of Buenos Aires, supported the establishment of museums, and enlarged the national library.

Despite all these achievements, Rivadavia’s administration was often in desperate straits. Involved in war with Brazil over the possession of the territory that later became independent Uruguay, Rivadavia was forced to continue the fruitless conflict because the Argentine people refused to accept the treaty that gave Brazil hegemony in that area. He was also constantly embroiled with the powerful provincial caudillos, from whom he was unable to win acceptance for his centralist constitution of 1826. Resigning his office in 1827, he left for exile in Europe, returning to Buenos Aires in 1834 to face charges brought by his political enemies. Sentenced to immediate exile, he went first to Brazil and then to Spain. His remains were repatriated in 1857, and in 1880 his birthday was decreed a national holiday.