Julio Argentino Roca

Alejo Julio Argentino Roca Paz (July 17, 1843 – October 19, 1914) was an Argentine army general and statesman who served as President of Argentina from 1880 to 1886 and from 1898 to 1904. Roca is the most important representative of the Generation of '80 and is known for directing the Conquest of the Desert, a series of military campaigns against the indigenous peoples of Patagonia sometimes considered a genocide.

During his two terms as president, many important changes occurred, particularly major infrastructure projects of railroads and port facilities; increased foreign investment, along with immigration from Europe and particular large-scale immigration from southern Europe; expansion of the agricultural and pastoral sectors of the economy; and laicizing legislation strengthening state power.

Roca's main foreign policy concern was to set border limits with Chile, which had never been determined with precision. In 1881 Argentina gained territory by treaty with Chile.

Upbringing and early career

thumb|left|150px|Roca in his youth

Roca was born in the northwestern city of San Miguel de Tucumán in 1843 into a prominent local family. He graduated from the National College in Concepción del Uruguay, Entre Ríos. Before he was 15, Roca joined the army of the Argentine Confederation, on 19 March 1858. While still an adolescent, he went to fight as a junior artillery officer in the struggle between Buenos Aires and the interior provinces, first on the side of the provinces and later on behalf of the capital. He also fought in the War of the Triple Alliance against Paraguay between 1865 and 1870. Roca rose to the rank of colonel serving in the war to suppress the revolt of Ricardo López Jordán in Entre Ríos. President Nicolás Avellaneda later promoted him to General after his victory over rebel general José M. Arredondo in the battle of Santa Rosa, leading the loyalist forces. Roca saw the army "as an agent of national unification," and his experience in the army "broadened his understanding of Argentina and the provincial upper class."

Military career

He took part in the Paraguayan War against Paraguay, being appointed commander of the National Guards regiment of Salta Province in 1865. In that war, his father and two of his brothers died. He returned to his country before the end of the war; in late 1868 he was sent to the Puna to repel the last attempted uprising of the caudillo Felipe Varela, who was defeated by one of his subordinates.

Under the orders of Corrientes governor Santiago Baibiene, he fought the Federalist rebellion of Ricardo López Jordán in 1871, and his participation was crucial in the Battle of Ñaembé, which determined the defeat of the federal caudillo. During the revolution of 1874, he evaded the forces of the rebel general José Miguel Arredondo—who was politically aligned with Bartolomé Mitre—since he did not have sufficient forces to prevent him from occupying the city of Córdoba. But Arredondo moved on to Mendoza Province, where he defeated the local militias and waited for Roca, who had managed to gather a large number of soldiers. Instead of attacking Arredondo's fortified position head-on, he silently surrounded it during the night and attacked at dawn, easily defeating him in the Second Battle of Santa Rosa. Days later, fearing that the defeated general would be executed, he helped him flee to Chile.

In 1872 he married Clara Funes of Córdoba, with whom he had seven children. Clara Funes was the sister-in-law of politician Miguel Juárez Celman, who would become president of the nation through Roca's influence, and their first son was Julio Argentino Pascual Roca, who would become vice president of the nation. He had also had an extramarital daughter. From 1873 he was commander of the southern frontier of Córdoba Province, with the mission of stopping the periodic attacks of the Ranqueles indigenous people.

Most of his promotions in the military hierarchy were for wartime merit: hours after the Battle of Pavón he was promoted to first lieutenant; on 17 February 1864 he was promoted to captain, in peacetime. During the Paraguayan War he was promoted to sergeant major on 7 December 1866 for his heroic conduct in the Battle of Curupayty, and on 9 November 1868, at the end of the Pikysyry campaign, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

On 28 September 1880 he was promoted to brigadier general in recognition of the organization and command of the Conquest of the Desert. The subsequent promotions law of 1882 granted him the rank of lieutenant general. Roca's approach to dealing with the Indian communities of the Pampas, however, was completely different from Alsina's, who had ordered the construction of a ditch and a defensive line of small fortresses across the Province of Buenos Aires. Roca saw no way to end native attacks (malones) but by putting under effective government control all land up to the Río Negro in a campaign (known as the Conquest of the Desert) that would "extinguish, subdue or expel" the Indians who lived there. "He began the campaign against the Ranqueles", which eventually resulted in the "transfer of 35% of national territory from the Indians to local caudillos. This land conquest would also strengthen Argentina's strategic position against Chile.

He devised a "tentacle" move, with waves of 6,000 men cavalry units stemming coordinately from Mendoza, Córdoba, Santa Fé and Buenos Aires in July 1878 and April 1879 respectively, with an official toll of nearly 1,313 Native Americans killed and 15,000 taken as prisoners, and is credited with the liberation of several hundred European hostages.

First presidency (1880–1886) <span class="anchor" id="First presidency"></span>

thumb|left|150px|Roca with the presidential band in his first term (1880–86)

In mid-1879, after the death of Alsina, Roca became the most prestigious leader of the National Autonomous Party, and was proposed as a candidate by Cordoba's governor Miguel Celman, and in Buenos Aires by the doctor Eduardo Wilde; and he quickly gained the support of most of the Argentine provincial governors. The April 11 elections for president, which came a sweeping victory for the voters of Roca, except in Buenos Aires and Corrientes. On June 13 the Electoral College met and elected President General Roca and Vice President Francisco Bernabé Madero.

But in Buenos Aires a revolution against the triumph of Roca was brewing. Four days later the fighting began, which ended on June 25 with an agreement between the province and the nation; the Revolution of 1880 had cost 3,000 deaths.

Shortly before the presidential inauguration Roca was passed in Congress federalization of Buenos Aires.

The political system that had brought him to the presidency, and which maintained notable stability long after he left office, rested on a series of unstable agreements between provincial governors—who controlled elections through electoral fraud and clientelism—and the president, who controlled the national budget in favor of or against the provinces and could depose hostile governors through federal interventions. Mutually dependent, the governors and the president carried out continuous agreements that allowed both sides to advance the policies they desired. In any case, the stability of such a system required—in practice—the absence of any opposition; the fraudulent political practices also aimed at achieving that objective.

During his administration, the Penal Code and the national Mining Code were enacted; the municipal government of the new Federal Capital was organized, and the city of La Plata—capital of Buenos Aires Province—was founded.

The country's health situation had not improved significantly since the epidemic of yellow fever in 1871: between 1884 and 1887, a series of cholera epidemics caused hundreds of deaths in the capital and the interior.

Under his mandate the so-called "laicist laws" (Leyes Laicas) were passed, which nationalized a series of functions that previously were under the control of the Church. He also created the so-called Registro Civil, an index of all births, deaths and marriages. President Roca also made primary education free of charge by nationalizing education institutions run by the Church. This led to a break in relations with the Vatican. Roca presided over an era of rapid economic development fueled by large scale European immigration, railway construction, and booming agricultural exports. In May 1886 Roca was the subject of a failed assassination attempt.

Economy

thumb|300px|The [[River Plate Fresh Meat Company refrigeration plant in Campana. The first refrigeration plant installed in South America, in 1883. During Roca's presidency, the first refrigeration plants were established, enabling the export of meat to Europe.]]

Roca began his first term (1880–1886) in a favorable economic situation, as that year much of the world began to overcome the global depression that had begun in 1873. This period would be characterized by the introduction in 1883 of the refrigeration plant (frigorífico), an invention developed shortly before, as one of the central pillars of the Argentine economy. The refrigeration plant led landowners in Buenos Aires Province to adopt a mixed production model on their estates, combining agriculture and livestock raising, a model that gave Argentina the label of an "agro-livestock" economy. However, it took more than two decades for Argentine cattle to be adapted to the British market, and until the end of the century there remained a high production of tasajo (intended for consumption by enslaved people and populations in servile conditions), produced by saladeros.

The economic system was sustained through the exchange of primary products—exclusively of agricultural and livestock origin, and largely produced in the Pampas region—for manufactured goods from abroad, especially from Europe.

Public works

Roca's first government stood out for the large amount of public works carried out, financed with a high fiscal deficit.

The railway network expanded from 2,516 to 6,161 km during his administration. A very significant portion of resources was also allocated to the construction of important buildings, mainly in Buenos Aires and in the new capital of Buenos Aires Province, La Plata. A policy of credit to private individuals was initiated, of which an alarming proportion ended up in the hands of speculators and even chronic debtors, who would never repay them.

During his first term (1880–1886), he issued a decree in 1882 for the construction of the Port of Ensenada in Buenos Aires Province, shortly after declaring La Plata as its capital. Also in 1882, the Congress approved the project to build a new Port of Buenos Aires (Puerto Madero and Dock Sud), following the design of Eduardo Madero. The law was immediately promulgated by Roca, but the contract for its construction was signed in 1884 and the works only began in 1886, when Roca finished his presidential term.

Monetary policy and the "period of great indebtedness"

thumb|300px|President Roca inaugurating the 1886 legislative session.

Roca created the Argentine national currency as such, while also adopting a policy of high borrowing and fiscal deficit that greatly increased the external debt, a policy continued by his brother-in-law and successor Miguel Juárez Celman. A crisis erupted in 1888, when the country entered into default for four years. The national state practically lacked its own currency, to which Roca’s government responded by creating the peso moneda nacional (symbol: m$n), or "gold peso", because its parity with gold was guaranteed—although this parity could only be maintained for 17 months. The new currency began to circulate in July 1883.