As de facto ruler of la Plata, Rosas nevertheless favored his home state of Buenos Aires over national interests. Finally, in 1852, the governor of the competing coastal province, Entre Ríos, enlisted neighboring Brazil and Uruguay to overthrow Rosas and break his monopoly on coastal trade. Another decade of uneasy confederation and civil war followed until finally, in 1862, a national convention succeeded in drafting a national charter and then electing the Argentine Republic's first president. The climax of the ensuing national movement occurred in 1880, when -- after another brief civil war -- Buenos Aires became a federal district (akin to Washington D.C.) and Argentina's national capital.
photo: Hulton Archive
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Buenos Aires, 1890: a thriving port and national capital
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