Justo Jose de Urquiza

Justo José de Urquiza (Talar de Arroyo Largo, today Arroyo Urquiza, Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata, October 18, 1801 - San José Palace, Caseros (Entre Ríos), Between Ríos, April 11, 1870) was an Argentine military and politician. He was several times governor of the province of Entre Ríos, leader of the Federal Party and president of the Argentine Confederation between 1854 and 1860.

In 1852 he led the Big Army with which he defeated Juan Manuel de Rosas in the battle of Caseros, which put an end to his 17-year rule. The following year he convened a Constituent Congress that approved the first Argentine national constitution, the constitution of 1853. In 1854 he was elected as the first president of the Argentine Confederation, a position he held for six years, thus also becoming the first president Argentine Constitution, although the country did not include the province of Buenos Aires, which had decided to secede.

Family origin and early years

Family and beginnings in politics

First portrait of Justo José de Urquiza; he shows it in his youth, when he militated in the militias of Concepción del Uruguay. The original was found in the room San Pedro de Entre Ríos, property of members of the Campos Urquiza family.

His father, Joseph Narciso de Urquiza y Álzaga, was a Spanish colonist of Basque origin who married the infanzona María Cándida Ramón-García y Monzón, of Luso-Hispanic-Argentine origin, being a descendant of the Portuguese Inés Nunes Cabral de Melo and her husband Gil González de Moura.

Both parents settled in the mayor's office of Buenos Aires, in the current province of Entre Ríos, dedicating themselves to rural activities and public service. After the May Revolution, in 1810, they emigrated to the Banda Oriental to remain faithful to the Kingdom of Spain.

They returned in 1812, and five years later Justo José was sent to the Colegio de San Carlos in Buenos Aires.

In 1819 he settled in the thriving town of Arroyo de La China, now Concepción del Uruguay, dedicating himself to rural and commercial activity, for which he demonstrated enormous capacity. His older brother, Cipriano de Urquiza, was secretary and later minister of the first great leader of Entre Ríos, Francisco Ramírez.

In 1820 he had his first daughter out of wedlock; she would later have many more illegitimate children. A law enacted during his presidency would legalize several of them. 23 children were legally recognized by Federal Law No. 41 where he put the 11 legitimate children on an equal footing with the extramarital ones he had as a bachelor (there are versions that indicate that he had between 105 and 114 children in his entire life).

In the 1820s, already with a fortune to back him, he became interested in politics at a particularly turbulent period in the history of Entre Ríos. Like many young people from the interior, his party was the Federal.

In 1826 he was elected by the residents of Concepción del Uruguay to represent them as a deputy in the provincial congress. He led the opposition to the Argentine Constitution of 1826, which was rejected by his province.

Beginning of his military career

From 1828 onwards he was the military and civil commander of Concepción del Uruguay. Two years later he supported the invasion of the province by the unitary general Juan Lavalle and Ricardo López Jordán (his father). After the failure of that invasion, he supported another in 1831 which, also failing, forced him to take refuge in Santa Fe, under the protection of the caudillo Estanislao López.

The following year he accompanied Pascual Echagüe in the military campaign that would lead him to the governorship of Entre Ríos. Under his government, Entre Ríos experienced a period of peace, reinforced by the pacifying influence of the Buenos Aires governor Juan Manuel de Rosas. Beginning in 1835, he ruled as a popularly elected dictator of his province. He extended his domain over the other provinces, in fact exercising a central power that did not correspond to him by law.Echagüe made a progressive government and saved himself trouble by supporting Rosas in his opposition to the sanction of a national constitution.

Urquiza was appointed commander of the entire coast of the Uruguay River, with the rank of colonel. During that decade he became one of the richest landowners and merchants in the country and spread a powerful network of economic clientelism, which would later serve as political support.

Civil War

Entre Ríos was a territory that occupied a strategic position, since it was close to Buenos Aires, the conflictive Banda Oriental, the Empire of Brazil and the province of Corrientes. In its territory there were great battles.

In mid-1838, the tranquility of the province was threatened by the uprising of Fructuoso Rivera, who overthrew Uruguayan President Manuel Oribe. Also that year Estanislao López died, and Echagüe forced his brother Juan Pablo López to be placed in the governorate of Santa Fe.

The first province to rebel militarily against Rosas was Corrientes. Its governor, Genaro Berón de Astrada, withdrew the foreign relations delegation from Rosas and declared war on him, as well as on Echagüe. Berón had to face with his own forces the attack launched by Echagüe, one of whose division chiefs was Urquiza.

The armies met in the battle of Pago Largo, near Curuzú Cuatiá, on March 31, 1839. It was a complete victory for the federales, in which Urquiza had an outstanding performance, and Berón was killed in the pursuit that followed the battle. After it, hundreds of prisoners were executed; In general, people from Corrientes accused Urquiza of those crimes.

After placing a federal governor in Corrientes, Echagüe went with his army to Uruguay. Rivera defeated him in the battle of Cagancha, on December 29, in which General Lavalleja's indecision was more important than Urquiza's brilliant performance. From that moment, Urquiza's relations with Echagüe were very bad.

In his absence, Lavalle had invaded the province, moving on to Corrientes. There he assembled a new army, with which in the mid-1840s he invaded Entre Ríos. While Urquiza controlled the coast of Uruguay, Echagüe faced him in two indecisive battles. Urquiza defeated one of the unitary colonels in Arroyo del Animal, near Gualeguay. Shortly after, Lavalle passed towards the province of Buenos Aires; there he would try to occupy the capital, but he would be defeated without a fight and would begin a march towards the north, finding defeat in Tucumán and death in Jujuy.

Some months later, Echagüe invaded Corrientes, leaving Urquiza to guard his back. The new commander of Corrientes was José María Paz who easily defeated Echagüe in the battle of Caaguazú, on November 28, 1841.

Government of Entre Ríos

Arrival to the government and continuation of the war

Portrait of Urquiza (grabbed, 1842).

Shortly after the defeat, Echagüe's fourth term expired. On December 15, 1841, the legislature elected Justo José de Urquiza governor. He would not relinquish power in the province until his death, almost thirty years later. He was governor for 18 years, to which must be added six years of federalization of the province under his own presidency, and four of his employee. In total, 28 years; more than Rosas in Buenos Aires.

The situation was very delicate; Urquiza issued a proclamation, in which he said that

"no one has been placed at the head of the province in more difficult circumstances. The command, naked of all the halaga, only presents his chances. "

He immediately delegated command to Vicente Zapata, and left the capital. Days later, Paz occupied Paraná and Rivera Concepción del Uruguay. Urquiza withdrew to the Tonelero Island, protected by swamps and streams, where he began to organize an army with thousands of volunteers from Entre Ríos, whom he trained militarily. Among them was a young man, the son of an old general who was a prisoner of Rosas for being a Unitarian: Ricardo López Jordán. For a short period he moved to the province of Buenos Aires.

Paz had himself elected governor, but the lack of help from Corrientes governor Pedro Ferré forced him to go in search of Rivera, crossing the province. On the way he lost almost all of his army, which began to swell Urquiza's. He occupied Paraná without opposition, and immediately began the campaign in the interior of the province, while Eduardo Villagra occupied Gualeguaychú, evicting the men of Paz.

Simultaneously, Manuel Oribe was returning from the north, where he had defeated Lavalle, and attacked the governor of Santa Fe, Juan Pablo López (who had crossed sides), easily defeating him. Echagüe took charge of the Santa Fe government and Oribe crossed the Paraná, following his march towards Uruguay.

Rivera took command of the united Uruguayan-unitary army. Urquiza joined Oribe and together they advanced towards the Uruguay River, near which they completely defeated their enemies at the Battle of Arroyo Grande on December 6, 1842.

While Oribe continued his advance towards Montevideo, occupying most of the Uruguayan territory, Urquiza invaded Corrientes, where he placed a federal governor, Pedro Cabral, and left an Entre Ríos garrison in Goya, under the command of General José Miguel Galán.

Later, he accompanied Oribe's slow - too slow - advance towards the Uruguayan capital, which he laid siege to. Thus began the period that the Uruguayans call the Great War.

In Corrientes, a reaction led by Joaquín and Juan Madariaga seized power and expelled the Entre Ríos. They immediately attacked Entre Ríos; the defense was left in charge of the Uruguayan general Eugenio Garzón, while a rebellion in the interior of the province cost the death of Cipriano de Urquiza. The people from Corrientes evacuated Entre Ríos, and Urquiza was able to follow his campaigns in Uruguay; there he defeated Rivera next to the Yí river, and definitively defeated him in the battle of India Muerta on March 27, 1845. He was once again accused of having executed hundreds of prisoners.

The Anglo-French block and the activities of privateers at the service of the government of Montevideo continued to affect the government of Entre Ríos. The Italian captain Giuseppe Garibaldi sacked Gualeguaychú; and after a few days the Greek Cardassy captured all the ships in the port of Paraná.

Campaigns in Uruguay and Corrientes

In Corrientes, the Madariagas had placed General Paz at the head of their army, who organized a new army. Urquiza invaded the province and defeated Juan Madariaga in the battle of Laguna Limpia, taking him prisoner. Through his file, he learned that Paz intended to take him to the extreme north of the province, to defeat him in a trap similar to the one he had used to defeat Echagüe. That is why he continued advancing, sacked the province, made friends from Corrientes, and when he reached the Paz trap, he turned around and returned to Entre Ríos.

From there he began negotiations with the governor of Corrientes through his brother. Paz opposed and tried to overthrow Madariaga, but failed and he ended up fleeing. Urquiza signed the Treaty of Alcaraz with the Corrientes government, by which peace was settled and the charge of foreign relations was returned to Rosas, but Corrientes was released from the obligation to support the war in Uruguay, and also provided for the prompt convocation of a constituent congress.

Rosas rejected the treaty and, against his will, Urquiza was forced to invade Corrientes again. He defeated the Madariagas in the battle of Vences or Rincón de Vences, on November 27, 1847. According to his detractors, Urquiza would have perpetrated the worst massacre of his prisoners there. Although it is likely that this occurred, it was possibly due to his allies from Corrientes.

The Madariagas fled to Brazil, and Urquiza put his friend Benjamín Virasoro in the government of Corrientes. The war was over; Of course, Oribe was still besieging Montevideo, but he knew that the city would fall at any moment.

Government of the province

His government was paternalistic, in the sense that he governed without consulting the people, but for their benefit. He ruled from Concepción del Uruguay or from his military camp in Calá. In several ways he was very similar to Rosas and other caudillos of the time. He protected the cattle ranch, favored the installation of salting houses for bovine meat, demanded the conchabo ballot from all the rural laborers, improved roads and ports, installed water mills, and helped to establish small industries. He exercised a very effective police power, but very cruel, since at the slightest mistake, the criminals were simply executed. ^{[citation required]}

He ordered the accounting to be kept with a precision unknown until then. He imposed strict fiscal control, and intense dedication to officials and employees; He reduced public spending without neglecting the functions of the state, and had the expenses and income published month by month by the press.

His main concern was education; he expanded the elementary schools that he had founded his predecessor and founded new, modern, public secondary schools. The first one he founded was the one in Paraná, directed by Manuel Erausquin. After a series of conflicts with the government of that city, the body of teachers went to the other school founded by Urquiza, the current National School of Concepción del Uruguay. It would have a great boom during the time that Buenos Aires separated from the Confederation, under the direction of Alberto Larroque, who transformed it into the most modern secondary school of its time, and for many years it competed in prestige with that of Buenos Aires and that of Cordoba.

Three newspapers were published simultaneously; theaters, women's secondary schools, public libraries, etc. were founded. He called several illustrious emigrants to his province, especially anti-Rosist federalists, such as Pedro Ferré, Manuel Leiva and Nicasio Oroño, but also Unitarians such as Marcos Sastre and others. The atmosphere that was breathed in the province was much freer than that of Buenos Aires or other cities in the interior.

The atmosphere of freedom, which contrasted so much with that of Buenos Aires, caught the attention of emigrants and Unitarians. Many, like Sarmiento or General Paz, began to think that Urquiza would be the one chosen by history to convene a constituent congress and overthrow Rosas.

Forger of the National Organization

Urquiza, Rosas and Brazil

Despite the fact that the city of Montevideo was besieged and at war with the Argentine provinces, Urquiza managed to keep the ports of his province open to trade with that place. From Rosas' point of view, it was contraband; but since the governor of Buenos Aires needed Urquiza, he actually allowed it.

Rosas continued to maintain that, since the country was not at peace, it was not yet time to sanction a constitution. But it is also true that Rosas's foreign policy itself maintained a state of constant foreign conflict. In fact, Rosas was repeatedly accused of keeping the Confederation at war, thus indefinitely postponing the sanction of the Constitution.

In the mid-1850s, when the besieged city of Montevideo was about to fall, the Empire of Brazil decided to support the besieged. In response, Rosas began the process to come to a war against the Empire. Several opponents interpreted that the Buenos Aires governor was opening a new front of conflict, to continue postponing the moment of the sanction of the Constitution; Urquiza adhered to that interpretation, but he still did not show any symptoms in that sense.

Rosas appointed him commander of the army of operations against Brazil, and sent him weapons and reinforcements. But, at the same time, he demanded that he suspend commercial traffic with Montevideo.

Urquiza began to contact the émigrés of Montevideo, and later also the representatives of the Empire. To embark on the adventure of confronting Rosas, he needed money and the assurance that he would be supported. At the beginning of the following year, this money began to arrive, in abundance, provided by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, so Urquiza made his first move.

The Pronouncement

In January 1851 he appeared in the newspaper "La Regeneración" of Concepción del Uruguay entitled "The Year 1851", which indicated the initial kick of the break with Rosas.

On May 1, 1851, the so-called Urquiza Pronunciation was announced. It was an announcement from the Entre Ríos legislature, in which Rosas's repeated resignations from the governorship of Buenos Aires and to continue taking charge of foreign relations were accepted. He also resumed the management of the province's foreign and war policy. Lastly, the already familiar "Death to the unitary savages!" was replaced in the documents by the phrase "Death to the enemies of the national organization!".

Leaving aside the euphemism of accepting the resignations of Rosas, it was a reaction against the political and economic domination of the province of Buenos Aires, with political and economic objectives, in principle occupying a secondary constitutional organization.

The only province that supported the pronouncement was Corrientes; the others condemned Urquiza's attitude in all public documents and, following the model of the Buenos Aires press, branded him "crazy, traitor, savage, unitary..."

Invasion of Uruguay

At the end of May a treaty was signed between Entre Ríos, the government of Montevideo and the Empire of Brazil. They agreed on an alliance between the three to expel Oribe, call free elections throughout Uruguayan territory, and face Rosas together, if he declared war on one of the parties, which was taken for granted.

In July of that year, the Entre Ríos army crossed the Uruguay River. On the way, he was joined by most of Oribe's army, which placed itself under the command of General Garzón, the allies' candidate for president. And the Brazilians entered from the north. The army advanced without opposition to the vicinity of the Cerrito camp, where peace talks with Oribe began. On October 8, a pact was signed between the parties, whereby Oribe's forces were incorporated into Urquiza's army, and all disputes were forgotten, "neither winners, nor losers". Oribe retired to his room, where he would die a few years later.

Urquiza incorporated into his army, by force, the Argentine troops that were besieging Montevideo, but he let their leaders escape. Among those who withdrew to Buenos Aires were some valuable leaders, such as Colonels Jerónimo Costa, Hilario Lagos and Mariano Maza.

The Uruguayan congress had to sign a treaty with Brazil, which recognized the Empire's right to intervene in its internal politics and gave it a large border strip, hitherto in dispute between the two countries, little less than a third of its surface.

Homemade

General Urquiza (L'illustration journal universel, Volume 19).

Rosas publicly declared war on Brazil, which allowed Urquiza to sign a new alliance treaty against the Buenos Aires ruler.

Step of Paraná by the army of Urquiza.

Urquiza returned to Entre Ríos, where he assembled the so-called "Ejército Grande," made up of troops from Entre Ríos, from Corrientes, unitary emigrants, Argentine soldiers from the siege, "coloradas" of the Uruguayan army and troops of the Empire. With them he crossed the Paraná River in Brazilian ships and, taking advantage of the defection of various units of Rosas's army, overthrew the governor of Santa Fe Echagüe.

On the way to Buenos Aires, an event occurred that showed the loyalty of the porteños towards Rosas. An entire regiment went over to the forces of Buenos Aires, assassinating the unitary colonel Pedro León Aquino and almost all the officers; they were from the Buenos Aires forces that had been forced to join Urquiza in Montevideo.

As usual, Rosas placed General Ángel Pacheco in command of the provincial forces; but he did not respond as he should and let the army advance towards Buenos Aires. So Rosas made a serious strategic mistake: he himself assumed command of his army and waited for Urquiza near his camp in Santos Lugares.

On February 3, 1852, Urquiza's 24,000 men met Rosas' 23,000 in the battle of Caseros.

After a few hours of battle, the victory went to Urquiza. Many were executed, such as colonels Martiniano Chilavert and Martín Santa Coloma; and all the soldiers of Aquino's regiment, who were hanged from the trees in the Palermo park.

Rosas went into exile in England, and Urquiza assumed the provincial government himself. Two days after the battle he appointed Vicente López y Planes governor.

On February 20, the Brazilian commander announced the triumphant parade in Buenos Aires. But Urquiza toured the city without waiting for the Brazilian army, since it was a particularly sought-after humiliation, given that it was the anniversary of the Argentine victory at Ituzaingó.

The Saint Nicholas Agreement

As soon as the news of Caseros arrived in Montevideo and the other neighboring countries, the emigrants began their return to Buenos Aires. The rosistas, for their part, were not resigned to losing their prominent place in society. Thus, two clearly differentiated political groups were formed: on the one hand, the federales or urquicistas, who defended the process of national organization under federal power. Among the members were Vicente López y Planes, his son Vicente Fidel López, Francisco Pico and Juan María Gutiérrez.For its part, the Liberal Party –very heterogeneous– was made up of supporters of the break with the Confederation. In their ranks, Valentín Alsina, Bartolomé Mitre, Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield and Domingo Faustino Sarmiento stood out. All of them opposed the policies of Urquiza, whom they considered a provincial caudillo who aspired to dominate the province, the capitalization of Buenos Aires, and the nationalization of customs duties. They proposed the isolationism of the province and even its secession from the national State.

As soon as he entered Buenos Aires, Urquiza sent a mission to the provinces to explain his intentions to reestablish the validity of the Federal Pact and undertake the constitutional organization. Bernardo de Irigoyen effectively fulfilled his mission: the provinces delegated the management of foreign relations to Urquiza and accepted the national organization project.

On April 6, the representatives of Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Entre Ríos and Santa Fe signed the Palermo Protocol, which restored the validity of the Federal Pact, delegated to Urquiza the management of foreign relations and entrusted him with the meeting of a Constituent Congress. To expedite the meeting of the constituent congress and legally establish its authority, Urquiza invited the governors of all the provinces to a meeting to be held in San Nicolás de los Arroyos.

On May 31, the San Nicolás Agreement was signed. It established –among other points– the validity of the Federal Pact of 1831; the meeting of a general constituent congress in Santa Fe starting in August of that same year, made up of two deputies from each province, who would act without instructions that would restrict their powers; and the creation of the position of Provisional Director of the Argentine Confederation, which fell to General Urquiza, whose duties were not clearly defined.

Crisis in Buenos Aires

The Agreement was ratified by all the provinces, with the sole exception of Buenos Aires. There, the Chamber of Representatives, meeting on May 1 and in which the Liberals had a large majority, rejected the agreement arguing that the power granted to Urquiza was dictatorial.

Governor López y Planes submitted his resignation, which was accepted, and the president of the Legislature, General Manuel Guillermo Pinto, was named provisionally as his replacement. But Urquiza—who was still in Palermo—reacted quickly: on June 24, he ordered his army to occupy the capital, dissolved the Chamber of Representatives, restored López to his post, and ordered the arrest and exile of various opponents.

On July 26, before López resigned again, Urquiza personally assumed the government of Buenos Aires. In his capacity as provisional director of the Confederation, he ordered the convocation of the Constituent Congress, prohibited the confiscation of assets throughout the Nation, abolished the death penalty for political crimes and declared that the product of foreign customs was an income of the Nation.

He also recognized the independence of Paraguay in the name of the Confederation –which had never been recognized by Rosas– by means of an agreement. He then declared free navigation of the rivers by two decrees of August and October 1852.

In September 1852, Urquiza left for Santa Fe to start the sessions of the Constituent Congress, leaving General José Miguel Galán as delegate.

Revolution and siege of Buenos Aires

On September 11, 1852, a military uprising broke out with civilian support against the authority of Urquiza and his delegate, who embarked for Entre Ríos. Part of the troops from Corrientes had an active participation in the revolution; even the former rosistas joined the revolution. Restored, the Chamber of Representatives ignored the Constituent Congress, ordered the return of the two Buenos Aires deputies to it and resumed management of its foreign relations.

At first, Urquiza occupied San Nicolás de los Arroyos, determined to return to Buenos Aires. But there he found out that the support the revolution had was greater than expected, and that even the federals had joined it. So he returned to Entre Ríos.

From that moment on, the so-called State of Buenos Aires was managed as an independent country of the Confederation. After a brief internship for General Pinto, in October Valentín Alsina was appointed Governor.

General José María Paz was appointed commander of the forces stationed in San Nicolás, with which they planned to invade Santa Fe. Meanwhile, the forces from Corrientes were sent back to their province, with the mission of invading Entre Ríos on their way. But the forces landed in Concepción del Uruguay were defeated and had to flee to Corrientes; and another division re-embarked for Buenos Aires. So Paz's projected invasion of the interior was called off.

The plans of the Buenos Aires government to launch into the war against the Confederation caused a rebellion of the officers of the interior of the province, almost all of them of rosista origin: on December 1, General Hilario Lagos spoke out against the government of Alsina, who resigned, and for the third time General Pinto assumed the provisional government.

Federal troops laid siege to the city of Buenos Aires, while the few Buenos Aires government forces in the interior of the province were defeated. Even Paz was recalled to Buenos Aires, unguarding San Nicolás.

Urquiza moved to the siege of Buenos Aires at the head of some Entre Ríos divisions, and the Confederation squadron blocked the city. Periodically there were clashes around the capital and naval battles in the Río de la Plata and the Paraná. Lagos formed a parallel government in San José de Flores and tried to normalize a government for the interior of the province.

The Buenos Aires government resolved the crisis through bribery: first, it coerced several federal commanders to abandon the siege, and then it bribed the commander of the Confederation squadron, the American John Halstead Coe, to hand over his fleet to the Buenos Aires government. In July 1853, the besieging army dissolved and Urquiza returned to Entre Ríos.

The Constitution

In 1852, Justo José de Urquiza created a 14-member commission to draft the Civil, Criminal, Commercial, and Procedures Codes. But the revolution of September 11 of that year, which culminated in the separation of the Province of Buenos Aires from the Argentine Confederation, prevented the project from being carried out.

In November 1852, the sessions of the Constituent Congress were inaugurated in Santa Fe. General Urquiza, who had created it and tried to reunite it after tireless years of struggle, was unable to attend due to the Buenos Aires invasion of Entre Ríos. The deputies had been chosen by the governors with the consent of Urquiza, and he actively pressured them to unblock some discussions. Some had to resign from their representation because Urquiza refused to pay their salaries.

The task of drafting the project fell mainly on the deputy Benjamín Gorostiaga, who presented a text very similar to the draft constitution that Juan Bautista Alberdi had proposed in Bases and starting points for the political organization of the Republic Argentina; it was inspired, in turn, by the Constitution of the United States of America and the Argentine constitutions of 1819 and 1826, which followed the tradition of the Spanish Constitution of 1812. Although the Constitution named the country as the Argentine Confederation, the established regime was that of a federal republic. In practice, during the first decade the political system would function as a federation of provinces, although united by a stronger bond than the one that had existed during the Rosas regime.

On May 1, 1853, the Constitution was sanctioned, which was sworn in in public assemblies in the provincial capitals.

Until the meeting of the National Congress, the Constituent Congress took over the Legislative Branch. The main laws that he sanctioned were the one that designated Paraná as the provisional capital of the country until Buenos Aires joined it, and another approving a treaty on free navigation of rivers with France and England, which declared that the navigation of inland rivers of the Confederacy was subject to the same conditions as shipping on the high seas, completely free of all controls.

In the month of June, the siege of Buenos Aires was still unresolved, and the besieging forces were demoralizing; So the Buenos Aires government resolved the crisis through bribery: first, it coerced several federal chiefs to abandon the siege, and then it bribed the commander of the Confederation squadron, the American John Halstead Coe, to hand over his fleet to the Buenos Aires government.; weeks later, the besieging army disbanded. Urquiza was about to fall into the hands of the porteños, but managed to embark for Paraná in an English ship, while his troops fled to Santa Fe.

The Presidency

Urquiza in the Presidency.

After the elections, Justo José de Urquiza was elected president, accompanied by Salvador María del Carril from San Juan as vice president. The capital was provisionally established in the capital of the province of Entre Ríos; To this end, the entire territory of the province was federalized, which came to be governed directly by the president. In this way, Urquiza continued to govern his province, although the municipalities retained some autonomy.

Internal Policy

Urquiza assumed the presidency on March 5, 1854. A few days later he traveled to Córdoba to preside over a meeting of the governors of the neighboring provinces, with which he wanted to show the firm union between them, threatened both by the policy of Buenos Aires as for the recent history of divisions between them.

Once established in Paraná, Urquiza called elections for deputies and senators, inaugurating the first sessions of the National Congress on October 22, 1854. The organization of the Judiciary presented greater difficulties due to the shortage of trained personnel: if although the president appointed the members of the Supreme Court of Justice and sanctioned the law for the organization of the Federal Chambers, the Federal Justice never came to function.

He nationalized the College and University of Córdoba and the College of Concepción del Uruguay; he had public buildings built in Paraná.

The Confederation had no political or financial resources to carry out large public initiatives. One of the matters in which he achieved the most success was the formation of a national army. The provincial forces remained autonomous, but the government managed to organize military regions that could function as military units in the future.

For almost half of his rule, Urquiza did not reside in Paraná, but ruled from the Palacio San José, which was being built near Concepción del Uruguay. During his absence, Del Carril replaced him, as established by the Constitution, but he had very bad relations with the interior minister, Santiago Derqui; over time, both ended up leading opposing parties within the same government.

A first attempt was made to create a railway to link Rosario –the fastest growing city in that period, which would soon be the most populous in the interior– with Chile, favoring desert areas along the way. The first studies in this sense gave discouraging results, so the government thought of combining that plan with a railway to Córdoba, which itself would finance the construction of the first section of the railway to Chile; the plan developed by the engineer William Wheelwright it could not be carried out by the Confederation government due to lack of financial resources.

To replace the non-existent railway, communications were modernized by establishing "mensajerías", private companies that carried passengers, mail and high-value cargo in galleys, uniting most of the cities of the country. and that also toured the interior of the province of Buenos Aires.

In the provinces of the Confederation, landowners lacked access to credit, since they did not have economic or financial resources to expand. For this reason, the growth of agricultural production in the coastal provinces was driven by the creation of agricultural colonies in their territory, attracting European immigrants to them. The first successful agricultural colony was that of Esperanza (Santa Fe), founded by Aarón Castellanos in 1855, with Swiss immigrants. Many other colonies were founded in Santa Fe and Entre Ríos in those years; A well-known case is that of Colonia San José, founded by General Urquiza in 1857. However, for the system to become general, the support of the railway would be necessary, which would only be extended in later years.

Foreign Relations

Urquiza, President of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata.

The division between the Confederation and Buenos Aires posed a problem for diplomatic representatives accredited to Argentina: while they recognized Urquiza's authority over the entire country, the vast majority of his business interests and resident citizens were in Buenos Aires. So they held plenipotentiary ministers in Paraná and consuls in Buenos Aires, trying to mediate in favor of national union.

Despite the importance that the national government attached to relations with the main foreign powers, its first priority was to achieve recognition of Argentine independence by Spain. Juan Bautista Alberdi represented the Confederation before the Spanish crown, achieving the signing of a treaty with Spain on July 9, 1859, by which the former metropolis recognized Argentine independence; it was rejected by Buenos Aires, due to that the Spanish citizenship of the children of Spaniards born in Argentina was recognized, that is, the ius sanguinis, which meant turning the much-needed immigration into a threat to Argentine nationality.

Great Britain achieved the annulment of the 1849 treaty, by which Rosas had forced that country to recognize Argentine sovereignty over its interior rivers.

Diplomatic relations were also resumed with the Holy See, with which Argentina had not had any relationship since the discussions on ecclesiastical patronage during the 1830s.

Relations with Brazil were mainly oriented to the question of river navigation and the relations of both countries with Paraguay. The relationship with this last country —zealous defender of all the attributes of its sovereignty— were tarnished by the firm attitude of the Paraguayan government towards foreign powers, especially in relation to the United States, which was about to attack that country for a minor incident. The favorable resolution of this problem facilitated Paraguayan mediation to resolve the conflicts between Buenos Aires and the Confederation in 1859.

Financial situation

Just J. Urquiza, President of the Argentine Confederation.

The Confederation began its constitutional stage with serious economic and financial problems: lack of resources, dependence on the port of Buenos Aires for foreign trade, internal obstacles derived from provincial customs and transit rights, difficulties in communications and in the transit of goods, little development of agriculture and stagnation of the craft industry. The organization of the national treasury presented difficulties due to the low collection of the foreign customs of the Confederation and the lack of an efficient tax system; hence the economic hardship of the confederal administration. Nor was it right to create a reliable banking system, which is why credit was very expensive for it and the successive attempts to issue paper money ended in so many failures.

A project by the Minister of Finance, Mariano Fragueiro, led to the creation of the Banco Nacional de la Confederación, which opened its doors in 1854 and issued paper money. But this lacked support, so it had to be declared a forced course; the provinces rejected it and the merchants refused to accept it. The bank had to close and paper money was withdrawn from circulation.

Then it was decided to attack the economic structure of the divided country, which benefited Buenos Aires: the Law of Differential Rights –sanctioned in 1856– sought to increase the Confederation's trade with foreign powers and harm the interests of Buenos Aires. The law established that foreign merchandise coming from capes inside –that is, previously disembarked in another port of the Río de la Plata– that entered the Confederation would pay double the ordinary duty to which those entering directly to the ports of the Confederation were subject. the Confederacy; a later law established differential export duties.

However, the measures did not give the expected results: although the commercial volume in the port of Rosario increased and even a Brazilian financier —the Baron de Mauá— founded a bank in that city, Buenos Aires continued to be the financial center of the country. The pressing need for money was solved with new loans, such as those contracted with Mauá, but the interest at which the money could be obtained was exceptionally high, reaching 24%. Urquiza would come to the conclusion that the only way to end the economic problems of the Confederation was the reincorporation of the dissident province at any price.

Buenos Aires and the interior provinces

During Pastor Obligado's governorship, the rebellious province enacted its own constitution and enjoyed rapid economic growth.

After the defeat at Lagos, most of the Buenos Aires federals had emigrated to Paraná, Rosario or Montevideo, from where they planned to return by invading their province. In January 1854, Lagos briefly occupied the north of the province for a few days. In November of the same year, General Jerónimo Costa advanced at the head of 600 men, but was defeated.

In December 1855 there was a new attempt, when José María Flores landed in Ensenada, while Costa did so near Zárate with less than 200 men. The Obligado governor issued the death sentence for all the officers involved in that invasion, officially declaring them bandits. Flores managed to flee, but Costa advanced towards Buenos Aires with his few troops. On January 31, 1856, he was defeated by Emilio Conesa near San Justo; most of the soldiers were killed when they surrendered, and the officers were shot two days later.

The federals clamored for revenge, but Urquiza decided to be more prudent: he signed a Peace Treaty with Buenos Aires, which allowed both sides to enjoy three years of peace.

During the governorship of Valentín Alsina, elected in 1857, the Buenos Aires government adopted a very aggressive policy, rejecting the Law of Differential Rights, and leaving peace treaties aside. To break the resistance of the Confederation, he supported movements in the provinces tending to integrate into a unity process under his direction. The Buenos Aires press became even more aggressive, inciting the Buenos Aires government to war against the Confederation or to definitive independence.

The interior provinces were periodically shaken by revolutions; the two most stable were those of Santiago del Estero and Corrientes, whose governments were considered more inclined towards the politics of Buenos Aires than that of Urquiza.

Towards a new civil war

The assassination, in 1859, of the San Juan caudillo Nazario Benavídez was celebrated by the Buenos Aires press: Sarmiento considered his death a triumph of "civilization" and the newspaper La Tribuna predicted the same fate for Urquiza. President Urquiza sent a federal intervention, which discovered abundant links between the revolutionaries and the government of Buenos Aires.

The intervention of the porteños in the internal politics of another province caused great indignation in the government of Paraná: a law disregarded any public act generated by the porteño government, and in May 1859, Congress ordered the military mobilization of the population and authorized Urquiza to solve the problem of national unity

through peaceful negotiations or war, as the circumstances suggest.

The chief of the Buenos Aires army, Colonel Bartolomé Mitre, received an order to invade the province of Santa Fe.

Cepeda

Given the imminence of the conflict, the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Paraguay tried to intercede amicably. But neither Alsina nor Miter accepted anything other than Urquiza's resignation or war. For his part, Urquiza – who had always tried to negotiate since 1852 – was now particularly furious over the murder of Benavídez and the apology for the crime in which the Buenos Aires newspapers had incurred.

The Buenos Aires warships blocked the port of Paraná, but a mutiny on one of these ships, which was handed over to the national government, forced the blockade to be lifted. In mid-October, after a brief naval combat, the squadron Federal appeared in front of Buenos Aires.

The army of the Confederation, led by Urquiza, began the campaign towards Buenos Aires from Rosario; It was made up of 14,000 men – of which 10,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry – with 35 cannons and howitzers; several Ranquel indigenous divisions were listed as auxiliaries.

The Buenos Aires army operated from San Nicolás de los Arroyos; It had 9,000 men – of which 4,700 infantry and 4,000 horsemen – with 24 artillery pieces, under the command of Mitre, Minister of War. The Buenos Aires forces were greatly diminished because a large part of their forces had to protect the border of their province from the invasions of the indigenous people, some of whom -like Juan Calfucurá- were allies of Urquiza and their incursions were part of his strategy.

On October 23, the Battle of Cepeda began. Before launching the attack, Urquiza harangued his troops:

"I have wanted to avoid blood and have sought peace. The Buenos Aires government is trying to provoke us with an army that cannot resist us. Well, let us conquer for the action of weapons a lasting peace. "

Urquiza

The initial advantage favored the Buenos Aires infantry, but Urquiza's skilful use of cavalry allowed him to take the offensive, and even three Buenos Aires battalions were destroyed. A flanking maneuver ordered by Miter threw the entire formation into disarray, and night brought the battle to a halt when the Confederate victory was already evident.

The porteños suffered many casualties: 100 dead, 90 wounded and 2000 prisoners, in addition to 21 cannons. The nationals had 300 fatal casualties.In the middle of the night, Miter commanded an orderly retreat to San Nicolás, where he arrived the following noon with only 2,000 men. Then he embarked all his army, and -after a brief battle- he managed to transfer it to Buenos Aires.

The Pact of San José de Flores

Urquiza oil.

Urquiza quickly advanced on the city; On his way he sent to the city several pacifist proclamations, such as the one that said:

"I come to snatch power from a circle that exercises it in its profit to return it to the people, which will use it for its prosperity. At the end of my political career, my only ambition is to contemplate from the quiet, one and happy home, the Argentine Republic, which cost me long years of crude fatigue... I come to offer you a lasting peace under the banner of our elders, under a common, protective and beautiful law. "

Urquiza

Although he could have entered Buenos Aires by force, he preferred to camp near it –in the town of San José de Flores– from where he began negotiations. During all the negotiations, Urquiza maintained the threat of an immediate assault on the city, with which on November 8 he obtained the resignation of Valentín Alsina.

As a result of complicated negotiations – during which Francisco Solano López, son of the Paraguayan president, officiated as mediator – on November 11, the Pact of San José de Flores, also called the National Union, was signed between Urquiza and the provisional governor Felipe Llavallol. It established that Buenos Aires declared itself an integral part of the Confederation and renounced the management of its foreign relations, but it would revise the Constitution of 1853 through a provincial convention and would propose reforms to it. The Customs of Buenos Aires was declared nationalized, but the Nation would compensate the income of the province of Buenos Aires for five years, to the extent that they were lower than those of the year 1859. A clause that was not incorporated into the Pact but that was agreed word of mouth between the parties established that the reincorporation of the province into the Nation would be done after the end of Urquiza's presidential term.

Many federals from the interior disagreed with the Pact: from their point of view, Urquiza had arrived in San José de Flores as the winner, and had negotiated as if he had been the loser; Instead of punishing the province for his rebellion, he had rewarded it. One of the critics was General Ricardo López Jordán, one of the victorious chiefs in Cepeda.

Cabinet of Ministers

Ministries of the Government of Just José de Urquiza
Portfolio	Owner	Period
Ministry of the Interior	Benjamin Gorostiaga Santiago Derqui Luis José de la Peña (interino).	5 March 1854 – 11 October 1854 27 October 1854 – 12 February 1860 12 February 1860 - 5 March 1860
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship	Juan María Gutiérrez Bernabé López (internal) Luis José de la Peña	5 March 1854 – 1 August 1856 1 August 1856 - 30 September 1858 30 September 1858 - 5 March 1860
Ministry of War and Marina	Rudecindo Alvarado José Miguel Galán	5 March 1854 – 7 November 1854 7 November 1854 - 5 March 1860
Ministry of Finance	Mariano Fragueiro Juan del Campillo Augustine de la Vega Elijah Bedoya Pedro Lucas Funes (internal).	5 March 1854 – 27 October 1854 27 October 1854 - 3 March 1856 23 May 1856 – 16 April 1857 16 April 1857 - 18 December 1859 18 December 1859 - 5 March 1860
Ministry of Justice and Public Instruction	Santiago Derqui Facundo Zuviría Juan del Campillo Pedro Lucas Funes	5 March 1854 - 27 October 1854 27 October 1854 - July 1855 23 May 1856 - 30 September 1858 30 September 1858 - 5 March 1860

Last years

Derqui Government

Bust of Urquiza, of the sculptor Erminio Blotta, in the city of Rosario.

In May 1860, Urquiza handed over the national government to his successor, Santiago Derqui.

Shortly after, the federalization of the province of Entre Ríos was annulled, leaving the city of Paraná outside of it. And a new provincial constitution declared Concepción del Uruguay the capital of the province. As expected, the governor-elect was Urquiza, barely 50 days after leaving the presidency.

During Derqui's presidency, the Confederation agreed with the State of Buenos Aires on the Complementary Agreement of June 6, 1860 and the constitutional reform of 1860 was carried out; a provincial convention proposed a series of reforms, which were accepted in their great majority without debate by the National Convention gathered for the purpose. Among the reforms introduced are the official validation of three official names for the country: United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, Argentine Republic and Argentine Confederation (art. 35); the provision that declared Buenos Aires as the capital of the Nation was eliminated, since it would be established by a law of Congress; the powers of the National State were reduced and the degree of autonomy of the provinces increased; it was established that the provinces also reserved the faculties that they had reserved at the time of their incorporation. the obligation of the provinces to guarantee free education was suppressed (art. 5) it was prohibited to establish fiscal differences between customs and grant preferences to ports determined. He continued his policy of promoting education and colonization, but continually meddled in the Derqui government. To get rid of his guardianship, he leaned on Mitre, but that only served to weaken his rule.

A series of conflicts with Buenos Aires, including new problems in San Juan and the rejection of the deputies for Buenos Aires for a legal issue, led Miter to disregard the Pact of San José.

Peacock

Then Derqui prepared for a new war against the rebellious province. He gathered an important army in Córdoba and joined Urquiza's forces. He was placed in command of the army.

But Urquiza didn't want to fight; he tried by all means to reach an agreement with Mitre. He felt betrayed by the president given his attempt to replace him with Juan Saá, and decided that he was not going to win to let him win. He told his friend Molinas that

"He was betrayed by the president, who was more likely to be defeated than to succeed and fall into the hands of traitorous enemies; that he sought to celebrate peace in all trances, because Buenos Aires came to union, things would change. "

Mitre refused any deal and invaded the province of Santa Fe. The armies faced each other in the battle of Pavón, on September 17, 1861. Although the outcome of the battle seemed to be in favor of In favor of Urquiza, he withdrew, leaving the victory in the hands of Mitre. His cavalry had destroyed the porteña, and if Miter's infantry was able to displace Urquiza's, it was only because he did not use it fully; he didn't even move his reserve.

Without heeding the requests of the president or his own cavalry commanders, including López Jordán, Urquiza returned to Entre Ríos. Mitre, who had withdrawn defeated to San Nicolás, took several weeks to understand that he had been victorious by abandonment. He invaded Santa Fe, massacred the federal reserve at Cañada de Gómez and sent an army to occupy Córdoba and another to Cuyo.

Weakened politically and economically, Derqui went into exile in Montevideo. Urquiza considered the national government expired, in which he was imitated by the other governors. Vice President Juan Esteban Pedernera resigned in December, and declared the government dissolved.

Mitre assumed the same national government that he had denounced as despotic when Urquiza exercised it in 1852, replaced all the federal governments of the provinces -with the exception of Entre Ríos- and months later he had himself elected president of the Nation.

After Pavón

Street nomenclature in La Plata.

Urquiza maintained the autonomy of the government of his province and retained the position of governor. There was no explicit agreement, but there was a tacit agreement with Mitre, by which he never threatened Urquiza. In return, Urquiza remained neutral during all the federal rebellions of that decade. In La Rioja, General Ángel Vicente Peñaloza maintained a long rebellion until he was assassinated in 1863. Four years later, Felipe Varela and Juan Saá led another rebellion in Cuyo and La Rioja, but this one was crushed. These and other federal revolutions were carried out in the name of Urquiza, and their leaders repeatedly asked for help and orders from the natural head of the Federal Party, which was Urquiza; but Urquiza did not move.

He governed a kind of patriarchal autocracy in his province, and his government was not as progressive as the previous ones. His province benefited from Mitre's free trade policy, although the incipient industries had to close. But, in return, the cattle ranch flourished more than ever. The province lived mainly from livestock... and Urquiza was a farmer.

He reinforced his almost feudal system: no one could sell fields or property without first notifying Urquiza, who had the right of priority. In this way he was able to safely increase his already enormous fortune.

In the 1864 elections, he promoted the candidacy of José María Domínguez against that of General López Jordán, who remained loyal to him, but could claim to act autonomously. Ortiz, on the other hand, ruled as a dependent of the caudillo.

When the "Little War" In Uruguay, started in 1863 by the invasion of General Venancio Flores, Urquiza also remained neutral. Most of the federales from Entre Ríos tried to help the Uruguayan government, but Urquiza maintained his alliance with President Mitre, who openly supported Flores. When the city of Paysandú was attacked by the Brazilian fleet and the forces of Flores, until it was destroyed, many federals from Entre Ríos and Buenos Aires – including Rafael and José Hernández – fought in favor of the defenders. The bombardment could be seen from Concepción del Uruguay, and could be heard from the San José Palace; Urquiza received hundreds of letters inviting him to take action, but Urquiza did not budge.

The Paraguayan War

Don Justo José de Urquiza (L'illustration journal universelVol. XLVL, No. 1.186).

The fall of the Uruguayan government led to the Paraguayan War. Miter called on all the provinces to mobilize against the government of Francisco Solano López, and Urquiza repeated the call to the people of Entre Ríos. The Entre Ríos federals were outraged; They wrote against the war and in favor of the Paraguayan government. López Jordán wrote to Urquiza:

"You call us to fight Paraguay. Never, General, that town is our friend. Call us to fight for porters and Brazilians. We're early. These are our enemies. "

But Urquiza was making a big profit out of the war: the first thing he did was round up most of the horses in the province and sell them to Brazil.

Shortly after, he ordered the mobilization of all the provincial forces in the Calá camp. Curiously, in an unusually racist gesture, he ordered the mobilization of all “brown and brown” people between the ages of 20 and 30. 8,000 volunteers turned up, most of them convinced that they were going to join the Paraguayans against the Brazilians. They were assembled in five columns and began to march north; but upon reaching the town of Basualdo, they found out which side they were going to fight for: they simply went home.

San José Palace.

Shortly after, by means of threats, he managed to reunite his people, but when they arrived at the Toledo camp, they again deserted en masse. This time, Urquiza had several shot, but even so he did not manage to gather a third contingent. He then sent the 800 line infantrymen from his province and forcibly shipped them to the front.

Urquiza's prestige was falling rapidly. The government shut down opposition newspapers and arrested their editors.

In 1868 he ran for the presidential election as a candidate for the federal party, but lost by an overwhelming difference against the candidate of a unitary party: Sarmiento. Instead, he managed to get himself elected governor of his province again, and in May of that year he once again assumed the provincial government.

In 1870 the Paraguayan War ended; To celebrate it, Urquiza received President Sarmiento, the most terrible enemy of the federals, in his San José Palace, with a great display of parades and toasts. It was the visible sanction of the caudillo's tacit agreement with the Unitarians, and the federales took it as an insult.

The Murder

Mortuary mask of Justo José de Urquiza, taken two days after his death. In it you can appreciate the shot on your left side.

Dolores Costa handkerchief, Urquiza's wife, where you can see the blood of the warlord.

The opposition decided not to wait any longer for a pronouncement in their favor from Urquiza, and decided to overthrow him.

General López Jordán quickly organized the revolution; The first objective was to seize the person of the governor, to force him to resign or expel him from the country. He sent in search of him Colonel Simón Luengo, a Cordovan officer who had fought against the porteños in the interior of the country.

A fictionalized version of history relates: On the evening of April 11, 1870 a party of 50 armed men, under the command of Colonel Robustiano Vera, made a noisy invasion of San José. They came to arrest the governor and caudillo shouting: "Down with the tyrant Urquiza! Long live General López Jordán!" A group of five under the orders of Colonel Simón Luengo, a Cordovan and protégé of the general, headed for the private quarters of the owner of the house. The group is made up of Nicomedes Coronel, foreman of one of the Urquiza ranches, of eastern origin, the one-eyed Álvarez, from Cordoba, the brown Luna, from the east, and Captain José María Mosqueira, from Entre Ríos, born in Gualeguaychú. The general surprised by the noise and, understanding that it is an assault, shouts: "They are murderers! And he runs to get a weapon. The raiders are coming. You don't kill a man like that in his house, scoundrels!& # 34; He snaps at them, firing a shot that hits Luna in the shoulder. "Álvarez, then -explains Colonel Carlos Anderson, Urquiza's assistant and head of the Palace Guard, an eyewitness to the events- he shot him with a revolver, and hit him next to the mouth: it was a mortal wound, without return. The general fell into the doorway and in that position Nicomedes Coronel stabbed him twice and Luengo from Córdoba, the only one who came from the military and hit him when Mrs. Dolores and Lola, the daughter, were already taking the body and They took him into a room, in which they locked themselves in with him, going to lay him down in the front corner, where the blood stains on the tiles have been preserved until now".

That same day his sons Justo Carmelo and Waldino were also assassinated in Concordia; both were close friends of López Jordán, which seems to prove that the assassins did not act on López Jordán's orders. Before Urquiza's murder, Sarmiento had been more or less friendly, but he found his presence uncomfortable and when he found out that he had been murdered for political reasons, without finding out the details of the case, he blamed López Jordán for the murder that history officer would repeat over and over again.

However, Juan Bautista Alberdi, in his work “Escritos Póstumos” suggests that Sarmiento may well have been the one who ordered Urquiza's death.

End of Entre Ríos federalism

Three days later, López Jordán was elected governor by the Legislature. In his inauguration speech he supported the revolution, only mentioning in passing that

"...I deplored that... they had found no other way than the illustrious victim that was immolated. "

Most of the feds supported the revolution, and even José Hernández went so far as to speak of "…his death, a thousand times deserved."

López Jordán was later accused of having wanted to lead a rebellion against the national government. A year later the province was subjugated by force: the federals, both Jordanists and Urquizistas, were outlawed, and the guarantees that Miter had tacitly agreed with Urquiza disappeared. The province was occupied militarily and lost the importance it had had.

The assassination of Urquiza had popular support among the people of Entre Ríos. This was due to the attitudes assumed by Urquiza: the withdrawal from the battle of Pavón, his neutrality in the face of the bombardment of Paysandú, his participation in the war against Paraguay, the maneuvers to avoid the election of López Jordán and the delivery of the collection of taxes in the hands of an individual.

Tributes

Plaqueta sobre el general Justo José de Urquiza en la calle Urquiza corner Corrientes en la ciudad de Rosario. In it he says: "Vencedor in Caseros - founder of the constitutional regime - decreed the freedom of the rivers - promoted the progress of this city".

In life, Urquiza was awarded by Brazil with the Imperial Order of Christ (in 1851) and the Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of the Southern Cross (in 1856).

San José, stay in Urquiza.

Her remains rest in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, in Concepción del Uruguay, province of Entre Ríos, Argentine Republic. The small towns in the area bear names such as: 1.º de Mayo (1851), Pronunciamiento (05/01/1851), Caseros (because of the Battle), San Justo, San Cipriano (name of his brother and one of his children).

Several towns in Argentina bear the name of their first constitutional president: Villa Urquiza, in the province of Entre Ríos; General Urquiza, in the province of Misiones; Juan Anchorena, Urquiza Station, in the province of Buenos Aires; the neighborhood of Villa Urquiza, in the City of Buenos Aires. Also the General Urquiza Railway, several railway stations, and the General Justo José de Urquiza Airport, in the city of Paraná.

Plaque on Justo José de Urquiza located on the street of the same name in the city of Paraná. It is located in front of Plaza 1.o de Mayo, meters from the local municipality.

A large number of towns in the country bear his name in streets and squares. In many of them there are monuments and busts with the image of the general. The Urquiza park in Rosario and the Urquiza park in Paraná are some examples. In addition, in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, there is the secondary school "Justo José de Urquiza" with his name in commemoration of him.

Ancestors