The Argentine Confederation, consisting of thirteen provinces in the interior, and the State of Buenos Aires, formed by the Province of Buenos Aires had divided what today is Argentina since the 1852 Battle of Caseros removed the paramount Governor of Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel de Rosas (who had wielded the sum of public power since 1835, thereby keeping the nation tenuously united). The division was caused by the refusal of Buenos Aires to endorse the San Nicolás Agreement of 1853 or to recognize the Constitution of Argentina, promulgated that year.