page_title: Juan Bautista Alberdi
section_title: Diplomacy
hierarchical_section_title: Juan Bautista Alberdi / Biography / Diplomacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Bases y puntos de partida para la organización política de la República Argentina by Juan Bautista Alberdi. Edición de 1928.
context_page_description: Juan Bautista Alberdi was an Argentine political theorist and diplomat. Although he lived most of his life in exile in Montevideo, Uruguay and in Chile, he influenced the content of the Constitution of Argentina of 1853.
context_section_description: With Rosas deposed, Urquiza called the San Nicolás Agreement and convened a constituent assembly. Alberdi supported the project and wrote Bases y puntos de partida para la organización política de la República Argentina (Spanish: Bases and starting points for the political organization of the Argentine republic), a draft for the new constitution. It was published by the printing house of the El Mercurio newspaper. It is heavily influenced by the United States Constitution. Alberdi complemented this work with Elementos de derecho público provincial Argentino (Spanish: Elements of Argentine provincial civic law), a comparison between the Argentine Constitution of 1826 and the United States Constitution. He attributed most of the problems of Argentina to its low population density, as the country had a very small population for its huge size; he frequently described the countryside as a desert. His proposed solution was to promote an influx of European immigration. His most known quotation is "Gobernar es poblar" (Spanish: To govern is to populate). He proposed as well to improve the infrastructure in ports, roads and bridges, and introduce the recently invented telegraphy and rail transport in the country. He advocated as well for economic liberalism, rejecting the protectionism of Rosas' government.
  Urquiza, the new president of Argentina under the 1853 constitution, supported Alberdi's work, and appointed him ambassador of the Argentine Confederation in Chile. By that time, Buenos Aires seceded from the Confederation as the State of Buenos Aires. The writer Domingo Faustino Sarmiento opposed Urquiza, and extended his criticism to Alberdi. Sarmiento thought that Urquiza was just another caudillo similar to Rosas; and Alberdi thought that the State of Buenos Aires was keeping the policies of Rosas regarding the relations between Buenos Aires and the other provinces and the national organization. Alberdi's ideas on the issue were detailed in the Cartas Quillotanas, written from Quillota. Sarmiento wrote his answer in Las ciento y una. Urquiza proposed Alberdi to be the minister of finances, he declined the offer. Urquiza gave him another appointment: move to Europe and seek recognition for the 1816 Argentine Declaration of Independence and its constitution, and prevent recognition for the state of Buenos Aires as a different country. Alberdi visited the United States in his way to Europe, and had an interview with the American president Franklin Pierce. He visited London, meeting Queen Victoria, and finally settled in Paris. He would stay in this city for 24 years.
  Alberdi met the French emperor Napoleon III, who granted the French recognition to the Confederation. Alberdi convinced him as well to remove the French diplomat at the State of Buenos Aires, and send another to the Confederation instead. Alberdi began negotiations with the marquis Pedro José Pidal for the Spanish recognition of the Argentine independence in 1857. He proposed two treaties between both countries: in the first, Spain would decline further sovereignty claims over the Argentine territory, and the second opened the country to commerce. He proposed as well that the Confederation would take the international debt of the former Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, the predecessor State of Argentina under Spanish rule; excluding those belonging to Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay (who had also been part of the viceroyalty, but became different countries). The treaties were signed in 1857 and 1859, and ratified on February 26, 1860. The Spanish queen Isabella II confirmed the treaties. However, the governor of Buenos Aires Carlos Tejedor rejected Alberdi's negotiations.
  He also met Rosas, who was living in Southampton since he left power. The Argentine Confederation and the State of Buenos Aires were reunified in 1861, which ceased Alberdi's work as ambassador. He opposed the War of the Triple Alliance, and began a controversy about it with president Bartolomé Mitre. In this time he began to write El crimen de la guerra, a book that he did not finish and was p
caption: Alberdi's book Bases y puntos de partida para la organización política de la República Argentina (Spanish: Bases and starting points for the political organization of the Argentine republic) influenced the content of the Constitution of Argentina of 1853.
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