Ecology, Technology, and Rural Rebellion in the Pampas Grasslands of Argentina, 1890–1929

In this paper, I examine rural rebellions in the Pampas grasslands in Argentina by analysing the ecology, environment, and state policies where the rebellions and counter rebellions took place.  Thus far in my research, I find that most rural rebellions in Argentina had long histories of political and economic tensions, but it was an environmental factor such as drought or a bad harvest that ultimately sparked mass uprisings.  Such was the case with the two rebellions of 1893 and 1912.  After 1914, the State fought a two-front battle with urban and rural workers; such interactions were becoming increasingly violent, culminating in the bloody repression of urban workers during the "Tragic Week" in 1919.  To maintain control and order in the countryside, by the mid-1920s, the government sent agents to the countryside to learn about the pattern of uprisings after agro-environmental crisis.  As a result, the State introduced ways to counter rebellion.  By the mid-1920s, for instance, they introduced new agricultural machinery, promoted local production of agricultural technologies, hired and trained agronomists, professionalized the collection of agricultural statistics, and gave away seeds and other farm implements to farmers to help them grow commercial crops for export.  Although this was short-lived (after 1930 democracy ended), it did temporarily accomplish the State’s ulterior motive:  maintain order in the countryside, and perhaps even to entice former farmers living in the cities to return to the countryside.