Las raíces del árbol de la libertad. El legado ilustrado en la fundación de pueblos en la pampa bonaerense durante el siglo XIX

• Main Author: Fernando Aliata
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Centre de Recherches sur les Mondes Américains 2010-03-01
• Series: Nuevo mundo - Mundos Nuevos
• Subjects: Argentina; Enlightenment; grid; peoples; Urban history
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/nuevomundo/59222

This article wants to show the influence exercised by the experiences impelled by the Bourbon reformism in the territorial organization of the Rio de la Plata. We begin by asking how does the transculturation of new ideas of field reorganization in the American space takes place taking into account the different realities and analyzing, in particular, the implementation of these ideas in the Pampas region on the eve of entering into the world market as a privileged area in the provision of raw materials. We assume, as has been developed in other works, that the ideas of the Bourbon Enlightenment combined to the Leyes de Indias tradition and the actions of Napoleon´s engineers defined, in part, the spatial transformation of the territory during the 19th century based on three premises: the consolidation of existing settlements, the founding of new settlements and the development of the ejido settlements. In order to examine in depth the complex genesis of these strategies, the ideas of Coronel Pedro Andrés García are taken as a base. The writings of this Spanish Militar, who served as a specialist in the problems related to the campaign during the last decades of the 18th century and the first of the 19th century, are an important source for understanding this phenomenon. The reach of his preach and his influence in defining the technical equipment used in the realization of the new spatial organization will be determined from these documents.