Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Notes on the History of Argentine Independence: A Paper Read by Mr. C. W. Whittemore, February 6th, 1920, Before the American Club, Buenos Aires
A noteworthy feature, the only one in all Spanish America, of the primary Argentine colonization was that it absorbed the Indian population. In Peru as in Mexico and elsewhere, the conquerors implanted a feudalism which had as its principal basis the distribution of the natives as laborers among the mine and ranch owners. The Indian races crossed with the Spaniards but were not assimilated. In the Argentine, on the contrary, the Indians were assimilated, there was a minimum of op pression, a limitation to human exploitation, a rudimentary recognition of equality, with the result that at an early day the native sons were the backbone of the settlements, assumed positions of authority, lead exploring exped itions and founded other colonies. Seeds of eventual freedom were planted from the very beginning.
Spain settled America for the benefit of Spain, the welfare of the colonies was never considered, and one of the fundamental manifestations of this erroneous policy was the creation of arbitrary trade routes in oppositionto natural laws. Buenos Aires waslocated at the junction of a system of rivers and was readily accessible from Transatlantic ports, yet all legitimate commerce had to come via Panama and Peru, pay heavy sea and land freight charges, multiplied internal customs dues and much unnecessary handling, to the extent that by the time merchandise reached Bue nos Aires, its cost had been increased 500 to 600 percent. Contraband flourished, ably and actively assisted by the British and Portuguese from the headquarters at Colonia, just across the river. The trade-route policy of Spain provoked in the Argentine a spirit of steadily growing hostility which smouldered for many years before the outbreak came.
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