A History On Argentina's "Golden Age"

With the country fully united, Argentina's golden age (1880-1914) for modern development began. Although Argentina broke away from colonial rule in early 19th century, it suffered from the long-term domestically tangled fight and dissension afterwards, which seriously restrained Argentina's progress of development. In the preliminary stage of independence, under the influence of liberalism, Argentina advocated free business with European countries so as to develop foreign trade and domestic economy, and to lift the whole nation from the state of poverty through attracting foreign capital and immigrants. Besides, in the second half of 19th century, some powerful capitalist countries in America and Europe were being converted to imperialist countries with a big demand on international market. This created the external conditions for Argentina to realize fast development. At the turn of the century, the export of agricultural products and livestock products to European market, which made Argentina the"Global warehouse for grain and meat", became the backbone for the great development of Argentina's economy. During this period, driven by the export of primary products, Argentina became a country with the most highly developed railways in Latin America; and the application of capitalist mode of production speeded up the breakup of the feudal manors. With the development of the capitalist free economy domestically and commodity economy in both rural and urban areas, Argentina rapidly walked on the track for modernized construction and became one of the developing countries which earlier started standardization. It laid the solid foundation for the establishment of a modernized nation with strong power in Latin America. This thesis analyzes Argentina's domestic situation and international environment between late 19th century and early 20th century, and systematically discusses the success or failure and gain or loss of Argentina's social and economic development during the period of Great Development.