San José de Flores, Pact of

The Pact of San José de Flores was a peace agreement signed on November 11, 1859, between the Argentine Confederation and the state of Buenos Aires. After Buenos Aires seceded from the rest of the Confederation, in 1852, relations between the two governments worsened and preparations were made for armed conflict. In October 1859 the Buenos Aires forces under General Bartolomé Mitre were defeated on the fields of Cepeda by those commanded by Justo José de Urquiza. In the peace agreement, Buenos Aires agreed to join the Confederation after a revision of the National Constitution of 1853. The revision was entrusted to a Provincial Convention. If this convention were to propose reforms, the national government was to send them to Congress, which would also form a convention—with Buenos Aires represented in proportion to its inhabitants—to study the reforms. The Buenos Aires customs—one of the most controversial issues—was to come under national control while the government of the Confederation guaranteed the province of Buenos Aires its revenues for the five years following its reunion with the Confederation. Although this pact sought to end the secession of Buenos Aires, national unification did not come until two years later.

See alsoArgentine Confederation; Mitre, Bartolomé; Urquiza, Justo José de.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gorostegui de Torres, Haydée. La organización nacional. Colección Historia Argentina, 4. Buenos Aires: Paidós, 2000.

Oszlak, Oscar. La formación del Estado argentino: Orden, progreso y organización Nacional. Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1997.

                                      Marcela Ternavasio