Zeballos, Estanislao (1854–1923)

Estanislao Zeballos (b. 22 July 1854; d. 4 October 1923), Argentine statesman and intellectual. As minister of foreign affairs under presidents Miguel Juárez Celman (1888–1890), Carlos Pellegrini (1891–1892), and José Figueroa Alcorta (1906–1908), and minister to the U.S. government between 1893 and 1896, Zeballos played a key role in determining Argentine foreign policy during the liberal-conservative era.

Zeballos began his political career as a provincial deputy in Buenos Aires in 1879; he was elected in 1880 and again in 1884 to the National Congress. During his periods as minister of foreign affairs, Zeballos continued the line adopted by the Argentine delegation to the 1889 Pan-American Conference in Washington, D.C.: a rejection of any hemispheric economic agreement that could jeopardize Argentine connections with European markets. Also of great consequence for Latin American international relations at the turn of the century was Zeballos's personal feud with José Maria da Silva Paranhos, Barão de Rio Branco, a Brazilian diplomat. After 1906, as President Figueroa Alcorta's foreign minister, Zeballos embarked upon an arms race with Brazil which—although Zeballos resigned in 1908—continued until 1914. In 1910, Zeballos became one of the delegates to the fourth Pan-American Conference in Buenos Aires. He was reelected to Congress for the 1912–1916 period and continued to influence public life through his writings on international relations. He wrote frequently for the press, mainly El Nacional, which he founded, and La Prensa. He also founded and directed a prestigious academic journal, Revista de Derecho, Historia y Letras. Professor of international law, he was appointed dean of the University of Buenos Aires Law School in 1910 and 1918. Zeballos was also a founder of the Sociedad Científica Argentina and president of the Sociedad Rural Argentina.

See alsoFigueroa Alcorta, José; Juárez Celman, Miguel; Pellegrini, Carlos.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

On Zeballos and Argentine foreign policy, see Thomas F. Mc Gann, Argentina, the United States, and the Inter-American System, 1880–1914 (1957); Harold F. Peterson, Argentina and the United States (1964); and Alberto Conil Paz, "Zeballos y Drago," and Gustavo Ferrari, "La Argentina y sus vecinos," both in La Argentina del ochenta al centenario, edited by G. Ferrari and E. Gallo (1980).

Additional Bibliography

Rodríguez, Fermín. Estanislao S. Zeballos: un desierto para la nación. Buenos Aires: Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 2000.

Shaw, Enrique E. Zeballos y la imaginación de Argentina, 1898–1906. Córdoba, Argentina: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Centro de Estudios Avanzados, 2003.

                              Eduardo A. Zimmermann