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Juan Manuel de Rosas

Juan Manuel de Rosas (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877) was Governor of Buenos Aires from 6 December 1829 to 5 December 1832 (succeeding Juan Jose Viamonte and preceding Juan Ramon Balcarce) and from 7 March 1835 to 3 February 1852 (succeeding Manuel Vicente Maza and preceding Vicente Lopez y Planes). Rosas was formerly a bluff gaucho (landowner) from Buenos Aires, but after the downfall of Facundo Quiroga's government in 1835, he seized power as dictator of the new Argentine Confederation and became the head of a cult of personality; all men wore red in his honor, and portraits of him were adorned in churches and public places. Eventually, Justo de Urquiza overthrew him at the Battle of Caseroes, and he fled in exile to the United Kingdom.

Biography[]

Rosas was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 30 March 1793 to a wealthy criollo family, and he fought for independence from Spain in the South American Wars of Liberation from 1810 to 1816. From 1816 to 1830 he fought the liberal Colorados and Unitarios in the Argentine Civil Wars, and in 1830 he became the Governor of Buenos Aires. By 1835, he had made himself the ruler of the collapsing United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata and had founded the Argentine Confederation, which allied with Pampas Indians to create a large Argentinian nation.

However, Argentina was thrown into turmoil because of the ongoing civil wars. All opposition was crushed through the Mazorca secret police that Rosas set up and he censored newspapers, and ruled Argentina as a military dictator after the death of Facundo Quiroga. In the 1840s he fought Bolivia and Uruguay with mixed success; eventually in 1845 Bolivia made serious gains and became his biggest enemy. However, his largest threat was also his downfall: in 1852, the Brazilian Empire, Uruguay, and his former friend and confidant Justo de Urquiza allied against him and defeated him in the Battle of Caseros. Overthrown by the coalition, he fled to Britain and lived the rest of his life in exile. He died at the age of 83 in Southampton.

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