prising lasted but twenty days, the
diplomatic corps at the capital proffered its mediation between the
contestants, in order to avoid any further bloodshed. The result was
that the fractious Governor withdrew his candidacy and a radical change
was effected in the relations of Buenos Aires, city and province, to the
country at large. The city, together with its environs, was converted
into a federal district and became solely and distinctively the national
capital. Its public buildings, railways, and telegraph service, as well
as the provincial debt, were taken over by the general Government. The
seat of provincial authority was transferred to the village of Ensenada,
which thereupon was rechristened La Plata.

A veritable tide of wealth and general prosperity was now rolling over
Argentina. By 1885 its population had risen to upwards of 3,000,000.
Immigration increased to a point far beyond the wildest expectations.
In 1889 alone about 300,000 newcomers arrived and lent their aid in
the promotion of industry and commerce. Fields hitherto uncultivated or
given over to grazing now bore vast crops of wheat, maize, linseed, and
sugar. Large quantities of capital, chiefly from Great Britain, also
poured into the country. As a result, the price of land rose high,
and feverish speculation became the order of the day. Banks and other
institutions of credit were set up, colonizing schemes were devised, and
railways were laid out. To meet the demands of all these enterprises,
the Government borrowed immense sums from foreign capitalists and issued
vast quantities of paper money, with little regard for its ultimate
redemption. Argentina spent huge sums in prodigal fashion on all sorts
of public improvements in an effort to attract still more capital and
immigration, and thus entered upon a dangerous era of inflation.

Of the near neighbors of Argentina, Uruguay continued along the
tortuous path of alternate disturbance and progress, losing many of its
inhabitants to the greater states beyond, where they sought relative
peace and security; while Paraguay, on the other hand, enjoyed freedom
from civil strife, though weighed down with a war debt and untold
millions in indemnities exacted by Argentina and Brazil, which it could
never hope to pay. In consequence, this indebtedness was a useful club
to brandish over powerless Paraguay whenever that little country might
venture to question the right of either of its big neighbors to bre