lly all semblance of cohesion. So broad
were their notions of liberty that the several provinces maintained a
substantial independence of one another, while within each province the
caudillos, or partisan chieftains, fought among themselves.

Buenos Aires alone managed to preserve a measure of stability. This
comparative peace was due to the financial and commercial measures
devised by Bernardino Rivadavia, one of the most capable statesmen of
the time, and to the energetic manner in which disorder was suppressed
by Juan Manuel de Rosas, commander of the gaucho, or cowboy, militia.
Thanks also to the former leader, the provinces were induced in 1826 to
join in framing a constitution of a unitary character, which vested in
the administration at Buenos Aires the power of appointing the local
governors and of controlling foreign affairs. The name of the
country was at the same time changed to that of the "Argentine
Confederation"(c)-a Latin rendering of "La Plata."

No sooner had Rivadavia assumed the presidency under the new order of
things than dissension at home and warfare abroad threatened to destroy
all that he had accomplished. Ignoring the terms of the constitution,
the provinces had already begun to reject the supremacy of Buenos
Aires, when the outbreak of a struggle with Brazil forced the contending
parties for a while to unite in the face of the common enemy. As
before, the object of international dispute was the region of the Banda
Oriental. The rule of Brazil had not been oppressive, but the people
of its Cisplatine Province, attached by language and sympathy to their
western neighbors, longed nevertheless to be free of foreign control. In
April, 1825, a band of thirty-three refugees arrived from Buenos Aires
and started a revolution which spread throughout the country. Organizing
a provisional government, the insurgents proclaimed independence of
Brazil and incorporation with the United Provinces of La Plata. As soon
as the authorities at Buenos Aires had approved this action, war was
inevitable. Though the Brazilians were decisively beaten at the Battle
of Ituzaingo, on February 20, 1827, the struggle lasted until August 28,
1828, when mediation by Great Britain led to the conclusion of a treaty
at Rio de Janeiro, by which both Brazil and the Argentine Confederation
recognized the absolute independence of the disputed province as the
republic of Uruguay.

Instead of quieting the discord that prevailed amo