The Railroad and Argentine National Development, 1852–1914

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Abstract
Juan Bautista Alberdi belonged to a generation of Argentines fervently dedicated to the ideal of lifting the Río de la Plata out of the internal chaos which had delayed national consolidation and economic growth since the time of independence. In his Bases y puntos de partida para la organización política de la república argentina, published in 1852, Alberdi asserted that only the railroad could effect the long awaited unification of the Argentine people. He stated: “Without the railroad political unity cannot be had in a country where distance makes central political power impossible.” “Political unity,” Alberdi added, “can only be begun through territorial unity, and only the railroad can make places separated by five hundred leagues a unified country.”

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