Triple Alliance War: Williams, John Hoyt (2000). "A Swamp of Blood. The Battle of Tuyuti"

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Williams, John Hoyt (2000). "A Swamp of Blood. The Battle of Tuyuti". Military History 17 (1).

Argentina-Chile Naval Race: The ships of the Argentine Navy: 1862-75 (4/13)

The ships of the Argentine Navy: 1862-75

Parte 3

In the period 1859-62, the navies of the main powers began to incorporate armored ships, while naval artillery was progressively increased in caliber and power to be able to penetrate the wrought iron plates that protected the vital parts of these ships. At the outbreak of the Paraguayan War, the ARA only had 19 ships, few of which were steamships. The largest of these was the Guardia Nacional, a 520-ton side-wheel passenger ship. In fact, the ARA did not have purpose-built warships, but packages (correillos) and river vessels armed with a few antiquated cannons and totally devoid of any protection. The only units of any importance acquired in these years were side-wheel steamships, such as the Colonel Espora (552 tons.) and the Colonel Rosetti (772 tons.) These were joined in mid-1867 by General Brown, but these ships like other ships in the fleet, mere passenger ships armed with few cannons and without the slightest protection. (1)

In comparison, the Brazilian navy, which at that time was the largest in Latin America, had 45 warships, of which 35 were steam-powered, and had incorporated 14 armored ships of various designs, including several of the type Monitor. The ARA would not possess true warships until the 1870s, when the National Congress appropriated $2.6 million for a modest naval re-equipment program. The vessels provided under this program were the monitors Los Andes and El Plata, the corvette-gunboats Paraná and Uruguay, as well as four bombers, and a couple of warning ships. These ships, collectively called “La Escuadra de Sarmiento” arrived in the country during 1874-75 and were the first to be specifically designed to meet the conditions required by the ARA: that is, river vessels for service in the tributaries of the Río de la Plata at a time when a war against Brazil seemed imminent. When Sarmiento was Argentine minister in Washington, shortly after the civil war in that country ended, the man from San Juan followed with great interest the introduction of new military equipment and materials. His keen intellect was attracted to the use of “floating torpedoes”, as anti-ship mines were called in those days. These “floating torpedoes” had been used with excellent results by the Confederate States in their efforts to counteract the blockade of their port and coasts by Union ships. We should not be surprised by the fact that when Sarmiento assumed the presidency of the Republic Argentina, the ARA hired several former Confederate naval officers to lead the ARA Torpedo Division. This navy unit was established in the place where the Naval Museum of the Nation is today, on the Lujan River, in the Paraná Delta (2)

The Torpedo Division consisted of the ARA Fulminante, an explosives and torpedo depot ship, as well as several steam launches equipped with boom torpedoes. The Argentine naval strategy of those times gave capital importance to the possibility of a naval attack by Brazil. Monitors and shallow-draft river vessels could operate without difficulties in the rivers of the Plata Basin, while the channels leading to Buenos Aires would be protected by a network of “floating torpedoes” and the canyons of Martín García Island ( 3).

Pictures

1) Monitor ARA El Plata c. 1890-note the sailors on deck and a Gatling gun in artillery carriage, which as in the U.S. Navy and other navies of that time it was used to repel torpedo boats or as a support weapon for landing troops. Photo collection Georg v. Rauch


2) ARA Los Andes Monitor, 1905-note one of the two 120 mm Armstrong guns installed in the 1890s. Photo collection Georg v. Rauch. The ship seen in the background is an ARA lightship.


3) Monitors ARA Los Andes and ARA El Plata at the Río Santiago Naval Base c. 1900-1901. Photo collection Georg v. Rauch


3) ARA Uruguay-painting that shows it on its trip to the South Pole, 1903. Observe in photos no.1 and no.2 the excellent state of maintenance of these ships

Monitors: Los Andes, El Plata
Displacement: 1,677 tons
Length: 56.6 m
Beam: 13.4 m
Draft: 3.20 m
Artillery (original) 2 x 280 mm Armstrong mounted on the armored tower
2 x 47mm Armstrong on deck
4 x 37mm Hotchkiss
Armor: 160 mm belt
Main Tower: 255 mm
Machines: 2 x 750 Hp
Compound system, two propellers.
Coal: 120 tons
Maximum speed: 10 knots, service speed 9 knots

Gunboat corvettes Paraná, Uruguay
Displacement: 550 tons
Length: 46.3 m
Beam: 7.63 m
Draft: 3.20m
Armament (original)
4 x 177 Armstrong mounted on Vavasseur iron gun carriages.
Machines: 1 x 475 Compound that powered
A Bevis type propeller
Speed: (sail and steam) 11 knots

Bermejo, Constitución, Pilcomayo, Republic Bombardiers
Displacement: 416 tons
Length: 32.3 m
Beam: 9.19 m
Draft: 3.20 m
Armament: 1 x 280 mm Armstrong in center line, 2 x 80 mm Armstrong
Maximum speed: 9 knots. (4)


Notes 

1) Burzio, Armada Nacional.,pag.99-100, Rauch, op cit, pag.116-117 
2) Burzio Armada Nacional, pag.100, Rauch, op cit, pag.117-118 
3) Burzio, Humberto H, Historia del Torpedo y sus buques en la Armada Argentina (Departamento de Estudios Históricos Navales, Serie B, No. 12 (Buenos Aires, 1968) pag.19-24,80-89, Rauch , op cit, pag.120-129 
4) Las características de estos buques provienen en conjunto de Burzio, Armada Nacional, pg.100, y Arguindeguy, Apuntes Sobre los Buques, III: 1122-131, 1238-1245.

Malvinas: Argentine Nurses Dare to Help

The nurses who dared to travel to the Malvinas during the war

Six instrumentalists saved lives during the conflict with England; soldiers still write them letters of gratitude
By Natalia Pecoraro | LA NACION

They were in their twenties and were surgical instrumentalists at the Central Military Hospital. In June 1982 they voluntarily applied for a call to serve in the Malvinas. A day later they embarked heading south and worked on the ARA Almirante Irízar Icebreaker, which functioned as a hospital ship off Puerto Argentino.

Marta Lemme and Susana Maza remember those days with emotion and respect. 30 years after the war, they can relive every moment and tell their experiences in detail. They acknowledge that they were afraid and very anxious, but they do not regret it. "Our function was to serve the Homeland and that is what we did," they maintain.



Marta had started working at the Central Military Hospital (HMC) in 1980. Susana, four years before. On April 2, 1982, when the Argentine landed in the archipelago, they asked if they could sign up to go, but there were no precise instructions. Furthermore, the woman was not incorporated into the Armed Forces with a military rank: only at the end of that year were her first promotions received.

In June, at the request of the Puerto Argentino Hospital, the HMC management opened a call: the combat was leaving people seriously injured and they needed qualified personnel for surgeries. "They told us that if we wanted, we could participate. They required people who knew how to prepare the rooms, the material, the apparatus...At that time, since there were no military personnel, the instrument technicians were all women and were civilians. The nurses who had a degree military personnel were not instrumentalists," explains Susana.

The call bore fruit: five nurses from HMC and one from Campo de Mayo Military Hospital signed up. "It was a quick thing, they told us one noon and we left the next day," she says. Marta adds that the family members had little time to digest it. "Sometimes they ask me what my parents said, but they didn't have time to think," she says.

At five in the morning they gathered at the HMC guard, on Luis María Campos Avenue, in Palermo. From there, Aeroparque, Río Gallegos, helicopters, the Irízar. They equipped them with boots, jackets, and coats. And they set sail for Malvinas. They synthesize: "Deep emotion, anxiety, uncertainty."

There were 300 military men on the icebreaker converted into a hospital. "They received us very well, they were very attentive. First they were amazed that we were there," they describe.

"When we got to the ship, the first thing I wanted to do was call my family to say I was okay. Until I found a radio to do so, I didn't stay calm," says Marta.

The first moments on board were uncertain. "I was afraid, uneasy. Nobody knew anything and that made me feel bad. I started to question a lot of things. Had I done well? Will I be useful for something?" she recalls.

"Once they told me where and how we were going to work, I was calm," she adds.

The nurses worked on El Irízar, transformed into a hospital ship. Photo: Courtesy Susana Maza

When they arrived at Puerto Argentino, the combat did not let up. The Irízar was caught in the crossfire and the captain made a decision. Susana relates: "They told us that our presence would be more useful on the ship than on land. The cessation of hostilities was already foreseen: we were going to join the line of prisoners."

"We shouted to the sky. We had traveled to be in the Malvinas, we wanted to go down and we were there, right in front. But soon they began to evacuate the wounded and the pace of work became intense," they remember.

"We were in an operating room, after a while we went to therapy, to post-surgery. You went from one side to the other and in full action, accelerated, you don't think, you don't complain: you act," they summarize.

According to what they say, the hospital ship was well equipped: intensive and intermediate therapies, several operating rooms, radiotherapy, portable radiology, hyperbaric chamber, clinical laboratory and dental office.

"The soldiers were surprised to see women. After the surprise, they began to open up, to have more confidence, they saw in us a protective figure; the sister, the mother, the girlfriend," they remember.

The faces of some injured people and certain surgical interventions are not erased. Months and even years later, they didn't forget either. "They always thanked us, they have written us letters. One even invited me to his wedding," says Marta.

The return from Malvinas was hard: the day they were informed of the cessation of hostilities they cried. Marta remembers a soldier who prayed the rosary. "Those things excite me. There was a mass and I unloaded. I cried, I relaxed. I still get emotional," she says.

Susana talks about an officer who moved her. "He showed us a chest with the Argentine flag and told us that in case of attack or sinking, he was going to run there to get it out, so that it would not fall into enemy hands. It's not that I'm sentimental, but today I hear a national song and I I'm excited," he confesses.

The group of women returned from Malvinas on the third Sunday in June. The next day they showed up for work, but were given a week's leave. Today, they continue to work as scrub nurses at HMC.

Argentina-Chile Naval Race: Argentine Navy ORBAT in 1862-75 (3/13)

The ARA Ships: 1862-75

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4

In the period 1859-62, the navies of the main powers began to incorporate armored ships, while naval artillery was progressively increased in caliber and power to be able to penetrate the wrought iron plates that protected the vital parts of these ships. At the outbreak of the Paraguayan War, the ARA only had 19 ships, few of which were steamships. The largest of these was the Guardia Nacional, a 520-ton side-wheel passenger ship. In fact, the ARA did not have purpose-built warships, but packages (correillos) and river vessels armed with a few antiquated cannons and totally devoid of any protection. The only units of any importance acquired in these years were side-wheel steamships, such as the Colonel Espora (552 tons.) and the Colonel Rosetti (772 tons.) These were joined in mid-1867 by General Brown, but these ships like other ships in the fleet, mere passenger ships armed with few cannons and without the slightest protection. (1)

In comparison, the Brazilian navy, which at that time was the largest in Latin America, had 45 warships, of which 35 were steam-powered, and had incorporated 14 armored ships of various designs, including several of the type Monitor. The ARA would not possess true warships until the 1870s, when the National Congress appropriated $2.6 million for a modest naval re-equipment program. The vessels provided under this program were the monitors
the Andes and El Plata, the corvette-gunboats Paraná and Uruguay, as well as four bombers, and a couple of warning ships. These ships, collectively called “La Escuadra de Sarmiento” arrived in the country during 1874-75 and were the first to be specifically designed to meet the conditions required by the ARA: that is, river vessels for service in the tributaries of the Río de la Plata at a time when a war against Brazil seemed imminent. When Sarmiento was Argentine minister in Washington, shortly after the civil war in that country ended, the man from San Juan followed with great interest the introduction of new military equipment and materials. His keen intellect was attracted to the use of “floating torpedoes”, as anti-ship mines were called in those days. These “floating torpedoes” had been used with excellent results by the Confederate States in their efforts to counteract the blockade of their port and coasts by Union ships. We should not be surprised by the fact that when Sarmiento assumed the presidency of the Republic Argentina, the ARA hired several former Confederate naval officers to lead the ARA Torpedo Division. This navy unit was established in the place where the Naval Museum of the Nation is today, on the Lujan River, in the Paraná Delta (2)

The Torpedo Division consisted of the ARA Fulminante, an explosives and torpedo depot ship, as well as several steam launches equipped with boom torpedoes. The Argentine naval strategy of those times gave capital importance to the possibility of a naval attack by Brazil. Monitors and shallow-draft river vessels could operate without difficulties in the rivers of the Plata Basin, while the channels leading to Buenos Aires would be protected by a network of “floating torpedoes” and the canyons of Martín García Island ( 3).

Photographs

 

1) Monitor ARA El Plata c. 1890-note the sailors on deck and a Gatling gun in artillery carriage, which as in the U.S. Navy and other navies of that time it was used to repel torpedo boats or as a support weapon for landing troops. Photo collection Georg v. Rauch


2) ARA Los Andes Monitor, 1905-note one of the two 120 mm Armstrong guns installed in the 1890s. Photo collection Georg v. Rauch. The ship seen in the background is an ARA lightship.


3) Monitors ARA Los Andes and ARA El Plata at the Río Santiago Naval Base c. 1900-1901. Photo collection Georg v. Rauch

 
3) ARA Uruguay-painting that shows her on her trip to the South Pole, 1903
Observe in photos no.1 and no.2 the excellent state of maintenance of these ships

Monitor: Los Andes, El Plata
Displacement: 1,677 tons
Length: 56.6 m
Beam: 13.4 m
Draft: 3.20 m
Artillery (original) 2 x 280 mm Armstrong mounted on the armored tower
2 x 47mm Armstrong on deck
4 x 37mm Hotchkiss
Armor: 160 mm belt
Main Tower: 255 mm
Machines: 2 x 750 Hp
Compound system, two propellers.
Coal: 120 tons
Maximum speed: 10 knots, service speed 9 knots

Corvette Gunship Paraná, Uruguay
Displacement: 550 tons
Length: 46.3 m
Beam: 7.63 m
Draft: 3.20m
Armament (original)
4 x 177 Armstrong mounted on Vavasseur iron gun carriages.
Machines: 1 x 475 Compund that powered
A Bevis type propeller
Speed: (sail and steam) 11 knots

Bomber ships Bermejo, Constitución, Pilcomayo, República 
Displacement: 416 tons
Length: 32.3 m
Beam: 9.19 m
Draft: 3.20 m
Armament: 1 x 280 mm Armstrong in center line, 2 x 80 mm Armstrong
Maximum speed: 9 knots. (4)

Notes 

1) Burzio, Armada Nacional.,pag.99-100, Rauch, op cit, pag.116-117 
2) Burzio Armada Nacional, pag.100, Rauch, op cit, pag.117-118 
3) Burzio, Humberto H, Historia del Torpedo y sus buques en la Armada Argentina (Departamento de Estudios Históricos Navales, Serie B, No. 12 (Buenos Aires, 1968) pag.19-24,80-89, Rauch , op cit, pag.120-129 
4) Las características de estos buques provienen en conjunto de Burzio, Armada Nacional, pg.100, y Arguindeguy, Apuntes Sobre los Buques, III: 1122-131, 1238-1245.

The 1905 Radical Revolution

1905 Radical Revolution

On February 4, 1905, the civil-military revolution organized by the Radical Civic Union and led by Hipólito Yrigoyen took place, which attempted to overthrow the constitutional government of Manuel Quintana, demanding free and democratic elections. It was one of the most important rebellions that Argentina suffered up to that time, due to the number of soldiers involved, the forces linked and the extension of the movement throughout the country.



Towards the end of 1893, the Radical Civic Union was facing its first internal dispute and was divided into two groups: the red radicals who supported Leandro Alem's leadership of the party, and the lyrical radicals who supported Hipólito Yrigoyen's interpretation of the seizure of power and his leadership in radicalism.



The Reds were in favor of revolution as a method to change the prevailing system while the Lyrics were considered "evolutionists" and did not trust in carrying out a coup d'état as a method for the changes they considered necessary..




Alem was supported within the party by leaders such as Bernardo de Irigoyen, Francisco Barroetaveña, Leopoldo Melo, Mariano Demaría, Lisandro de la Torre, Vicente Gallo, Simón S. Pérez, Joaquín Castellanos, Adolfo Saldías, José Nicolás Matienzo, Martín Torino, Mariano Candioti , Adolfo Mugica, Víctor M. Molina, among others. Yrigoyen is supported by some young people such as Marcelo T. de Alvear and the majority of radical leaders in the province of Buenos Aires, whose provincial committee was led by Yrigoyen himself.





In 1896, Aristóbulo Del Valle died and Leandro Alem, plunged into a deep depression affected by successive political defeats, a failed love relationship and the deep internal division of radicalism, committed suicide. At that time the two radical groups tried to unify again in the face of the death of the two top leaders of the party. But the union did not last long and in 1897 the separation occurred again.




The former Reds, now led by Bernardo de Irigoyen and called radical coalitionists or Bernardists, after Alem's suicide, try to reach an agreement with General Bartolomé Miter and the National Civic Union to confront the Roquismo in the presidential and Buenos Aires elections of 1898. The agreement included the formation of a mixed formula for the presidency of the Nation, headed by the radical Bernardo de Irigoyen, and the same, but headed by the engineer Emilio Mitre, leader of the UCN, for the governorship of the province of Buenos Aires.




This agreement was known as the "parallel policy" and laid the seed for a future reunification of the Civic Union, as confirmed in 1890 before the division that occurred the following year between radicals and mitristas, but Yrigoyen and his allies (now known as intransigents or hypolists) refused to accept it and did everything possible to boycott it from their stronghold of the radical committee of the province of Buenos Aires.



In the end the agreement between radicals and Mitristas fell definitively due to Yrigoyen's action of dissolving the Committee of the Radical Civic Union of the province of Buenos Aires, which ended any possibility that the radicalism of the province would accept a Mitrista candidate for the governorship of the province. The fall of the parallel politics paved the way for the second presidency of General Julio Argentino Roca.



Even so, in the province of Buenos Aires, the national autonomists of Pellegrini, the radical coalitionists and the intransigents of Hipólito Yrigoyen managed to negotiate in the Electoral College and managed to establish Bernardo de Irigoyen, leader of the radical coalitionists, as governor of the province together with the intransigent radical Alfredo Demarchi as vice-governor, to snatch the province from the National Civic Union, who had won in the popular vote.




A lo largo de los siguientes años el radicalismo ingresaría en un tumultuoso periodo en el que todas las estructuras partidarias colapsaron y la interna entre coalicionistas e intransigentes nunca se saldo. Durante la gobernación de Bernardo de Irigoyen, los hipolistas fueron sus principales opositores, por lo tanto el gobierno provincial sobrevivió gracias al apoyo de los pellegrinistas y del gobierno nacional de Roca.



By the year 1900, the Bernardista sector of radicalism, which grouped together some of the men who had been closest to Alem, joined the Autonomist Party of the province of Buenos Aires, led by Carlos Pellegrini. The fusion between the Autonomist Party and the Bernardist sector of radicalism eventually resulted in the formation of the United Parties, which brought Marcelino Ugarte to the governorship of Buenos Aires in 1902, with the former radical Adolfo Saldías as its vice-governor.




Towards the first years of the 20th century, the Radical Civic Union had officially ceased to exist. But the survival of radicalism as a political force until the present day was largely the work of Hipólito Yrigoyen and the political circle that accompanied him since the internal party of 1893. At the beginning of 1903, Yrigoyen began to reorganize the Unión Cívica Radical (Radical Civic Union), inviting a political event for July 26 of that year, on the thirteenth anniversary of the Revolución del Parque (Park Revolution).



The event received a great response from the public and was attended by approximately 50,000 people. Yrigoyen was also successful in attracting important figures who had been part of the ranks of radicalism and who at that time were part of other political parties, such as the case of Pedro C. Molina from Córdoba, who was part of the Republican Party, led by Emilio Mitre.




In October 1903, the so-called "Convention of Notables" met in Buenos Aires, made up of more than 300 political leaders from all over the country, whose objective was to elect the presidential candidate who was to replace Julio Argentino Roca in office in 1904.



The Convention of Notables took place in the midst of the strong dispute between Roca and Carlos Pellegrini, which had been taking place since the breakdown of relations between the two in 1901 after a disagreement over a project to unify the external debt, which divided the Autonomist Party. National in two sectors: rockers and pellegrinistas.




Before the convention, Pellegrini was emerging as the main candidate for the presidency of the Nation but during its development, Roca managed to block Pellegrini's candidacy. For this reason, Pellegrini publicly accused Roca of destroying the National Autonomist Party. The rupture between the two, which was hinted at during Roca's second presidency, ended up materializing and Pellegrini founded the Autonomist Party. For this reason, Pellegrini and his supporters abandoned the convention, as did the political core led by Bernardo de Irigoyen.


Due to the break with Pellegrini and part of the interior leadership, Roca had to make an agreement with Marcelino Ugarte, governor of Buenos Aires, who imposed the name of Manuel Quintana as a presidential candidate to try to position himself as his successor. The winner of the Convention of Notables was Marcelino Ugarte who was able to impose Manuel Quintana, who was a man "stranger to the parties" and who had been a political rival of Roca in 1893/1894 when he served as strong man of the Luis Sáenz government Peña, as president and accepted José Figueroa Alcorta from Córdoba, a name promoted by the interior leaders associated with the ruling party, as vice president.




In February 1904, Yrigoyen organized a party convention, the first since the 1897 convention that debated parallel politics. However, almost no former Alemnista or Bernardista returned to the party ranks and the radicalism that was reorganized was made up almost exclusively of those men who were part of the old Buenos Aires radical group of Yrigoyen.

The reconstruction of the UCR carried out by Yrigoyen showed a series of distinctive features. To reunite the party, the Buenos Aires leader resorted to the sacred symbols of radicalism: the figure of Alem, the revolution of July 1890, the party conventions and the revolution. Yrigoyen knew how to use party symbols to give his organization an image of continuity with the original group..





Obviously it was not mentioned that during the 1890s Yrigoyen's political sector had behaved as an organization independent of the party branch, that its leader had maintained a tense relationship with Alem, that Yrigoyen's participation in the Parque revolution of 1890 had had been a minor, who was suspected of having refused to cooperate in the armed uprisings planned by Alem after 1893, and of having defied the authority of the last party convention in 1897.

While other sectors of the old radicalism had dispersed and merged into different political parties, Yrigoyen presented himself as the legitimate heir of the Radical Civic Union, loyal to its founding objectives and strategies. The new radical organization demonstrated against the omnipotence of the PAN, against its economic policy, against corruption, and against the absence of guarantees for clean elections.




The UCR partly resumed its old language and style, although it did so in a context markedly different from the previous one and with some of its own particularities. In the first decade of the 20th century, the PAN was in complete decline and completely divided, the economy returned to its high growth rates and new political parties, such as the Socialist and the Republican, experienced the direct benefits of electoral competition.




On February 29, 1904, the newly reorganized National Committee of the Radical Civic Union declared the party's electoral abstention in the presidential and legislative elections of 1904. But while they declared their electoral abstention for the 1904 elections, its leaders conspired. Hipólito Yrigoyen had toured the country convincing and engaging hundreds of radical militants and young Army officers, and had even formed a revolutionary junta that he led, supported by José Camilo Crotto, Delfor del Valle and Ramón Gómez.



The initial objective was for this revolutionary movement to break out on September 10, 1904, during the government of Julio Roca. But the revolution had to be postponed. The government was suspicious and had taken some preventive measures. Yrigoyen, the only one who knew the entire revolutionary plot, decided to wait for the right moment.




On October 12, 1904, Roca completed his presidential term and handed over the presidency to his successor, Manuel Quintana. For his part, Yrigoyen explained to his coreligionists that it was not a revolution against a person but against "the Regime", so it mattered little if it started earlier or later.



Finally, in the early morning of February 4, 1905, the civil-military revolutionary movement, which had been preparing since the beginning of 1904 by the leaders of the Radical Civic Union and allies within the Army, began in the Federal Capital, Bahía Blanca. , Mendoza, Córdoba, Rosario and Santa Fé.



In the Federal Capital, the key element of the plot was the seizure of the Arsenal, from where weapons would be distributed to groups of radical militants. However, an infidelity allowed the government to learn of the revolutionary plan. General Carlos Smith, chief of the General Staff, in collaboration with Colonel Rosendo Fraga, chief of police of the Federal Capital, anticipated and became strong in the Arsenal, preventing the uprising of the neighboring 1st and 10th infantry regiments. In this way he prevented groups of civilian revolutionaries from being provided with weapons. Without those weapons the plan was destined to fail. Although in the previous days the radical leader had warned of the possibility of failure, it was already too late to give the counter-order. However, what happened at the Arsenal was not enough to stop hundreds of radical militants who, throughout the early hours of the morning, attacked numerous police stations in the city.



The government of President Manuel Quintana, who knew of the revolutionary plans, reacted with quick measures: he declared a state of siege throughout the country for the next ninety days, and established press censorship. The police, loyal to the national government, raided dozens of buildings in search of revolutionaries. Only some troops from the 9th Infantry Regiment marched towards Buenos Aires from Campo de Mayo, but shortly afterward they dispersed. Loyal troops and police soon recovered the police stations taken by surprise and the revolutionary cantons. At noon on February 4, the revolution in the Federal Capital had been completely defeated.




But the same was not happening in other parts of the country. The uprising had been successful in Mendoza, Córdoba and Bahía Blanca, where civilians had had the support of several military regiments. In Mendoza, the entire military garrison joined the uprising along with a mountain artillery regiment from San Juan. These troops provided weapons to civilians who identified themselves with their white berets. The revolutionaries attacked the capital of Mendoza, took 300,000 pesos from Banco Nación and attacked the barracks defended by Lieutenant Basilio Pertiné. The Mendoza government and some soldiers tried to resist in the Government House but laid down their arms. José Néstor Lencinas, head of the Revolutionary Junta, formed a provisional government after overthrowing the constitutional governor Carlos Galigniana Segura.




In Córdoba, the military troops under the command of Colonel Daniel Fernández were mobilized from the early hours of dawn and began to move after a speech by Colonel Fernández, in which he said: “Soldiers: we are going to carry out a transcendental crusade! For the Argentina that is close to dying, which is the reverse of Caseros and Pavón”!





The rebel military troops took over the Police Headquarters, took over the capital city and clashed with troops loyal to Governor Olmos, led by Colonel Gregorio Vélez. The hostilities lasted until noon and left several dead on both sides. Once the combats were over, they overthrew the government of José Vicente Olmos to impose a provisional government under the command of Colonel Daniel Fernández, accompanied by Abraham Molina and Aníbal Pérez del Viso as ministers. The proclamation spread in Córdoba sets the tone of the radical revolutionaries: "... the day has come when the opprobrious regime that has dominated the country for 30 years, covering it with ignominy before friends and strangers, ends."



In Córdoba, the radical revolutionaries took hostage Governor Olmos, Vice President José Figueroa Alcorta, who by chance was in Córdoba, Deputy Julio Roca, son of General Julio Argentino Roca, Francisco J. Beazley, who was returning from acting as intervener in San Luis, to Felipe Yofre, former Minister of the Interior during Roca's presidency, to Baron Antonio Demarchi, son-in-law of former President Roca, among other officials and political leaders of the opposition.



The radicals also headed towards the La Paz ranch, owned by Julio Argentino Roca, to try to arrest the former president, but Roca, who had been warned that the revolutionaries were heading towards his ranch, managed to escape from being taken prisoner and headed to the neighboring province of Santiago del Estero.



In Rosario the radical military troops marched from San Lorenzo towards Rosario, where civilian groups had taken over the Argentine Central Railway station. In Rosario, intense fighting also took place in the Arroyito area. However, once the failure of the revolution in Buenos Aires was known, the rebellious troops returned to their barracks, and abandoned the civilians to their fate.



The rebellious troops in Bahía Blanca and other cities in the interior had no perspective, nor did they find an echo in the town. President Manuel Quintana employed the same tactic used in 1893 to quell the radical movement; The state of siege became martial law. Despite the initial successes in Córdoba and Mendoza, the national government kept the situation under control and sent troops from different parts of the country to reduce the revolutionary centers.



The revolutionary attempt had not prospered in the other provinces, and the Córdoba radicals would be left alone in the fight. In search of a way out of the difficult situation, the revolutionary minister Aníbal Pérez del Viso took Vice President Figueroa Alcorta to the telegraph offices, where he made him establish communication with President Manuel Quintana. Once this was done, Pérez del Viso took the place of Figueroa Alcorta and began to propose different solutions, which obviously protected the insurgents. The revolutionaries even asked President Quintana for his resignation in exchange for the life of Vice President Figueroa Alcorta, however the president did not give in and the threat was not carried out.



As the powerful columns led by Generals Lorenzo Winter and Ignacio Fotheringham approached, the revolutionaries in Córdoba and Mendoza began to disperse. Finally the Radical Revolutionary Junta decided to lay down their arms to avoid more bloodshed. On February 8, there were no revolutionary centers left in the entire Republic. Immediately, the government of President Manuel Quintana arrested and ordered the rebels to be prosecuted, who were sentenced to up to 8 years in prison and sent to the Ushuaia prison. Many others went into exile in Chile or Uruguay. In the case of the military, those who joined the uprising lost their careers.



The repression was carried out against the radical revolutionaries and simultaneously against the labor movement, the socialists and their organizations, their press, etc., although they had had no connection with the February 4 movement. Hundreds of union members were arrested, the socialist and anarchist press was banned, the offices of the newspapers La Vanguardia and La Protesta, among others, were raided, and union offices were closed.



After the events of February, Quintana addressed Congress and said in this regard: "When I received the government, I knew of the conspiracy that was being hatched in the Army and that is why I directed that incitement to remain a stranger to the agitations of politics by invoking "at the same time the example of their ancestors and the glory of their weapons. A part of the junior officers did not want to listen to me and preferred to embark on an adventure that does not excuse inexperience in the face of the inflexible duties of the soldier."




After the defeat of the revolution, Yrigoyen went underground since he was wanted by the national authorities and for months there was no news about his whereabouts. Finally, on May 19, he appeared before Justice to assume his responsibility as the maximum head of the Revolutionary Junta.



The revolution was defeated, but it would unleash a current of institutional change within the ruling party that could no longer be stopped. The National Autonomist Party had divided, and both Carlos Pellegrini and Roque Sáenz Peña, main leaders of the new Autonomist Party, founded in 1903, understood the need to make profound institutional changes if the growing social and political conflict was to be contained.




Although at the moment the hostilities against the national government were still high and on August 11, 1905 there was an attack against Quintana, while he was heading in his carriage to the Government House, a man shot the president several times without being able to do anything. fire. The car continued moving, and the custody agents detained the aggressor, who turned out to be a Catalan worker named Salvador Planas y Virella, an anarchist sympathizer, who acted on his own initiative.



In March 1906, President Manuel Quintana died and was replaced in office by José Figueroa Alcorta, who until then was the vice president of the Nation and was politically inclined towards Pellegrinism. In June 1906, Figueroa Alcorta and Pellegrini promoted a Law of Oblivion, to offer a general amnesty to all radical participants in the revolution of the previous year, exiled in Uruguay and Chile or who were in hiding or prisoners.



In the years that followed, radicalism grew in support among sectors of the incipient middle class of the Federal Capital and the interior, especially among those young professionals, children of immigrants. The social composition of the radical leadership also changed with respect to that of the 1890s. The majority of its leaders seemed to come mainly from families who had arrived in the country recently and who had had little or no participation in politics. In comparison to that after the Park Revolution, where its leaders came from traditional families of the country.



The political system was also changing in those years, when a sector of the ruling class decided to open up and transform the rules of the political game. The reformists led by President Figueroa Alcorta believed in the need to promote an electoral reform that would establish a truly representative government. And the electoral reform finally arrived, in 1912, at the hands of Roque Sáenz Peña. Four years later, on October 12, 1916, the leader of the 1905 revolution, Hipólito Yrigoyen, took office as president of the Nation.