The Argentine ‘Unitarian Savages’ in Chile. A Factor of Dissent between Chile and Argentina: 1841-1852

Abstract

This paper examines the role played by some of the Argentine exiles during the regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas (1829-1952) based on primary and secondary sources. Actors whom, from the platform that the press allowed them, and the support of influential Chilean politicians, managed to contribute to the distancing and cooling of Chilean-Argentine relations. Indeed, from their particular recreations of the local reality, their respective matrix of meaning, and their own hatreds against the Rosas regime, they managed to intervene in the perception that Chilean politics had of the Argentine regime and in specific political actions that ended up straining bilateral relations.