Enodiplomacia en el gobierno de Rosas (1829-1852)

Abstract

The role of wine during the Rosas government in the Argentine Confederation (1829-1852) is examined, within the framework of tense foreign relations, particularly due to the Anglo-French blockade and civil wars, which severely affected the traditional Argentine wine culture. It threatened its disappearance, as occurred in other former Latin American enopoles such as Peru and Mexico. It is detected that the need to export their wines was one of the motives for France’s imperialist policy in the La Plata basin. Likewise, wine was important for Rosas as part of his oenodiplomacy strategy. It is discovered that this strategy contributed to Rosas' successful foreign policy concerning the Great Powers of Europe while at the same time serving to keep the wine culture alive in Argentina and generate the conditions for the subsequent takeoff of the national wine industry. In a way, Rosas’ strategy preserved the wine culture in Argentina, avoiding what happened in other great Latin American wineries such as Mexico and Peru, a tradition that has remained alive to the present day.