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Estanislao Lopez
Topics: Argentine military personnel
For the highway, see Brigadier Estanislao Lopez Highway.
Estanislao Lopez (17861838) was a governor and caudillo of the , between 1818 and 1838, a hero of provincial federalism and an ally of Juan Manuel de Rosas.
Lopez fought in the retake of Buenos Aires from the British invasion of 1806, in the Argentine War of Independence, and then in the Argentine civil wars. Under the command of Manuel Belgrano (creator of the Argentine flag) in 1810, he was held prisoner in Montevideo.
In 1816 he led his men in an uprising against Buenos Aires, where the Buenos Aires army under General Viamonte was forced to surrender. Along with Jose Gervasio Artigas , he became a hero of this campaign. After this, in 1818, Lopez assumed the government of Santa Fe, deposing governor Mariano Vera, separating the province from Buenos Aires control, and ruling by popular consensus for twenty years. He was formally elected governor in 1 July 1818 and then indefinitely reelected.
Lopez rejected a draft provincial constitution for Santa Fe (which accepted a centralized government from Buenos Aires), and wrote another one, where he incorporated the idea of popular election of the governor by direct vote, which was approved on 26 August 1819.
Lopez allied with Artigas and then with Francisco Ramirez, caudillo of Entre Rios, amassing large armies against Buenos Aires, at the time ruled by Supreme Director Juan Martin de Pueyrredon. General Jose de San Martin, Liberator and hero of the Independence Wars, wrote separate letters to Lopez and Artigas urging them to cease hostilities and join the national cause. San Martin also refused Pueyrredon's request to divert troops from the independentist conflict toward the defense of the national government.
After Pueyrredon's forced resignation, Lopez went to war again, together with Ramirez, former Supreme Director Carlos Maria de Alvear and Jose Miguel Carrera (former president of Chile). The three allies defeated the forces of Buenos Aires led by Jose Rondeau in the Battle of Cepeda on 1 February 1820, which marked the end of the Supreme Directorship and the victory of provincial federalism. Peace was ratified by the Governor Manuel Sarratea of Buenos Aires, as well as Lopez and Ramirez, through the Treaty of Pilar (23 February 1820).
In 1821 an incident broke his alliance with Francisco Ramirez, who was killed near Coronda by a group of Lopez's soldiers when he was crossing Santa Fe's territory to attack Cordoba. Lopez exhibited Ramirez's head publicly in the Cabildo of Santa Fe. He thus became the indisputed leader of the littoral provinces, and on 7 April 1822 he signed the Cuadrilateral Treaty with Entre Rios, Corrientes and Buenos Aires, calling for national unity and convening on the call to a Constitutional Assembly in Santa Fe.
Lopez protected Juan Manuel de Rosas when he had to flee after the defeat of Manuel Dorrego's army by Juan Lavalle in Navarro. He then joined forces with Rosas to defeat Lavalle in Puente de Marquez on 26 April 1829. After Rosas made peace with Lavalle without Lopez's consent, the relationship between the allies was strained.
In 1831, with Rosas being the governor of Buenos Aires and the littoral provinces threatened by the centralist alliance ruled by Jose Maria Paz, the Federal Pact was subscribed (on 4 January) by the four provinces, forging a military alliance and establishing the basis of a federal organization of the country. After Paz was captured, the civil war ended for a time, and Rosas was free to rule on the national level.
Lopez ruled Santa Fe until his death on 15 June 1838. He was succeeded by Domingo Cullen.
Sources
In Spanish unless otherwise noted.
Todo-Argentina.net - Biography.
WebFe - History of Santa Fe (timeline).
Jose de San Martin, el Libertador - Biography of General San Martin.
ArgentinaWorld - History of Santa Fe.
Treaty of Pilar, 23 Feb 1820 .
Santa Fe - History of the city of Santa Fe (official website).
Constitucion de la Provincia de Santa Fe (1819) .
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Estanislao Lopez
