Argentina Under Peron

1. Argentina Under Peron

2. IB Objectives • Populist leaders in Latin America: rise to power; characteristics of populist regimes; social, economic and political policies; the treatment of opposition; successes and failures

3. IB Paper 3 Sample Questions • Compare and contrast the rise to power of two populist leaders in Latin America between 1945 and 1979. • For what reasons was Getulio Vargas’s era (1930–1945) a significant turning point in Brazilian history? • Examine the methods used and the conditions which helped the rise to power of one single party state leader in one country of Latin America in the first half of the twentieth century.

4. IB Paper 3 Sample Questions • How did either Getulio Vargas of Brazil or Juan Perón of Argentina gain and retain the support of the urban workers? • For what reasons, and with what success, was there opposition to the Vargas regime between 1930 and 1945? • For what reasons, and what with results, did Populist movements emerge in Latin America in the first half of the twentieth century? Support your answer with specific examples from one country of the region.

5. IB Paper 3 Sample Questions • For what reasons, and by what means, did either Perón or Vargas obtain power? • Assess the nature and effectiveness of opposition to either Juan Domingo Perón (1946–55) or Getulio Vargas (1930–45). • Analyse the aims and achievements of one populist leader in Latin America in the first half of the twentieth century. • In what ways, and with what results, did either Perón or Vargas pursue populist policies?

6. Lecture Outline • Argentina and WWII • Juan Peron • Peron the Populist • Peron and the Economy • The Fall of Peron

7. Key Terms • Concordancia • Juan Peron

8. Argentina and WWII • From 1932 until 1943 Argentina was ruled by a coalition of parties called the Concordancia. • Argentina was the only country in the Americas that did not contribute to the Allied war effort. • It appeared that President Castillo would manipulate the 1943 election so that Robustiano Patron Costas would win. • Nationalists believed that Costas would end Argentina’s neutrality and have the country enter the war against the Axis Powers.

9. Argentina and WWII • A military coup overthrew the Castillo regime on June 6, 1943. • General Pedro Ramirez became president. • 1943 US placed new financial and trade restrictions on Argentina and pressured other Latin American countries to do the same. • US increased its military aid to Brazil and Argentina was afraid Brazil would attack. • Ramirez agreed to break diplomatic relations with the Axis by the end of January 1944.

10. Argentina and WWII • Nationalists in the government forced Ramirez to resign and Vice President General Edelmiro Farrell became president.

11. Juan Peron • Advocated the army taking a major role in the government in order to reshape the economy and society. • Born the son of a farmer in 1895 • Served as Argentina’s military attaché to fascist Italy. • With the overthrow of Ramirez, Peron became Argentina’s Vice President and Minister of War. • Farrell scheduled a national election for February 1946.

12. Juan Peron • Peron established the Partido Laborista (Labor Party) and began to campaign for the presidency. • Peron won by 300,000 votes out of the 2.7 million cast (54%).

13. Peron the Populist • In 1947 Peron disbanded the Labor Party and replaced it with the Sole Party of the National Revolution. • Women received the vote in 1947 and Peron had Congress pass legislation that increased women’s access to education and improved their wages and working conditions. • From 1941 to 1950, the number of women admitted to universities more than doubled.

14. Peron the Populist • In the presidential election of 1951, 90% of registered women, eligible to vote for the first time, voted and 65% cast their votes for Peron. • 7 women senators and 24 women deputies were elected to Congress, the largest female delegation of government representatives in the Americas. • Peron changed the name of his party to the Partido Peronista ( Peronist Party)

15. Peron and the Economy • Prior to the 1946 election the junta had taken control of the Central Bank and established price and production boards. • Peron’s economic program was initially successful and in July 1947 Argentina paid off its entire foreign debt. • From 1949 onward Peron’s programs were less successful.

16. Peron and the Economy • To raise money to fund the creation of new industries, the government created the Instituto Argentino de Promocion del Intercambio (Argentine Institute for the Promotion of Trade) or IAPI.

17. Peron’s Fall from Power • Except for a short recovery during the Korean War, after 1949 Argentina entered a period of severe recession which included several drought-induced bad harvests. • The 1948 Marshall Plan gave loans and credits to Western European countries that could be used only in the US and Canada. • Exports dropped so low that in 1952 Argentina actually had to import wheat.

18. Peron’s Fall from Power • Real wages dropped 20% from 1949 to 1952 as inflation reached 30 % per annum. • The amount of money in circulation increased from 6 to 45 billion pesos during Peron’s two terms. • Starting in 1951, the regime grew more repressive. • In 1953 Peron gave Standard Oil the rights for exploration, drilling, refining, and distribution in Argentina and this was the last straw for the nationalist military.

19. Peron’s Fall from Power • September 1955 military overthrows Peron.