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Disorder and Social Control in Buenos Aires, 1810-1860

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1984

Year

Abstract

Disorder and Social Control in Buenos Aires, I8I0-I860 One of the major consequences of the wars for independence in Spanish America was the breakdown of traditional lines of authority. Throughout most of the former Spanish Empire, the colonial dynamics of power and deference were challenged by the struggles among new and contentious claimants to political supremacy. This article explores the judicial consequences of the first half-century of turbulent politics following Argentine independence by focusing on the effects brought upon the criminal justice system in the city of Buenos Aires, the former capital of the Viceroyalty of the River Plate. Buenos Aires is a particularly useful locus for the study of social control in Latin America within a Western framework.