“Access to Land”: The State and the evolution of landholding patterns in the U.S. and Argentina in the 19th century

When we consider the development of the United States and Latin America during the “long” 19th century in a comparative perspective, certain fundamental differences and contrasts stand out regarding the respective political, social and economic conditions. There is a progressive democratization of the political system in the North as opposed to lasting oligarchic rule in the South; greater social mobility in the U.S. in contrast to rigid social structures in Latin America; and dynamic economic growth and differentiation in the North as compared to initial stagnation and subsequent one-sided exportorientation of the economies of the South. Even though this very general assessment would certainly need to be further elaborated regarding regional and sectoral differences, it nevertheless emphasizes some essential characteristics of the different developments north and south of the Rio Grande, which also depended to a considerable extent on the different landholding conditions in both regions. Certainly, after the decline of the traditional southern plantation economy in the U.S. in the wake of the Civil War of 1861-1865, landownership patterns differed greatly in the North and the South. While in the U.S. small and middle-sized family farms shaped the countryside, in Latin America the agrarian sector was dominated far into the 20th century by large landholdings, with their concomitant features of multiple labor, tenancy and sharecropping conditions.