New Plan of Frontiers for the Province of Buenos Aires, Projected in 1816

西班牙Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.1

Word count: 64K words
Chapters: 7

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Nuevo plan de fronteras de la provincia de Buenos Aires, proyectado en 1816Author: García, Pedro Andrés, 1758-1833,Language: Spanish, Class: F2801: Latin America local history: Argentina, Release Date: Jan 9, 2009

Editor's review

This 1816 frontier plan for the province of Buenos Aires, proposed by Pedro Andrés García, is a key primary source for Latin American local history and the early nation-building of Argentina. Writing as a planner, the author discusses how borders should be drawn, how defenses should be arranged, and how land and population should be organized; the text carries clear policy intent and the stance of its time rather than neutral scholarship. For researchers, its value lies in showing the concrete thinking of early independent Argentina on frontier, land, and security questions, and it can be read alongside contemporary military, immigration, and land-policy materials to examine the practical considerations and limitations behind the plan. The book is in Spanish; it is not long but dense with terminology and historical context, so readers without relevant knowledge may find it difficult. It is not a narrative history and offers no modern critical survey. It suits students and source compilers in Latin American and Argentine history, as well as readers who need primary texts to support their research. Read it with questions in mind, checking names, places, and institutional background as you go.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Historians studying early Argentine nation-building and frontier policy
University students and faculty in Latin American history and the late colonial to early independence period
Scholars writing papers who need early nineteenth-century Spanish-language primary sources
Readers with Spanish reading ability and an interest in Latin American local history

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking broad historical surveys and lacking background knowledge
Readers unfamiliar with Spanish and without an available parallel translation
Those expecting narrative historical storytelling or modern scholarly commentary

Reading tips

First learn about the Argentine independence process and frontier situation around 1816, then begin the main text.
Mark place names, figures, and military arrangements while reading, and use maps and timelines to aid understanding.
Compare with contemporary land and immigration policy materials to identify the plan's policy intent.
For the Spanish original, read closely in sections and verify institutional terms before continuing.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this document historical research or a policy proposal?

It is itself a frontier planning proposal submitted in 1816, a policy text rather than a later scholarly work. As such, it preserves the thinking, language, and concerns of decision-makers of the time and is a primary source for studying early Argentine frontier and land questions; when reading it, you need to analyze it with background materials and cannot treat it directly as factual narrative.

Can I read it without knowing Spanish?

It will be rather difficult. The book circulates in its original Spanish and has no authoritative Chinese translation, and its content involves a great many contemporary administrative divisions, military arrangements, and land-system terms. If you do not know Spanish, it is advisable first to use relevant research works to understand the main points of the plan, then decide whether to read selected passages of the original with reference tools.

What background knowledge should I acquire before reading?

At minimum, you should understand the independence process in the Río de la Plata region around 1816, the relationship between the province of Buenos Aires and the inland frontier, and the land distribution and border defense arrangements of the time. With this background, you can understand why the plan drew boundaries and deployed defenses as it did, and it becomes easier to judge its practical relevance and historical limitations.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

西班牙 Author · 1758 · 1833

Pedro Andrés García (1758–1833) was a Spanish military officer who later served in the Río de la Plata region. Public information about his life is limited, and details of his career are difficult to elaborate. The two works held in the collection both address the geography and military affairs of the southern frontier of Buenos Aires. Diario de un viage a Salinas Grandes, en los campos del sud de Buenos Aires is a travel diary recording his journey to the great salt lake region, written in the manner of a survey report. Nuevo plan de fronteras de la provincia de Buenos Aires, proyectado en 1816 presents his proposed new frontier plan for the province of Buenos Aires in 1816 and belongs to the literature of military and frontier planning. The two books share similar subject matter and a practical style, offering primary material for the study of geographical knowledge and defense conceptions on Argentina's southern frontier at the time.