Between diplomacy and history: an analysis of the performance of Estanislao Zeballos (1889-1908)

• Grant number: 17/20816-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Effective date (Start): January 01, 2018
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of America
• Principal Investigator: Gabriela Pellegrino Soares
• Grantee: Camila Bueno Grejo
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The existence of a close relationship between diplomacy and intellectual life was a striking feature in the South American countries during the nineteenth century, especially after independence, when men of letters, academics and law specialists played a prominent role in elaboration and reflection on the foreign policy of their countries. The economic growth experienced in the late nineteenth century and maintained during the first decade of the twentieth inspired Argentine leaders to play a civilizing mission in Latin America, demarcating their hegemony over the region and representing a strong obstacle to the formation of a Pan-American identity in the ways proposed by the USA. In his writings and pronouncements, Estanislao Severo Zeballos (1854-1923) demonstrated that the national question extrapolated territorial boundaries and, starting from an approach that contemplated the national organization, understood that the affirmation of Argentina as a sovereign nation should not be given only of the American countries, but also of the European powers. This research project proposes to explore the Argentine international relations in its diplomatic, cultural and intellectual dimension, considering as central object the analysis of the performance of Estanislao Zeballos in the international debate between the years of 1889 and 1908 paying special attention to how this politician and intellectual manifested in his writings and speeches the connections and interactions of transnational character in Argentina. We hypothesize that in his writings, Zeballos sought to give meaning to the Argentine nation, establishing the identification with it from its importance before the "others" that could threaten its sovereignty. Following this perspective, the construction of the Argentine national identity was, therefore, linked to the constitution of the "I" (Argentines), of the "us" (represented by the immigrants and their children) and the "others" (the other nations). (AU)