Sarmiento and his monsters: warlords, desert and violence in Argentina of the 19th Century

Abstract

The argentine writer Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was one of the most important latin-american intelectuals of the ninteenth century, besides having actively taken part in the major political movements of his country. His main concern was to explain and seek solutions to the chronic problems which he identified as responsible for the backwardness in Argentina and South America as a whole. The first part of this article will consist in the analysis of the causalities that the author brought up to justify this backwardness of the argentine society, in which clearly appears what they assumed as natural reasons; the second part will seek to highlight how Sarmiento’s political thought has developed, considering the way he saw and proposed solutions to the “ills” of the country; finally, will be considered the innovations and limits of this intelectual production. To this text will be used some of Sarmiento’s most important books.