The Treaty of Pilar (in Spanish, ''Tratado del Pilar'') was a pact signed among the rulers of the

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

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of Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South Am ...

, which is recognized as the foundation of the federal organization of the country. It was signed in the city of Pilar, Buenos Aires on 23 February 1820 by governor

Estanislao López Estanislao López (26 November 1786 – 15 June 1838) was a ''caudillo'' and governor of the , between 1818 and 1838, one of the foremost proponents of provincial federalism, and an associate of Juan Manuel de Rosas during the Argentine Ci ...

for Santa Fe, ''caudillo'' Francisco Ramírez for Entre Ríos, and provisional governor

Manuel de Sarratea Manuel de Sarratea, (Buenos Aires, 11 August 1774 – Limoges, France, 21 September 1849), was an Argentine diplomat, politician and soldier. He was the son of Martin de Sarratea (1743–1813), of the richest merchant of Buenos-Aires and Tom ...

for Buenos Aires, after the dissolution of the national government caused by the Battle of Cepeda. A reference to it was included in the Preamble of the Argentine Constitution of 1853 as one of the "pre-existing pacts" fulfilled by it. TratadoPilar1

The treaty established national unity, the end of hostilities between the provinces, the withdrawal of military forces from Buenos Aires, a general amnesty for politically persecuted people, and the free navigability of the rivers Paraná and

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by the signatories. It also called for deputies sent by them to be gathered in a congress in

San Lorenzo, Santa Fe San Lorenzo () is a city in the south of the Province of Santa Fe, Argentina, located 23 km north of Rosario, on the western shore of the Paraná River, and forming one end of the Greater Rosario metropolitan area. It is the head town of t ...

, 60 days afterwards, to decide on a federalist form of government. It noticeably excluded

José Gervasio Artigas José Gervasio Artigas Arnal (; June 19, 1764 – September 23, 1850) was a political leader, military general, statesman and national hero of Uruguay and the broader Río de la Plata region. He fought in the Latin American wars of ind ...

, former leader of the federalist Free Peoples' League, who had recently been defeated in the

Battle of Tacuarembó The Battle of Tacuarembó was a battle between the Luso-Brazilian forces under the command of José de Castelo Branco Correia, Count of Figueira, and the Artiguist forces of Andrés Latorre in Tacuarembó, modern-day Uruguay Uruguay (; ), o ...

(

Eastern Bank Eastern Bank is a bank based in Boston, Massachusetts. Before de-mutualizing in 2020, it was the oldest and largest mutual bank in the United States and the largest community bank in Massachusetts. With 95 branches, Eastern had a 3.2% market sh ...

, present-day

) by the Brazilian-Portuguese Empire. Artigas, who had been fighting along Santa Fe and Entre Ríos against the centralist government in Buenos Aires, denounced the pact as a treason on the part of his allies. López wrote back to him explaining that the treaty was for the common good, and wondering whether Artigas was aware of the situation in the provinces. The Treaty of Pilar was soon followed by the Treaty of Benegas, for the mutual defense of Santa Fe and Buenos Aires against the expansionist Entre Ríos and, two years later, by the Quadrilateral Treaty (including Pilar's signatories, plus

Corrientes Province Corrientes (, ‘currents’ or ‘streams’; gn, Taragui), officially the Province of Corrientes ( es, Provincia de Corrientes; gn, Taragüí Tetãmini) is a province in northeast Argentina, in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by (fr ...

References

* ''Historia General de las Relaciones Exteriores de la República Argentina.'
''Las relaciones de Santa Fe con Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos y la Banda Oriental''
{{Argentine Civil War Argentine Civil War 1820 in Argentina Treaties between Argentine provinces 1820 treaties February 1820 events