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

provinces A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

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 ...

, which is recognized as the foundation of the federal organization of the country. It was signed in the city of

Pilar, Buenos Aires Pilar is a city in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina with a population of 299,077 as per the . It is part of the Greater Buenos Aires urban conurbation and is the seat of the administrative division of Pilar Partido. Since the early 1990s, Pi ...

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 Civ ...

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 The Argentine Constitution of 1853 is the current constitution of Argentina. It was approved in 1853 by all of the provincial governments except Buenos Aires Province, which remained separate from the Argentine Confederation until 1859. After ...

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

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

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 the ...

, 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 in ...

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

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