The
Treaty of Pilar was a pact signed among the rulers of the
ArgentineArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
provincesArgentina is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city...
of
Santa FeThe Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...
,
Entre RíosEntre Ríos is a northeastern province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires , Corrientes and Santa Fe , and Uruguay in the east....
and
Buenos AiresThe Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
, which is recognized as the foundation of the
federalFederalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and...
organization of the country. It was signed in the city of
Pilar, Buenos AiresPilar is a city in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It has a population of more than 226,000 inhabitants as per the . Pilar is part of the Greater Buenos Aires urban conurbation and is the head of the administrative division of Pilar Partido...
on 23 February 1820 by governor
Estanislao LópezEstanislao López was a governor and caudillo of the , between 1818 and 1838, a hero of provincial federalism and an ally of Juan Manuel de Rosas during the Argentine Civil War.-Biography:...
for Santa Fe,
caudillo Francisco Ramírez for Entre Ríos, and provisional governor
Manuel de SarrateaManuel de Sarratea, , was an Argentine diplomat, politician and soldier. He is the son of Martin de Sarratea , of the richest merchant of Buenos-Aires and Tomasa Josefa de Altolaguirre...
for Buenos Aires, after the dissolution of the national government caused by the
Battle of CepedaThe Battle of Cepeda of 1820 took place on February 1 in Cañada de Cepeda, Santa Fe, Argentina.It was the first major battle that saw Unitarians and Federals as two constituted sides. Federal League Provinces of Santa Fe and Entre Ríos joined forces to topple the 1819 centralist Constitution, and...
. A reference to it was included in the Preamble of the
Argentine Constitution of 1853The Argentine Constitution of 1853 was the first constitution of Argentina, approved with the support of the governments of the provinces —though without that of the Buenos Aires Province, who remained separated of the Argentine Confederation until 1859, after several modifications to the...
as one of the "pre-existing pacts" fulfilled by it.
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
ParanáThe Paraná River is a river in south Central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina for some . It is second in length only to the Amazon River among South American rivers. The name Paraná is an abbreviation of the phrase "para rehe onáva", which comes from the Tupi language...
and
UruguayThe Uruguay River is a river in South America. It flows from north to south and makes boundary with Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of the Mesopotamia from the other two countries...
by the signatories. It also called for deputies sent by them to be gathered in a congress in
San Lorenzo, Santa FeSan 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...
, 60 days afterwards, to decide on a federalist form of government. It noticeably excluded
José Gervasio ArtigasJosé Gervasio Artigas is a national hero of Uruguay, sometimes called "the father of Uruguayan nationhood".-Early life:Artigas was born in Montevideo on June 19, 1764...
, former leader of the federalist
Free Peoples' LeagueThe Federal League or League of Free Peoples was a confederal state based around Montevideo from 1815 to 1820...
, who had recently been defeated in the
Battle of TacuarembóThe Battle of Tacuarembó was a battle between the Portuguese forces under the Count of Figueira, José de Castelo Branco Correia, and the Artiguist forces of Andrés Latorre in Tacuarembó, modern-day Uruguay....
(
Eastern BankThe Banda Oriental del Uruguay was the South American territory east of the Uruguay River and north of the Río de la Plata, coinciding approximately with the modern nation of Uruguay, the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul and some parts of Santa Catarina...
, present-day
UruguayUruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
) by the
Brazilian-Portuguese EmpireThe Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
. Artigas, who had been fighting along Santa Fe and Entre Ríos against the
centralist governmentThe Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata , was a title given to the executive officers of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, according to the form of government established in 1814 by the Asamblea del Año XIII...
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 RíosThe Republic of Entre Ríos was a short-lived republic in South America in the early nineteenth century. Comprising approximately of what are today the Argentine provinces of Entre Ríos and Corrientes, the country was founded in 1820 by the caudillo General Francisco Ramírez and lasted only one...
and, two years later, by the Quadrilateral Treaty (including Pilar's signatories, plus
Corrientes ProvinceCorrientes is a province in northeast Argentina, in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by : Paraguay, the province of Misiones, Brazil, Uruguay, and the provinces of Entre Rios, Santa Fe and Chaco.-History:...
).