American Polities: Statecraft in Post-Revolutionary Argentina and the United States, 1776-1828

American Polities offers an extended comparison of post-revolutionary statecraft in Argentina and the United States, new states that acquired sovereignty in matters of security, war and trade. I argue that policymakers looked to develop war-making capabilities in order to resist future European aggression at the same time as attempting to create peaceful regimes of interstate relations in the Americas. In fiscal and economic policy, Argentina and the US founded their ability to finance war by selling public bonds to creditors, which would be repaid using taxation on international trade. Policymakers recognised the risks attendant in founding national security on international trade in a context in which the flow of commerce between nations could be interrupted by powerful foreign navies. The US and Argentina adopted divergent approaches to reforming their economies in order to maximise security and wealth. In matters of international relations, the two new republics followed similar approaches. Both agreed that becoming entangled in systems of permanent alliances would lead to constant conflict with European powers while offering no benefit to the Americas, while recognising the need to temporarily involve themselves in European affairs to maintain the balance of power. Domestically, however, US policymakers insisted that only the political union of the entire North American continent under one federal government could create perpetual peace, whereas Argentine policymakers believed that the establishment of an American international law could create peace between several sovereignties. Finally, the thesis charts how national security concerns led both polities to war, compares the performance of the two states as war-making polities, and evaluates the impact of policymaking on post-revolutionary war-making capabilities.