Editing Foreign relations of Argentina (section)

=== Constitution and conflict resolution ===
[[File:Abrazo del Estrecho (1899).jpg|thumb|left|President Julio Roca hosts Argentine and Chilean negotiators in an 1899 bid to avoid war.]]
The deposition of Rosas led to Argentina's present institutional framework, outlined in the [[Argentine Constitution|1853 constitution]]. The document, drafted by a legal scholar specializing in the interpretation of the [[United States Constitution]] put forth national social and economic development as its overriding principle. Where foreign policy was concerned, it specifically put emphasis on the need to encourage immigration and little else, save for the national defense against aggressions. This, of course, was forced into practice by Paraguayan dictator [[Francisco Solano López (politician)|Francisco Solano López]]'s disastrous 1865 invasion of northern Argentine territory, leading to an [[Paraguayan War|alliance]] between 1820s-era adversaries Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay and the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives (particularly Paraguay's own).

Setbacks notwithstanding, the policy was successful. Domestically, Argentina was quickly transformed by immigration and foreign investment into, arguably, the most educationally and economically advanced nation in Latin America. Whatever else was happening domestically, internationally, Argentine policy earned a reputation for pragmatism and the reliance of conflict resolution as a vehicle to advance national interests. The era's new strongman, Gen. [[Julio Roca]], was the first Argentine leader to treat foreign policy on equal footing with foreign investment and immigration incentives, universal education and repression as instruments of national development. His first administration occupied [[Patagonia]] and entered into an 1881 agreement with Chile to that effect and his second one commissioned archaeologist [[Francisco Moreno]] to survey an appropriate boundary between the two neighbors, which brought Chile into the historic [[Pactos de Mayo|1902 pact]], settling questions over Patagonian lands east of the [[Andes]]. Later that year, endorsed his Foreign Secretary's successful negotiation of a debt dispute between [[Venezuela]], France and Germany. Foreign Secretary [[Luis Drago]]'s proposal in this, a dispute among third parties, became the [[Drago Doctrine]], part of [[international law]] to this day.

[[File:Paz del Chaco.jpg|thumb|Signatories of the 1938 treaty ending the Chaco War gather in Buenos Aires. Foreign Minister Carlos Saavedra Lamas is at right]]
This success led to a joint effort between Argentina, Brazil and [[Chile]] to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the United States' [[Veracruz Incident|occupation of Veracruz, Mexico]] in April 1914. That May, the three nations' foreign ministers hosted U.S. officials in Canada, a conference instrumental in the withdrawal of U.S. troops that November. This also resulted in the 1915 [[ABC pact]] signed between the three and, like Brazil and Chile, Argentina thereafter pursued a pragmatic foreign policy, focused on preserving favorable trade relationships. This policy was in evidence during the 1933 [[Roca-Runciman Treaty]], which secured Argentine markets among British colonies, and in the Argentine position during the [[Chaco War]]. Resulting from the 1928 discovery of petroleum in the area, the dispute developed into war after [[Bolivia]]'s appeal for Argentine intervention in what it saw as Paraguayan incursions into potentially oil-rich lands were rejected. Bolivia invaded in July 1932 and, despite its legitimate claim to what historically had been its territory, its government's ties to [[Standard Oil of New Jersey]] (with whom the Argentine government was in dispute over its alleged pirating of oil in [[Salta Province]])<ref name=Wirth>Wirth, John. ''The Oil Business in Latin America''. Beard Books, 2001.</ref> led Buenos Aires to withhold diplomatic efforts until, in June 1935, a cease-fire was signed. The laborious negotiations called in Buenos Aires by Argentine Foreign Minister [[Carlos Saavedra Lamas]] yielded him Latin America's first [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in 1936 and a formal peace treaty in July 1938.