Federalization of Buenos Aires

The weight of a larger population and the economic and commercial importance of the city as the only deep water port of the country were decisive factors in the relationship between the federated provinces.

That inequality was seen since the first years of the state, when after the May Revolution the Buenos Aires porteños were reluctant to accept the deputies of the interior in the First Junta, and became more severe during the long period of political instability of the First and Second triumvirates and the Directory.

When Avellaneda's government announced the legislation of the federalization of Buenos Aires city, Governor Tejedor ordered military mobilizations and the formation of militias to train citizens in the use of arms.

The Senate, Supreme Court and part of the Lower Chamber moved there before the national army, commanded by Roca, besieged Buenos Aires.

The congress, from its provisional location in Belgrano, in a building that now serves as home to the Museo Histórico Sarmiento, dissolved the legislature of Buenos Aires.

On August 24, 1880, Avellaneda presented a law to declare Buenos Aires City the capital of the republic, under direct control of the federal government.

In 1987, President Raúl Alfonsín Proposed moving the national capital to Viedma in an effort to attenuate the population centralization in Buenos Aires that the country has always experienced.