Argentine Civil Wars: The State of Buenos Aires defeats the Argentine Confederation at the Battle of Pavón.
The Battle of Pavn, a key battle of the Argentine Civil Wars, was fought in Pavn, Santa F Province, Argentina on 17 September 1861 between the Army of the State of Buenos Aires, commanded by Bartolom Mitre, and the Army of Republic of the Argentine Confederation, commanded by Justo Jos de Urquiza. The withdrawal of Urquiza left the field to Mitre.
The victory led to the dissolution of the national government and the reincorporation of Buenos Aires Province into the Argentine Republic as a dominant member of the nation. Governor Bartolom Mitre would act as interim president, ratified by the National Congress, and then as the first president of a unified Argentine Republic.
The Argentine Civil Wars were a series of civil wars that took place in Argentina from 1814 to 1880. These conflicts were separate from the Argentine War of Independence (1810–1820), though they first arose during this period.
The main belligerents were, on a geographical level, Buenos Aires Province against the other provinces of modern Argentina, and on a political level, the Federal Party versus the Unitarian Party. The central cause of the conflict was the excessive centralism advanced by Buenos Aires leaders and, for a long period, the monopoly on the use of the Port of Buenos Aires as the sole means for international commerce. Other participants at specific times included Uruguay, which became independent from the Brazilian Empire in 1828, and the British and French empires, notably in the French blockade of the Río de la Plata of 1838 and in the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata that ended in 1850.