Brazil and Argentina Submit a Boundary Dispute to Washington
2 July 1892
Brazil and Argentina disagreed over which rivers an inherited boundary description identified. Maps, names, and earlier surveys supported different territorial claims. [2] [4]
Brazilian minister Salvador de Mendonça brought his government's request for arbitration to the State Department on 9 May 1892. Three days later, the Argentine legation delivered the corresponding request from President Carlos Pellegrini. Their governments had failed to agree on a boundary between the Uruguay and Iguaçu rivers and now invoked their treaty naming the American president as arbitrator. [1] [2]
President Benjamin Harrison accepted on 2 July. The treaty required each side to submit its case and supporting documents within twelve months of receiving that acceptance. It confined the arbitrator to choosing one of the two proposed river boundaries and made his decision final and binding. [3] [2]
Brazil's special mission, later led by the Baron of Rio Branco, assembled maps and historical documents to defend its claim. Rio Branco directed searches in Spanish, Portuguese, and Brazilian collections while his staff prepared the submission. The memorial included maps showing current and older river names, alongside reproductions of the joint survey, so that the competing claims could be compared. [5]
Grover Cleveland issued the award on 5 February 1895. He selected the western pair of rivers, the Pepiri and San Antonio, claimed by Brazil. The award identified them by the earlier Spanish and Portuguese survey records and their locations relative to neighboring rivers and falls. [4]
Related Diplomats
Sources
- Mendonça transmits Brazil's request for presidential arbitration
FRUS 1892, document 9, pp. 17-18; entire note and Peixoto letter of 15 April
- Argentine legation transmits Pellegrini's request and the arbitration treaty
FRUS 1892, document 1, pp. 1-3; entire note, letter of 12 April, and treaty of 7 September 1889, articles IV-VI
- Foster informs Mendonça of Harrison's acceptance
FRUS 1892, document 10, pp. 18-19; entire note and Harrison letter
- Cleveland's award in the boundary arbitration between Argentina and Brazil
FRUS 1895, part I, document 1, pp. 1-3; entire award, competing river systems on p. 2 and date on p. 3
- Obras do Barão do Rio Branco I: Questões de limites, República Argentina, with Francisco Doratioto's introduction
Editorial provenance, PDF pp. 7 and 9; Doratioto introduction, printed pp. 49-52; memorial chapter I, printed pp. 57-59, especially map list in note 1
- Barão do Rio Branco
Early life; Missão especial nos Estados Unidos; Questão do Amapá; Ministério das Relações Exteriores
Related Reading
Cite This Article
Brazil and Argentina Submit a Boundary Dispute to Washington. Chanceries Diplopedia. Record 47b7dcd2aa27af79bc1d. https://chanceries.org/research/history/brazil-argentina-presidential-boundary-arbitration-1892/