Livestock and the Economic Formation of the Gaucho Pampas

Since its discovery in the 16th century, the Pampas of Rio Grande do Sul - a region located to the south of the Platine Basin, which straddles the borders between Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay - has proved to be a potentially favourable area for agricultural and livestock activities. The development of cattle ranching in Brazil (especially in the state of Rio Grande do Sul) and Uruguay took place far from the Latin American centres of Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. This has led to a certain similarity in the production systems of RS and UY, which have always been connected because of the border. The technical progress of this production was expanded thanks to foreign capital that was interested in exploiting the abundance of primary production in Rio Grande do Sul and Uruguay. This work therefore focuses on the economic development of livestock farming in the south of Brazil and Uruguay between 1914 and 1939, in order to analyse the relationship between the economies of these two countries and foreign capital, which inevitably led to productive changes throughout the agrarian history of these two countries.