Juan Manuel De Rosas
Rosas, Juan Manuel De
Born Mar. 30, 1793, in Buenos Aires; died Mar. 14, 1877, in Swaythling, near Southampton, England. Argentine statesman.
Rosas entered the military in 1811 and in 1828 became a general. From 1829 to 1832 he was governor of the province of Buenos Aires, and in April 1835 he became de facto dictator of the country. Rosas established a regime based on terror. He restored the social order of colonial times and the privileges formerly enjoyed by the Catholic Church, and he encouraged the penetration of foreign, mainly British, capital into the country. In an attempt to bring Uruguay under his control, Rosas placed Montevideo under siege from 1843 to 1851. The growth of opposition and the conflicts between Buenos Aires and the other provinces led to the dissolution of his regime. After his overthrow in February 1852, Rosas went into exile in Great Britain.