WI : Balkanized Argentina?

Well the easiest would probably to split what we think of as Argentina into multiple colonies. If England ever managed to get a colony in La Plata the map would look very different. Probably something more like the Guianas with a bunch of smaller nations bunched together.
 
At a glance, the best shot for a country recognizably as Argentina to balkanize is during the 1820-1862 period. But the problem is that the inner provinces would effectively be landlocked. The Confederacy tried between 1852 and 1862 and couldn't hold it. Keeping Uruguay as part of the United Provinces would avoid this, but how is that achieved while the Portuguese/Brazilians want to keep it?

Assuming, however, that Uruguay remains as part of the United Provinces, we could end up with a "Southern Argentina", encompassing the province of Buenos Aires, eventually the Patagonia if Chile doesn't snatch it sooner and maybe expanding west through the already existing provinces of San Luis, Mendoza and, just maybe Cordoba. Plus a "Northern Argentina" dominated by Uruguay, Santa Fe, Entre Rios and Corrientes and including everything else. Further balkanization isn't viable for the remaining provinces.

However, I wonder if there is enough will to keep the country split. If forty years of intermittent, violent, civil war doesn't split a country, what would?

OTOH, we could say Argentina is already balkanized - after all, the old Viceroyalty of the River Plate included modern Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.
 
At a glance, the best shot for a country recognizably as Argentina to balkanize is during the 1820-1862 period. But the problem is that the inner provinces would effectively be landlocked. The Confederacy tried between 1852 and 1862 and couldn't hold it. Keeping Uruguay as part of the United Provinces would avoid this, but how is that achieved while the Portuguese/Brazilians want to keep it?

Assuming, however, that Uruguay remains as part of the United Provinces, we could end up with a "Southern Argentina", encompassing the province of Buenos Aires, eventually the Patagonia if Chile doesn't snatch it sooner and maybe expanding west through the already existing provinces of San Luis, Mendoza and, just maybe Cordoba. Plus a "Northern Argentina" dominated by Uruguay, Santa Fe, Entre Rios and Corrientes and including everything else. Further balkanization isn't viable for the remaining provinces.

However, I wonder if there is enough will to keep the country split. If forty years of intermittent, violent, civil war doesn't split a country, what would?

OTOH, we could say Argentina is already balkanized - after all, the old Viceroyalty of the River Plate included modern Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Does anybody actually take Bolivia as part of a Buenos Aires-based Argentina seriously though...? If anything, Bolivia would likely dominate such a union during the early decades of its existence due to being the more populous and economically productive province.

I'm Peruvian, so take my statement on this with a grain of salt but I've never really taken the whole La Plata -> Argentine domination of Bolivia concept seriously. Bolivia was only a part of La Plata to milk Bolivia dry efficiently.
 
Does anybody actually take Bolivia as part of a Buenos Aires-based Argentina seriously though...? If anything, Bolivia would likely dominate such a union during the early decades of its existence due to being the more populous and economically productive province.

I'm Peruvian, so take my statement on this with a grain of salt but I've never really taken the whole La Plata -> Argentine domination of Bolivia concept seriously. Bolivia was only a part of La Plata to milk Bolivia dry efficiently.
You're right that it was only made part of the Viceroyalty of the River Plata to milk it dry. Heck, Buenos Aires pretty much existed just to milk current Bolivia dry.
And it might have very well dominated an enlarged Argentina. But keep in mind there was no defined international border between the United Provinces and Upper Peru during the Independence Wars. The Congress that declared the Argentine independence in 1816 had representatives from Tarija and other provinces which are now located in southern Bolivia. The Argentine "Army of Peru" looted the Upper Peru (current Bolivia) in their ill fated offensives (my elementary school textbooks spoke of "disrespecting local customs" - quite the euphemism for "raping everything that moved") but, then again, so did the Royalist armies coming south from Peru, so the poor bastards living there during the war were screwed no matter what. Sometimes reluctantly, the Upper Peruvian guerrilla commanders worked together with the armies sent (and later abandoned) from Buenos Aires.
And there were plans, never financed from Buenos Aires, for launching a ground offensive into Upper Peru by the time the forces under General San Martin landed in Peru.
Ultimately, neither the Bolivian rulers wanted to be ruled from Buenos Aires after Ayacucho (come to think of that, none in Argentina outside Buenos Aires wanted that) and so-called Argentine "president" (with very limited authority outside the province of Buenos Aires) at that time didn't want Bolivia either.

But, from an AH perspective, a TL where the border is further north, or the former Upper Peru actually becomes part of the United Provinces even if it's only temporarily isn't really out of the question. Butterflies mean it would be a different country, of course.
 
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