Rise of the Argentine Empire

On July 8th, I spent what could be considered a honeymoon in Bahía Blanca, which was really just driving around the city for a few days.

The environment in southern Argentina is actually a bit worse than in the north. Affected by the Falkland Current, the Eva Perón Province (formerly La Pampa Province) near Bahía Blanca is one of the least populated provinces in the country, similar to Bahía Blanca itself, with only 170,000 people, which is just over 1 person per square kilometer.

The Río Negro Territory further south (currently not a province) has a slightly larger population, about 250,000 people, and is Argentina's southernmost wine region.

The grapes produced have a relatively balanced sweetness and acidity, reminiscent of European grapes, and there are valleys suitable for growing high-quality grapes. The capital is Viedma.

San José has a strong impression of the name Viedma, because this small southern town almost became the capital of Argentina in later generations. Although it's a bit ridiculous for such a small city to become the capital,

because according to last year's statistics, Viedma only had a little over 10,000 people, which is less than the small town San José built on the plateau. You should know that the small town of Morado now has 10,000 people, mainly workers from Thunder Mining, supplying raw materials to Maya Chemical and many other partners, with an investment of several million US dollars in production equipment, and is expected to be profitable in the second half of the year.

The Río Negro Territory is a stronghold of the Radical Civic Union, and most administrative officials come from the Radical Civic Union. The military's influence in the southern provinces is also relatively weak.

Further south, the Chubut Territory, the Comodoro Rivadavia Territory, and the Santa Cruz Province are all sparsely populated and Argentina's harsh lands.

The Eva Perón Province and the Río Negro Territory actually don't have too bad of an environment. According to San José's estimate, they can accommodate 20 to 30 million people.

And they are very suitable for development, close to Australian and South African coal mines, suitable for developing shipping. It's just that the Eva Perón Province doesn't have a sea outlet, so Bahía Blanca has great development potential.

Setting up factories here is very promising, and the land around Bahía Blanca is flat.

Building a few large thermal power plants, setting up a textile factory, establishing a textile industry, is close to raw materials, and then setting up a chemical plant to develop deep processing of petroleum, etc., establishing a southern industrial base is not a problem.

Originally, Blue Cloud Clothing Textile mainly produced cotton textiles and wool textiles, but the chemical fiber industry is what can really achieve results.

Argentina is not lacking in oil resources. It is a pity to just export fuel or burn it. Maya Chemical is just engaged in synthetic ammonia and the production of some plastics. Only by developing a complete petroleum industry can it resist the American Mobil Oil and Standard Oil of California.

Moreover, Patagonia has very rich oil resources, and there are also more difficult-to-extract shale oil, which can also be developed.

Like the current shoes, pants, and clothes, most of them are imported Brazilian natural rubber, and the pants and clothes are produced with fabrics imported from other textile factories, without much industry.

Printing and dyeing industry, textile industry, as well as large-scale chemical industry and agriculture.

Blue Cloud Textile Factory only produces cotton and wool, and the quality of the produced fabrics is average. Fortunately, there are some machines brought over from the British side, which can already be used for industrial upgrading.

By then, setting up a few chemical plants, textile factories, clothing factories, power plants, steel plants, and machinery factories in Bahía Blanca will allow a simple heavy industrial system to be initially established.

If the chemical plants are well-managed, pharmaceutical development and deep processing of chemicals can be developed in the future.

San José spread out the map of Bahía Blanca, and he was already a little impatient.

Establishing an industrial city in the south, with real heavy chemical industries and other basic industries, can embrace the future.

The heavy chemical industry is a basic raw material industry with high capital and knowledge content, requiring huge investment, and it is not easy to develop.

San José's factories currently mainly involve electricity, petrochemicals, smelting, machinery, and shipbuilding. Fortunately, the investment is not too large, and it is barely acceptable. As long as the steel plant is put into production, he can basically breathe a sigh of relief.

The heavy chemical industry is the "backbone" of a region's economy and a strong material foundation for the modernization of the national economy. The Argentine South needs a locomotive for development, and Bahía Blanca is very suitable.

As for polluting the environment, there's no way around it.

If he could make a fortune from the American economic crisis and then buy a few bankrupt automobile companies and transport them to Argentina, there would be a foundation for developing the mechanical industry.

By then, building a few universities, Bahía Blanca will truly rise.

San José began to prepare some collected urban development data, preparing to introduce his own factories in the name of investment promotion, provided that the basic infrastructure construction is done well first.

For example, the roads in Bahía Blanca are currently dilapidated and need to be repaired. Road repairs require cement, steel and other materials, as well as electrical facilities and factory buildings, all of which need to be extensively repaired and built.

Tax revenue will definitely not be enough in the early stage, so loans are needed. Baron Bank has money for loans, floating interest rates, which can be used.

It's best to have a five-year plan or something like that.

Everything can be done simultaneously. It's not good to have too much domestic population migration. It's best to find international labor. There are also people in places like Brazil.

Moreover, it is necessary to expand the scale of Bahía Blanca and incorporate several surrounding towns, which involves political reform issues.

And it is necessary to unite the surrounding cities and develop together.

It is also possible to establish a port industrial zone, processing with supplied materials, and compensation trade.

It is necessary to support other small factories, let people invest, and bind them to the chariot.

The prerequisite for all of this is to run for councilor this year and mayor next year, otherwise you can only wait for the next term, or pull the current mayor down, which would be too arrogant.

Currently, there are four major families in Bahía Blanca, who basically control the current industry and commerce of Bahía Blanca.

They are the Bariloche family, which is also an industrial family, mainly controlling Bahía Blanca's flour processing industry, owning three processing plants, and 100,000 acres of farms, growing wheat and raising 40,000 cattle.

The Héctor Gay family, which controls two local beef processing plants, and also owns 50,000 acres of grassland in the Pampas, 200,000 cattle and sheep.

The Martínez family, a traditional caudillo family, is also the wealthiest family in Bahía Blanca, owning 3 beef processing plants, 20 wheat storage warehouses, an international trading company, the largest trading company in southern Argentina, Martínez Trading Company, which almost controls the largest wheat import and export share in the south, second only to the Argentine official import and export association, Pralari International, and Andes Trading.

The Grey family, considered a caudillo political family, has begun to transform, but also owns many industries, such as a lumber processing plant in the city, and also owns about 30,000 acres of agricultural and pastoral farms, as well as a small ship repair yard and a wharf.

The political forces in Bahía Blanca are not too complex, after all, the population is small. But it is, after all, one of the cities with a very high status, far surpassing Mar del Plata.

Mar del Plata's current unconventional development means its political status doesn't yet match its economic strength. Someone like Cross is still working hard to gain status.

For example, he has proposed merging General San Martín Partido completely with Mar del Plata, then renaming it and expanding the city limits, with the aim of establishing the second-largest city besides Córdoba. The population, including satellite towns, may already exceed 180,000.

The majority are from the Radical Civic Union, holding approximately 80% of the seats in the city council. These families are also mostly affiliated with the Radical Civic Union.

There is only one outsider, a councilor named Adler Crullaine, representing the Justice Party's presence in the area, essentially a representative sent from Buenos Aires Province, but he holds little sway and cannot shake the dominance of the four major families.

Overall, these families can be considered major Argentine families with considerable strength. Outsiders are easily marginalized or assimilated.

.....

This honeymoon was somewhat rushed, making him feel a little guilty towards his wife.

He needed to be back in time for the Independence Day parade on May 25th, in which the Radical Civic Union would participate, followed by the handover of his position in the Bahía Blanca branch.

And then the campaign for councilor of Bahía Blanca.

On July 9th, the Argentine Armed Forces and various other military units held the Independence Day parade.

Chilean, Uruguayan, Paraguayan, Bolivian, and Venezuelan troops also sent fifty-man contingents to participate in today's parade. Military attachés from various countries stationed in Argentina were invited to attend today's celebration.

It can be said that Argentina currently holds great prestige in South America. Since mediating the Chaco War, it has been at its peak. Brazil barely holds its own, and now even the Americans sometimes find Argentine opinions more persuasive.

July 9th is a special day for Argentinians; it is Argentina's Independence Day. The Argentine army is preparing to showcase its strength to the world because President Juan Perón is leading them to the highest banner in the world.

San José was also invited by the Radical Civic Union to participate in the parade.

Perón also invited the presidents of Chile and Uruguay to attend. The entire venue was filled with approximately hundreds of thousands of Argentinians, a sea of people.

Perón himself also put on his military uniform. Because it was relatively cold, he also wore an overcoat. Several generals around him were also wearing military overcoats. San José even saw General Thompson, although he was not on the main platform but on a slightly lower area next to it.

San José watched from a regular viewing platform. He even saw Guevara watching not far away, his brow furrowed, wondering what he was thinking. He would soon be leaving Argentina for Mexico.

This parade was indeed well-executed. The Navy, Army, and Air Force all participated, as well as military academy cadets, cavalry divisions, and motorized divisions. It was arguably the best parade in all of Latin America.

"This must be the peak of Argentine military parades."

After Perón's overthrow in a couple of years, even such decent parades could not be organized.

The goose-stepping was also well-executed, just not comparable to the world's number one army. The main thing is that it didn't look fierce enough.

Having seen those parades after the Vietnam War in later generations, San José believed that a real killing aura existed.

Without the experience of blood and fire, coupled with these officers interfering in politics and the military engaging in business, the Argentine army's combat effectiveness was greatly undermined.

Units such as the Buenos Aires Police Department, the Labor Federation affiliated with the Argentine General Confederation of Labor, and even some militia units also participated in the parade.

Naval formations patrolled the Río de la Plata. Some old battleships didn't look very threatening, they were the 'thin-skinned with a big filling' type.

There were also old tanks that looked like mobile coffins. There were also some more advanced tanks that drove through the Plaza de Mayo, adorned with the blue and white national flag.

However, this was already one of the two strongest armies in South America. The primary target of the Argentine army was the Brazilians.

The Brazilian army had American support, so its equipment was still quite good.

It can be said that the current Argentine army is also one of the more powerful in the world, but the economic crisis cast a shadow over this parade.

There were also infantry fighting vehicles, military jeeps, and other equipment of various types.

The performance of the Air Force formation was the best, with domestically produced aircraft and foreign imports, and the quality of the Air Force pilots was very good.

"Very spirited, very good."

"The scale is so large, it feels like the entire Argentine army has come."

San José said sarcastically. This grand parade brought almost one-tenth of the Argentine army, costing a huge amount.

It's just that the military and Perón are currently maintaining a superficial peace.

It's also hard to believe that the now-powerful Perón would be overthrown by a few local military factions, then begin the long era of military governments.

A flourishing age, a dangerous situation, must be prevented.

......

But there was also some bad news, such as the Argentine Military Aircraft Factory canceling military orders due to insufficient funding and aircraft problems.

The current Argentine Military Aircraft Factory is not weak; in fact, it is very famous in the world, ranking after Canada's aerospace industry.

Built on a solid economic foundation, Argentine industry and manufacturing were still very strong in the 1940s and 50s. A notable example is Argentina's aviation industry.

Not long after the end of World War II, Argentina began to develop an independent aviation industry based on the Argentine Military Aircraft Factory (FMA), established in the 1920s. With the help of German engineers, the FMA developed its first jet fighter, the IAe.27 "Pulqui" I, in 1946.

The successful development of the IAe.27 fighter marked Argentina as the 6th country in the world to independently develop a jet fighter. After the IAe.27, the FMA also developed the IAe.33 "Pulqui" II fighter, the IA-58 "Pucará" attack aircraft, and the IA-63 advanced trainer aircraft, among other models.

But now news has come from the Córdoba Falcon Bureau that Perón intends to cut the military aircraft factory project.

"We can't let these Germans go, but the money needed to invest in aircraft manufacturing is too much, possibly even more than the investment in developing the atomic bomb."

San José was a little worried. If these German design teams were gone, it would be difficult to reassemble them. But the investment in aircraft manufacturing is huge, and these Germans are likely the same ones who helped India develop its aircraft manufacturing industry, except that due to some secrecy, it is still unknown who they are.

"We must take action to save Argentina's aviation industry. Should we send someone from Rheinmetall Industries to Bahía Blanca to contact them and preserve this industry?"

If the aircraft manufacturing industry collapses, it will not be easy to rebuild it in the future.

This matter still depends on General Thompson's opinion.

If he can be persuaded, it will be half the battle.