Developer Diary | Argentina

¡Hola amigos! My name is Eilidh, and this just so happens to be my first time writing a Dev Diary for you guys! I’m very excited to introduce to you the work I have been doing on Argentina, one of the nations you’ll be able to lead in Trial of Allegiance. Whilst Argentina didn’t get directly involved in the war until late in the game, the country went through massive changes and had an absolutely fascinating history during the 1930s through to the 1940s. So let’s take a look at this ‘Infamous Decade’ and allow me to give you a brief context overview of where the country is at the start of the game, before taking you on a tour around the various political branches you can take in the Argentinian focus tree. Without further ado, let’s get stuck in!

Context Pre-1936

Prior to the start of the Great Depression, Argentina followed a trend of strong economic growth, enough to rival countries such as Canada or Australia in per capita income. This strong era of development for the country was also matched by social and economic reforms brought about by the government - which currently seated the Radical Civic Union party. However, it was during the second administration of president Hipólito Yrigoyen that things took a turn for the worst. The Great Depression arrived in Argentina, bringing with it a crippling economic crisis. In 1930, the military took things into their own hands, ousting Yrigoyen in the first military coup in modern Argentine history. It is this event that marked the beginning of what would later be called the Infamous Decade in Argentina; a period of fraudulent elections, government corruption and further military coup d’etats.

After Yrigoyen was removed from office, there was another election, this time putting Agustín Pedro Justo in power, supported by the newly created conservative party known as the Concordancia. This party was a union of various dissident sectors of other political parties that opposed the late Yrigoyen. It was Justo that orchestrated the practice of electoral fraud that became prevalent during the 1930s in Argentina; a case that would be attached to the legacy of the Concordancia.

The Great Depression hit Argentina relatively hard, and in the wake of such a global economic crisis, Great Britain, the principal economic partner of Argentina in the 1920s and 1930s, took measures to protect the meat supply market in the Commonwealth. One of these measures was to create a bilateral treaty with the Argentine Senate known as the Roca-Runciman treaty; named after the two men who signed it. This treaty ensured and strengthened the commercial tires between Argentina and Britain.

Moving back to the time before the first world war, Argentina engaged in a significant naval arms race with its neighbors Brazil and Chile. After years of conflict between Argentina and Chile, a pact was formed in 1902 that limited the naval armaments of both countries. However, alarmed by the sudden influx of Brazilian warships a few years later, Argentina quickly moved to nullify the remaining months of their pact with Chile to join in the naval arms race and match the naval capabilities of their northern neighbor Brazil. However when the first world war ended, so did the arms race. Suffering from the financial cost of trying to expand their naval capabilities, all three countries suddenly found themselves unable to acquire additional warships. After the conflict, the race never resumed, but many plans for post-war naval expansions were postulated by the Argentine, Brazilian, and Chilean governments.

In game, we represent these issues