The concept of Constitution in the Rio de la Plata (1750-1850)

This article studies changes and continuities in the meaning of the concept 'constitucion' in the Rio de la Plata along a period of important political transformations. ln its particular semantic modulations, the concept shows the contlictive process of revolution, independence war and disputes around the exercise of power and the definition of sovereignty among the "pueblos" emerged from the crisis of the Spanish Monarchy of 1808. The Rio de la Plata did not participate in the constitutional experience of Cadiz and it early began a constitutional period which was marked by the writing of rules of regulation, provisory statutes and constitution projects for the regulation of an independent State, which nevertheless failed during the first half of the 19111 century. Thus, the concept of constitution shows the diverse alternatives of recomposition of the Hispanic political body -which were not strange to the Rio de la Plata- and it explains some of the substantial keys to understand the reasons that led to the failure of the projects of national organization until 1850. Finally, this study shows the importance of the resemantization of the concept in the making of a new argumentation on constitutional design that went along with the creation of the Argentinean national State.