Emerging El Dorado - Steam Age Expansionism and the Social Worlds of Growth in Argentina

The scramble for distant riches features centrally in the history of the Global South--from the first forays of European imperialists to the recent fascination with emerging markets. In the mid-nineteenth century, fortune hunters turned their attention to Argentina, transforming it into a front line of an expanding West. While accounts of this period often emphasize impersonal economic flows, Emerging El Dorado demonstrates that this chase for wealth has a far more multifaceted, dynamic, and human history. In Argentina, it encouraged explosive growth across several fronts--financial, commercial, demographic, territorial. Capitalist routines of accumulation coexisted with get-rich-quick ventures, land grabs, and fraudulent schemes. Eduardo Elena's study profiles the promoters in Argentina and Europe who convinced others that this truly was a "rising country." At the same time, this book investigates the experiences of groups who helped propel expansion, such as migrant families and overseas investors, and those like mixed-race paisanos/as and Indigenous peoples who were deemed obstacles. By exploring these overlapping social worlds, Emerging El Dorado sheds new light on the roots of our present-day growth dilemmas.

About the author

Eduardo Elena is Associate Professor of History at the University of Miami.

Product details

• Authors: Elena Eduardo
• Publisher: University Presses
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 03.07.2026
• EAN: 9780520425873
• ISBN: 978-0-520-42587-3
• No. of pages: 415
• Illustrations: 18 b-w illustrations, 2 maps
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Business > General, dictionaries; Argentina, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, HISTORY / Latin America / South America, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Economic history, Social and cultural history, Social and cultural anthropology, History of the Americas