El petróleo argentino en las primeras décadas del siglo XX: un comienzo polémico (Argentine oil in the first decades of the twentieth century: a controversial beginning)

Abstract

El presente trabajo intentara demostrar como el clima de controversias que se genero tempranamente en torno al descubrimiento del petroleo en la Argentina a principios del siglo XX y que se manifesto en la esfera del debate publico continuo reflejandose en el terreno ideologico, institucional y politico en las primeras decadas del siglo XX. Para comprender la trama historica de las discusiones que se generaron desde un comienzo se recurrio al analisis de fuentes documentales y debates parlamentarios asi como tambien a la consulta de periodicos y revistas de la epoca, libros e investigaciones de autores destacados en el tema. Si bien, el controvertido descubrimiento del petroleo dio origen a diversas propuestas desde las mas cautas hasta las mas radicales, tambien genero un ambiente propicio para el surgimiento de iniciativas que impulsaron la modernizacion de la economia a partir de un modelo economico estatal, industrialista y autonomo. Clasificacion JEL: N4, N5 Abstract The present work will try to demonstrate how the climate of controversies that was generated early around the discovery of oil in Argentina at the beginning of the 20th century and that manifested itself in the sphere of public debate continued to be reflected in the ideological, institutional and political terrain in the first decades of the 20th century. To understand the historical plot of the discussions that were generated from the beginning, an analysis was made of documentary sources and parliamentary debates, as well as the consultation of newspapers and magazines of the time, books and research by prominent authors on the subject. Although, the controversial discovery of oil gave rise to diverse proposals from the most cautious to the most radical, it also created an environment conducive to the emergence of initiatives that promoted the modernization of the economy based on a state, industrialist and autonomous economic model. JEL Classification: N4,N5