Abstract

SEIGUER, Paula. ¿Son los anglicanos argentinos?: Un primer debate sobre la evangelización protestante y la nación. Rev. Esc. Hist. [online]. 2006, n.5, pp.59-90. ISSN 1669-9041.

On September 27th 1886 a bill was presented to the Deputy Chamber of the National Congress asking for the grant of eight leagues of land on the Beagle channel in the name of the anglican missionary Thomas Bridges. The petition, sent by the executive, gave rise to a heated debate, in which it became apparent that some sectors sensed a latent threat to the nation in this iniciative. Who was this missionary, with such an early settlement in Tierra del Fuego ? What motives moved him to ask for these lands, and how could his existence be perceived as worrisome to some legislators within the National Congress? These are some of the questions this article endeavours to answer.             We will start by making a brief outline of the protestant (and specifically anglican) missionary expansion during the 19th century, focusing on the description of the forms it took in catholic territories such as Latin America . We will then offer a narrative on the modes of the Anglican Church's arrival in Argentina , while attempting to display the existence of potentially conflictive traditions within it, of which we will expound on the one corresponding to the missionaries on the Argentine southern territories. Finally, we shall focus on these initiatives' reception and their insertion in the Argentine political climate, through the analisis of the debate generated in the Deputy Chamber by Thomas Bridges' request for lands.

Keywords : Protestantism; Anglicans; Missions; Tierra del Fuego; Nationalism.

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