Swierenga -- Publications. Robert P. Swierenga Research Professor, A. When the Dutch Calvinists emigrated to the North American Midwest in the s, their dominies led the way and churches were the first cultural institution to be established. How different it was fifty years later in Argentina!
There the Reformed immigrants had no clerical leadership and nearly twenty years passed before the mother church after many entreaties sent out a missionary pastor to gather in the scattered remnant and establish the first Reformed congregation. The Dutch settlers in Argentina experienced the painful reality, in the words of one, that "each one is left here to his own destiny.
Dutch colonization in Argentina had its inception in late s when the Argentine government decided to recruit northern European farmers to settle the fertile pampas frontier. The government at that time hoped to speed the development of its vast interior plain, which was suited to beef cattle and wheat production. Until this time Dutch emigrants had shown little interest in Argentina. In the Argentine government opened its first immigrant bureau in western Europe in Antwerp, and began recruiting in Belgium, Holland, and northern France.
But mainly business and professional persons responded. The Argentine government also hired Dutch engineers and architects for various public works projects. To promote the nascent Dutch-Argentine trade and commerce, the Netherlands government in opened a consulate in Buenos Aires, which helped merchants import Dutch gin, tobacco, cheese, and dairy cattle prized by big ranchers.
In the s Dutch entrepreneurs in Buenos Aires established the Dutch Bank of South America to finance and supervise their enterprises. But Argentina had far less success attracting Dutch farmers than businessmen, because of its Catholic culture, Spanish language, and political instability. In the government of president M.
