ARA Rivadavia () was an Argentine battleship built during the South American dreadnought race. Named after the first Argentine president, Bernardino Rivadavia, it was the lead ship of its class. was Rivadavias only sister ship. In 1907, the Brazilian government placed an order for two of the powerful new "dreadnought" warships as part of a larger naval construction program. Argentina quickly responded, as the Brazilian ships outclassed anything in the Argentine fleet. After an extended bidding process, contracts to design and build Rivadavia and Moreno were given to the American Fore River Shipbuilding Company. During their construction, there were rumors that the ships might be sold to a country engaged in the First World War, but both were commissioned into the Argentine Navy. Rivadavia underwent extensive refits in the United States in 1924 and 1925. The ship saw no active service during the Second World War, and its last cruise was made in 1946. Stricken from the naval register in 1957, Rivadavia was sold later that year and broken up for scrap starting in 1959. Background Rivadavias genesis can be traced to the naval arms races between Chile and Argentina which were spawned by territorial disputes over their mutual borders in Patagonia and Puna de Atacama, along with control of the Beagle Channel. These arms races flared up in the 1890s and again in 1902; the latter was eventually stopped through British mediation. Provisions in the dispute-ending treaty imposed restrictions on both countries' navies. The United Kingdom's Royal Navy bought the two Constitución-class pre-dreadnought battleships that were being built for Chile, and Argentina sold its two Rivadavia-class armored cruisers under construction in Italy to Japan. After was commissioned by the United Kingdom, Brazil decided in early 1907 to halt the construction of three obsolescent pre-dreadnoughts and begin work on two dreadnoughts (the ). These ships, which were designed to carry the heaviest battleship armament in the world at the time, came as a shock to the navies of South America, and Argentina and Chile quickly canceled the 1902 armament-limiting pact. Argentina in particular was alarmed at the possible power of the ships. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Manuel Augusto Montes de Oca, remarked that even one Minas Geraes-class ship could destroy the entire Argentine and Chilean fleets. While this may have been hyperbole, either one was much more powerful than any single vessel in the Argentinian fleet. Debates raged in