Argentina

Long before any European sail appeared, the territory of present-day Argentina was inhabited by a great diversity of peoples. In the northwest, within the orbit of the Andean and later Inca worlds, the Diaguita built settled farming communities cultivating maize and other crops. In the humid northeast lived Guarani-speaking peoples, skilled farmers and rivermen, while across the vast Pampas and into Patagonia roamed semi-nomadic hunting and gathering peoples, and the Mapuche, whose influence spread eastward across the Andes, developed a resilient warrior culture that would resist outside domination for centuries.

European contact began in the early sixteenth century. The Rio de la Plata estuary was explored from 1516, and in 1536 Pedro de Mendoza founded a first settlement he named for Santa Maria del Buen Aire. Hunger and determined Indigenous resistance doomed it, and within a few years the survivors withdrew upriver to Asuncion. Spanish settlement of the region instead spread inland from Peru and Chile, founding towns such as Santiago del Estero and Cordoba in the northwest, which long remained more important than the river port.

Buenos Aires was permanently re-established only in 1580, when Juan de Garay led an expedition down from Asuncion and refounded the city. From these beginnings the Rio de la Plata became a peripheral frontier of the Spanish empire, oriented for two centuries toward the silver of Potosi and the administrative centre at Lima rather than toward the Atlantic. The Indigenous peoples who preceded the Spanish remain a deep foundation of Argentine society, surviving in its languages, place-names, and living communities.

Turning points

1. by c. 10,000 BCEPeoples & Migration

   Ancient peopling of the land

   Hunter-gatherer peoples occupy the Pampas, Patagonia and the Andean northwest over many millennia, leaving sites such as the painted hands of the Cueva de las Manos.

   ↗See the data

   [22] [1]

2. 1st millennium CECulture & Ideas

   Diaguita and Guarani societies

   Settled Diaguita farmers flourish in the northwest within the Andean world, while Guarani-speaking peoples cultivate the riverine northeast.

   [1]

3. 1516 CEColonisation

   Spanish reach the Rio de la Plata

   European expeditions begin to explore the great estuary of the Rio de la Plata, opening the region to Spanish ambitions.

   ↗See the data

   [1]

4. 1536 CEFormation

   First founding of Buenos Aires

   Pedro de Mendoza founds a first settlement on the Rio de la Plata, soon abandoned amid famine and Indigenous resistance, its survivors retreating to Asuncion.

   [3] [2]

5. 1580 CEFormation

   Refounding of Buenos Aires

   Juan de Garay leads an expedition from Asuncion and permanently re-establishes Buenos Aires, fixing the future capital on the estuary.

   [2]

Figures of the era

Through the seventeenth and most of the eighteenth century the region remained a backwater of the Spanish empire, subordinate to the distant Viceroyalty of Peru. Trade was tightly restricted and channelled through Lima, which encouraged a flourishing contraband economy on the estuary. In the northeast, the Jesuit Order built among the Guarani a remarkable network of mission towns, the reducciones, which prospered until the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish domains in 1767, leaving the famous ruins later recognised as a World Heritage site.

The decisive change came in 1776, when King Charles III, decentralising imperial rule and seeking to defend the south against Portuguese encroachment, created the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata with Buenos Aires as its capital. The new viceroyalty embraced present-day Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Upper Peru (Bolivia), and the silver of Potosi was now routed through Buenos Aires, transforming the port into a wealthy commercial hub with a growing, self-confident merchant and creole elite.

That new confidence was tested by the British invasions of 1806 and 1807, when British forces twice seized Buenos Aires and were twice driven out, largely by local militias organised without help from Spain. The experience proved to the people of the Rio de la Plata that they could defend and govern themselves, and it fed a rising sense of autonomy. When Napoleon's occupation of Spain in 1808 plunged the mother country into crisis, the way was open for the creoles of Buenos Aires to take power into their own hands.

Turning points

1. 1609-1767Religion

   Jesuit missions among the Guarani

   The Jesuit Order founds mission towns among the Guarani that flourish until the order's expulsion from Spanish lands in 1767.

   [21] [1]

2. 1776 CEPolitics & Power

   Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata created

   Charles III establishes the new viceroyalty with Buenos Aires as capital, routing Potosi silver through the port and spurring its rise.

   [4] [1]

3. 1778 CEEconomy & Trade

   Free trade reforms

   Bourbon commercial reforms loosen Spain's trade monopoly, allowing Buenos Aires to trade more freely and accelerating its growth as an Atlantic port.

   ↗See the data

   [4]

4. 1806-1807War & Rupture

   British invasions repelled

   British forces seize Buenos Aires twice and are twice expelled by local militias, kindling creole self-confidence and a taste for autonomy.

   ↗See the data

   [1]

On 25 May 1810, news that the Spanish resistance to Napoleon had collapsed reached Buenos Aires, and an open cabildo deposed the viceroy and installed the Primera Junta, the first self-governing body of the Rio de la Plata. The May Revolution did not at first proclaim independence, but it began the Argentine War of Independence and is remembered as the birth of the nation's self-government. The years that followed brought conflict between the centre at Buenos Aires and the provinces, and military campaigns to defend the revolution against royalist forces from Upper Peru.

Among the leaders of these years was Manuel Belgrano, who in 1812 raised on the banks of the Parana at Rosario the light-blue-and-white flag that became the national emblem, and who won victories at Tucuman and Salta. The decisive constitutional step came when delegates of the provinces gathered at San Miguel de Tucuman. On 9 July 1816 the Congress of Tucuman declared independence from Spain, proclaiming the United Provinces of South America; twenty-nine delegates signed, and Francisco Narciso de Laprida presided.

Independence still had to be secured on the battlefield. Jose de San Martin, the foremost soldier of the revolution, assembled the Army of the Andes at Mendoza and, in one of the great feats of the age, crossed the high cordillera in early 1817 to liberate Chile after the battles of Chacabuco and Maipu, then carried the war by sea to Peru, the citadel of Spanish power, where he was proclaimed Protector in 1821. His campaigns, alongside those of Simon Bolivar from the north, broke Spanish rule in South America. At home, however, the central authority fractured, and by 1820 the United Provinces had dissolved into a contest among rival provinces.

Turning points

1. 25 May 1810Independence

   The May Revolution

   An open cabildo in Buenos Aires deposes the viceroy and forms the Primera Junta, the first home government, launching the war of independence.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [1]

2. 27 Feb 1812Politics & Power

   Belgrano raises the flag

   Manuel Belgrano first flies the light-blue-and-white flag at Rosario; it is adopted by the Congress of Tucuman in 1816.

   [10] [9]

3. 9 July 1816Independence

   Declaration of Independence at Tucuman

   The Congress of Tucuman declares independence from Spain as the United Provinces of South America, signed by twenty-nine delegates under the presidency of Laprida.

   ↗See the data

   [6] [7]

4. Jan-Feb 1817War & Rupture

   San Martin crosses the Andes

   San Martin leads the Army of the Andes over the cordillera and defeats royalist forces at Chacabuco, opening the liberation of Chile.

   ↗See the data

   [8] [1]

5. 1820 CEPolitics & Power

   Collapse of central authority

   The United Provinces fragment as central government breaks down and provincial caudillos contend for power, beginning decades of civil war.

   [1]

Figures of the era

After 1820 the United Provinces dissolved into a long struggle between Unitarians, who wanted a centralised state run from Buenos Aires, and Federalists, who defended provincial autonomy. From 1829 the Federalist caudillo Juan Manuel de Rosas dominated the country as governor of Buenos Aires, ruling with an iron hand until he was overthrown at the Battle of Caseros in 1852 by Justo Jose de Urquiza. Urquiza convened a constituent congress at Santa Fe, and in 1853 it sanctioned the National Constitution, establishing a federal, representative and republican state; after a final clash, Buenos Aires joined the union, and the country was effectively unified by 1862.

The decades that followed are remembered as the era of the liberal, oligarchic republic, often associated with the Generation of 1880. Its leaders pursued export-led growth, education, railways and European immigration. The state extended its control over the land by force: the Conquest of the Desert, the military campaign waged chiefly by Julio Argentino Roca between 1878 and 1885, brought the Pampas and northern Patagonia under national authority by killing, subduing and displacing the Mapuche and other Indigenous peoples, opening vast territories to settlement and ranching.

On those plains arose one of the world's great export economies, sending beef, wool and grain to Europe and making Argentina, by the early twentieth century, one of the richest countries on earth per head. To work and settle the land, the country threw open its doors to immigration: between roughly 1880 and 1914 some four million people, above all Italians and Spaniards but also French, Eastern Europeans and Middle Easterners, arrived and remade the nation, so that by 1914 nearly a third of the population was foreign-born and half of Buenos Aires. Pressure from this changing society led to the Saenz Pena Law of 1912, which established the secret universal male ballot and, in 1916, brought the Radical Hipolito Yrigoyen to power in the first government elected under it.

Turning points

1. 1829-1852Politics & Power

   The rule of Rosas

   The Federalist caudillo Juan Manuel de Rosas dominates Argentina as governor of Buenos Aires until his fall, a period of strongman rule and conflict.

   [11] [1]

2. 3 Feb 1852War & Rupture

   Battle of Caseros

   Justo Jose de Urquiza defeats Rosas at Caseros, opening the way to the constitutional organisation of the country.

   ↗See the data

   [12] [1]

3. 1 May 1853Politics & Power

   The National Constitution

   A constituent congress at Santa Fe sanctions the Constitution of 1853, establishing a federal, representative and republican state.

   [12] [1]

4. 1878-1885War & Rupture

   The Conquest of the Desert

   Military campaigns led by Julio Argentino Roca seize the Pampas and northern Patagonia from the Mapuche and other peoples through killing, subjugation and displacement.

   ↗See the data

   [1]

5. 1880-1914Peoples & Migration

   Mass European immigration

   Some four million immigrants, chiefly Italians and Spaniards, arrive to settle and work the land, so that by 1914 nearly a third of Argentines are foreign-born.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [13]

Figures of the era

The radical governments that began with Hipolito Yrigoyen in 1916 widened political participation, but the worldwide slump of 1930 triggered the first of the twentieth century's military coups and ushered in a period of fraud and instability known as the Infamous Decade. The economy turned inward, industry grew in the cities, and a new urban working class formed, providing the social base for the transformation to come.

Out of the military government of the early 1940s rose Colonel Juan Domingo Peron, who as secretary of labour built a devoted following among workers. On 17 October 1945 a great demonstration of his supporters, the descamisados, forced his release from detention, and in February 1946 he was elected president. With his charismatic wife Eva Peron, who championed the poor and won women the vote, he forged a movement, Peronism, that combined nationalism, industrialisation and sweeping social and labour reform with a tightening grip on opposition, the press and the unions. Eva's death in 1952 and economic difficulties weakened him, and in 1955 he was overthrown by the military and driven into exile.

The two decades that followed were marked by chronic instability as governments, civilian and military, tried and failed to rule with Peronism banned but its followers a majority. Amid mounting economic crisis and political violence, Peron returned in triumph in 1973 and was again elected president, but he died on 1 July 1974, leaving the presidency to his third wife, Isabel. Her government collapsed into spiralling inflation, guerrilla insurgency and right-wing terror, until the armed forces seized power on 24 March 1976.

Turning points

1. 1916 CEPolitics & Power

   First election under universal male suffrage

   Hipolito Yrigoyen of the Radical Civic Union wins the presidency in the first vote under the secret universal male ballot of 1912.

   [1]

2. 1930 CEPolitics & Power

   The first military coup

   Amid the Great Depression the army overthrows Yrigoyen, opening the fraud-ridden Infamous Decade and a century of military intervention.

   [1]

3. 1946 CEPolitics & Power

   Peron elected president

   Juan Peron wins the presidency with broad working-class support, launching the Peronist movement that will dominate Argentine politics.

   [14] [1]

4. Sept 1955Politics & Power

   Peron overthrown

   The Revolucion Libertadora ousts Peron, who goes into an exile of nearly two decades while Peronism is banned at home.

   [14]

5. 1973-1974Politics & Power

   Peron's return and death

   Peron returns from exile and is re-elected president in 1973, but dies on 1 July 1974, leaving power to his wife Isabel amid deepening crisis.

   [14] [1]

Figures of the era

On 24 March 1976 the armed forces overthrew Isabel Peron and installed a junta that called itself the National Reorganization Process. Behind a promise of order it carried out a campaign of state terror, the Dirty War, against suspected leftists, activists, students, trade unionists and others. Tens of thousands were seized, held in clandestine detention centres, tortured, and murdered; many were thrown, drugged but alive, from aircraft into the sea. These victims are the desaparecidos, the disappeared. The official truth commission later documented nearly nine thousand cases, while human rights organisations estimate the dead and disappeared at around thirty thousand. In defiance of the terror, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo marched each week to demand the return of their children, becoming the conscience of the nation.

Weakened by economic collapse and growing protest, the junta gambled on nationalism. On 2 April 1982 it invaded the Falkland Islands, known in Argentina as the Malvinas, long claimed by the country. Britain dispatched a task force, and after ten weeks of fighting the Argentine garrison surrendered on 14 June 1982. The humiliating defeat destroyed what credibility the regime had left and forced it to call elections.

Democracy returned on 10 December 1983 with the inauguration of Raul Alfonsin. His government created the CONADEP commission, whose report Nunca Mas (Never Again) laid bare the crimes of the dictatorship, and in 1985 the Trial of the Juntas convicted its leaders, a landmark in holding a military regime to account through its own courts. The decades since have been turbulent, marked by hyperinflation in the late 1980s, the convertibility experiment of the 1990s, and the catastrophic economic and political crisis of 2001 to 2002, when the country defaulted and ran through several presidents in days. Yet through every shock, constitutional democracy has endured, and Argentina has continued the long work of remembering its disappeared and seeking justice.

Turning points

1. 24 Mar 1976Politics & Power

   Military coup and the Dirty War

   The armed forces seize power and launch the National Reorganization Process, a dictatorship whose Dirty War forcibly disappears thousands of people; from 1977 the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo march weekly to demand their return.

   [16] [17]

2. Apr-Jun 1982War & Rupture

   The Falklands/Malvinas War

   Argentina invades the Falklands/Malvinas on 2 April; after ten weeks of war its forces surrender to Britain on 14 June, discrediting the junta.

   ↗See the data

   [18] [1]

3. 10 Dec 1983Politics & Power

   Return to democracy

   Raul Alfonsin is inaugurated president, restoring civilian democratic rule after seven years of dictatorship.

   [19] [1]

4. 1985 CEPolitics & Power

   Nunca Mas and the Trial of the Juntas

   Following the CONADEP report Nunca Mas, civilian courts try and convict the junta leaders for the crimes of the Dirty War.

   [20] [16]

5. 2001-2002Economy & Trade

   Economic and political crisis

   A severe financial collapse forces a sovereign default and topples several presidents in days, the gravest crisis of the democratic era.

   ↗See the data

   [1]

Figures of the era