Early History of Argentina

What is today known as Argentina was a relatively sparsely populated area of South America before the arrival of the Spanish in 16th century. To the north the impressive Inca Empire had begun to spread into Argentina by around 1480, as the mummified Inca child on display in the fantastic museum in Salta testifies. The Guarani people (one of the few tribes whose language and culture continue to survive, in part thanks to the Jesuit missions) occupied the north eastern parts of modern day Argentina. The Pampas were inhabited by the Querandí, who are best known for their heroic resilience to Spanish colonisation. In the south the native tribes, known communally as the Tehuelches, were mainly hunter-gatherers. They continued to resist Argentine rule until president Nicolás Avellaneda’s ruthless “Conquista del Desierto” (Conquest of the Desert) of 1879, which violently annexed huge parts of Patagonia, opening it up to settlement and sheep rearing. 

Although the first European ship landed on Argentine soil in 1502, it was not until 1580 that the Spanish founded a permanent settlement, which they named Buenos Aires, after a previous attempt in 1936 had failed due to fierce Querandí resistance. However, the city of Buenos Aires remained a backwater of the Spanish empire. This was mainly because of legislation, passed by the King of Spain, which dictated that trade between Spain and its colonies be conducted solely through the Pacific port of Lima. The prime location of Buenos Aires as an Atlantic trading post, however, meant that despite official restrictions contraband and smuggling flourished, laying the initial seeds of the impressive growth that would quickly set the city apart from the rest of the continent. By the late 18th century the decline of the Potosí silver mine and the increasing value of agricultural products on the international market meant that Spain was forced to recognise Buenos Aires’s potential for transatlantic trade.

In 1776 trade out of Buenos Aires was officially legitimised as the city was recognised as the Viceroyalty of the Río de Plata, which included Paraguay, Uruguay and the mines of Potosí. Firmly on its feet by the beginning of the 19th century, Buenos Aires used the Napoleonic invasion of Spain in 1808 to push for independence. This bid was eventually successful in 1810, and on the 25 May Buenos Aires declared its independence.

By 1820 South America had united under the heroic leadership of men such as Bolivar and San Martin to liberate the continent from Spanish rule. However, problems in Argentina were far from over. For the next two decades the country was exhaustively stalemated in conflict between two opposing factions; the Unitarists and the Federalists. The Unitarists insisted on national rule centred on Buenos Aires. In direct contrast, the Federalists supported a decentralised government, which gave more autonomy and power to the individual provinces. Some stability was eventually achieved under the leadership of Juan Maunuel Rosas, now widely regarded as a dictator. Although championing the Federalist, he also gained Unitarist support by centralizing political power on Buenos Aires and forcing all international trade through its port. Although Rosas was overthrown by a coup in 1852, his 20 year reign had in many ways settled the political arena; laying the path for the emergence of an actual constitution and Argentina’s first president, Justo José de Urquiza, in 1853. 

The end of the 19th and beginning of 20th centuries mark what has become known as Argentina’s ‘golden age’. With international trade booming, Buenos Aires flourished. As a result of an influx of immigrants from all over Europe (particularly Italy) the city grew by almost seven times between 1869 and 1895; rocketing from 90,000 to 670,000 residents. This sustained growth continued through the beginning of the 20th century and by 1929 Argentina had the world's 4th highest per capita GDP. However, the great depression destroyed international trade and left the fragile, export based, Argentine economy in ruins: ruins from which the country would not recover for the rest of the century. This is in many ways the most intriguing element of Argentine history. Argentina was, in many ways, the first ‘developed’ country on the continent. But the last half-century have marked an almost constant decline, sinking it ever deeper into economic backwardness. As Michael Reid writes in Forgotten Continent, “Argentina is thus not a ‘developing country’. Uniquely, development slipped from its grasp. That is a haunting condition”.        

Want to know more? Try;

• Argentina 1516-1987: From Spanish Colonization to Alfonsin, by D. Rock
• The Open Veins of Latin America, by Eduardo Galeano.
• The Uttermost Part of the Earth, by L. Bridges.

• Meet the locals: Nicolás Gómez – Post-modernist poet
• Community Entry: Argentine Cuisine
• Community Entry: Argentine Wine
• Early History of Argentina: From the Pre-colombian era to the Golden Age
• Recent History of Argentina: “Infamous Decade” to the 2001 crash.
• The Tango
• Eva Perón
• Football in Argentina
• Che Guevara
• Diego Maradonna