On the eve of European colonization in 1580, Argentina was a vast tract of fertile land and a social and economic backwater with a temperate climate and a sparse indigenous population. Argentina-Spain relations are the bilateral relationship between the Argentine Republic and the Kingdom of Spain.Since a great portion of the immigrants to Argentina before the mid-19th century were of Spanish descent, and a significant part of the late-19th century/early-20th century immigrants to Argentina were Spaniards, the large majority of Argentines are at least partly of Spanish . Argentina also claims a portion of Antarctica, as well as several islands in the South Atlantic, including the British-ruled Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas). One of the governments first tasks was to build a naval fleet from scratch. It has a subtropical climate characterized by some of Latin Americas hottest weather, is largely covered by thorny vegetation, and is subject to summer flooding. Italian settlements in Argentina, along with Spanish settlements, formed the backbone of today's Argentine society. The Argentine Patriots, however, were unhappy with their leadership, and in October 1812, a coup deposed the government and installed a new triumvirate more committed to the cause of independence. Unprepared for the style of urban warfare that awaited them, the British fell prey to pots of boiling oil and water thrown from windows, as well as other projectiles thrown by the local inhabitants. The city was defended by 5,000 men, and the British had to make short work of capturing the city before Spanish reinforcements could arrive from Buenos Aires. The Spanish invasion and colonization of Andean South America left millions dead, landscapes transformed, and traditional ways of life annihilated. Taken from footprinttravelguides.com, History of Argentina, (n.d.), March 12, 2018. from its colonization by the Spanish to the present day, though I believe the key period that has determined the course of Argentina's economy for the second half of the twentieth century and the early part of the twenty-first was the first presidency of Pern, from 1946 to 1955. But our history must begin with the four greatest ancient Mesoamerican civilizations. The French Revolution in 5 Iconic Paintings, The Political Effects of the American Revolutionary War. The Royalists, however, still held the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo. It was perhaps a legacy of this successful resistance that enabled the native peoples of Argentina to carry on a prolonged campaign against colonization and rule by the Spanish. East of the Gran Chaco, in a narrow depression 60 to 180 miles (100 to 300 km) wide, lies Mesopotamia, which is bordered to the north by the highlands of southern Brazil. 750.000: Brasil rest in small groups to other american countries. This was due to the small amount of inhabitants that were in the vast expanse of land. Police say gunmen have left a threatening message for Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi and opened fire at a supermarket owned by his in-laws in Argentinas third-largest city, Over the past year, Argentine immigration authorities have noticed flights packed with dozens of pregnant Russians, Scientists say climate change isn't to blame for the nasty three-year drought still devastating Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Bolivia, Which Country Is Larger By Population? Argentines have named the area southward to latitude 30 S, where the Pampas begin, the Chaco Austral (Southern Chaco). Tucumn produced a significant amount of livestock, and this was sent to the upper part of the viceroyalty of Peru (the area that today occupies the map Bolivia) in exchange for goods brought from Spain. Spain sought to protect its colonial territory from Portuguese and British expansion. During this period Argentina was considered one of the minor colonies for Spain, because the center of European government of this region was in Peru due to the important presence of resources that the area presented and the lack of minerals that were in Argentina. 1. Still, the early 20th century saw a stream of immigration of poor people and political exiles from Spain to the former colonies, especially Cuba, Mexico and Argentina. Colonization in Argentina The first European explore to land in what is now Argentina was Juan Diaz de Solos, a Spanish sailor that landed in the Rio de la Plata in 1516. European colonial periods. 100 yearsit was a short process. Spanish Discovery & the Beginnings of Colonial Argentina http://www.tomrichey.netIn the first part of my lecture series on European colonization of the Americas, I take a look at the Spanish colonists, their goals,. The population of Tucumn possessed a wide jurisdiction over the ecclesiastical controls of the region, as well as an important political participation. Chile's first known European discoverer, Ferdinand Magellan, stopped there during his voyage on October 21, 1520. Also important there, as elsewhere in Spanish America, were the ramifications of Napoleon Is intervention in Spain, beginning in 1808, which plunged that country into a civil war between two rival governmentsone set up by Napoleon, who placed his own brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne, and the other created by patriotic juntas in Spain in the name of the exiled Ferdinand VII and aided by the British. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. It drains an area of some 1.2 million square miles (3.2 million square km), which includes northern Argentina, the whole of Paraguay, eastern Bolivia, most of Uruguay, and a large part of Brazil. The Incas were so severely weakened by European diseases brought over by the Spaniards that they were unable to properly defend themselves and were conquered by an army of about 180 men led by Francisco . Furthermore, a large proportion of Spanish immigration to Argentina during the 20th century was from the North Western region of Galicia, which has a separate language and distinct culture from other parts of Spain. This colonization had a profound impact on the country and its people, and in this section, we will tell you all about Argentinas history both before and after this monumental event. In 2013, there were 92,453 Spanish citizens born in Spain living in Argentina and another 288,494 Spanish citizens born in Argentina.[2]. There was a general retreat of all the tribes in the area (including the nomads) and even some were unified with the Mapuche to try to retake the lost lands. Soon after the Reconquista, Spain became the first global power in the world. Colonists from Chile, Peru, and Asuncion (in present-day Paraguay) created the first permanent Spanish settlements in Argentina, including Buenos Aires in 1580. It covers the entire period from the establishment of the first homes by Europeans in the country until its independence in 1816. 2.000.000: Argentina. In Argentina the independence movement began in 180607, when British attacks on Buenos Aires were repelled in the two battles known as the Reconquista and the Defensa. Colonial Argentina is designated as the period of the History of Argentina when it was an overseas territory of the Spanish Empire. Soil types in Argentina range from the light-coloured saline formations of the high puna in the Northwest to the dark, humus-rich type found in the Pampas. As a response, an illegal trade network emerged that also included the Portuguese in their colony to the north. Its powers were very limited, but it was the only organ that had given the colonists experience in self-government. Rivers that cross Patagonia from west to east diminish in volume as they travel through the arid land. The fascinating history of how these visitors from an essentially Spanish speaking country, also come to speak the 'language of heaven' dates back to the first half of the 19th century. Spanish culture has left a great mark on modern Argentine culture. Taken from wikipedia.org, Pedro de Mendoza, (n.d.), March 9, 2018. Thus, before 1850, the vast majority of European settlers in Argentina were from Spain and they carried the Spanish colonial administration, including religious affairs, government, and commercial business. 20 Questions Show answers. A concerted attempt at colonization began when Diego de Almagro, a companion of conqueror Francisco Pizarro, headed south from Peru in 1535. Garay was one of the main emissaries of the Spanish Crown in the viceroyalty of Peru, being governor of what is now Paraguay. The colonial Argentines had little time to prepare. From 1810 to 1818, the Argentines were locked in a war for freedom against their colonial masters, but there were also civil conflicts about how the state should be run after independence was achieved. Centuries after, the Americans followed in their footsteps. When Spain lost control, Mauritania and Morocco moved in. During winter most rivers and wetlands of the Gran Chaco dry up, the air chills, and the land seems visibly to shrink. The Argentine area was within the Spanish colonial entities of: The new ideas of the Age of Enlightenment and the events of the Peninsular War started the Argentine Wars of Independence, a theater of the greater Spanish American wars of independence. Racism and classism "continues to this day," a legacy of brutal colonization battles. Patagonia is the cold, parched, windy region that extends some 1,200 miles (1,900 km) south of the Pampas, from the Colorado River to Tierra del Fuego. This was one of the most important events in colonial Argentina, creating a high regionalist feeling in the area that strengthened the independence efforts 5 years later. The first European to disembark in what is now Argentina was Juan Daz de Sols, who discovered the Ro de la Plata. From these works stands out the diversity of development experiences across and even within formerly colonized countries depending on the conditions encountered by colonizers, the latter's identity, or the length of colonization, to name a few. This conqueror was commissioned to found an important number of cities that later became part of Argentina, including Buenos Aires. In addition, this colony served to expand the Spanish market. The era of colonial Argentina from the early 16th century to the early 18th century forms a significant part of Argentinas history, intrinsically linked to the formation and conduct of the modern country, as does the early 19th-century struggle for independence. In Los Angeles and San Francisco, protesters toppled statues of Junpero Serra, a Spanish priest and founder of the California mission system during the 18th-century Spanish colonization of. Alternate titles: Argentine Republic, Repblica Argentina, Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley. Spanish Colonization Exploration. Bolivia's Colonial Era 1500-1800 A.D. Bolivia's history changed dramatically when in 1532 the Spanish defeated the great Incas, and other ethnic groups that had historically inhabited the area. After the 1970s, the flow was inverted. The voyage of Ferdinand Magellan continued towards the south, passed the Strait of Magellan and eventually completed the first circumnavigation of the world. The chief threat came from Brazil, which was growing rapidly in population, wealth, and military potential. Like many countries in South America, Argentina was conquered by the Spaniards in the 16th century. The voyage of Cabot, expecting to conquer the lands of the inexistent "White King", established the fortification of Sancti Spiritu, next to the Paran River. The mountains gradually decrease in size and elevation southward from Bolivia. This began European vogue into Argentina. In Argentina, the Catholic Church was constitutionally established. Roughly around the same amount of time that Spain occupied the Philippines. They spent more than three decades for the inauguration of the second colony after the abandonment, in 1541, of what was the only Spanish colony. Meanwhile, prospective and all-round cooperation also experienced periods of acute disagreement. 4. He turned to scorched-earth tactics to deny the Royalists any means of resupply. Having captured the Cape Colony in South Africa from the French-controlled Batavian Republic (Netherlands) at the Battle of Blaauwberg, the British decided to attempt the same action on the Ro de la Plata against Spanish assets in colonial Argentina and Uruguay (both part of the Viceroy of the Ro de la Plata). Glacial ice in the past extended beyond the Andes only in the extreme south, where there are now large moraines. Corrections? The Viceroy was adamant about not arming creoles in the city and thus had few soldiers to defend the city. A peculiar type of rounded gravel called grava patagnica lies on level landforms, including isolated mesas. However, the lack of precious metals in the area, and the absence of local empires like the Aztecs in Mexico or the Incas in Peru, did not allow a notable growth of the Spanish populations in the area. The country was vast, but at the same time it was intimate and, in some measure, secret. Europeans first visited the area of Argentina in 1502 during the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci. This promoted further explorations in the area. Argentinas varied geography can be grouped into four major regions: the Andes, the North, the Pampas, and Patagonia. High rates of piracy meant that, for a port city like Buenos Aires that relied on trade, all trading vessels had to have a military escort. He had also been instrumental in defeating the British the previous year. An army was raised and dubbed The Army of the Andes and was tasked with attacking the Viceroyalty of Peru via the territory of Chile. During the expedition that departed from Joao (Lisbon) in 1512, Ro de la Plata was sighted for the first time. In Argentina the Pampas broaden out west of the Ro de la Plata to meet the Andean forelands, blending imperceptibly to the north with the Chaco Austral and southern Mesopotamia and extending southward to the Colorado River. The presence of a large native American population determined the shape both of the conquest itself and of the colonial structures. Bilateral relations have always been of a privileged strategic nature. The Spanish further integrated Argentina into their vast empire by establishing the Vice Royalty of Rio de la Plata in 1776, and Buenos Aires became a flourishing port. He was the creator of the Argentine flag. Revolutionary sentiment rose to new levels, and militias were formed as the people of colonial Argentina realized the power of their own agency. Anti-royalist sentiment continued to grow within the colony. These give way to soils ranging from rust to deep red colorations in Misiones. A common practice among Argentines of Basque origin is to identify themselves "French-Basques". Interestingly, the Portuguese had been the first Europeans to set foot on albiceleste land, through the explorer Gonalo Coelho in the company of Amerigo Vespucci, in 1502. Sensing that the Spanish Empire was weakening, they attacked Buenos Aires in 1806 and 1807. Farther south the Santa Cruz River flows eastward out of the glacial Lake Argentino in the Andean foothills before reaching the Atlantic. Despite this, the Spaniards faced problems with some indigenous groups present in the Calchaques valleys. Taken from bbc.co.uk, Colonial Rule, (n.d.). The interplay between Argentine and Spanish culture has a long and complex history. Nevertheless, the city thrived and became one of the biggest cities in the Americas. They called the region "La Plata" (literally "silver") under the mistaken impression that it was rich in silver. The Spanish Empire applied mercantilist regulations on its colonies that were similar to that of other Empires, such as the British. The following year, however, they would return in greater numbers. This southeastern section of the Northwest is often called the Pampean Sierras, a complex that has been compared to the Basin and Range region of the western United States. The Argentine sector between the Pilcomayo River and the Bermejo River is known as the Chaco Central. As such, much of the history of Argentina has centered around Buenos Aires too. High 71F. In Europe, the cultural movement known as the Enlightenment had already been launched, and the progressive ideas of this movement reached Buenos Aires. . The eastern boundary is the Atlantic coast. The 1970s ushered in a period of military dictatorship and repression during which thousands of presumed dissidents were disappeared, or murdered; this ended in the disastrous Falklands Islands War of 1982, when Argentina invaded the South Atlantic islands it claimed as its own and was defeated by British forces in a short but bloody campaign. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In 1820 only two political organizations could claim more than strictly local and provincial followings: the revolutionary government in Buenos Aires and the League of Free Peoples, which had grown up along the Ro de la Plata and its tributaries under the leadership of Jos Gervasio Artigas. Soon we will be turning to the arrival of the Spanish colonization of Las Americas. In 1542 it began to be part of the viceroyalty of Peru. To the southeast, where the parallel to subparallel ranges become lower and form isolated, compact units trending north-south, the flat valleys between are called bolsones (basins). Taken from wikipedia.org, Santiago de Liniers, (n.d.), November 13, 2017. 600.000: Puerto Rico and Cuba. In 1542, these divisions were superseded by the Viceroyalty of Peru, which subdivided South America more pragmatically into divisions known as audencias. The northern part of colonial Argentina was covered by La Plata de Los Charcas, while the southern part was covered by the Audencia of Chile. Books. Visit Iguau (Iguaz) Falls on the Argentina-Brazil border to see the Iguau River plunge over the Paran Plateau, federal republic with two legislative houses (Senate [72]; Chamber of Deputies [257]), The conservative restoration and the Concordancia, 193043, Attempts to restore constitutionalism, 195566, https://www.britannica.com/place/Argentina, Central Intelligence Agency - The World Factbook - Argentina, Official Site of Embassy of Argentina in Australia, Argentina - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), Argentina - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Gunmen leave Argentine soccer star Messi a menacing message, Pregnant Russians flock to Argentina seeking new passports, Study: Don't blame climate change for South American drought. In the late 18th century, the Spanish also tried to found settlements along the Patagonian coast in the South, but these settlements experienced harsh conditions, and many were eventually abandoned. The principal tributaries are the Jchal, Zanjn, San Juan, Mendoza, Tunuyn, and Diamante. c. 300 yearsall Latin American countries were independent by 1810. Taken from wikipedia.org. Decades of civil wars followed that involved many breakaway countries, as well as other nations such as Brazil, France, and Britain. This view was sustained in Argentina by the Creoles (criollos; Argentine-born Europeans) rather than by the immigrant (peninsular) Spaniards, and it was put into effect by the Buenos Aires cabildo, or municipal council. Argentinas history can be defined in four distinct phases: the pre-Columbian era, the colonial era, the era of the struggle for independence, and the modern era. Great European immigration wave to Argentina, 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/02/24/opinion/1487960027_33325, "El estereotipo "gallego", un invento bien piola y argentino", "Argentina, en el mundo: Macri muestra en Espaa un proyecto serio para la recuperacin de su pas", "90.01.06: South American Immigration: Argentina", "Cules son los 200 apellidos ms populares en la Argentina", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spanish_Argentines&oldid=1134279135, Articles with Spanish-language sources (es), All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Short description is different from Wikidata, "Related ethnic groups" needing confirmation, Articles using infobox ethnic group with image parameters, Articles containing Spanish-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 20 million descendants (including those of mixed or partial Spanish descent), This page was last edited on 17 January 2023, at 21:59. Colonization brought suffering and death. Just above its confluence with the Alto Paran, the Iguaz River plunges over the escarpment of the Brazilian massif, creating Iguaz Fallsone of the worlds most spectacular natural attractions. The Pampean Sierras have variable elevations, beginning at 2,300 feet (700 metres) in the Sierra de Mogotes in the east and rising to 20,500 feet (6,250 metres) in the Sierra de Famatina in the west. Eventually overwhelmed and suffering severe casualties, the British surrendered. The Gran Chaco in Argentina descends in flat steps from west to east, but it is poorly drained and has such a challenging combination of physical conditions that it remains one of the least-inhabited parts of the country. However, after their independence, between 1857-1930 was the period of the great Spanish colonization. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. South Americas highest mountain, Aconcagua (22,831 feet [6,959 metres]), lies in the Northwest, together with a number of other peaks that reach over 21,000 feet (6,400 metres). At that time, Crdoba was established with the purpose of expanding the viceroyalty of Peru, whose capital was Lima and now would have territory in Argentina. However, there was already a high level of discontent on the part of the inhabitants of the colonies due to the restrictions and limitations imposed by Spain. The northeastern part, Misiones province, between the Alto (Upper) Paran and Uruguay rivers, is higher in elevation than the rest of Mesopotamia, but there are several small hills in the southern part.