History of Argentina: conquest colonization and the Argentine State

El Sur del Sur : The Southernmost South
History of Argentina
A Journey into the Past

Attack on Buenos Aires.
Engraving. detail.

The Beginning:
When the colonizers came to the South.
In 1502, there was the first encounter of the Spaniards with the lands which would later become the Argentine territory. Twenty five years later, the first Spanish settlement took place, which was finally dismantled by the Indians. From then on, there was a succession of different "governors" and settlements, all of them under the rule of the Spanish royalty.

Americae Sive Novi Orbis Nova Descriptio. Abraham Ortelius	Argentina before becoming a Nation-State In 1776, the Virreinato del Río de la Plata was created, and thanks to the port of Buenos Aires, from which leather, tallow and wool were exported, economic activities centered in Buenos Aires. From then on, the city became an attractive target for the great European powers, such as England and France.

Buenos Aires Cabildo.
Gouache, Leonie Mathis.

The Argentine State
After the crisis which the Napoleonic invasion provoked in Spain, a revolutionary wave shattered the order of the colony which was still ruled by the Virreinato del Río de la Plata (Viceroyalty of Plata River). This culminated in the establishment of a new and independent State which was named Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata (United Provinces of Plata River).

National Congress

Modernization
This stage was characterized by the appearance of the first democratic governments. However, several coups d'état marked the fate of the country. In 1983 democracy could be recovered and today it is still in force.

Sierras de los Comechingones, between Córdoba and San Luis, show us their wealth of pictographic legacies.

Viajes del Sur, your destination in images.

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