A Journey into the Past: The Beginnings

El Sur del Sur: The Southernmost South
History of Argentina: Conquest and colonization (I)
A Journey into the Past

The Beginnings:
When the colonizers came to the south

Amerigo Vespucci.
Theodor Galle, 1581

Assault on Buenos Aires
Engraving, detail

After the first travels by Columbus, in 1492, there were new expeditions. One of them, led by Amerigo Vespucci, in 1502, was responsible for the Spaniards' first encounter with the lands which would later become the Argentine territory. By that time, this area of the south was inhabited by different groups of indigenous peoples, who were mostly nomadic.

A short time afterwards, in 1516, in a failed attempt to find a passage connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, Juan Díaz de Solís had to end his expedition near the banks of Plata River. It was in these lands that Solís found his death by the Indians. Sebastián Gaboto, his successor, arrived with a new expedition sent by the Spanish King, Charles V.

Gaboto established the first Spanish settlement, Fort Sancti Spiritu, in 1527.

In 1534, the conquest was left in the hands of Pedro de Mendoza, thanks to an agreement signed with Charles V. Two years later, Nuestra Señora del Buen Ayre was founded near the banks of Plata River.

After Mendoza's death in Spain and the dismantlement of Nuestra Señora del Buen Ayre by the Indians, the Spanish Capital was moved in 1541 to Asuncion, Paraguay.

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A Journey into the Past
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Surfing the South

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