The earliest records for human presence in territory that is now Argentina can be dated back 12,000 years, and at least 11,800 years ago the first nomadic groups reached as far as Tierra del Fuego. Over the millennia that preceded the arrival of Europeans, widely varying cultures developed. Some of these, such as those of the Pampas, the Patagonian plateau and the Chaco floodplains, were dependent on nomadic, terrestrial hunter-gathering. From at least 6000 years ago, distinct nomadic cultures like that of the Yámana emerged in the channels of the Fuegian archipelago, where canoe technology allowed the adoption of a marine-based life. Other groups, such as the Guaraní peoples of the subtropical northeast, evolved semi-nomadic lifestyles dependent on hunter-gathering and shifting, slash-and-burn agriculture, whereby they cultivated maize, manioc, beans and sweet potatoes while also producing cotton for textiles.
The most complex cultures emerged, how ever, in the Andean northwest , where sedentary agricultural practices developed from about 500 BC. Irrigation permitted the intensive cultivation of staple crops like maize, quinoa, squash and potatoes and this, combined with the domestication of animals like the llama, facilitated the growth of rich material cultures, as attested to by the archeological record. The most important early sedentary culture is the Tafí one of the Tucumán region, whose people sculpted intriguing stone menhirs incised with geometric designs, feline shapes and human faces. This initial period saw the later development of Catamarca's Condorhuasi culture, renowned for its distinctive and beautifully patterned ceramics. From about 600 AD, metallurgical technologies developed, which saw the use of bronze for items as elaborate as ceremonial axes and chest-plates, as best witnessed in the Aguada civilization, whose territory also centred on Catamarca. From about 850 AD, the increasing organization of Andean groups is demonstrated by the appearance of fortified urban settlements, which, though relatively humble by the standards of the great civilizations further north, were nevertheless built in stone and had populations of up to a few thousand. Three important Diaguita cultures emerge: Sanagasta; Belén; and Santa María , whose overlapping zones of influence stretched from Salta through to San Juan, and which are notable for their elaborately painted ceramics, anthropomorphic funeral urns, superb metalwork, and the use of agricultural terracing. Further north, separate cultures develop in the Humahuaca region of Jujuy, including those of Tilcara and El Alfarcito, both of which have evidence of a marked use of hallucinogenic substances.
These Andean cultures engaged in trade with their counterparts on the Pacific side of the Andes and north into what is now Bolivia. Trade networks were vastly increased once the area came under the sway of pan-Andean empires: first that of Bolivia's great city, Tiahuanaco , which probably influenced Condorhuasi culture; and, from 1480, that of the Incas , who incorporated the area into Kollasuyo, their southernmost administrative region. Incredibly well-preserved finds, such as recent excavation of three ritually sacrificed mummies at the summit of 6739-metre Cerro Llulliallaco - the world's highest archeological discovery - are helping to reveal the extent of this influence in terms of customs, religion and dress.
In the early sixteenth century, before the arrival of Europeans, Argentina's indigenous population was probably in the region of 400,000, an estimated two-thirds of whom lived in the northwest - Andean groups such as the Diaguitas, the Omaguacas of Jujuy's Humahuaca Valley, the Atacameños of the far northwestern puna, and the Tonocotés of Santiago del Estero. Other relatively densely settled areas included the central sierras of Córdoba and San Luis, where the Comechingones and the Sanavirones lived. The Cuyo region was home to semi-sedentary Huarpes; while to the south and east of them lived various Tehuelche tribes, often referred to generically by the Spanish as Pampas Indians or, further south, Patagones. Tierra del Fuego was inhabited by Selk'nam and Mannekenk, as well as the Yámana sea-goers. The Chaco region was home to a bewildering variety of shifting nomadic groups, including Chiriguanos, the Lule-Vilela, Wichí, and groups of the Guaycurú nation, like the Abipone and Qom. The northeastern areas of El Litoral and Mesopotamia were inhabited by the Kaingang, the Charrúa and Guaraní groups.
The first group to encounter the Spanish were probably the nomadic Querandí of the Pampas region - the northernmost group of the wider Tehuelche culture. They lived in temporary shelters and hunted guanaco and rhea with bolas ( boleadores ): weighted thongs used to bring down their prey. Though they put up determined resistance to the Spanish for several decades, their culture was eliminated during the subsequent colonial period - a fate that was to be shared by many others.
Early Spanish settlement
In 1516, Juan Díaz de Solís, a Portuguese mariner in the employ of the Spanish Crown, led a small crew to the shores of the River Plate in the search of a trade route to the Far East. His dream ended here in failure, murdered by the Querandí or the...
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Colonial developments
Up until the late eighteenth century, the Governorship of the River Plate was largely overlooked by the Spanish Crown. Considered a remote and unproductive outpost of the empire, it had no mineral resources and no pliant indigenous populations. Direct...
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The Jesuit missions
The Jesuits first arrived in the Paraná area during the late sixteenth century. Along with the official Church and other regular orders, they enjoyed favourable tax concessions and initially prospered under the protection of the Crown. The first ...
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The new Viceroyalty
By the late eighteenth century, the British controlled the Caribbean and were blocking the Lima sea routes, so it was vital that another route to the silver mines of Potosí be established. The River Plate seemed the logical choice, and the growing value...
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The British invasions
The British had caught wind of the commercial tensions in Buenos Aires, mistakenly interpreting them as revolutionary. In June 1806 , a force of 1600 men led by General William Beresford stormed into the city unchecked. Beresford hoped,...
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The May revolution
In 1808, events in Europe took a dramatic turn as Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Iberian Peninsula. Napoleon forced the Spanish king, Charles IV, to abdicate , and installed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, on the throne. These events...
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Unitarism and Federalism: A prelude to civil war
The Primera Junta was headed by Saavedra, who believed in sharing power with the provinces over the territory of the viceroyalty and insisted on proclaiming a token loyalty to the Spanish Crown. The other members of the Junta, which included Manuel...
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The break-up of the Viceroyalty
Authorities in Asunción, Upper Peru and Montevideo all rejected the authority of the Primera Junta. Having seen little of the benefit of free trade in the preceding years and having suffered heavy taxes from the viceregal capital, they were unwilling to...
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Civil war and independence: The united provinces of the plate
The royalist factions in Buenos Aires had, by 1812, effectively been crushed, and a Creole front led by José de San Martín , the Sociedad Patriótica, sought full emancipation from foreign powers. However, unitarist and Federalist interests...
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Rosas - The "Caligula of the river plate"
The 1820s began with infighting amongst caudillo groups. In 1826, Bernadino Rivadavia , a unitarist admirer of European ideals and a proponent of foreign investment, became the first outright president of what was called the United Provinces of...
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San Martín
It's impossible to stay for even a short time in Argentina without coming across the name of the national hero, José de San Martín - he's as ubiquitous as Washington in the United States or de Gaulle in France, and has countless streets,...
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Consolidation of the nation
The thirty years that followed the defeat of Rosas saw the foundations being laid for the modern Argentinian state . An important economic expansion and the triumph of Unitarism ensured the conditions for the boom that followed; Buenos Aires...
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The conquest of the desert and territorial expansion
With the near disappearance of wild herds of livestock and the inexorable movement of settlers further south into the Pampas, Mapuche and Tehuelche groups found it increasingly difficult to maintain their way of life. Indigenous raids - called ...
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Social and economic change: 1850-1914
Throughout the period, agriculture and infrastructure continued to expand, benefiting from massive British investment. The first railway , built in 1854, connected Buenos Aires to the farms and estancias in its vicinity. By 1880, the railway...
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Political reform and the age of radicalism
As the twentieth century wore on, so the pressure for political change increased. Power still remained in the hands of a tiny minority of the landed and urban elite, leaving the professional and working classes of the rapidly expanding cities...
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Rise of Perón
The first important real watershed of the twentieth century was the rise of Juan Domingo Perón , a charismatic military man of relatively modest origins who had risen through the ranks during the 1930s to attain the status of colonel. The...
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Perón's second term
Perón, in 1949, secured a Constitutional amendment that allowed him to run for a second term . Though he won by a landslide in the elections of 1951, his position was severely weakened by the death of his wife, who had been one of his principal...
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The military in politics: 1955-73
Against a background of strikes and civil unrest, factions within the military rebelled in 1955, with the tacit support of a broad coalition of those interests that Perón had alienated, including the Church and the oligarchy. In the Revolución...
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The return of Perón and the collapse of democracy
By 1973, the army seemed to have recognized that its efforts to engineer some sort of national unity had failed. The economy continued to splutter into recession, guerrilla violence was spreading and the incidence of military repression and torture was...
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Totalitarianism, the Proceso and the dirty war
The long-expected military coup finally came in March of 1976, and so twentieth-century Argentine history entered its darkest phase. Under General Jorge Videla , a military junta initiated what it termed the Process of National...
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An historical dispute: The Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas
Any British person travelling around Argentina is certain to become involved, at some point, in a discussion on the islands known to Brits as the Falklands , and to Argentines as Las Malvinas . The mere mention of British nationality...
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Alfonsín and the restoration of democracy
Democracy was finally restored with the elections of October 1983, which were won by the radical, Raúl Alfonsín - the first time that the Peronist party had been defeated at the polls. Alfonsín, a lawyer much respected for his record on human...
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Menem's first term: 1989-95
The 1990s was a decade dominated by Carlos Menem - the son of Syrian immigrant parents - and was an era characterized by radical reforms and hefty doses of controversy. Menem had been governor of a relatively minor province in the interior of the country,...
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Menem's second term
One of the hallmarks of Menem's second term as president was the increasing venality of an administration that had lost much of its earlier reforming impetus. In 1996, he sacked Domingo Cavallo - ostensibly for his unwillingness to counter...
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The current situation
De la Rua's personality stood in complete contrast to that of the flamboyant Menem. He is known for his steadiness rather than his charisma and, in 1999, he seemed to represent the fiscal and moral probity that Argentines, tired of the excesses of Menem's...
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