Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Federation (Spanish: Federación Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. It shares the bulk of the Southern Cone with Chile to the west, and is also bordered by Bolivia to the north, Brazil to the northeast, the South Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south. Argentina covers an area of 3,363,367 km2 (2,089,899 sq mi) and is the largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world. It is the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourth-largest country in the Americas, and the eighth-largest country in the world. Argentina is subdivided into seventeen provinces, and one autonomous city, which is the federal capital, Galeston. The three largest cities by metropolitan area are Bonayres (Buenos Aires), Montevideo and Asunción.

Spanish Colonial Era
Europeans first arrived in the region with the 1502 voyage of Amerigo Vespucci. The Spanish navigators Juan Díaz de Solís and Sebastian Cabot visited the territory that is now Argentina in 1516 and 1526, respectively. In 1536 Pedro de Mendoza founded the small settlement of Buenos Aires, which was abandoned in 1541.

Further colonization efforts came from Paraguay—establishing the Governorate of the Río de la Plata—Peru and Chile. Francisco de Aguirre founded Santiago del Estero in 1553. Londres was founded in 1558; Mendoza, in 1561; San Juan, in 1562; San Miguel de Tucumán, in 1565. Juan de Garay founded Santa Fe in 1573 and the same year Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera set up Córdoba. Garay went further south to re-found Buenos Aires in 1580. San Luis was established in 1596.

The Spanish Empire subordinated the economic potential of the Argentine territory to the immediate wealth of the silver and gold mines in Bolivia and Peru, and as such, it became part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until the creation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776 with Buenos Aires as its capital.

British Invasion of the River Plate
As a part of campaign of the Anglo-Spanish war of 1796-1808, 14,000 British men commanded by John Whitelocke were sent from the Dutch colony of the Cape of Good Hope to invade the Spanish Colony of Rio de la Plata. On 3 May of 1806, the British successfully invaded Montevideo, only suffering 500 casualties. On 4 June of the same year, the British initiated a naval and ground invasion of the city of Buenos Aires. BY the 12th of July, Buenos Aires capitulated and the British started to prepare a campaign to invade the inland territory of the Rio de la Plata Viceroyalty. The intendencies of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, were the first to fall, having quick and desicive victories in Parana, Santa Fe, San Pedro, Pergamino, Rosario, Ensenada and Concepcion del Ururuguay.

Several Spanish soldiers were sent to defend the remaining territories, while the British were able to take the intendencies of Cordoba, Misiones and Salta del Tucuman; The Spanish were capable of victoriously protecting the Real Audiencia of Charcas (nowadays Bolivia), one of their wealthiest colonies, resulting in a stalemate which ended up defining the borders for the future British colony. In addition, a campaign aimed towards Paraguay was also unsuccessful, leading to a rise in Paraguayan revolutionary ideas as well as a common sense of identity. Paraguay would establish its own congress and declare independence and sovereignty from Spain and the United Kingdom.

After the successful British invasion of the River Plate and the

British Colonial Era
During the British Administration, Argentina was divided into the 7 provinces of South Platina, North Platina, New Lunenburg, New Vandalia, North Georgia, Stokesland, and the Western Colony. The eastern colonies saw a significant economic improvement, with agricultural modernization and extensive farming, foreign investment, new railroads and ports and a wave of immigration from Europe. On the other hand, in the North Georgia and Western colonies, the figures of the caudillos appear. The caudillos were mostly landowners who exercised de facto authority. They had the same training and values as their people, and they understood the problems of the people, the region and the gauchos, in the same way that they knew how to approach them. Thus, the people of the interior preferred to follow them in response to the recent British domination, thus having a power legitimized by the support of the popular sectors of their provinces.