Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Commonwealth (Spanish: Mancomunidad de 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.

Argentina is a republic and a parliamentary democracy. The country's head of government is the prime minister—who holds office by virtue of their ability to command the confidence of the elected House of Commons. The country is a Commonwealth realm and is officially multilingual at the federal level. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration waves, radically reshaping its cultural and demographic outlook

A highly developed country, Argentina has the ninth-largest economy nominally and 8th by Purchasing Power Parity. It is part of several major international and intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the United Nations, the G7, the Group of Ten, the G20, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Commonwealth of Nations, Unasur, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Organization of Ibero-American States, and the Organization of American States.

= History =

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 a campaign of the Anglo-Spanish War of 1796-1810, 14,000 British men commanded by John Whitelocke were sent from 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 the cities of Parana, Santa Fe, San Pedro, Pergamino, Rosario, Ensenada and Concepcion del Ururuguay.

Consequently the British easily conquered the intendencies of Cordoba, Misiones and Salta del Tucuman. The Spanish, alarmed by the British advancement, sent a large army to victoriously protect the Real Audiencia of Charcas (nowadays Bolivia), one of their wealthiest colonies, resulting in a stalemate that ended up defining the borders for the future British colony.

A campaign aimed towards Paraguay was ended being unsuccessful, leading to a rise in Paraguayan revolutionary ideas and a sense of common identity. Paraguay established its own congress and declare sovereignty from both Spain and the United Kingdom. The British recognized their independence as Paraguay could serve as a buffer state between them and the colony of Brazil.

When the news that Spain has been subjugated to France came to the Americas, the Spanish commanders promptly offered peace and reconciliation with the British, who now began supporting the Spanish during the Peninsular wars. Spain gave up its claims to the Real Audiencia of Buenos Aires, which would be officially handed to the British in the 1810 treaty of Plymouth.

British Colonial Era and Caudillism (1811-1882)


During the British Administration, Argentina was divided into the 7 provinces: South Platina, North Platina, New Lunenburg, New Vandalia, North Georgia, Stokesland, and the Western Colony.

The colonies saw a reorganization of the land, which lead to important economic growth, with agricultural modernization, extensive farming, foreign investment, and new railroads and ports. This led to immigration from Europe, notably a large wave of British settlers who arrived with intention of utilising the arable land of the Pampas area.

While Spanish was tolerated, English was an official language in all of the colonies and promoted to a greater or lesser extent depending on the Province. In the Provinces of New Vandalia, Stokesland, North Platina and New Lunenberg; English was used for almost the entirety of officials matters, in the Western and North Georgia Colonies, English had little de facto usage, and was just primarily spoken between the British executives living there. South Platina was the only exception to this, where the usage of English and Spanish would change depending on the circumstances.

Consequently, Spanish inhabitants migrated to provinces where British migration and influence were more limited, such as current-day Taraguy and Cordoba provinces. To live beyond the British colonial administration, a massive exodus of uncultured Buenos Aires Spanish-speakers and gauchos would emigrate and settle the sparsely uninhabited Northerneastern Patagonia. These people became being known as Tandileans and the area they emigrated to as Tandilia or the Tandilean Communities.

In Tandilia and the Colonies of North Georgia and Cordoba, the figures of the caudillos started to appear; these were mostly Spanish-speaking landowners who exercised de facto authority, with their power legitimized by the holding of an army and the support of their popular sectors. The people of the West followed the Caudillos as a response to the British rule since these figures had the same education, language, religion, and values as them and had a better approach and understanding of their problems. The caudillos would revolt multiple times against British rule, however, the British Army was far more numerous and modernized than those of the Caudillos, and these revolts would end up ultimately crushed.

Thus, this period of Argentina would be characterized by the growing tensions between the original Spanish inhabitants and the new English settlers, to lighten those tensions, the Bonayres Act of 1838 was signed, which similar to the Quebec act, restored the Civil law, now used alongside the Common law, and gave further rights and power to the Catholic Church. Although the use of force to dismantle caudillist movements was fairly common too. Caudillism would die out by the 1860s, most of them becoming landlords while some others were imprisoned or executed by the British.

Moreover, fights with the Argentine indigenous tribes would emerge as the British gradually attempted to establish effective dominance over the Southern region of Argentina, this would be known as the Araucanan Massacre, because of the ethnic cleansing committed by British Soldiers. The Tandilean communities would be integrated through a series of accords in which Tandileans would be annexed as a part of the South Platinean colonies, although with a granted continuation of their lifestyle, as well as tolerance of their language, culture and religion.

Paraguay War (1864-1867)


Most South American states were troubled by claims to the same territories, one of the most notable examples of this was Paraguay, which had disputed territories with all of its neighbours. The territorial disputes became worse when the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata collapsed in the 1810s, which lead to the creation of Paraguay, Bolivia and the British Platinean Colonies.

It did not help either that the policies of the new Paraguayan President Francisco Solano López were expansionists and aggressive. A strong military was developed because Paraguay's larger neighbours, Brazil and Great Britain, had territorial claims against it and wanted to dominate it politically.

The dissolution of the First Peru-Bolivian Confederation, lead to the creation of the unstable Republic of the Charcas, which was greatly influenced by the United Kingdom and Brazil. Due to the influence it received, Charcas had only had conservative presidents who served the Brazilian and British interests. However, Eliodoro Camacho, of liberal alignment, was elected as president of Bolivia in 1860, who despite having taken measures that would benefit the country, was removed from his post after four years in office through a coup d'état by conservative forces. Brazil would support this coup by sending troops and weapons, while the United Kingdom would also finance the Conservatives. Solano Lopez demanded Brazil to stop getting involved in Charcas and an explanation for it, but their demands were ignored. This would culminate in the capture of a Brazilian ship in November of 1864, and a month later an invasion of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.

The Conservatives would ultimately gain power back in Bolivia, and in 1865, Paraguay asked the United Kingdom to move troops through their territory in order to invade Southern Brazil too, but since they were also supporting the conservative side and had a historical friendship with Brazil, they refused to do this petition; Thus Lopez invaded Argentina and the new Charcas administration in April 1865.

In 1867, Asuncion had been capitulated by the Platinean and Brazilian troops, and in 1868 a peace treaty was signed in which Paraguay would be divided between Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia, settling all the disputes over the River Plate Basin.

Dominion of Argentina (1882-1948)


Politically the wishes of unity and a more central and self-controlling authority resulted in "the 1882 Bonayres Resolution", where the Platinean colonies would be united into a self-governing federative dominion named Argentina. In the late 19th and early 20th century, Argentina temporarily resolved its border disputes with Chile with the Puna de Atacama dispute of 1899, the Boundary Treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina and the 1902 General Treaty of Arbitration. In the midst of this economic expansion, the Law of Common Education of 1884 guaranteed universal and free education to all children.

As a way to reduce discontent, the

Socially, the huge immigration transformed Argentina's culture and ended the old Criollo-Platinean rivalry, which got replaced by an enormous immigrant population. The bilingual characteristic of the city of Bonayres added to the arrival of immigrants who were only taught to speak English but still had to often interact with the city's Spanish speakers, which led to the origin of a creole language mixing characteristics of English and Spanish and some features of Italian, German and Slavic. It would eventually spread to near cities around the River Plate such as Ensenada and Montevideo.

In the economic area, the country's economy saw a huge improvement, benefiting from a change from extensive farming to industrial agriculture and the massive European migration, however, there wasn't yet a strong move towards industrialization. At that time, Argentina received some of the highest levels of foreign investment in the Americas. Argentina was a predominantly agro-exporter country and had a large dependency on this sector and its trade with the British. This heavy dependence on the United Kingdom and its agriculture became a visible problem during the Great War when a decrease in British trade slightly affected the Argentine economy. The Roaring 20s helped alleviated the situation and Argentina's growth went back to its usual growth However, after the Great Depression, the economic situation significantly deteriorated, with income from Europe severely reducing.

Most Argentine politicians then were uncertain to decrease their dependency on the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom assured Argentine security in the region and was a safe exporter of industrial products. In addition, lots of argentine politicians had relatives in the British Isles.

Nevertheless, a group of intellectuals believed it was possible for Argentina to keep growing without such a large reliance on the United Kingdom. These were mostly non-English inhabitants, who led by Immanuel Harrison, formed the National Argentine Party. The party's main goal was to decrease their reliance on western countries as were the British and American, which mostly sold them manufactured products. This goal was to be sought by industrializing the Argentine economy.

He helped create many laws, including the Ley Palacios against sexual exploitation, and others regulating child and woman labour, working hours and Sunday rest.

The massively unpopular decision of entering World War II sprang national sentiment. Although Argentina's legal status as a British Dominion made their entrance into the war inevitable, the Argentine government did have the freedom to determine the country's level of involvement in the war, which was controversially significant. Almost two million troops were sent to fight, with approximately 39,000 killed and another 58,000 wounded.

Peron was a powerful general of the Argentine Militias. He also was a charismatic figure who gave exceptional passional speeches. Due to his immigrant background, he was beloved by both the Spanish-speaking and English-speaking. nevertheless was trained in fascist Italy and aligned with fascist and nationalist ideas. It was decided Peron would be postulating as prime minister because of his authoritarian and military experience that would help stabilize the country during its first years, Harrison would be postulating as prime minister due to his power within the party, and because of the popularity he gained when being ousted from politics.

In 1943, elections were held, where the main candidates for leadership were conservative right-leaning Jeremy Dennis against John Dominic Peron and Harrison as his running mate.

Due to the world tension and pressure from the Allied powers, Peron did not withdraw from war World War II in spite his wishes and those of the popular demand. Nevertheless, He enormously decreased the amount of soldiers and weaponry sent into the war. Shortly after the Axis fell, Peron offered asylum to several Nazis, that through the Vatican city escaped to the German communities in North Patagonia.

Three years after assuming power, Peron along with the reorganized parliament started drafting a new constitution for Argentina.

Peronist Years (1945-1959)




The constitution while not being remarkably different from the previous, pursued to form Argentina's national identity by distancing from the United Kingdom and suiting it to the cultural context. The constitution made Argentina a fully sovereign country, becoming a parliamentary republic and removing the British monarchy. This completely eliminated the King's constitutional role in the state. It gave the president of Argentina the power to exercise the executive authority of the state in its external relations, alongside with the Argentine Government. The Act was signed into law on 21 December 1948 and came into force on 18 April 1949, Easter Monday.It changed its British dominion status to a commonwealth, and moved the capital from Montevideo to New Colonia Consequently in September of 1948, the new constitution was established and the Dominion of Argentina became the Argentine Republic, a sovereign republic within the Commonwealth of Nations.

Argentina's new status made the passing of some laws remarkably easier. It implemented women's suffrage and the term limit to a maximum of two four-year terms. Its sovereignty with the United Kingdom meant politicians who were implicated in oppression or other crime were quickly arrested or dismissed, although Peron would especially focus on the opposition who had close ties to the British government. This resulted in lots of English anti-peronist parliamentarians getting replaced mostly by nationalist legislators who supported Peron's measures.

Its sovereignty from the United Kingdom, sky-rocketed immigration, as Germans and Italians were no longer in threat of discrimination due to its ties with their opponent United Kingdom during War World II.

Subsequently, and to maintain positive relations with the West, Peron signed the Montevideo accords with the United States, in this, it was agreed Argentina would fight leftist armed groups in the region as long as they received Nato's support. It was ratified Argentina would maintain trade and not cut relations with the United Kingdom, and they would hold their affiliation to the Commonwealth of Nations.

To alleviate social tensions, Peron started a policy stance in Argentina called "One Argentina" that generally emphasized equality, nationalism, and integration of all social groups into a single "Argentine" identity. Peron would put this motto into practice through the implementation of the principle of equal treatment, education, employment, public accommodations and making Spanish the official language for the whole country. The "Ethnic Quota" act made the numerical requirements for hiring, promoting, admitting and/or graduating members of non-English ancestry. Also the "Education Act of 1949" made obligatory the teaching of both Spanish and English in schools, as well as Guarani in Paraguay, Taraguy and Chaco.

Economically, Argentina sought to gain economic independence from the United Kingdom (whose reduction in exports had been affecting the Argentine Economy for a decade) and industrialize the country by imitating the policies taken during the European protectionist era of the 1870s and 1890s. Furthermore, he implemented distributist measurements, higher wages, workers rights, syndicates and social security. These reforms led to the economy industrializing, diversifying from its heavy dependency on agriculture, and growing twice as fast as it had been.

To compensate for the economic distancing from western countries, Argentina focused on regional integrity by trading more with its neighbours. He would be responsible for the endorsement of Prosud, an intergovernmental organization founded by Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Bolivia with the aim of integration between its members It also joined as a partial member of the ASEC. However this does not mean relations with the West were cut, Peron had a positive relationship with the United States in their fight against communism and would vote in favour of them in most U.N. conferences. It also kept good relations with their former British colonies siblings Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Thanks to Peron economic policies, Argentina would shift from a principally agrarian economy at the beginning of the century, to an industrialized powerhouse by the mid-XX century. Argentina would surpass multiple economies such as Spain, Japan and Canada by 1954. And it would achieve the title of regional power.

Harrison's term (1959-1964)
The return of Harrison to power had been something long-awaited in Argentine society. When popular and legislative pressures made Peron not postulate for the presidency, Harrison made the smart move of postulating himself for power. His conservative policies and controversial entrance to the Chilean Civil War made Peron´s held of power polemical.

His widespread support, perceived as one of the founding fathers of modern Argentina, made him be elected by an overwhelming amount of votes.

While Peron and Harrison kept a somewhat positive relation after past tensions, Peron retired for a brief period from politics until he was later appointed as general of the Argentine army by Harrison himself. Nevertheless, the peronist and conservative group within the ANF felt underrepresented and seceded to form the "New Argentine Conservative Party" (NACP). Nowadays the NACP still remains prevalent in some of the northern provinces like Tucuman, Chaco, Taraguy, North Georgia and Paraguay on a smaller scale.

He started an ambitious plan to industrialize the inner areas of Argentina. Stopped previous Peron's religious approaches, by starting a secular movement throughout Argentina, thoroughly reducing the church's power and separating it from the state in all its aspect. One of his most well-known actions was making education fully secular and prohibiting the teachings of religion in all schools. Lastly, he eased Peron's protectionist policies by claiming "My partner John Dominic Peron made an extraordinary job in industrializing and flourishing our nation, and the time is now to give an extra step towards welfare and prosperity".

Harrison would not postulate to the next elections due to health issues and his oldness.

Benno Mohr's presidency (1964-1973)


In 1964, elections were held in which Benno Mohr was elected as the new prime minister of Argentina. Benno Mohr was also of immigrant background and a member of the LPP.

Benno Mohr was tolerant of socialism in comparison to Peron. He would raise trade with socialists countries and begun relations with the Socialist Incaic State of Peru, declaring Argentina as a Non-aligned state. He continued Peron's efforts to industrialize Argentina. Its connections with the East rose tensions with the United States moderately, it was only tolerated because trade with the West increased compared to Peron's era, still being more significant than Eastern's. One of his most known actions was renaming the Prosud to Unasud, and reorganizing the organization which would intensify the integration between its members even further. Unasud would have its official currency, the Austral, and achieved freedom of movement and economic integration, including a common market and customs union.

Mohr wanted to rise the immigration rates that had been declining during the end of Peron's term. He eased the migration policies for non-European immigrants, leading to the arrival of Arab, Turkish, Chinese and Korean people, and tried to increase immigration to the Northwest regions that received few immigrants in comparison to the other provinces. He made strong efforts in blending the different groups into a single Argentine identity, he institutionalized Platinean Creole and declared it a co-official language.

Johnsonist Era
Around the early 70s, socialist insurgent groups grew significantly in the northwestern areas of Argentina. These demanded an independent sovereign state in the historical Spanish-speaking parts of the country and the removal of English speakers from its territory. Although social inequality had been fixed