Argentina

Argentina

Argentina is a country in southern South America, situated between the Andes in the west and the southern Atlantic Ocean in the east and south. It is bordered by Paraguay and Bolivia in the north, Brazil and Uruguay in the northeast, and Chile in the west and south. It also claims the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and, under the name of Argentine Antarctica, part of Antarctica. By area, it is the second largest country of South America after Brazil and the 8th largest country in the world.

The country is formally named República Argentina (Argentine Republic), while for purposes of legislation the form Nación Argentina (Argentine Nation) is used.

Origin and history of the name

The name Argentina is derived from the Latin argentum (silver). The origin of this name goes back to the first voyages made by the Spanish conquerors to the River Plate, The survivors of the shipwrecked expedition mounted by Juan Díaz de Solís found indigenous people in the region who gave them silver objects as gifts. The news about the legendary Sierra del Plata – a mountain rich in silver – reached Spain around 1524. Since then, the Spaniards named the river of Solís, Río de la Plata (River of the Silver). The first mention of the Argentina name was in the Ruy Diaz de Guzman's book "Historia del descubrimiento, población, y conquista del Río de la Plata" in 1612. (History of the discovery, population and conquer of the River Plate), naming the territory discovered by Solis as Tierra Argentina (the land of silver)

History of Argentina

Europeans arrived in the region with the 1502 voyage of Amerigo Vespucci. Spanish navigator Juan Díaz de Solís visited what is now Argentina in 1516. Spain established a permanent colony on the site of Buenos Aires in 1580, although initial settlement was primarily overland from Peru. The Spanish further integrated Argentina into their empire by establishing the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776, and Buenos Aires became a flourishing port. Buenos Aires formally declared independence from Spain on July 9, 1816. Argentines revere Gen. José de San Martín, who campaigned in Argentina, Chile, and Peru as the hero of their national independence. Following the defeat of the Spanish, centralist and federationist groups waged a lengthy conflict between themselves to determine the future of the nation. National unity was established, and the constitution promulgated in 1853.

Two forces combined to create the modern Argentine nation in the late 19th century: the introduction of modern agricultural techniques and integration of Argentina into the world economy. Foreign investment and immigration from Europe aided this economic revolution. Investment, primarily British, came in such fields as railways and ports. As in the United States, the migrants who worked to develop Argentina's resources, especially the western pampas, came from throughout Europe.

In the 1880s, General Julio Argentino Roca made the "expedition to the desert" and conquered Patagonia with private money.

From 1880 to 1930 Argentina became one of the world's ten wealthiest nations based on rapid expansion of agriculture and foreign investment in infrastructure. Conservative forces dominated Argentine politics until 1916, when their traditional rivals, the Radicals, won control of the government. The Radicals, with their emphasis on fair elections and democratic institutions, opened their doors to Argentina's rapidly expanding middle class as well as to groups previously excluded from power. The Argentine military forced aged Radical President Hipólito Yrigoyen from power in 1930 and ushered in another decade of Conservative rule. Using fraud and force when necessary, the governments of the 1930s attempted to contain the currents of economic and political change that eventually led to the ascendance of Juan Domingo Perón (b. 1895). New social and political forces were seeking political power, including a modern military and labor movements that emerged from the growing urban working class.

The military ousted Argentina's constitutional government in 1943. Perón, then an army colonel, was one of the coup's leaders, and he soon became the government's dominant figure as Minister of Labor. Elections carried him to the presidency in 1946. He aggressively pursued policies aimed at empowering the working class and greatly expanded the number of unionized workers. In 1947, Perón announced the first 5-year plan based on the growth of industries he nationalized. He helped establish the powerful General Confederation of Labor (CGT). Perón's dynamic wife, Eva Duarte de Perón (whose life inspired the play Evita) (1919-52), played a key role in developing support for her husband. Perón won reelection in 1952, but the military sent him into exile in 1955. In the 1950s and 1960s, military and civilian administrations traded power, trying, with limited success, to deal with diminished economic growth and continued social and labor demands. When military governments failed to revive the economy and suppress escalating terrorism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the way was open for Perón's return.

On March 11, 1973, Argentina held general elections for the first time in ten years. Perón was prevented from running, but voters elected his stand-in, Dr. Héctor Cámpora, as President. Perón's followers also commanded strong majorities in both houses of Congress. Cámpora resigned in July 1973, paving the way for new elections. Perón won a decisive victory and returned as President in October 1973 with his third wife, María Estela Isabel Martínez de Perón, as Vice President. During this period, extremists on the left and right carried out terrorist acts with a frequency that threatened public order. The government resorted to a number of emergency decrees, including the implementation of special executive authority to deal with violence. This allowed the government to imprison persons indefinitely without charge.

Perón died on July 1, 1974. His wife succeeded him in office, but a military coup removed her from office on March 24, 1976, and the armed forces formally exercised power through a junta composed of the three service commanders until December 10, 1983. The armed forces applied harsh measures against armed leftist groups, their sympathizers, and against any political opposition. They restored basic order, but the human costs of what became known as "El Proceso," or the "Dirty War" were high. Conservative counts list between 10,000 and 30,000 persons as "disappeared" during the 1976-83 period. Serious economic problems, mounting charges of corruption, public revulsion in the face of human rights abuses and, finally, the country's 1982 defeat by the United Kingdom in an unsuccessful attempt to seize the Falklands (Malvinas) Islands in the Falklands (Malvinas) War all combined to discredit the Argentine military regime. The junta lifted bans on political parties and gradually restored basic political liberties.

Map showing Argentina including Argentina's claimed territorial soverignty over the British Falklands (Malvinas) Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and over Antarctica, which overlaps the claims of the Chileans and the British, though all three are signatury to the Antarctic Treaty.On October 30, 1983, Argentines went to the polls and chose Raúl Alfonsín, of the Radical Civic Union (UCR), as President. He began a 6-year term of office on December 10, 1983. In 1985 and 1987, large turnouts for mid-term elections demonstrated continued public support for a strong and vigorous democratic system. The UCR-led government took steps to resolve some of the nation's most pressing problems, including accounting for those who disappeared during military rule, establishing civilian control of the armed forces, and consolidating democratic institutions. However, failure to resolve endemic economic problems, and an inability to maintain public confidence undermined the effectiveness of the Alfonsín government, which left office 6 months early after Peronist candidate Carlos Saúl Menem won the 1989 presidential elections.

President Menem imposed peso-dollar parity (convertibility) in 1991 to break the back of hyperinflation and adopted far-reaching market-based policies. Menem's accomplishments included dismantling a web of protectionist trade and business regulations, and reversing a half-century of statism by implementing an ambitious privatization program. These reforms contributed to significant increases in investment and growth with stable prices through most of the 1990s. Unfortunately, widespread corruption in the administrations of President Menem and President Fernando de la Rúa (elected in 1999) shook confidence and weakened the recovery. Also, while convertibility defeated inflation, its permanence undermined Argentina's export competitiveness and created chronic deficits in the current account of the balance of payments, which were financed by massive borrowing. The lack of competitiveness also led several companies to either establish their South American presence in Brazil (with a better exchange rate because of the Real's lower value) or to move there from Argentina. This, coupled with an influx of cheap foreign products (i.e.: Chinese, Korean) in turn caused a spike in the unemployment rate (which was at times over 20%) and a general lowering of the standards of living (it was estimated at one point that 43% of Argentines lived under the poverty line). The contagion effect of the Asian financial crisis of 1998 precipitated an outflow of capital that gradually mushroomed into a 2-year recession, which led to a total freezing of the bank accounts (the corralito), and culminated in a financial panic in November 2001. In December 2001, amidst bloody riots, President de la Rúa resigned, and Argentina defaulted on $88 billion in debt, the largest sovereign debt default in history.

A legislative assembly on December 23, 2001, elected Adolfo Rodríguez Saá to serve as President and called for general elections to elect a new president within three months. Rodríguez Saá announced immediately that Argentina would default on its international debt obligations, but expressed his commitment to maintain the currency board and the peso's 1-to-1 peg to the dollar. Rodríguez Saá, however, was unable to rally support from within his own party for his administration and this, combined with renewed violence in the Federal Capital, led to his resignation on December 30. Yet another legislative assembly elected Peronist Eduardo Duhalde President on January 1, 2002. Duhalde differentiating himself from his three predecessors quickly abandoned the peso's almost 12-year-old link with the dollar, a move that was followed by currency depreciation and inflation. In the face of rising poverty and continued social unrest, Duhalde also moved to bolster the government's social programs.

In the first round of the presidential election on April 27, 2003, former President Carlos Menem (Partido Justicialista (PJ)) won 24.3% of the vote, Santa Cruz Governor Néstor Kirchner (PJ) won 22%, followed by the right-wing candidate Ricardo López Murphy with 16.4% and the center-left-wing Elisa Carrió with 14.2%. Menem withdrew from the May 25 runoff election after polls showed overwhelming support for Kirchner. The runoff election was not held and Mr. Kirchner took office as President on May 25, 2003.

Politics of Argentina

The Argentine constitution of 1853, as revised in 1994, mandates a separation of powers into executive, legislative, and judicial branches at the national and provincial level. The president and vice president are directly elected to 4-year terms. Both are limited to two consecutive terms; they are allowed to stand for a third term or more after an interval of at least one term. The president appoints cabinet ministers, and the constitution grants him considerable power as both head of state and head of government, including authority to enact laws by presidential decree under conditions of "urgency and necessity" and the line-item veto.

Argentina's parliament is the bicameral National Congress or Congreso de la Nación, consisting of a Senate (Senado) of 72 seats and a Chamber of Deputies (Cámara de Diputados) of 257 members. Since 2001, senators have been directly elected, with each province, including the Federal Capital, represented by three senators. Senators serve 6-year terms. One-third of the Senate stands for reelection every 2 years via a partial majority system in each district. Members of the Chamber of Deputies are directly elected to 4-year term via a system of proportional representation. Voters elect half the members of the lower house every 2 years.

Urbanization

About 3 million people live in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, and roughly 11 million in Greater Buenos Aires, making it one of the largest urban conglomerates in the world. Together with their respective metropolitan areas, the second and third largest cities in Argentina, Córdoba and Rosario, each comprise about 1.3 million inhabitants.

Most European immigrants to Argentina (coming in great waves especially around the First and the Second World Wars) settled in the cities, which offered jobs, education, and other opportunities that enabled newcomers to enter the middle class. Since the 1930s many rural workers have moved to the big cities.

The 1990s saw many rural towns become ghost towns when train services were abandoned and local products manufactured on a small scale were replaced by massive amounts of imported cheap goods, in part because of the monetary policy which kept the U. S. dollar exchange rate fixed and low. Many slums (villas miseria) sprouted in the outskirts of the largest cities, inhabited by empoverished low-class urban dwellers and migrants from smaller towns in the interior of the country.

Compared to most Latin American countries, and even today, while it is recovering from an economic crisis, Argentina has a very large middle class. Many of these middle class people work in industry, own small businesses, or have government or professional jobs. They live in tall modern apartment buildings or bungalows that have small yards or gardens. Wealthy Argentines and business executives live in mansions and luxurious apartments in the cities or in fashionable suburbs.

Argentina's urban areas have a European look, reflecting the influence of their European settlers. Many towns and cities are built like Spanish cities around a main square called a plaza. A cathedral and important government buildings often face the plaza. The general layout of the cities is called a damero, that is, a checkerboard, since it is based on a pattern of square blocks, though modern developments sometimes depart from it (for example, the city of La Plata, built at the end of the 19th century, is organized as a checkerboard plus diagonal avenues at fixed intervals).

In descending order by number of inhabitants, the major cities in Argentina are Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Rosario, Mendoza, Santa Fe, Mar del Plata, La Plata, Tucumán, Salta, and Bahía Blanca.

Geography of Argentina

Argentina can roughly be divided into three parts: the fertile plains of the Pampas in the central part of the country, the centre of Argentina's agricultural wealth; the flat to rolling plateau of Patagonia in the southern half down to Tierra del Fuego; and the rugged Andes mountain range along the western border with Chile, with the highest point being the Cerro Aconcagua at 6,960 m.

Major rivers include the Paraguay, Bermejo, Colorado, Uruguay and the largest river, the Paraná. The latter two flow together before meeting the Atlantic Ocean, forming the estuary of the River Plate. The Argentine climate is predominantly temperate with extremes ranging from subtropical in the north to arid/sub-Antarctic in far south.

Economy of Argentina

Argentina benefits from rich natural resources, a highly literate population, an export-oriented agricultural sector, and a diversified industrial base.

Since the late 1970s the country piled up public debt and was plagued by bouts of high inflation. In 1991, the government pegged the peso to the U. S. dollar and limited the growth in the monetary base. The government then embarked on a path of trade liberalisation, deregulation, and privatisation. Inflation dropped and GDP grew, but external economic shocks and failures of the system diluted its benefits, causing it to crumble in slow motion, from 1995 and up to the collapse in 2001.

By 2002 Argentina had defaulted on its debt, its GDP had shrunk, unemployment was over 18%, the peso had devalued 75% after being floated, and inflation was hitting again. However, careful spending control and heavy taxes on now soaring exports gave the state the tools to regain resources and conduct monetary policy.

In 2003, import substitution policies and soaring exports, coupled with a lower inflation and expansive economic measures, triggered a surge in the GDP, which was repeated in 2004, creating jobs and encouraging internal consumption. Capital flight decreased, and foreign investment slowly returned. The influx of foreign currency from exports created such a huge trade surplus that the Central Bank was forced to buy dollars from the market, which it continues to do at the time, to be accumulated as reserves.

Demographics of Argentina

Unlike most of its neighbouring countries, Argentina's population descends overwhelmingly from Europeans. Argentines are a mixture of diverse national and ethnic groups, with descendants of Italian and Spanish immigrants predominating (88%).

Waves of immigrants from many other European countries arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Patagonian Chubut Valley has a significant Welsh-descended population and retains many Welsh placenames and aspects of Welsh culture. Syrian, Lebanese, and other Middle Eastern immigrants number about 500,000, mainly in urban areas. Other important immigrant groups came from Germany (German colonies were settled in the provinces of Entre Ríos, Misiones, Formosa, Córdoba and the Patagonian region, as well as in Buenos Aires itself), France (mostly settled in Buenos Aires city and province), Scandinavia (especially Sweden) the United Kingdom and Ireland (Buenos Aires and the Patagonia) and Eastern European nations, such as Poland, Russia, Ukraine and the Balkans region (especially Croatia and Serbia) and others.

Small numbers of Asians have settled Argentina, mainly in Buenos Aires. The first Asian-Argentines were of Japanese descent, but Koreans, Vietnamese and Chinese soon followed.

There was a substantial immigration from other Latin American countries during the 1990s, when the peso-dollar exchange rate was advantageous to those willing to send money to relatives abroad.

Indigenous peoples

Genetic research has revealed that, while Argentinians are indeed overwhelmingly "European", around 56% possess at least some Amerindian ancestry, due to mestizaje (mixing of Spanish settlers and Amerindian natives) during the colonial period. [1].

The indigenous population, poorly estimated between 500,000 and 2,000,000, is concentrated in the provinces of the north, northwest, and south. As of 2001, 2.8% of Argentine households host a person that claim to belong to, or to descend from, the indigenous peoples.

Culture of Argentina

See also the articles on the cuisine, the music, and the football of Argentina. For a prevalent custom among Argentinians, see mate. For the traditional Buenos Aires dance, see tango.

Language

The only official language is Spanish, although some immigrants and indigenous communities have retained their original languages in specific points of the country.

Argentina is the largest Spanish-speaking community that employs voseo (the use of the pronoun vos instead of tú). The most prevalent dialect is Rioplatense, with most speakers located in the basin of River Plate.

Religion in Argentina

Most of Argentina's population is at least nominally Roman Catholic. Roman Catholicism is supported by the Argentine state, as stated in the constitution. Evangelical churches gained a place in Argentina especially since the 1980s. The country also has the largest Jewish population in Latin America, about 300,000 strong, and is home to one of the largest Islamic mosques in Latin America. Traditional Protestant communities are also present.

See Timor -Leste for East Timor
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Egypt - Arab Republic of Egypt
El Salvador - Republic of El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea - Republic of Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea - State of Eritrea
Estonia - Republic of Estonia
Ethiopia - Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (federal state)

F
Falkland Islands (overseas territory of the United Kingdom, also claimed by, and a former possession of Argentina named Islas Malvinas)
Faroe Islands (self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark)
Fiji - Republic of the Fiji Islands
Finland - Republic of Finland
France - French Republic
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Gabon - Gabonese Republic
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Georgia (see also Abkhazia and South Ossetia)
Germany - Federal Republic of Germany (federal state)
Ghana - Republic of Ghana
Gibraltar (overseas territory of the United Kingdom)
Greece - Hellenic Republic
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Guinea-Bissau - Republic of Guinea-Bissau
Guyana - Co-operative Republic of Guyana

H
Haiti - Republic of Haiti
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Hungary - Republic of Hungary

I
Iceland - Republic of Iceland
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Iraq - Republic of Iraq
Ireland (also commonly referred to as the Republic of Ireland as the official "description" of the state in order to distinguish it from the island of Ireland as a whole)
Israel - State of Israel
Italy - Italian Republic
See Côte d'Ivoire for Ivory Coast

J
Jamaica (Commonwealth Realm)
Japan
Jersey - Bailiwick of Jersey (British Crown dependency)
Jordan - Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

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Kazakhstan - Republic of Kazakhstan
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Korea (South) - Republic of Korea (popularly known as South Korea)
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Laos - Lao People's Democratic Republic
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Macau - Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (diplomatically known as Macau, China)
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Mozambique - Republic of Mozambique
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N
Nagorno-Karabakh - Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (de facto independent state inside Azerbaijan)
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Oman - Sultanate of Oman

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Pakistan - Islamic Republic of Pakistan
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See Transnistria for Pridnestrovie
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Q
Qatar - State of Qatar

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Romania
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Saint Helena (overseas territory of the United Kingdom)
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Somaliland - Republic of Somaliland (de facto independent state inside Somalia)
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Spain - Kingdom of Spain
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Svalbard (overseas territory of Norway recognized by international treaty)
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Sweden - Kingdom of Sweden
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Syria - Syrian Arab Republic

T
Taiwan (ROC) - Republic of China (diplomatically sometimes known as Chinese Taipei (or other names), regarded by UN as "Taiwan, Province of China", the political status of the ROC and the legal status of the Taiwan Island (and its outlying islands) are in dispute)
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Thailand - Kingdom of Thailand
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Tunisia - Tunisian Republic
Turkey - Republic of Turkey
Turkmenistan
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U
Uganda - Republic of Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates (federal state)
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United States - United States of America (federal state)
Uruguay - Oriental Republic of Uruguay
Uzbekistan - Republic of Uzbekistan

V
Vanuatu - Republic of Vanuatu
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Venezuela - Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (federal state)
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Wallis and Futuna (overseas collectivity of France)
Western Sahara - Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (currently recognized by over 40 countries, the SADR only exercises effective control over the territory east of Moroccan Wall, whereas large portion of the territory is occupied by and integrated in Morocco)

Y
Yemen - Republic of Yemen

Z
Zambia - Republic of Zambia
Zimbabwe - Republic of Zimbabwe