Just like any other country, Argentina is full with a rich history. This history dates back to 1516 when the country was first explored by Juan Diaz de Solis. During his exploration Argentina was slowly developed under Spanish rule. Diaz and his men continued to explore and Buenos Aires, the current capital of Argentina, was initially settled in 1580. In the early 1800s, the british began to invade the area and were defeated in 1806. Argentinians then continued to establish a government in 1810 and declared independence from Spain on July 9, 1816.
However, it took some time and effort to gain Independence. These steps that it took to be independent started out easy as with the events that happened in Buenos Aires with the British. This caused an easier transfer to independence than most other countries under Spanish rules due to the hit that the Spanish took from the British. The first step toward independence started with a meeting in Buenos Aires on May 25, 1810 where an autonomous local government was established. After this José de San Martín came to Argentina in 1812 and in 1814 replaced Manuel Belgrano as commander of the army. This new sense of leadership has helped San Martín in gaining independence from Ferdinand VII on July 9, 1816.
Shortly after the formation of the different provinces in Argentina, Juan Manuel de Rosas came to fame. Rosas is from a noble Spanish family that owned large ranches, so he was not a gaucho, but he lived among them, and in in the early years of independence, he won the reputation as being the leader of the irregular troops. This in turn led him to be elected as the governor of Buenos Aires in 1829. In 1835 Rosas’
title was raised to that of dictator of the country.
Through years of bad decisions involving war with other surrounding countries and failing to establish a federal constitution for the provinces, Rosas was overthrown by Justo José de Urquiza in 1851, which was one of his fellow local governors. Urquiza continued to become president in 1854 and established a six-year presidential term.
Continuation of expedition always continued, especially with a new country. During the exploration a series of wars occurred in the current pampas region of Argentina where there were flat planes. These wars in the late 19th century killed, or drove off, most of the original American Indian settlers of the area. These wars were commanded by Julio Roca, a general who was then voted into presidency after these wars in 1880. This area he conquered for Argentina was then turned into ranches to breed cattle and sheep and even grow wheat and corn. Gauchos, or cowboys from the pampas, attended these ranches. These ranchers were soon replaced by farm laborers called “Peones.” Argentina took this new opportunity in agriculture to be able to create an economy for the country.
Since these lands were split into regions, only the wealthy could afford them and they controlled the rural economy in Argentina for the last half of the 19th century. This control of land formed an oligarchy. Once this was recognized as a problem it took several to remove this oligarchy and to separate the ownership of land in Argentina. The complete disassemblement of the oligarchy finished in 1916, which started the beginning of the modernization of Argentina.
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History of Argentina