Following independence from Spain in 1816, Argentina experienced periods of internal political conflict between conservatives and liberals and between civilian and military factions. After World War II, a long period of Peronist authoritarian rule and interference in subsequent governments was followed by a military junta that took power in 1976. Democracy returned in 1983, and has persisted despite numerous challenges, the most formidable of which was a severe economic crisis in 2001-02 that led to violent public protests and the resignation of several interim presidents.

During the reign of the Inca

The area now known as Argentina was relatively sparsely populated until the period of European colonization. The Diaguita of northwestern Argentina lived on the edges of the expanding Inca Empire; the Guaran¨ª lived farther east.

Spanish colonial era

Europeans arrived in the region with the 1502 voyage of Amerigo Vespucci. Spanish navigator Juan D¨ªaz de Sol¨ªs visited the territory which is now Argentina in 1516. Spain established a permanent colony on the site of Buenos Aires in 1580 as part of the Viceroyalty of Peru; initial settlement was primarily overland from Peru.

The natural port of the R¨ªo de la Plata estuary could not be used because all communications and commerce were meant to be made through Lima's port, a condition that made contraband the usual way of commerce in cities such as Asunci¨®n, Buenos Aires, and Montevideo.

The Spanish raised the status of this region by establishing the Viceroyalty of the R¨ªo de la Plata (Virreinato del R¨ªo de la Plata) in 1776. This short-lived viceroyalty comprised today's Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, as well as much of present-day Bolivia.

During this era, Buenos Aires became a flourishing port only after the creation of the Viceroyalty of the R¨ªo de la Plata, as the revenues from the Potos¨ª, the increasing maritime activity in terms of goods rather than precious metals, the production of cattle for exports of leather and other products, and other political reasons, made Buenos Aires to gradually become one of the most important commercial centers of the region.

However the viceroyalty was shortlived, due to lack of internal cohesion among the many regions that constituted it and lack of Spanish support. It crashed when Napoleon successfully invaded Spain and overthrew the Spanish monarchy.

The failed British invasions of the R¨ªo de la Plata in 1806 and 1807 had also boosted the confidence of the colonists, because they successfully stood up against one of the world powers.

Birth of the Argentine State

News of the French Revolution and the American Revolutionary War brought liberal ideas to Latin America. After the French seized the power in Spain, Buenos Aires formed its own junta on May 25, 1810 and invited the other provinces to join. However, the reluctance of some factions and the centralist tendencies of the more radical activists delayed a formal declaration of independence. In the meantime, Paraguay made its own declaration of independence in 1811.

Military campaigns led by General Jos¨¦ de San Mart¨ªn between 1814 and 1817 made independence increasingly a reality. Argentines revere San Mart¨ªn, who campaigned in Argentina, Chile, and Peru, as the hero of their national independence. On July 9, 1816, a Congress gathered at Tucum¨¢n finally issued a formal declaration of independence from Spain. Bolivia declared itself independent in 1825, as did Uruguay in 1828 after the Argentina-Brazil War.

The United Kingdom officially recognized Argentinian independence in 1825, with the signing of a Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation on February 2; the British charg¨¦ d'affaires at Buenos Aires, Woodbine Parish, signed on behalf of his country.

Following the defeat of the Spanish, centralist unitarios waged a lengthy conflict against federalists to determine the future of the nation. The dominant figure of this period was the federalist Juan Manuel de Rosas, generally accounted a tyrant. He ruled the Buenos Aires province from 1829 to 1852 while acting as a caretaker of the external relations of the whole country, which lacked any other form of federal government. Rosas was far more concerned with establishing his own dominance in Buenos Aires than with any principled federalism. He developed a paramilitary force of its own, La Mazorca ("the Corncob"), which earned the federalists the derogatory nickname of mazorqueros, even if they preferred to be known as The Holy Federation instead.

After a revolution under General Justo Jos¨¦ de Urquiza, a defecting federalist supported by Uruguay and Brazil, Argentine national unity was at least nominally established, and a constitution promulgated in 1853.

During the early part of this period Argentina was largely a country of Spanish immigrants and their descendants, known as criollos, some of them gathered in the Buenos Aires and other cities, others living on the pampas as gauchos. Descendants of African slaves were present in significant numbers, but of most eventually merged with the broader population. Indigenous peoples inhabited the mountainous northwestern and remote southern regions.

The rural economy at this time was based almost entirely in animal husbandry (cattle and sheep). While Argentina's fertile lands were ideal for the cultivation of cereal crops, the country lacked a large enough labor force to support an arable sector. As a consequence, capital-intense economic activities such as livestock raising dominated domestic production. Meanwhile Indians continued to menace the Southern frontier. As Borges has written, Argentina had achieved its independence from Spain, but the Spanish conquest of Argentina was still incomplete. Economically, as Fernand Braudel suggested (1984, p. 413) Argentina exchanged Spanish masters for a new dependence, on British capital; the end of Spanish rule became indelibly visible with the heavy investment in Argentina by the City of London, in 1824-1825.

The emergence of modern Argentina

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 railroads and ports, but the foreign owners expected to retain controls. The migrants who worked to develop Argentina's resources (especially the western pampas) came from throughout Europe, just as in the United States.

By 1859 the unity of Argentina was generally secured, although it would be two decades before the centralists completed their victory over the federalists. In 1862 the National Assembly selected the liberal politician Bartolom¨¦ Mitre as president; in 1868 he was succeeded by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento.

During this period (1865¨C1870) the bloody War of the Triple Alliance was fought by Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay against Paraguay. In the following decade General Julio Argentino Roca established Buenos Aires's dominance over the pampas and the unitarios victory over the federalists; in 1880 Roca became president.

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