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About Argentina
/ The First Colonisers
Colonización española
The territory that today conforms the Argentine Republic was discovered, explored and colonised by the Spanish Crown but not all the regions were discovered by colonisers that arrived directly from Spain. Argentina was in the extreme portion of the territory on which the conquest moved forward, and for this reason the colonisation was carried out by people who were coming from other colonies.
The First Colonisers
After the arrival of Christopher Columbus in America in 1492, other expeditions took place. One of those was the expedition by Américo Vespucio in 1502, that was the first contact of Spaniards with what would later turn into the Argentine territory, at that time populated by different indigenous groups, mostly nomadic.

Later, in 1516, in a vain attempt to find a connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, Juan Díaz de Solís arrived at the Río de la Plata. This conqueror was killed on these lands by the indigenous peoples. He was succeeded by Sebastián Gaboto, who arrived heading a new expedition sent by the Charles I, the Spanish King, and in 1527 he made the first foundation: the fort Sancti Spiritu.

In 1534, thanks to an agreement signed jointly with the King, the conquest was transferred to Pedro de Mendoza, who two years later funded the city of Nuestra Señora del Buen Ayre, by the Río de la Plata. After Mendoza’s death in Spain and the dismantlement of such population by the indigenous harassment, the centre of the Spanish conquest on these lands moved to Asunción del Paraguay in 1541.

The Spanish Crown, mainly mobilized by the eagerness to find precious metals, preferred to settle in Lima rather than on the South American east, that had virgin lands and nomadic tribes only. For this reason the Viceroyship of Perú got gradually stronger, always under the shadow of the Inca Empire.

The second and definitive foundation of Buenos Aires took place in 1580 by the last conqueror, Juan de Garay, who in turn colonised a great portion of the Argentine territory. In 1617, the government was divided into two districts: Buenos Aires and Asunción. As of that moment successive governors took office and the missionary activity became stronger. Due to the increase of the rivalry between Spain and Portugal with respect to the dominance of the American territory, the Viceroyship of Río de la Plata was created in 1776, as a way to re–affirm the Spanish Crown’s possessions. Upon consolidation of the port of Buenos Aires, the British craving for these lands became manifest, which coupled with the decay of the Spanish Crown in itself, would encourage the two British invasions of 1806 and 1807. Nevertheless, British attempts to conquest the territory failed due to the strong resistance by local people.
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Population Currents
Since the 16th. Century until 1810 there were three population currents on the Argentine territory, namely:

Eastern Population current: it came directly from Spain, arriving through the Río de la Plata and Paraná rivers. It founded the cities of Buenos Aires, Asunción del Paraguay, Santa Fe, Corrientes and Paraná.

Northern Population Current : it descended from Perú and came across the Humahuaca Plateau founding the cities of: Santiago del Estero, San Miguel de Tucumán, Córdoba, Salta, San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, La Rioja and San Salvador de Jujuy. It was characterized by an urban and cultural development with population settlements accompanied by an economic growth.

Western Population Current : it arrived from Chile and founded the cities of Mendoza, San Juan and San Luis. In 1700 there were around 2,500 Europeans in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. By 1810 there were scarcely 6,000, over a total population of 700,000 inhabitants in the present national territory. Unlike the conquering process developed by the British in the United States of America, based on the settlement of agricultural colonies, the Spanish colonisers tended to develop urban settlements and left large areas with no occupation such as Chaco, Patagonia and La Pampa, what decisively determined the future demographic development.
11:41 - Jueves 02 de Septiembre de 2010
ORIGIN OF THE NAME ARGENTINA
The word Argentina comes from the Latin Argentum, that means “silver”.
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POPULATION PLANNING
Urban planning in the big cities was arranged based on communication and internal transport infrastructure, following demographic rules that resulted in the growth of communities quite homogeneous from the political, racial and religious points of view. Hispanic populations gathered in the northern and north–western areas of the territory, in conjunction with the Jesuitical and Franciscan missions. Contemporaneously, some indigenous groups were tempted by most of the colonisation activities. This assimilation was reflected in the social aspect giving origin to the local mestizo (people of mixed European and indigenous non–European ancestry). Nevertheless, other more warlike and autonomous people fought for their independence, implemented what was called the malón, raids conducted by Indian tribes, practice that extended for a long time until the Conquest of the Desert. It is worth mentioning that in the first century of Spanish domination, indigenous population went down by 25%.