Argentina History
Before the arrival of the Spaniards the Argentine territory was inhabited by a variety of Aboriginal peoples. Among the most important ones we could mention the Diaguita-Calchaquí and Kolla in the Northwest, the Mapuche, Ona and Tehuelche in the South, the Mbya-Guaraní and Toba in the northeast and in the central region the Huarpe, Mapuche, Guaraní and Kolla.
Colonial era
Buenos Aires was founded twice, in 1536 and in 1580 but it wasn’t till 1776 that it attained the status of capital when a new administrative entity, the Virreinato del Río de la Plata, was created. The Virreinato was a vast terrritory which included the modern day countries of Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.
An important date is the 25th May 1810, when a Cabildo Abierto (i.e. a public general meeting) was called in Buenos Aires to decide what to do in view of the fall of the monarchy in Spain as a result of the Napoleonic invasion and the consequent loss of power of the viceroy. After a heated discussion it was decided that the right to govern should be devolved to the people and a new government installed. It was called the Junta de Gobierno (later changed to Primera Junta), following the example of the Junta de Sevilla.
Independence
After several experiments in different types of government (punctuated by continuous battles with the Spanish army) it was decided to ask the different provinces to select delegates to a Congress which would decide on the future government and status of the Virreinato. It took place in Tucumán, in northwest Argentina, and it was there that on the 9th July 1816 independence from Spain was finally declared.
Organization of the new state
After 1816 there followed a very unstable period of civil conflict between two main factions: the federalists and the unitarians (or centralists). This ended with the victory for the federalists, who took over the government under the aegis of General J.M. de Rosas in 1829, when he was asked to be the Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires. Although he never changed that title, he became a dictator and ruled with a rod of iron until he was defeated at the battle of Caseros in 1852.
Later that year another Congress was convened, this time called Congreso General Constituyente, with the purpose of writing a constitution which would dictate the composition of the Confederación or union of most of the provinces. The text was agreed and published on the 25th May 1856 and then solemnly sworn on the 9 of July by all the provinces except Buenos Aires, which did not join the Confederación until 1860.
The new republic
Argentina now entered into a dynamic and increasingly prosperous period of intense development. Thanks to a succession of progressive and enlightened Presidents Argentina grew in wealth and importance; the agricultural sector in particular prospered immensely and saw its products very much sought after in Europe. Other sectors were not forgotten: President D.F.Sarmiento gave great importance to education and put in place a plan both to open new schools and to organize a network of teacher training colleges throughout the country. All these plans meant there was a shortage of labour, so a campaign was started to encourage immigration from Europe. Great numbers of workers (mainly Italian and Spanish) flocked to Argentina in the last decades of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th lured by the promise of work and land. Buenos Aires was transformed into an elegant city, ressembling an European capital. All this acitvity and wealth meant that in the first decade of the 20th century Argentina was among the ten richest nations in the world.
Political development
On the 6th Sept 1930 there took place a military coup which deposed President H. Irigoyen, from the Radical Party. This coup, the first of many, was the beginning of a period known as the Década infame, which lasted more or less till 1943. Among the members of the military junta which took power then was Colonel Juan Domingo Perón, who, from his base in the Department of Labour, became a powerful and popular figure, so much so that when he was temporarily exiled and imprisoned the people of organized a mass demonstration asking for his release. This took place on the 17th October 1945, which has become a revered date for all peronists.
In the general election held in 1946 General Perón was elected president and together with his charismatic wife, Eva Perón, he developed and headed a new political movement (or ideology): justicialismo, with a strong accent on social justice. There were many reforms; among them the establishment of paid holidays for workers. One of the most important ones was the granting of the vote to women, along with other political rights. Peronismo was widely accepted among the population of Argentina but at the beginning of the fifties it also started creating a profound division in the people, especially when an act was passed to reform the Constitution allowing Perón to stand for a second term. The death of Evita in 1952 and increasingly repressive methods meant that the Government became less and less popular. In September 1955 Perón was ousted by a military coup which became known as the Revolución Libertadora. Perón was able to take refuge abroad and finally settled in Spain but peronism was proscribed in Argentina for years to come.
On the way to democracy
Arturo Frondizi, from the Radical party, was elected president in 1958 but he too was ousted by a military coup in 1962. There were new elections in 1964, when Arturo H. Illia, from another branch of the Radical Party, was elected. He was perceived as an honest man but weak and in face of increasing trade union militancy General Onganía organized a coup and gained power; his dictatorial régime was known as the Revolución Argentina and lasted till 1973.
Peronism was legalized in that year (1973) and it won the elections. Juan D. Perón, newly arrived from Spain, became president for the third time. However, he died less than a year after and so his Vicepresident and third wife, María Estela Martínez de Perón, took over.
On the 24th March 1976 a new military coup took place and a Junta, made up of the heads of all the armed forces and headed by General Galtieri, took over. This regime, self named Proceso de Reorganización Nacional, took the form of a systematic process of abduction, torture and murder, la guerra sucia or dirty war, during which thousands of persons disappeared.
In 1982 the Junta ordered the invasion of the Falkland Islands which prompted a strong reaction from Great Britain and the sending of a task force. The defeat in the Guerra de las Malvinas was one of the factors that led to the collapse of the military regime and the call to new elections for the following year.
Recent history
Democracy was reinstated on the 10th December 1983. The new president, Raúl Alfonsín (also from the Radical Party) adopted measures to enable the investigation of crimes against humanity which had taken place during the military dictatorship, established the civil control of the Armed Forces and consolidated the democratic institutions.
In 1989 a Peronist, Carlos Menem, took over the Government after being duly elected. This was the first peaceful transfer of power from one civilian to another in more than 50 years. Menem was re-elected for a second term, finishing in 1999. Then in 2003 another Peronist, Nestor Kirchner, was elected, followed in 2007 by Cristina Fernández, his wife and the first woman in the history of the country to be elected by the vote of the people. One can say that now Argentina has entered into a new stage of its development, a stage of greater stability and democratic government.