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CAPITAL
Buenos Aires has 3,000,000  inhabitants, but if we add the denominated "Great Buenos Aires" or Metropolitan Region, the population promotes 12,200,000 inhabitants.

POPULATION
37.384.816 inhabitants

LANGUAGE
Spanish is the official language, in addition to English, Italian, German and 17 indigenous languages that are still spoken in some places.

GOVERNMENT
According to the Constitution of 1853, Argentina is a federal republic. It became independent from Spain the 9th of July 1816

FLIGHT TIMES FROM BUENOS AIRES
To Puerto Iguazú: 1.h. 45 min.

To Montevideo: 45 min.
To Sao Paulo: 3 hs.
To New York, Madrid, London, Paris and Rome: 10 hs. aprox.

Review

HISTORY

There are very few indications on the prehistoric establishments. These demonstrate the existence of nomadic towns that practiced the fishing, the hunting and agriculture on small scale.
The Indians " Charrúas " inhabited these lands  when in XVI century (1516) arrived the first Spanish navigator Juan Diaz de Solis, who demanded the surrounding region in the name of Spain.

He baptized to the Río de la Plata like "Sweet Sea". Later there were diverse establishments until just in 1580 the second foundation of the city in charge of Juan de Garay was carried out, in which today is Lezama Park .

Santa  Maria de los Buenos Ayres began to grow and to extend towards the south: Retiro, San Telmo  and to the west: Congreso. All that zone received the name of Mercy and "porteños" to the first neighbors.

In 1776, the zone that at the moment occupies Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay united in the Virreinato of the Río de la Plata .

In 1806, moment of independence ideals in America, the attack of an English fleet with the connivance of the Virrey took place. The invaders were expelled thanks to the town people, commanded by Santiago de Liniers that, after these events, became Virrey. This victory woke up the revolutionary feeling that reached its apogee when the government of the colony refused to recognize Jose Bonaparte and restored the First Governing Junta in 1810. The victories of the liberator Jose de San Martín on the Spanish army allowed that the 9th. of July 1816 independence was proclaimed, being created the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata , origin of the present Argentine state.

After a series of unstable governments, in 1819 a civil confrontation between those in favor of a federalist regime and those in favor of a union began. When the tranquility in 1820 was recovered, the problem was the ruling anarchy in the country. The federalist general Rosas gave back the calm with a dictatorship that lasted until 1852, when general Urquiza took the power thus, promulgating the federal Constitution of 1853 and becoming the first president of the Argentine Republic.

Between 1862 and 1880 a series of governments followed one another who laid the the foundations of modern Argentina, with an important economic and social progress. Nevertheless, in spite of the bonanza, there were protests of the middle-class and the popular groups that could not participate in the elections. In 1912 the conflict was solved with the promulgation of the masculine universal suffrage.

A great part of these new middle-class and popular that had so much influence in the Argentine policy were immigrants, arrived to the country mainly in second half of  the XIXth. century and principles of the XXth. century. 

The necessity to incorporate cheap manual labor for the enormous farming operations in the Pampas and the Patagonian fields, or for the rising industry, compelled the different Argentinean governments to promote the arrival of foreign workers.

Although that the hope was that these immigrants would come in their majority from the north of Europe, almost the 80% came from the poor countries as Spain or Italy. 

The Italians formed the most important group and together with the Spaniards, have left a great influence in the culture, the speech and the Argentinean idiosyncrasy.

Other important communities have been the French, German, Russian, Lebanese or Syrian. Special importance has the Jews, in their majority coming from Germany and East Europe, from where they fled due to the persecutions against them occurred in the old continent, with his apogee in the Nazi Holocaust.

The neutral attitude of Argentina during World War I benefited in the economic field, however the crisis of the 29 caused a political restlessness that ended at a military coup in 1930, commanded by Uriburu. After two years in the power, began the "década infame", a period of corruption and electoral frauds.

During World War II, Argentina returned to be neutral. Different governments followed one to another until the arrival to  the power of Ramirez, who choked the last rest of democracy off the country. The most important event of its mandate was the rupture of relations with Germany, which caused the rise of a Junta Militar, commanded by Juan Domingo Perón, by the fear of getting into a war with this nation.

After World War II it emphasized a new grouping, the Peronistas, who obtained different supports from the popular and middle-class  that impelled him to the electoral victory in 1946. In 1949 the critics to the party grew, that retaliated with laws that condemned the political crimes. In spite of the displeasure, Perón won again in the elections of 1951. 

But the distance between the Church and the State and a series of rises caused their resignation. The provisional government was demoted two months later by a coup d'etat, after which different mandates followed one to another.

The last one of them, General Lanusse, had to recover the civil government due to the civil protests. Thus, in 1973, in the new electoral call, they overcame the Peronistas, that's why the reason Perón raised the government again.

In 1974, when Perón  died, her wife Isabel happened to him, during whose mandate the economic situation was deteriorated. The problems ended at a new military rise, directed by the General Videla, who took the power in 1976 and restored a military dictatorship that caused the disappearance and the torture of almost 30,000 Argentineans.

The economic crisis continued, and that´s  the reason why different presidents were followed one to another, until in 1983 when presidential elections were celebrated in which it overcame Raul Alfonsín. Under their mandate the democratic principles recovered.

In the elections of 1989 it overcame Carlos  Menem. Although it reformed the Constitution to be able to occupy the presidency for the second time. In 1999 it was replaced by Fernando de la Rúa. Due to the economic crisis initiated in 1998, de la Rúa had to leave his position in December 2001, after a bloody popular revolt in protest by the "corralito", that prevented the citizens to accede to its savings in dollars before the devaluation of the peso.

The instability situation took two brief and insolvent governments, until January 2002 when Eduardo Duhalde acceded to the presidency, and who in the same month put aim to eleven years of parity 1 peso = 1 dollar.

Since 2003 up to this moment, the country is ruled by Néstor Kirchner, who  arrived at this position with an ample majority obtained after democratic elections.

CULTURE

Argentine Literature, originally a ramification of the Spanish, acquired a noticeable nationalistic shade in century XIX. The poem " Fausto " (1866) by Estanislao del Campo is the gauchesca version of the legend of the Faustus " Martín Fierro" (1872), a narrative poem of the life of a gaucho, work of Jose Hernandez , it is considered the national Argentinean epic. Finally, the sociological test " Facundo " (1845), by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento , is a study that it analyzes how the rural life of Argentine Pampas contributed to model the national character.

The Argentine Literature of XX century has produced magnificent works like celebrated " Don Segundo Sombra " (1926), by Ricardo Güiraldes . Other works and other Argentine writers of international stature that we cannot forget are: " Rayuela " (1963), novel by Julio Cortázar ; " The kiss of the spider woman " (1976), novel by Manuel Puig; and histories by Ernesto Sábato, Eduardo Mallea (a novelist who wrote on existentialist subjects) and Jorge Luis Borges . These narrators have international fame by their works full of fantasy.

The more well known poet  is Leopoldo Lugones , who cultivated the symbolism and the naturalism. At the present time, he must stand out to Adolfo Bioy Casares like one of the more representative Argentine writers.

As far as the painting, in XIX century it was dominated by gauchescos subjects and scenes of the urban life. In this period it shined Prilidiano Pueyrredón . Among the painters of  XX century they deserve to be mentioned the realist Caesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós ; Fernando Fader and Pedro Figari,  Benito Quinquela Martín , the Buenos Aires harbor's  life painter ; the cubist Emilio Pettoruti and Raúl Soldi (author of the fresh airs that adorns the central Colon Theater´s cupola) and Carlos Alonso.

Other Argentinean contemporaries plastic artists with great international trajectories that expose their works in the most important centers of different capitals from the world are: Rómulo Maccio, Ricardo Roux, Pérez Celis, Guillermo Kuitca . The escultor Rogelio Yrurtia is also very well known.

But the more universal artistic manifestation that Argentina has produced is its music. The main components of the Argentine folk music are the gauchescos songs and dances (a paradigmatic musician in this field, author of protest songs, is Jorge Cafrune and Mercedes Sosa appears throughout the world's well-known singer for her beautiful voice); the native music of the provinces from the north; the European influences and to a lesser extent, African music.

The tango was born in Buenos Aires and became the great halls favorite dance in every part of the world, is the more famous Argentinean contribution to the modern music and whose maximum exponent, Carlos Gardel  is the one that gave it an international relevance.  

At present, the feminine voice that first captivated the Parisian public and then crossed throughout the world seducing the most different audiences with the Tango, is Susana Rinaldi.

Among the Ballet dancers whose virtues are very well known further more Argentina's frontier, are Julio Bocca and Paloma Herrera (both in the American Dance Ballet) and Jorge Donn, who was for many years the Star Dancer at the Maurice Béjart