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A Brief History Of Argentina
The history of Argentina begins before the European arrival. There were two main nomadic tribes, the Diaguita from the northwestern portion of the country and the Guarani from the southeast. The Basque, Irish, German, Italians and British settled and became land owners, overtaking the pre-Colombian cultures. Buenos Aires was established as a city in the late 16th century under Spanish rule. By 1816, Jose de San Martin along with Simon Bolivar broke the Spanish rule over South America.
The then independent Argentina struggled with Unitarists who wanted strong government control and Federalists who wanted local control.
In the beginning of World War I, Argentina was one of the leading agricultural exporters in the world. While those who owned land were rich, the rest of the population was suffering. This gave tremendous support to the political and economic reforms of Juan Peron (along with his wife,
Eva
) who lead the country from 1946 to 1955 and again from 1973 to 1974.
Due to a series of coups, the nation's wealth evaporated and the military government in power was at its worst with the Dirty War of the 1970's. As many as 30,000 men, women and children were missing during this period in the history of Argentina.
In 1982 a war was fought against Great Britain over the Falkland Islands, or Malvinas, probably in part to move attention away from the failing government. Argentina lost. The ruling military was overthrown and the country was returned to a constitutional form of government.
After the chaos of the 1980's, the 1990's were a relatively calm period in the
history of Argentina
. Unfortunately, this was not to last. Changes in leadership brought rioting and political unrest along with the downfall of an overinflated peso. By 2001 over half of the population of Argentina was living in poverty.
In 2003 Nestor Kirchner and his government were elected with hopes of a new beginning for Argentina. In December 2007, Nestor Kirchner was succeeded by his wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who won the general election two months earlier.
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