Brief History of Argentina

Our brief history of Argentina begins with an arrival: in 1536 Pedro de Mendoza founded the city of Santa María de los Buenos Ayres, but its native population did not remain there. Buenos Aires is one of the few cities in the world that was founded twice. The second foundation was in 1580.

The current territory was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru until 1776 when the King of Spain, Carlos III, decided to establish the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, due to its importance as an outlet to the sea. Thus, Buenos Aires became the commercial port of the Viceroyalty, linking Potosí with Spain. England also coveted this port, so the city twice rebuffed English invasions, in 1806 and 1807.

When Spain was occupied by France, the inhabitants of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata sought to become independent from the Spanish crown. On May 25, 1810, government officials met to determine the way forward and on July 9, 1816 a congress of deputies was formed from several provinces, and proclaimed independence. José de San Martín, father of the country of Argentina, deployed the military to lay the groundwork for independence, and undertook campaigns to make Chile and Peru independent as well.

Manuel Belgrano also promoted Argentine independence and fought on the frontline to consolidate it.

Post-independence

Once independence was declared, two political currents rose to prominence: Unitary and Federal. The Unitarians believed in a central power, based in Buenos Aires, while the federals maintained the autonomy of the provinces, independent from the capital. This caused a civil war between both sides. The first president was Rivadavia, a Unitarian, in 1826.

In 1829, Juan Manuel de Rosas, who retained power until 1852, took over as Governor of Buenos Aires. His government was authoritarian, but oversaw an increase in commerce and exports.

Rosas’ policies slowed the growth of the provinces, so in 1851 Urquiza, Governor of Entre Ríos, confronted Rosas and defeated him in the battle of Caseros.

Having done so, he called a Constituent Congress in the province of Santa Fe in 1853, and passed a National Constitution. Division reigned for almost 10 years. Only in 1861 did Bartolomé Miter succeed in defeating Urquiza and unifying the country under the governance of Buenos Aires.

Next in line for the presidency were Sarmiento, between 1868 and 1874, and Avellaneda, between 1874 and 1880. When Julio A. Roca assumed the role in 1880, a conservative model was consolidated. Around this time the first political parties began to appear, starting with the Radical Civic Union in 1890. In 1912, during the presidency of Roque Saénz Peña, a law was passed establishing the mandatory and secret electoral vote.

A period of governmental uncertainty ensued, with the radical President Hipólito Yrigoyen overthrown by a coup in 1930, followed by a series of conservative governments. In 1943 Castillo was overthrown by a group of military personnel – among them Perón, who became president for two terms from 1946. Between 1958 and 1966 the country was governed by the radicals Frondizi and Illía. In 1966 the latter was overthrown by a coup. Onganía and Lanusse succeeded each other in government. In 1973, Héctor Cámpora won the elections on a Peronist ticket and was succeeded by Lastiri, Perón and Isabel Perón until 1976, when the dictatorship in Argentina began after a military coup. In 1982 it claimed the Falkland Islands, triggering a war with England for control of the territory which it ultimately lost. The dictatorship was also responsible for the disappearance of Argentine citizens and disrespect for Human Rights. Anyone with alternative views from the military government was persecuted. Trade unionists, politicians, artists, intellectuals, poets and many others lost their lives – as did ordinary people who did not have subversive views but appeared by chance on the government’s lists.

Following elections in 1983, radicalism returned to the government with Raúl Alfonsín, who established democracy and tried those responsible for crimes against humanity. He was succeeded by Carlos Menem from 1989 to 1999. In 1997 the Alliance emerged as a political party, and Fernando de la Rúa won the elections in 1999.

Current times

In 2001 a great economic crisis led to de la Rúa abandoning power, succeeded in government by Eduardo Duhalde until 2003. Néstor Kirchner was elected from that year until 2007, when he was succeeded by Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for two terms. In 2015 Mauricio Macri was elected, and ruled until 2019, the year Alberto Fernández won the elections and the moment where our journey through our brief history of Argentina ends.