From the Indigenous to Independence

Indigenous Peoples (13,000 years ago – 1516)

Long before the European arrival, numerous indigenous peoples with completely different cultures lived in what is now Argentina:

• Mapuche in the south: Warlike riders who successfully resisted the Spaniards for over 300 years — the only South American people never fully conquered
• Guaraní in the northeast: Sedentary farmers who later lived in the Jesuit reductions (San Ignacio Miní)
• Diaguita and Quechua in the northwest: Under the influence of the Inca Empire, agriculture, terrace farming, complex societies
• Tehuelche in Patagonia: Nomadic hunters, referred to by Magellan as "Patagones" (Bigfeet) — they wore guanaco fur shoes that made their feet appear huge. This name gave the entire region its name: Patagonia
• Yámana (Yaghan) in Tierra del Fuego: The southernmost people on earth. They lived naked in canoes on the icy Beagle Channel (their metabolism was adapted to the cold!) and are now practically extinct — the last full-blooded Yámana, Cristina Calderón, died in 2022
• Selk'nam (Ona) in Tierra del Fuego: Hunters and gatherers who were systematically exterminated by European settlers in the 19th century — a genocide long kept silent

Spanish Colonial Era (1516–1816)

Juan Díaz de Solís discovered the Río de la Plata in 1516 — and was promptly killed by the Charrúa indigenous people. Buenos Aires was founded in 1536 by Pedro de Mendoza, but the Querandí indigenous people made life so difficult that the settlement had to be abandoned. It was not until 1580 that the final founding was carried out by Juan de Garay.

Argentina long remained a stepchild of the Spanish Empire: There was no gold, no silver (ironically, "Argentina" is derived from Latin "argentum" = silver — but the silver was found in Potosí, in present-day Bolivia). The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata was not established until 1776 — 250 years after the arrival of the Spaniards. Buenos Aires was a sleepy port at the end of the world.

Independence and San Martín (1810–1860)

The May Revolution of 1810 (May 25 — now a national holiday) in Buenos Aires initiated the separation from Spain. The great hero: José de San Martín — the "Libertador del Sur" (Liberator of the South), Argentina's George Washington. San Martín's masterstroke: In 1817, he marched with an army of 5,000 men over the Andes (via the Paso Los Libertadores near Mendoza, 3,832 m!) to Chile and then on to Peru to drive out the Spaniards. The crossing of the Andes is considered one of the greatest military achievements in history — comparable to Hannibal's crossing of the Alps.

On July 9, 1816, independence was officially declared in Tucumán (today the second major national holiday). This was followed by decades of bloody civil wars between Unitarians (Buenos Aires, liberal, European-oriented) and Federalists (provinces, conservative, populist). The dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas ruled from 1829–1852 with an iron fist and secret police — his red beret-wearing supporters terrorized the opposition.