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HISTORY
Early Settlements
Colonization of the region was begun in 1535 by the Spanish soldier Pedro de Mendoza. In February 1536, Mendoza, who had been appointed military governor of the entire continent south of the Río de la Plata, founded Buenos Aires. In its efforts to establish a permanent colony, the Mendoza expedition encountered severe hardships, chiefly because of difficulties in obtaining food. Hostile natives forced the abandonment of this settlement five years later.
In 1537 Domingo Martínez de Irala, one of Mendoza's lieutenants, founded Asunción (now the capital of Paraguay), which was the first permanent settlement in the La Plata region. From their base at Asunción, the Spanish gradually won control over the territory between the Paraná and Paraguay rivers. The small herds of livestock brought from Spain had meanwhile multiplied and spread over the Pampas, creating the conditions for a stable agricultural economy.
Santiago del Estero, the first permanent settlement on what is now Argentine soil, was established in 1553 by Spanish settlers from Peru. Santa Fe was founded in 1573, and in 1580 the resettlement of Buenos Aires was begun. In 1620 the entire La Plata region was attached to the viceroyalty of Peru for administrative purposes. Because of the restrictive commercial policies of the Spanish government, colonization of the La Plata region proceeded slowly during the next 100 years. Buenos Aires, the center of a flourishing trade in smuggled goods, grew steadily. By the middle of the 18th century, its population numbered close to 20,000. In 1776 the territory occupied by present-day Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay was separated from Peru and incorporated as the viceroyalty of La Plata.
Patriotic Awakening
In June 1806, Buenos Aires was attacked by a British fleet under the command of Admiral Home Riggs Popham. The viceroy offered no defense against the attack, which was made without authorization by the British government. The invaders occupied the city but were expelled by a citizen army the following August. An expeditionary force subsequently dispatched by the British government against Buenos Aires was compelled to capitulate in 1807. These events had far-reaching consequences: the colonial patriots, imbued with confidence in their fighting ability, soon became active in the independence movement that had begun to develop in Spanish South America.
Revolutionary sentiment in La Plata reached its peak in the period following the deposing of King Ferdinand VII of Spain by Napoleon in 1808. The people of Buenos Aires refused to recognize Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, who was then installed on the Spanish throne. On May 25, 1810, they overthrew the viceregal government and installed a provisional governing council in the name of Ferdinand VII. The provisional government shortly broke with the representatives of Ferdinand and launched an energetic campaign to revolutionize the La Plata hinterland. This campaign ended in failure. Several signal victories, however, were won over invading royalist armies in 1812 and 1813. The liberated part of the viceroyalty was divided into 14 provinces in 1813. In 1814 the brilliant military leader José de San Martín took command of the northern army, which later struck decisive blows against Spanish rule in Chile and Peru.
The United Provinces
During 1814 and 1815 sentiment crystallized in the liberated area, which was nominally still subject to the Spanish crown, in favor of absolute independence. Representatives of the various provinces convened at Tucumán in March 1816. On the following July 9 the delegates proclaimed independence from Spanish rule and declared the formation of the United Provinces of South America (later United Provinces of the Río de la Plata). Although a so-called supreme director was appointed to head the new state, the congress was unable to reach agreement on a form of government. Many of the delegates, particularly those from the city and province of Buenos Aires, favored the creation of a constitutional monarchy. This position, which was later modified in favor of a highly centralized republican system, met vigorous opposition from the delegates of the other provinces, who favored a federal system of government. Friction between the two factions mounted steadily, culminating in a civil war in 1819. Peace was restored in 1820, but the central issue, formation of a stable government, remained unresolved. Throughout most of the following decade a state of anarchy, further compounded by war with Brazil from 1825 to 1827, prevailed in the United Provinces. Brazil was defeated in the conflict, a result of rival claims to Uruguay, which emerged as an independent state.
The national political turmoil lessened appreciably after the 1829 election of General Juan Manuel de Rosas as governor of Buenos Aires Province. A federalist, Rosas cemented friendly relations with other provinces, thereby winning broad popular support. He rapidly extended his authority over the United Provinces, which became known as the Argentine Confederation, and during his rule all opposition groups were crushed or driven underground.
Republican Government
The dictatorial regime of Rosas was overthrown in 1852 by a revolutionary group led by General Justo Urquiza, a former governor of Entre Ríos Province, who received assistance from Uruguay and Brazil. In 1853 a federal constitution was adopted, and Urquiza became first president of the Argentine Republic. Buenos Aires Province, refusing to adhere to the new constitution, proclaimed independence in 1854. The mutual hostility of the two states flared into war in 1859. The Argentine Republic won a quick victory in this conflict, and in October 1859, Buenos Aires agreed to join the federation. The province was, however, the center of another rebellion against the central government in 1861. Headed by General Bartolomé Mitre, the rebels defeated the national army in September of that year. The president of the republic resigned on November 5. In May of the next year a national convention elected Mitre to the presidency and designated the city of Buenos Aires as the national capital. With these events, Buenos Aires Province, the wealthiest and most populous in the union, achieved temporary control over the remainder of the nation.
Turmoil in Uruguay brought on a Paraguayan invasion of Argentine territory in 1865, beginning the bloody War of the Triple Alliance, which ended in complete victory for Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay in 1870. During the next decade the conquest of the Pampas as far as the Río Negro was completed, and the threat of hostile Native Americans from that direction was eliminated. This so-called War of the Desert (1879-1880), directed by General Julio A. Roca, opened up vast new areas for grazing and farming. In 1880 Roca, who opposed the ascendency of Buenos Aires in national affairs, was elected to the presidency. In the aftermath of his victory, the city of Buenos Aires was separated from the province and established as a federal district and national capital. A long-standing boundary dispute with Chile was settled in 1881; through this agreement Argentina acquired the title to the eastern half of Tierra del Fuego. In 1895 a boundary dispute with Brazil was submitted to arbitration by the United States, which awarded about 65,000 sq km (about 25,000 sq mi) of territory to Argentina. The country became involved in a serious controversy with Chile regarding the Patagonian frontier in 1899. This dispute was finally settled in 1902, with Great Britain acting as arbitrator.
In the half century following 1880, Argentina made remarkable economic and social progress. During the first decade of the 20th century the country emerged as one of the leading nations of South America. It began to figure prominently in hemispheric affairs and, in 1914, helped to mediate a serious dispute between the United States and Mexico. Argentina remained neutral during World War I (1914-1918) but played a major role as supplier of foodstuffs to the Allies.
Depression and Turmoil
The world economic crisis that began in 1929 had serious repercussions in Argentina. Unemployment and other hardships caused profound social and political unrest. Economic conditions improved substantially during the administration of General Augustín Justo, but political turbulence intensified, culminating in an unsuccessful Radical uprising in 1933 and 1934. In the period preceding the presidential elections of 1937, Fascist organizations became increasingly active. In May 1936, following the organization of a left-wing Popular Front, the Argentine right-wing parties united in a so-called National Front. This organization, which openly advocated establishment of a dictatorship, successfully supported the finance minister, Roberto M. Ortiz, for the presidency. Contrary to the expectations and demands of his supporters, however, Ortiz took vigorous steps to strengthen democracy in Argentina. Countermeasures were adopted against the subversive activities of German agents, who had become extremely active after the victory of National Socialism in Germany. The corrupt electoral machinery of the country was overhauled. Ortiz proclaimed neutrality after the outbreak of World War II in 1939, but he subsequently cooperated closely with the other American republics on matters of hemispheric defense.
World War II
In July 1940, President Ortiz, unable to function because of illness, designated Vice President Ramón S. Castillo as acting president. A Conservative, Castillo broke with the foreign and domestic policies of his predecessor. At the Pan-American Defense Conference, held at Rio de Janeiro in January 1942, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Argentina and Chile were the only American nations to refuse to sever relations with the Axis powers.
Castillo, who had officially succeeded to the presidency following the resignation of Ortiz in June 1942, was removed from office one year later by a military group headed by General Arturo Rawson, who favored severance of relations with Germany and Japan. On the eve of his assumption of office as provisional president, however, Rawson's associates forced him to resign. The provisional presidency went to General Pedro Ramírez, one of the leaders of the revolt. Ramírez shortly abolished all political parties, suppressed opposition newspapers, and generally stifled the remnants of democracy in Argentina. In January 1944, in a complete reversal of foreign policy, his government broke diplomatic relations with Japan and Germany.
Fearful that war with Germany was imminent, a military junta, the so-called Colonels, forced Ramírez from office on February 24, 1944. The central figure in the junta was Colonel Juan Domingo Perón, chief of labor relations in the Ramírez regime. Despite protestations of sympathy with the Allied cause, the government continued the policy of suppression of democratic activity and of harboring German agents. In July the U.S. government accused Argentina of aiding the Axis powers. Finally, on March 27, 1945, when Allied victory in Europe was assured, the country declared war on Germany and Japan. In the following month the government signed the Act of Chapultepec, a compact among American nations for mutual aid against aggressors. Argentina, with U.S. sponsorship, became a charter member of the United Nations in June. Shortly afterward, it was announced that elections would be held early in 1946.
The Perón Era
Revival of political activity in Argentina was marked by the appearance of a new grouping, the Peronistas. Formally organized as the Labor Party, with Perón as its candidate for the presidency, this group found its main support among the most depressed sections of the agricultural and industrial working class. The Peronistas campaigned among these workers, popularly known as descamisados (Spanish for "shirtless ones"), with promises of land, higher wages, and social security. The elections, held on February 24, resulted in a decisive victory for Perón over his opponent, the candidate of a progressive coalition.
In October 1945, Perón married the former actress Eva Duarte. As first lady of Argentina, Eva Perón managed labor relations and social services for her husband's government until her death in 1952. Adored by the masses, whom she manipulated with consummate skill, she was, as much as anyone, responsible for the popular following of the Perón regime. In October 1946, President Perón promulgated an ambitious five-year plan for the expansion of the economy. During 1947 he deported a number of German agents and expropriated about 60 German firms. After these moves, relations between Argentina and the United States improved steadily.
New Constitution
In March 1949, Perón promulgated a new constitution permitting the president of the republic to succeed himself in office. Taking advantage of the new law, the Peronista Party in July 1949 renominated Perón as its presidential candidate for 1952. As a result, the opposition parties and press became increasingly critical of the government. The Peronista majority in the congress retaliated in September of that year with legislation providing prison terms for people who showed "disrespect" for government leaders. Many opponents of the regime were jailed in subsequent months. The congress shortly instituted other retaliatory measures, notably suppression of the opposition press.
La Prensa, a leading independent daily newspaper, was suppressed in March 1951. In the following month, congress approved legislation expropriating the paper. Severe restrictions were imposed on the anti-Peronista parties in the campaign preceding the national elections, which took place in November 1951, instead of in February 1952, the originally scheduled date. President Perón was reelected by a large majority, and Peronista candidates won 135 of the 149 seats in the house of deputies.
Second Term
In January 1953 the government inaugurated a second five-year plan. The plan emphasized increased agricultural output instead of all-out industrialization, which had been the goal of the first five-year plan. During 1953 Argentina concluded important economic and trade agreements with several countries, notably Great Britain, the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and Chile. Foreign commercial transactions in 1953 produced a favorable balance of trade, the first since 1950; but inflationary pressures, which had resulted in an increase in the cost of living of more than 200 percent since 1948, did not lessen.
In November 1954, Perón accused a group of Roman Catholic clergymen of "fostering agitation" against the government. Despite church opposition, the government proposed and secured enactment during the next two months of legislation legalizing absolute divorce, granting all benefits of legitimacy to children borne out of wedlock, and legalizing prostitution. The schism between church and state widened steadily in the succeeding months.
Overthrow
On June 16, 1955, dissident elements of the Argentine navy and its air arm launched a rebellion in Buenos Aires. The army remained loyal, however, and the uprising was quickly crushed. Tension increased during the next few weeks, as factions within the government and the military maneuvered for position. Finally, on September 16, insurgent groupings in all three branches of the armed forces staged a concerted rebellion; after three days of civil war, during which approximately 4000 people were killed, Perón resigned and took refuge on a Paraguayan gunboat in Buenos Aires Harbor. On September 20 the insurgent leader Major General Eduardo Lonardi took office as provisional president, promising to restore democratic government. Perón went into exile, first in Paraguay and later in Spain.
Provisional Presidents
In less than two months the Lonardi government was itself overthrown in a bloodless coup d'état led by Major General Pedro Eugenio Aramburu. The announced reason for the revolt was the unwillingness of Lonardi to suppress Peronism, especially in the army and among the workers. Aramburu abrogated the 1949 constitution and restored the liberal charter of 1853. Under the latter, a president may not succeed himself. A Peronist revolt was crushed in June 1956. Thousands were arrested, and 38 alleged Peronistas were executed. Scores of people were subsequently imprisoned on charges of plotting to overthrow the new regime.
Elections to a constitutional assembly were held in July. The moderate Radical Party, headed by Ricardo Balbín, received the most votes, closely followed by the somewhat leftist Intransigent Radical Party under Arturo Frondizi. The Peronistas, forbidden to function as a party, were instructed by their exiled leader to cast blank ballots. Blanks, which were encouraged also by some minor groups, exceeded the votes of any single party and constituted about one-fourth of the total cast.
Elected Presidents
The constituent assembly, which opened in Santa Fe in September, unanimously readopted the constitution of 1853 after the Intransigent Radicals and some others withdrew. When general elections were held in February 1958, Frondizi won the presidency with Peronist and Communist support, and his Intransigent Radical Party won a majority in the legislature. Representative government was restored on May 1.
Despite labor unrest and continual rises in living costs, a degree of economic stability was achieved in early 1959 with the aid of substantial foreign loans and credits; by 1960, loans from U.S. public and private agencies alone amounted to $1 billion. Argentina's participation in the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA), founded in 1960, helped foster a growing trade with other countries in the region from 1960 to 1980.
Frondizi's popularity declined markedly throughout 1961. In elections held in March 1962, Peronistas, again permitted electoral participation, polled about 35 percent of the total vote. Although Frondizi forbade five successful Peronist candidates from assuming the provincial governorships they had won, he was deposed at the end of the month by military leaders critical of his leniency toward Peronism. José María Guido, as president of the Senate, became Frondizi's constitutional successor.
His government, however, was dominated by the armed forces. Both Peronistas and Communists were barred from the national elections of July 1963, in which Arturo Illía, a moderate of the People's Radical Party, was elected president. Illía announced a program of national recovery and regulation of foreign investment and tried to control rising prices, shortages, and labor unrest by fixing prices and setting minimum-wage laws.
Military Rule
In elections in 1965, Peronist candidates made significant gains, although Illía's party retained a 71-seat plurality in the lower house. Labor unrest continued into 1966, and the Peronistas continued to win victories in by-elections. The result was a military coup in June 1966. The junta that then took control named succeeding presidents, the third of whom, General Alejandro Augustín Lanusse, took office in 1971.
In the early months of his regime, Lanusse began moving toward a return to civilian rule. He announced an economic program designed to hold down the inflationary spiral, and scheduled national elections for March 1973. In 1972, however, the country became increasingly torn by violence, including strikes, student riots, and terrorist activities. The economy too was headed for a new crisis. The Peronistas had grown increasingly vocal, and they now nominated Perón for the presidency. He remained in Spain until after the date set for candidates to be resident in Argentina, however, and Hector J. Cámpora was nominated in his place.
Return and Death of Perón
Peronistas swept the elections in March 1973, and Cámpora was inaugurated as president on May 25. Terrorism escalated, now joined by rightist vigilantes, with numerous kidnappings, soaring ransom demands, and killings. Divisions between moderate and leftist Peronistas also brought widespread violence. On June 20, when Perón returned to Buenos Aires, a riot resulted in approximately 380 casualties.
A month later Cámpora resigned, and in September Perón was elected president, with more than 61 percent of the votes. His third wife, Isabel de Peron, was elected vice president.
The strain, however, proved too much for the aging Perón. He died on July 1, 1974, and his wife succeeded him, becoming the first woman chief executive of a modern Latin American state. During her presidency, political and economic conditions deteriorated rapidly. In 1975 terrorist activities by right- and left-wing groups resulted in the deaths of more than 700 people. The cost of living increased by 335 percent, and strikes and demonstrations for higher wages were frequent. After repeated cabinet crises and an abortive air force rebellion in December 1975, a military junta led by the army commander, Lieutenant General Jorge Rafael Videla, seized power on March 24, 1976. The junta dissolved the legislature, imposed martial law, and ruled by decree.
Military Rule and the Falklands War
For the first few months after the military takeover, terrorism remained rampant, but it waned somewhat after the Videla government launched its own terror campaign against political opponents. In 1977 the Argentine Commission for Human Rights, in Geneva, blamed the regime for 2300 political murders, some 10,000 political arrests, and 20,000 to 30,000 disappearances.
The economy remained chaotic. Videla was succeeded as president in March 1981 by Field Marshal Roberto Viola, himself deposed in December 1981 by the commander in chief of the army, General Leopoldo Galtieri. Galtieri's government rallied the country behind it in April 1982 by forcibly occupying the British-held Falkland Islands (called Islas Malvinas by the Argentines). After a brief war Great Britain recaptured the islands in June, and the discredited Galtieri was replaced by Major General Reynaldo Bignone.
The Latin American Integration Association (LAIA), founded in 1980, replaced LAFTA as a more loosely defined entity for reducing tariffs on intracontinental trade. Between 1986 and 1990, Argentina signed a number of integration treaties designed to further reduce trade barriers between Latin American countries.
With an unprecedented international debt, and inflation at more than 900 percent, Argentina held its first presidential election in a decade in October 1983. The winner was the candidate of the Radical Party, Raúl Alfonsín. Under Alfonsín, the armed forces were reorganized; former military and political leaders were charged with human rights abuses; the foreign debt was restructured; fiscal reforms (including a new currency) were introduced; and a treaty to resolve a dispute with Chile over three Beagle Channel islands was approved. Inflation remained unchecked, however, and in May 1989 the Peronist candidate, Carlos Saúl Menem, was elected president. With Argentina's economy deteriorating rapidly, Menem imposed an austerity program. During the early 1990s his government curbed inflation, balanced the budget, sold off state enterprises to private investors, and rescheduled the nation's debts to commercial banks. In 1992 full diplomatic relations with Britain were restored, helping to heal the wounds of the Falklands War. In January 1994 the country signed the Treaty of Tlatelolco, making Argentina a nuclear weapons-free state. Also in 1994, leaders from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay signed the Asunción treaty, which confirmed those countries' intention to create the Southern Cone Common Market by the end of 1994. In 1994 Argentina adopted a new constitution. The most notable change shortened the presidential term from six to four years and allowed the president to seek a second consecutive term. In 1994 Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay signed a treaty that created the Southern Cone Common Market (also known by its Spanish acronym, MERCOSUR). The agreement took effect on January 1, 1995, allowing 90 percent of trade between member countries to proceed duty free. This agreement, combined with the privatization of state industries, helped Argentina to continue its economic recovery.
Carlos Saúl Menem won a second consecutive presidential term in May 1995. When it became clear later in the year that Argentina would have difficulty meeting fiscal targets for 1996 set by the International Monetary Fund, Menem called on the Argentine Congress to declare a state of economic emergency. In an effort to allow the president to raise funds quickly in the event of a budget crisis, Menem was granted emergency economic powers in March 1996 that gave him the power to raise tax rates and impose new taxes without congressional approval.
That same month more than 10,000 prisoners rioted across Argentina, taking dozens of hostages and instigating one of the worst prison rebellions in the country's history. The rioting began at a maximum security prison in Buenos Aires, quickly spread to other prisons, and lasted for more than a week. Inmates, an estimated 70 percent of whom were awaiting trial, called for an end to overcrowding and unsanitary conditions, and for faster processing in the courts.
In July Menem dismissed Domingo Carvallo, the finance minister who guided Argentina's economic policy in the early 1990s. Carvallo's policy of deregulation and privatization brought lower inflation and economic stability to Argentina, but many government employees lost their jobs when government-owned businesses were privatized. Despite Carvallo's dismissal, the government continued to follow his fiscal plan. Rising unemployment led labor organizers to call a general strike in September 1996 and in May 1997 violent protests against the government's economic policies took place in cities and towns across the nation.
Menem reshuffled Argentina's military leadership in October 1996, replacing three of the country's top four military leaders. The president requested the resignation of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretaries of the Navy and Air Force, all of whom had shown signs of resisting Menem's efforts to reform the military.
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