Origins

Argentinians trace their origins to a country that in certain ways is similar to Canada. With its 2.8 million square kilometres, Argentina is the second-largest country in South America, bordered by Chile to the west, by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and by Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, and Uruguay to the north. Argentina’s three basic geographic regions include the sparsely populated lowlands (the Gran Chaco) in the northeast; the grasslands (pampas) in the central region – the source of the country’s grain and cattle production as well as more than half the population; and a high mountain chain (the Andes) along the entire length of the western border with Chile. It has, therefore, been possible for Argentinian immigrants to find in Canada geographic environments similar to the ones they left.

Also like Canada, Argentina is an immigrant country, whose population developed from a combination of indigenous Indian peoples, Spanish colonists, mestizos, African slaves, and immigrants mostly from Europe. The numerical balance among these various groups has changed radically over time. For instance, in the mid-nineteenth century, an estimated 69 percent of Argentina’s population of 800,000 were mestizo (offspring of Europeans and Indians), 15.6 percent blacks and mulattoes, 12.5 percent Indians, and only 2.7 percent European whites. Since the 1880s, successive Argentinian governments have actively encouraged the immigration of Europeans, with the result that, by 1991, of the country’s 32 million inhabitants, nearly 90 percent were Europeans (mostly Italians or Spanish and their descendants), with the remainder divided between small numbers of mestizos, indigenous Indians, and immigrants from the Middle East.

The religion brought by the Spanish colonists in the sixteenth century has been reinforced by more recent immigration, so that 90 percent of Argentinians are Roman Catholic. Spanish is the official and main language of communication, although the Argentinian spoken form of that language is distinct and enriched by local peculiarities in pronunciation, vocabulary, and structure.

Before the arrival of Spanish colonists, Argentina was inhabited by at least ten major Indian groups, among which were the Guaraní in the northeast, the Pampas in the central plains, the Charúas in the east, the Oras in the south, and the Araucano in the central and southwestern mountain ranges. These and other Indian tribes are today small in number and have little impact on Argentinian society.

Spaniards first visited Argentina in 1516, naming it after the precious metal, silver (argentum in Latin), which they hoped to find. Despite the absence of silver, the Spaniards remained and were to rule for the next three centuries, during which time the population grew as a result of steady immigration from Spain (whose offspring – of European parents, born in the New World – were known as Creoles) and intermarriage between Spanish men and Indian women (especially among the Guaraní peoples in the northeast). The offspring of the latter were the mestizos who became either artisans and labourers in colonial towns or herdspeople (the Gaucho cowboys) on the pampas. Black slaves brought in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries worked as domestic servants, herders, or farmhands.

During most of Spanish rule, Argentina was led by governors who reported to the Spanish viceroy in Peru. It was not until 1776 that the colony received its own viceroy based at what was then the small town of Buenos Aires. The first decade of the nineteenth century witnessed an abortive attempt by the British to capture the town as well as a revolt by the local inhabitants which eventually led in 1816 to the declaration of an independent Argentina under the leadership of José de San Martín.

Independent Argentina was characterized during its first half century by a struggle between political forces that wished to create a centralized state and those who favoured a federal union. Between 1853 and 1862, a federal constitution was adopted and all provinces were brought together to function as a united republic. Argentina then entered a period of economic growth that lasted to the eve of World War I and that was marked by specialization in cattle production, dependence on foreign investment, and a significant increase in immigration from Europe.

In 1930 the Argentine military took over control of government from elected civilian officials, initiating a precedent that was to be repeated several times in succeeding years. The most successful of these military leaders was Juan Domingo Perón, who in 1946 was elected president. For the next three decades, the history of Argentina revolved around the charismatic Perón and (until 1952) his second wife Eva/Evita Duarte. His government initiated widescale social and welfare programs for the workers who, in turn, formed Perón’s main political constituency. Argentinian society became deeply split between “peronistas” and “antiperonistas” not only during his initial presidency but also during his years of exile (1955–73), his re-election in 1973, and the presidency that began a year later under his third wife, María Estela Martínez de Perón.

In 1976 the military toppled the Perón “dynasty” and ushered in a period of political repression that lasted until 1983. The resultant “dirty war” was characterized by the imprisonment, torture, and murder of an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 Argentinians, and the emigration of thousands more who sought refuge abroad. Since 1983 civilian government and political stability have returned to the country.