ARGENTINA: PART 1Jean Lowry50587

GEOGRAPHY… Argentina is the second largest

country in South America by land area, after Brazil

It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aries

It is the eighth-largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations

Argentina is about 3900 km long from north to south, and 1400 km from east to west

There are four major regions: fertile central plains of the pampas, source of Argentina’s agricultural wealth; the flat to rolling, oil-rich southern plateau of Patagonia including Tierra del Fuego; the subtropical northern flats of the Gran Chaco, and the rugged Andes mountain range along the western border with Chile

GEOGRAPHY… CONT’D The highest point above sea level is in

Mendoza province at Cerro Aconcagua, also the highest point in the Southern and Western Hemisphere

The lowest point is Laguna del Carbon in Santa Cruz province

The geographic center of the country is in south-central La Pampa province

The major rivers are Paraná(the largest), the Pilcomayo, Paraguay, Bermejo, Colorado, Rio Negro, Salado and Uruguay

The Paraná and the Uruguay join to form the Rio de la Plata estuary, before reaching the Atlantic

Regionally important rivers are the Atuel and Mendoza in the homonymous province, the Chubut in Patagonia, the Rio Grande in Jujuy and the San Francisco River in Salta

GEOGRAPHY… CONT’D Several lakes include Argentino and

Viedma in Santa Cruz, Nahuel Huapi between Rio Negro and Neuquén, Fagnano in Tierra del Fuego, and Colhue Huapi and Musters in Chubut

Lake Buenos Aries and O’Higgins/San Martin Lake are shared the Chile

Mar Chiquita, Cordoba, is the largest salt water lake in the country

Generally temperature climate ranges from subtropical in the north to sub polar in the far south

The north characterized by very hot, humid summers with drier winters, and is subject to periodic droughts

Central Argentina has hot summers with thunderstorms (western Argentina produces some of the world’s largest hail), and cool winters

The southern regions have warm summers and cold winters with heavy snowfall, especially in mountainous zones

PEOPLE… Argentina ranks third in South

America in total population and 33rd globally

Population density is of 15 persons per square kilometer of land area, well below the world average of 50 persons

The median age is approximately 30 years and life expectancy at birth is 76.7 years

Argentina is considered a country of immigrants

Most Argentines are descended from colonial-era settlers, and 19th and 20th century immigrants from Europe

86.4% of Argentina’s population self-identify as being of European decent

An estimated 8% of the population is Mestizo and 4% of Argentines are of Arab or Asian heritage

PEOPLE… CONT’D The constitution guarantees

freedom of religion but also requires the government to support Roman Catholicism economically

According to the World Christian Database Argentines are: 92.1% Christian, 3.1% agnostic, 1.9% Muslim, 1.3% Jewish, 0.9% atheist, and 0.9% Buddhist and others

Argentine Christians are mostly Roman Catholic with estimates for the number of Catholics varying from 70% to 90% of the population

Argentina has the largest Jewish population of any country in Latin America

The de facto official language of Argentina is Spanish, usually called castellano by Argentines

PEOPLE… CONT’D The most prevalent dialect is

Rioplatense, whose speakers are primarily located in the Rio de la Plate basin

Italian and other European immigrants influenced Lunfardo, the slang spoken in the Rio de la Plata region, permeating the vernacular vocabulary of other regions as well

Argentina is highly urbanized The population is unequally

distributed amongst provinces: about 60% live in the Pampa region, including 15 million people in Buenos Aires province

Most European immigrants settles in the cities

Many small towns founded along the expanding railway system

Argentine cities were originally built in a colonial Spanish grid style and many still retain this general layout, which is known as a damero (checkerboard)

HISTORY… The earliest evidence of humans in

Argentina dates from 11,000 BC and was found in Patagonia

European explorers arrived in 1516; Spain established the Viceroyalty of Peru in 1542, encompassing all its holdings in South America

Their first settlement in modern Argentina was the Fort of Sancti Spiritu established in 1527 next to the Paraná River

Buenos Aires, a permanent colony, was established in 1536 but was destroyed by natives

The area which encompassed much of the territory that would later become Argentina was largely a territory of Spanish immigrants and their descendants (known as criollos), mestizos, native cultures, and descendants of African slaves

War for independence ensued in the former Viceroyalty, its regions divided between patriots and royalists

HISTORY… CONT’D The cities of present-day Argentina would

align with the independents after 1811, the other regions would follow differing paths: Paraguay secede, declaring its independence from Spain 1811 and from Argentina in 1842

Upper Peru was disputed with the royalists from Peru until it declared independence as Bolivia in 1824

Internal conflicts would cause political instability within the patriots

In 1813 an Assembly convened to declare independence but it could not do so due to political disputes

The military campaign became the responsibility of Jose de San Martin, who led an army across the Andes in 1817 and defeated the Chilean royalists

A new constitution was enacted in 1826, during the War with Brazil, when Bernardino Rivadavia was elected the first President of Argentina

This constitution was soon rejected by the provinces, due to its Centralist bias, and Rivadavia resigned shortly after; The provinces then reorganized themselves as the Argentine Confederation, a loose confederation of provinces that lacked a common head of state

HISTORY… CONT’D After 1875 a wave of foreign investment

and immigration from Europe led to the strengthening of a cohesive state, the development of modern agriculture and to a near-reinvention of Argentine society and economy

Argentina’s economy developed from 1875 onwards with a surge of agricultural exports, as well European investment and immigration

This boom ended 1930, after which the economy began to slowly lose ground

Argentina increased in prosperity and prominence between 1880 and 1929 and emerged as one of the ten richest countries in the world, benefiting from agricultural export-led economy as well as British and French investment

The Argentine Constitution of 1853 mandates a separation of powers into executive, legislative, and judicial branches at the national and provincial level

Executive power resides in the President and the cabinet

SOURCES… "Argentina." Wikipedia, the Free

Encyclopedia. Web. 25 July 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina>.