Argentina

Abstract

Prior to European colonization the two main indigenous groups—the Diaguita in the northwest and the Guarani in the south and east—developed an agricultural civilization. Europeans came to Argentina in the early 16th century. When Sebastian Cabot established the first Spanish settlement in 1526, he revealed Argentina’s silver resources, possibly inspiring the name Argentina (‘of silver’). Ten years later Pedro de Mendoza founded Buenos Aires. However, it was not until 1580 that the region’s indigenous peoples, weakened by European diseases as much as by military campaigns, were finally defeated and Spanish rule established.