In 1516 Juan Diaz de Solis and his crew of men ventured to explore the southern area of South America, which is now called Argentina. He and his crew sailed as far south as the Rio de la Plata where they turned into the mouth of the river that resided there. Wanting to claim the land there for the crown, de Solis and his crew traveled up the river a ways and landed on the eastern bank of the river, where de Solis and a party of nine men set foot on land (Fuentes, 1908). They didn’t make it very far because of the indigenous Charrua tribe that inhabited the area, whom ambushed, killed and ate the landing party, except for Francesco del Puerto. After no sign of the landing party the crew waiting off the coast turned back to Spain ("Juan diaz de," ). This event was significant because it was the one of the very first contacts between the Spanish and the indigenous peoples of the area. This led to the Spanish coming back for more so they could claim the land, the resources and colonize what is now Argentina.
The first Spanish attempt at creating a permanent settlement in Argentina occurred when Pedro de Mendoza and his fleet of 16 ships sailed from Spain to Argentina in 1536 and set up a village which he named, Puerto Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Aire (Port Our Lady Saint Mary of the Good Wind), which would later be named as Buenos Aires. But due to the fact that the Spanish arrived too late to plant crops they had to rely and force the indigenous group of the area, the Querandi to share their resources and food just so they could survive. This resulted in high tensions and eventually the Querandi withdrew their forced help and the village was abandoned as most of the colonists fled back to Spain ("History of buenos," ). This cultural contact is important because it left a bad lasting impression on the indigenous peoples, due to the fact that the Spanish, like many imperialistic powers, came into the country and tried to threaten and bully their way to taking over and eventually colonizing the country. This event also led to the rebuilding of the Spanish’s village, Buenos Aires, which is now the capital of Argentina.
The conquistador Juan de Garay traveled from Asuncion, a well-fortified Spanish settlement, down to the previously abandoned settlement of what is now Buenos Aires. Due to his larger crew and not having the disadvantage of traveling into the unknown, de Garay and his crew successfully founded the city, which he called at the time Ciudad de Trinidad, translated to City of Trinidad, and is now Buenos Aires ("Buenos aires ," ). By finally creating the city Buenos Aires, the Spanish were slowly beginning to push out and assimilate the indigenous groups of the area as is customary with colonization. Specifically the Querandi who were impacted the most due to the fact that they had lived in the area, which the Spanish had conquered.
In 1776, the Spanish announced the viceroyalty/colony of Rio de la Plata ("Catch the lingo,”), which included Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, and other countries like Uruguay, Paraguay and present day Bolivia. Having to earn the new status of political division, the economy of Buenos Aires started to grow as Potosi (a Bolivia city) made the viceroyalty wealthier. This eventually led the ports of Buenos Aries to flourish with merchants and decrease in trading goods such as precious metals, while increasing trade of maritime resources. Viewing this event, it is clear that the demand of certain goods have changed as precious metal, like gold, was replaced by agricultural resources. As time passed, the city became one of the most important commercial trade centers in the region ("Wikipedia," 2012). Due to this officially legislation, many Spanish travellers travelled to Buenos Aires to trade in hope of success, which later caused the increase in social conflict between the natives of Argentina. In fact, the creation of Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata gave Spain a significant amount of control through military actions ("Howstuffworks,”), which included the suppression of hostile natives and exploitation of human rights through slave trade.
Followed by the news of Napoleon’s invasion in Spain, the thoughts of rebellion sparked in the minds of the Métis and the indigenous people of Argentina ("Onwar.com," Nov). The people of Argentina formed a government on May 25th 1810 to declare their independence from Spain, however their official independence was later declared on July 9th 1816 (Christopher). This event signifies the liberation of Argentina from Spain’s rule and the establishment of connections between other countries that supported them in the war, like Chile. Not only did it reveal Argentina’s ability to combine it’s people to overthrow a higher power, but it also redeemed the identity of many indigenous peoples, as the rebel army was led by Jose de san Martin, an Argentina native who had been trained as a Spanish military officer.
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