Who discovered Argentina? And when was actual independence?

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Buenos Aires Guide

From http://www.buenosairesstay.com:

Discovering Buenos Aires:

•Amerigo Vespucci may have visited the region now called Argentina in 1502 and discovered a landmass that is modern South America went further south than ever imagined, his accounts lead to much controversy, as seafarers of the period crossing the south Atlantic thought they would reach Asia (the Indies).
•Christopher Columbus had found great fame for his discovery and it has often been cited that the Spanish throne looking to protect its interests in the region may have suppressed Vespucci’s ship’s log and his personal diaries before their full publication.
•Vespucci never went to sea again and the new and very grand title of Chief Navigator of Spain was bestowed upon him.
•In 1507 Martin Waldseemüller produced an incredible work of the time, Universalis Cosmograpiae, a world map on which he named a new continent ‘America’ a homophone of Amerigo Vespucci’s first name. A book published as reference to the map was said by the Spanish Court to hold ‘dubious information.’ Even if he had failed to publish contemporaneous logs and diaries, his work would prove too accurate, even by modern standards. It is telling that dropped the title America from later works.
•Juan Díaz de Solís was an accomplished Portuguese seafarer and traitor to his Country. He fled to Spain before his treachery was uncovered by British Agents in Lisbon in 1504. On the death of Vespucci he became Pilot Major in the Spanish navy and planned a major expedition to the area south of the Indies.
•In 1515 Juan Diaz de Solis sailed straight for the east coast of South America and navigated directly to its largest and most important estuary, arriving at the Rio del la Plata in 1516 and originally naming it Mar Dulce or Sweet Sea.
•It was said that his expeditionary force perished after an attack by local tribes, some accounts suggest the men were eaten alive. More likely, this traitor, who may have stolen Vespucci’s thunder, was killed by mutiny or maybe to order.

Independence:

•At a Buenos Aires cabildo, or municipal council the people of Buenos Aires kicked out the last cowardly Viceroy who had twice fled from the British with his garrison and formed its own administration on 25 May 1810.
•It should be remembered that Spanish America had great sympathy with the imprisoned regent, and so it was decided, mainly on the grounds that an interregnum existed under the principles of Spanish law, that the king's dominion of the Rio del la Plata had the right to self-govern pending his restoration.
•25 May 1810 (now celebrated as Venticinco de Mayo, the day of the revolution), although really it was a coup de tare and only established an autonomous government to administrate the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in the name of Ferdinand VII until his restoration.
•A post colonial power-vacuous South America quickly began operating as provinces without any central cohesion; within the autonomous Rio del la Plata there were already those who saw the chance for power and independence.
•Forward thinkers of the day new that Spain was finished and centralisation of power and an army would be their only salvation in stopping other foreign powers or even Spain regaining a foothold in the region.
•However, reluctance and self interest in the province of the Rio del la Plata to form a super state was to spawn new nations and stop the formal declaration of independence and cohesion in Argentina until the 1860s.
•Carlos Maria de Alvear was successful in forming the constituent Assembly of 1813 and later succeeded in establishing an unpopular Unitarian (centralising) form of government with his uncle Gervasio Antonio de Posadas as Supreme Director.
•Alvear on 9 Januray 1815 entered Buenos Aires and forced his appointment as Supreme Director, but he had already lost the support of his uncle and most of the provincial command, his rule lasted only a few months and he was overthrown and exiled.
•The threats both at home and from Spain (1814 the return of Fernando VII) required agreement from all the provinces to maintain the Rio del la Plata’s independence from Spain. A congress was announced to the region on 15 April 1815 and requested that local governments of provinces with a population over 15,000 attend.
•On 14 March 1816 a congress with the heads of 33 provinces, which made up much of the former Viceroyalty of the Rio del la Plata, gathered at Tucumán (the Congress of Tucumán) and the United Provinces of the Rio del la Plata issued a formal declaration of independence from Spain on 9 July 1816.
•Paraguay (1814) was already independent by this time and there were other noticeable absences including Uruguay and provinces within modern day Bolivia and Brazil.

You can find a quick historical guide to Argentina on our pages http://www.buenosairesstay.com

Scott K

Apparently Juan Dias de Solis did the deed.

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