Understand

Argentina is the second-largest country in South America, and the eighth-largest in the world. The highest and the lowest points of South America are also located in Argentina: At 6,960m, Cerro Aconcagua is the tallest mountain in the Americas while Salinas Chicas, at 40m below sea level, is the lowest point in South America.

At the southern tip of Argentina there are several routes between the South Atlantic and the South Pacific Oceans including the Strait of Magellan, the Beagle Channel, and the Drake Passage as an alternative sailing around Cape Horn in the open ocean between South America and Antarctica.

The name Argentina derives from argentum, the Latin word for silver, which is what early Spanish explorers sought when they first reached the region in the sixteenth century.

History

Following independence from Spain in 1816, Argentina experienced periods of internal political conflict between conservatives and liberals. In the first decade of the 20th century, Argentina became the richest nation in Latin America, its wealth symbolized by the opulence of its capital city.

European immigrants flowed into Argentina, particularly from Italy; by 1914 nearly 6 million people had come to the country.

After World War II, a long period of Peronist rule in subsequent governments was followed by a military junta that took power in 1976.

Democracy returned in 1983 after the abortive attempt to wrest the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) from United Kingdom sovereignty.

A painful economic collapse at the turn of the 21st century devalued the Argentine peso by a factor of three and ushered in a series of weak, short-lived governments along with social and economic instability. As of 2006, the country has stabilized under President Nestor Kirchner, and the economy has begun to recover.