Argentina Travel Guide 2026

Historical Heritage

Argentina's name derives from the Latin argentum (silver), given by early Spanish explorers who hoped — incorrectly — to find vast silver deposits. Indigenous cultures including the Mapuche, Diaguita, Guaraní, and Tehuelche had inhabited the pampas, mountains, and forests for thousands of years before Spanish conquistador Juan de Solís sailed into the Río de la Plata in 1516. Buenos Aires was formally established in 1580 as a colonial outpost, though it remained relatively peripheral to Spanish colonial wealth compared to Lima or Mexico City. Argentina's independence was declared on July 9, 1816, after a revolution led by Manuel Belgrano and achieved militarily by José de San Martín, who crossed the Andes with his army to liberate Chile and Peru. The late 19th and early 20th centuries brought mass immigration from Italy, Spain, and Eastern Europe, creating the uniquely hybrid Argentine culture — European in ancestry, Latin American in spirit, uniquely itself in every other way. The tango, born in the working-class tenements of Buenos Aires among African, indigenous, and European immigrants, became the national art form and the world's most passionate dance. The 20th century was turbulent: the 1976–83 military dictatorship's Dirty War disappeared 30,000 people. Democracy returned in 1983 under Raúl Alfonsín, and despite serial economic crises, Argentina remains South America's most culturally sophisticated nation and the birthplace of Che Guevara, Jorge Luis Borges, and Lionel Messi.