year from 0.16 per square mile in the western territory of Neuquen, to 11.1 in the Province of Buenos Ayres.
Estimates made of the population in December, 1900, place the total for that date at 4,794,149, or an increase since 1895 of 21 per cent. This increase was shared by all of the provinces. Of the territories, Pampa alone made large gains.
History. The river Plata was entered in 1515 by Juan Diaz de Solis, who was searching for a southwest passage to the East Indies, and in 1527-8 Sebastian Cabot ascended the Paraná to its confluence with the Paraguay, there founding a colony, and giving the name La Plata (silver) to the latter stream, from the stories of hoards of silver which he heard from the Indians, who told him that the metal came from the head-waters of the river in the west, i.e. Peni. In 1535 Don Pedro de Mendoza visited the new country, and founded Buenos Ayres, which was abandoned by the colonists in 1537; was rebuilt in 1542, was abandoned again in 1543, and was not permanently established until 1580. Meanwhile Ascunción (1537), Santa Fé (1573), and other places had been settled, and horses and cattle had been introduced. Spanish colonists from Peru had founded cities in the northwest, Tucuman (1565), and Córdoba (1573), and down to 1776 the basin of the river Plata was a dependency of the viceroyalty of Peru. In that year the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres was formed, including Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay, and the country was governed by viceroys until 1806, when, during the war of France and Spain against England, Buenos Ayres and Montevideo were occupied by the English. Buenos Ayres, however, was recaptured by the inhabitants, who, forced to defend themselves, saw the need and advisability of independence of the mother country. Accordingly, they refused in 1808 to acknowledge Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain, and in 1810 the struggle for independence began. A provisional government was instituted under a junta gubernativa, which was replaced early in 1814 by a "Supreme Board of the United Provinces," under the virtual control of one man, Antonio de Posados. Civil strife followed, and in 1816 a general congress declared the independence of the "United Provinces of Rio de la Plata," though this was not substantially attained without war (1817-24), and was not recognized by Spain until 1842. During 1826-28 there was war with Brazil for the possession of the Banda Oriental (Uruguay), which in 1828 was finally recognized by both as an independent State, and from 1827-31 the Plata provinces were practically isolated from each other. In 1831 Buenos Ayres, Entre Rios, Corrientes, and Santa Fé formed a federal compact, and invited the others to join them; but little but anarchy resulted till 1835, when General Rosas (q.v.) was installed as dictator. His efforts to make Buenos Ayres supreme led to his downfall in 1852. In 1853 a constitution, still in force, was adopted for the "Argentine Republic," but Buenos Ayres refused to accept the document, and in 1854 declared itself independent, but was defeated in 1859, and obliged to reënter the Confederation. Hostilities were soon renewed (1861), however, and though the province did not again become independent, it increased greatly in relative importance, and the city of Buenos Ayres supplanted Paraná as the capital of the Confederation. During 1865-70, under the presidency of General Mitré and of Sarmiento, a war was waged against Paraguay by the Argentine Republic, Brazil, and Uruguay, with little benefit to the Republic. In 1881 a treaty was made with Chile by which Argentina acquired all the country east of the Andes, comprising Patagonia and the eastern part of Tierra del Fuego. In July, 1890, a revolution broke out, aided by the army and navy — the result of the political and financial corruption of the cabinet officers and the stagnation in business produced by debasement of the currency. President Celman was forced to resign, and was succeeded by Dr. Carlos Pellegrini, who held office until October, 1892, when Dr. Luis Saenz-Peña was inaugurated. Saenz-Peña made a vigorous effort to put the country on a proper financial basis, conditions having continued very bad since the failure of the Barings, which was largely brought about by their extensive dealings in unproductive Argentine securities. Repeated political disturbances at the various provincial capitals, however, prevented any successful financial reorganization or sufficient commercial improvement, and in January, 1895, Saenz-Peña resigned, and the Vice-President, S. José Uriburú, took the executive chair. He held office until 1898, when Lieut.-Gen. Julio A. Roca, who had occupied the place between 1880 and 1886, was again elected President. The boundary difficulties with Chile and Bolivia, which very frequently threatened serious trouble between the States during the later years of the Nineteenth Century, are referred to in the accounts of those countries.
Bibliography. General description and statistics: Greger, Die Republik Argentina (Basel, 1883); Bovio, Geografía de la República Argentina (Buenos Ayres, 1888); van Bruyssel, La République Argentine, ses ressources naturelles, etc. (Brussels, 1888); Guilaine, La République Argentine, physique et économique (Paris, 1889); Child, The Spanish-American Republics (New York, 1891); Latzina, Geografía de la República Argentina (Buenos Ayres and Paris, 1891); Turner, Argentina and the Argentines (London, 1892); Mulhall, Handbook of the River Plate Republics (London, 1893); Latzina, Diccionário geografico argentino (Buenos Ayres, 1894); Segundo censo de la República Argentina de 1895 (Buenos Ayres, 1898), contains a wealth of information descriptive, statistical, historical, on every important subject with regard to the country and people; Gubernatis, L'Argentina, ricordi e letture (Florence, 1898); Maertens, Süd-Amerika unter besonderer Berücksichtigung Argentiniens (Berlin, 1899); Lix-Klett, Estudios sobre producción, comércio, finanzos é intereses generáles de la República Argentina (Buenos Ayres, 1900). Climate: Anales de la Oficina meteorológica Argentina (Buenos Ayres, 1880— date, annual). Flora and Fauna: Hudson, The Naturalist in La Plata (London, 1892); Philippi, Comparación de las floras y faunas de las repúblicas de Chile y Argentina (Santiago, 1893); Sclatter and Hudson, Argentine Ornithology (London, 1888-89). History: Dominguez, History of the Argentine Republic, translated by Williams (Buenos Ayres, 1866); Merou, História de la República Argentina (Buenos Ayres, 1900).
