Provinces of Argentina

Argentina is subdivided in 23 provinces (Spanish: provincias, singular - provincia) and 1 federal district (capital federal). These provinces have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system.

History

The north of Argentina was the first part of the present country to be explored by the Spanish colonisation, searching for the routes that would allow them to bring the gold and silver extracted in the Viceroyalty of Peru to the port of Buenos Aires.

Related Topics:
Spanish colonisation - Viceroyalty of Peru - Buenos Aires

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Santiago del Estero, in the year 1553, was the first city founded in the territory with such ends, but lost its importance when Tucumán and Salta replaced it as mid-stops to the Atlantic coast when these two cities secured from the aboriginal attacks, and economically strengthened.

Related Topics:
Santiago del Estero - 1553 - Tucumán - Salta - Atlantic coast

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The centre of the country was also soon explored and inhabited, being the most important of the first founded cities the city of Córdoba, that became not only a political but also cultural centre with the creation of the first university, the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in 1622.

Related Topics:
Córdoba - Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

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Most capital cities of the centre-northern Argentina were founded before the year 1600, except for Santa Rosa in La Pampa Province, and Resistencia in Chaco Province.

Related Topics:
Santa Rosa - La Pampa Province - Resistencia - Chaco Province

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To the south of the Colorado River, the Patagonia reminded under control of the aboriginals. The river itself served as natural frontier.

Related Topics:
Colorado River - Patagonia

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It was not until the infamous Roca's Conquest of the Desert, started in 1879, when the southern part of Argentina was conquered in what meant the near annihilation of the aboriginal people living in these lands.

Related Topics:
Roca - Conquest of the Desert

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The current political division of the provinces of Patagonia was set in 1884 and has not been changed since then, except between 1944 and 1955 when a stripe covering the southern part of Chubut Province and the northern part of Santa Cruz Province was named Comodoro Rivadavia Military Zone.

Related Topics:
Chubut Province - Santa Cruz Province

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But the National Territories didn't have provincial status until the 20th century. They where named provinces in 1957, except for Tierra del Fuego Province named in 1990.

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Due to the late conquest of the south of the country and the cold weather that reigns in it, most people live in the central or northern provinces, but recent immigration to the south, mainly from Buenos Aires Province and Buenos Aires city, is demising this difference.

Related Topics:
Buenos Aires Province - Buenos Aires

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