Introducing Argentina and Pequeña Sudamérica

Argentinian Carla Scalia, Co-Founder at Pequeña Sudamérica

The founder of the webshop Pequeña Sudamérica, Carla Scalia was born in an enchanting country of natural beauty, but where the politics and economy are not so special. Her family of Italian-Spanish origin is among the majority of the population with roots in Europe. The people are mostly of European ancestry, especially Spanish, with smaller mestizo, Indian, and Arab populations. she speaks Spanish, Italian, English and started studying Dutch, now she is living in Flemish Brabant, in the centre of Belgium.

Ethnic map of Argentina and Uruguay – Bluer colours mean a higher degree of European ancestry, while the greener the higher degree of Amerindian ancestry

Her home country Argentina can be divided into four general regions: the North, the Pampas, Patagonia, and the Andes Mountains. The subtropical plains in the northeast are divided by the Paraná River into Mesopotamia to the east and Gran Chaco to the west and north. The Pampas, south and west of the Paraná, is one of the world’s most productive agricultural areas and the country’s most populous region. Patagonia lies south of the Colorado River. The Argentine Andes includes the continent’s highest peak, Mount Aconcagua. Argentina’s hydrology is dominated by rivers that include the Paraná, Uruguay, and Pilcomayo, which drain into the Río de la Plata.

The federal republic with two legislative houses has a developing economy based largely on manufacturing and agriculture, which is not really valued and supported by the government, which does not always make it easy for the local people. Argentina is Latin America’s largest exporter of beef and beef products, for which it is mostly known in Belgium.

Though little is known of the indigenous population before the Europeans’ arrival, we in the following articles shall try to give some impression of the local population and their ancestry. The earliest recorded human presence in modern-day Argentina dates back to the Paleolithic period. The Inca Empire expanded to the northwest of the country in Pre-Columbian times. In reviewing the history and development of Argentina, we cannot ignore the horrors that the colonisers have inflicted over time.

Engraving of the navigator and cartographer Sebastian Cabot (1474 – 1557), after an original by Hans Holbein [or the original may perhaps have been a close copy], that was destroyed by fire in 1845.

The area was explored for Spain by Sebastian Cabot beginning in 1526; by 1580 Asunción, Santa Fe, and Buenos Aires had been settled. Early in the 17th century it was attached to the Viceroyalty of Peru, but in 1776 it was included with regions of modern Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, whose capital was Buenos Aires. In a way somehow there is still some connection and bond with several people from Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru, and that is why Pequeña Sudamérica offers from those countries a wide range of products.

With the establishment of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in 1816, Argentina achieved its independence from Spain, but its boundaries were not set until the early 20th century.

Curiously the uprecedented increase in prosperity in the country’s history, led to Argentina becoming the seventh-wealthiest nation in the world by the early 20th century. According to the Maddison Historical Statistics Project, Argentina was consistently in the top ten before at least 1920. Although it remained among the fifteen richest countries for several decades Argentina’s bad government made it lose its rich position.

The country of Argentina, which was considered America’s second ‘Promised Land’ after the United States, also had to go through a terrible period.
Argentina was characterised by recurrent political conflicts between conservatives and liberals and between civilians and the military. After the Second World War, populist Peronism emerged, which strained relations. Until 1983, increasingly bloody military juntas alternated with authoritarian democratic governments, leading to mounting economic problems, corruption, general dislike of politics and defeat in the Falklands War. Defeat against Britain was a loss of face that the junta could not recover from.

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Find more about Argentina in our following series of articles.

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