Origin and history of the name of Argentina
Encyclopedia
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, traditionally called the Argentine in English, is derived from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
argentum "silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
" and the feminine
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
of the adjectival suffix -īnus. The first use of the name Argentina can be traced back to the first voyages made by the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
conquerors
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
to the Río de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
which means "Silver River", in the first years of the 16th century.
Colonization
Alejo GarcíaAlejo García
Aleixo Garcia, also Alejo García was a Portuguese-born explorer and conquistador who explored the Rio de la Plata in service to Spain, and later the Paraguay and Bolivia....
, one of the survivors of the shipwrecked expedition mounted by Juan Díaz de Solís
Juan Díaz de Solís
Juan Díaz de Solís was a Spanish navigator and explorer.Díaz de Solís was probably born in Lebrija, Seville, although some other authors argue that his birth may have actually taken place in Portugal to an Andalusian emigree family....
in 1516, heard notices about a powerful White King in a country very rich in silver, at the mountains, called "Sierra de la Plata". García then organized an expedition and reached Potosí
Potosí
Potosí is a city and the capital of the department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world by elevation at a nominal . and it was the location of the Spanish colonial mint, now the National Mint of Bolivia...
's area, gaining several silver objects and gifts. He was killed by the payaguas, returning to Santa Catarina (Brazil), but the guarani people who were part of the expedition took the silver objects back and spread the Sierra de Plata legend, and explained that it was possible to reach that fabulous land through the wide river located to the south.
While the exact origin of the name Rio de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
is unknown, Sebastian Cabot
Sebastian Cabot (explorer)
Sebastian Cabot was an explorer, born in the Venetian Republic.-Origins:...
's exploration between 1526 and 1529 is widely credited to have inspired such name due to his obtaining and collecting a variety of silver objects from the Guaraní tribes along the Paraguay river. The river received other names, such as Mar Dulce, Río de Solís, Río de Santa María, Río Jordán, but Río de La Plata was the one that finally prevailed.
The portuguese Lopo Homen made reference to the place as "Terra Argentea" in a 1554 map. The first mention of the Argentina name was in Martin del Barco Centenera's poem Argentina y conquista del Río de la Plata, con otros acaecidos de los reinos Del Perú, Tucumán y Estado del Brasil, published in Spain in 1602.
Ten years later (1612) Ruy Díaz de Guzmán published the book Historia del descubrimiento, población, y conquista del Río de la Plata ("History of the discovery, population, and conquest of the Río de la Plata"), naming the territory discovered by Solís as Tierra Argentina ("Land of Silver", "Silvery Land").
In 1776 the Virreinato del Río de la Plata (Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, , was the last and most short-lived Viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire in America.The Viceroyalty was established in 1776 out of several former Viceroyalty of Perú dependencies that mainly extended over the Río de la Plata basin, roughly the present day...
) was created, named after the river; it included present-day Argentina, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
, Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
.
Independence of Argentina
The Spanish viceroy was ousted during the May RevolutionMay Revolution
The May Revolution was a week-long series of events that took place from May 18 to 25, 1810, in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a Spanish colony that included roughly the territories of present-day Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay...
, starting the Argentine War of Independence
Argentine War of Independence
The Argentine War of Independence was fought from 1810 to 1818 by Argentine patriotic forces under Manuel Belgrano, Juan José Castelli and José de San Martín against royalist forces loyal to the Spanish crown...
. The new government removed the "Viceroyalty" word from the name, renaming the territory as the Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata (United Provinces of the Río de la Plata). This denomination was ratified years later by the Assembly of Year XIII. The Congress of Tucumán
Congress of Tucumán
The Congress of Tucumán was the representative assembly, initially meeting in Tucumán, that declared the independence of the United Provinces of South America on July 9, 1816, from the Spanish Empire....
, seeking a higher Latin American integration
Latin American integration
The integration of Latin America has a history going back to Spanish American and Brazilian independence, when there was discussion of creating a regional state or confederation of Latin American nations to protect the area's newly won autonomy...
, used instead the name Provincias Unidas de Sud América (United Provinces of South America).
The name "Argentina" was mainly used among the high society, and in limited cases. The use became popular with the sanction of the second Argentine National Anthem
Argentine National Anthem
The Argentine National Anthem is the national anthem of Argentina. The name of the song originally was Marcha Patriótica , and was later renamed Canción Patriótica Nacional and finally Canción Patriótica . A copy published in 1847 called it Himno Nacional Argentino and the name has remained ever...
, written by Vicente López y Planes
Vicente López y Planes
Alejandro Vicente López y Planes was an Argentine writer and politician who acted as interim President of Argentina from July 7, 1827 to August 18, 1827...
. However, it was not widely used because it was not associated to the whole territory, but just to the Buenos Aires province. The 1826 Constitution was sanctioned as the Constitución de la República Argentina. The other provinces rejected its high centralism, and the president Bernardino Rivadavia
Bernardino Rivadavia
Bernardino de la Trinidad Gónzalez Rivadavia y Rivadavia was the first president of Argentina, from February 8, 1826 to July 7, 1827 . He was a politician of the United Provinces of Río de la Plata, Argentina today...
was deposed shortly after.
During the second government of Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas , was an argentine militar and politician, who was elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires in 1829 to 1835, and then of the Argentine Confederation from 1835 until 1852...
Confederación Argentina (Argentine Confederation
Argentine Confederation
The Argentine Confederation is one of the official names of Argentina, according to the Argentine Constitution, Article 35...
) (founded in 1832) was the main name used for the young country, but others were also used, including República de la Confederación Argentina (Republic of the Argentine Confederation) and Federación Argentina (Argentine Federation). Justo José de Urquiza
Justo José de Urquiza
Justo José de Urquiza y García was an Argentine general and politician. He was president of the Argentine Confederation from 1854 to 1860.He was governor of Entre Ríos during the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas, governor of Buenos Aires with powers delegated from the other provinces...
deposed Rosas in the battle of Caseros
Battle of Caseros
The Battle of Caseros was fought near the town of Caseros, more precisely between the present-day train stations of Caseros and Palomar in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, on 3 February 1852, between the Army of Buenos Aires commanded by Juan Manuel de Rosas...
and called for a Constituent Assembly that would write the Constitution of Argentina of 1853. Buenos Aires did not accept it, and secceded from the Confederation as the State of Buenos Aires
State of Buenos Aires
The State of Buenos Aires was a secessionist republic resulting from the overthrow of the Argentine Confederation government in the Province of Buenos Aires on September 11, 1852. The State of Buenos Aires was never recognized by the Confederation or by foreign nations; it remained, however,...
. For a decade, Buenos Aires and the Confederation existed as distinct administrative divisions. Buenos rejoined the Confederation in 1860, after an admendment to the 1853 Constitution. The name was changed to Nación Argentina, though including a paragraph with the historical names as "equivalent and valid" denominations. Then on October 8, 1860, President Santiago Derqui
Santiago Derqui
Santiago Rafael Luis Manuel José María Derqui Rodríguez was president of Argentina from March 5, 1860 to November 5, 1861. He was featured on the 10 Australes note, which is now obsolete....
decreed the official name to be República Argentina.
In common speech, the country is referred to as "la Argentina" (the Argentine) in Spanish, bypassing the noun in any of the above expressions ("la [tierra] argentina", "la [República] Argentina", etc).