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Buenos Aires & Argentina history - Discovering Buenos Aires Page 2

Inspired by the conquest of Peru and the threat from Portugal's growing power in Brazil, Spain in 1535 sent an expedition under Pedro de Mendoza (equipped at his own expense) to force a permanent settlement on the tribes of Mar Dulce.

In 1536 Pedro de Mendoza founded a small settlement on the site that is now modern day San Telmo, which was first called Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre, which literally means City of Our Lady Saint Mary of the Fair Winds, the proper title of Buenos Aires. San Telmo would later become a great and historic barrio (district) in modern Buenos Aires. Today, you will find a monument to the 1536 settlement in San Telmo.

Unified local tribes attacked and burned the settlement to the ground. Pedro de Mendoza’s brother Gonzalez saved the expedition and Mendoza. Mendoza began a journey home in 1537, and like his predecessor, died before reaching Spain.

In 1537, a party from Buenos Aires under Juan de Ayolas and Domingo Martínez de Irala, both lieutenants of Mendoza, pushed a thousand miles up the Plata and Paraguay rivers. Ayolas was lost on an exploring expedition, but Domingo Martinez de IralaIa founded Asunción (now capital of Paraguay).

Domingo Martinez de Irala In 1541, the few remaining inhabitants of Buenos Aires abandoned it and moved to Asunción, which was the first permanent settlement in the Rio del la Plata basin.

In the next half century, Asunción played a major role in both the conquest and settlement of Argentina.

In 1580 Juan de Garay re-settled Buenos Aires with settlers from Asunción. Juan de Garay’s was the first permanent settlement on the Southern shore of Rio Del La Plata.

Northern Argentina as well as Buenos Aires settlements came mainly from overflow from the neighboring Spanish colonies of Chile, Peru, and Paraguay (Asunción).

Initially, there was little direct migration from Spain, probably due to the threat from local tribes and the success of other Spanish colonies such as those in Mexico, Peru. Those colonies were more attractive as well because of their rich mines, large supply of tractable indigenous labor, accessibility and privilege of direct trade with Spain.

Both Tucumán and Córdoba were dominant regions and early intellectual and economic power bases in Argentina during both the XVI and XVII centuries. They prospered as the main source of agricultural produce for Upper Peru’s (Bolivia) mineworkers and traded for silver and goods from the old-world. These regions would find great wealth and establish local governments and the oldest surviving ecclesiastical schools and universities in Argentina.

Tucuman, Córdoba and the fledgling Buenos Aires would form part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, an office set up in 1542 to administrate Spanish America, which made Lima the most important city in South America at the time.

Spain prohibited trade from the natural port of the Río de la Plata, with communication and commerce embargoed in favor of the port of Lima so Spain could control trade, taxes, and the distribution of resources.

This stifled the growth of Buenos Aires for many years making the early Porteños (people of the port of Buenos Aires) angry and poor. Buenos Aires port first based in La Boca fast became a center for contraband, piracy and much discontent aimed at the Spanish crown. La Boca is today a center for tourism and is the city’s bohemia.