Argentina
The only country where you can ride in a boat to Antartica!.
argentine history
The area now known as Argentina was relatively sparsely populated until the period of European colonization. The earliest traces of human life are dated from the Paleolithic period, and there are further traces in the Mesolithic and Neolithic.[21] However, large areas of the interior and piedmont were apparently depopulated during an extensive dry period between 4000 and 2000 B.C.[22]
The Uruguayan archaeologist Raúl Campá Soler divided the indigenous peoples in Argentina into three main groups: basic hunters and food gatherers, without development of pottery, advanced gatherers and hunters, and basic farmers with pottery.[23] The second group could be found in the Pampa and south of Patagonia, and the third one included the Charrúas and Minuane people and the Guaraníes.
Some of the different groups included the Onas at Tierra del Fuego, the Yámana at the archipelago between the Beagle Channel and Cape Horn, Tehuelches in the Patagonia, many peoples at the litoral, guaycurúes and wichis at Chaco. The Guaraníes had expanded across large areas of South America, but settled at the northeastern provinces of Argentina. The Toba (Komlek) nation and the Diaguita which included the Calchaqui and the Quilmes lived in the North and the Comechingones in what is today the province of Cordoba. The Charrua (which included the Minuane people), yaros, Bohanes and Chanás (and Chaná-Timbú) were located in the actual territory of Entre Ríos and the Querandí in Buenos Aires. Argentina is a constitutional republic and representative democracy. The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the Constitution of Argentina, which serves as the country's supreme legal document. The seat of government is the city of Buenos Aires, such location is regulated by the Congress.[59] Suffrage is universal, equal, secret and mandatory. The Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, in Spanish Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina, are controlled by the Commander-in-Chief (the President) and a civilian Minister of Defense. In addition to the army, navy and air force, there are two forces controlled by the Interior Ministry: the Argentine National Gendarmerie, a gendarmerie used to guard borders and places of strategic importance; and the Naval Prefecture, a coast guard used to protect internal major rivers and maritime territory. Argentina is composed of twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires. The administrative divisions of the Provinces are the departments, and the municipalities, except for Buenos Aires Province, which is divided into partidos. The City of Buenos Aires is divided into communes. The provinces are organized as a federation, each one with a local constitution.[86] They hold all the power that is not specifically delegated to the national government. Argentina is situated in southern South America, with the Andes on the west[88] and the South Atlantic Ocean to the east and south.[89] Argentina has a total surface area (excluding the Antarctic claim and areas controlled by the United Kingdom) of 2,780,400 km2 (1,073,500 sq mi);[3] of this, 43,710 km2 (16,880 sq mi), or 1.57%, is water. Argentina has six main regions. The Pampas are fertile lowlands located in the center and east. The Mesopotamia is a lowland enclosed by the Paraná and Uruguay rivers, and the Gran Chaco is between the mesopotamia and the Andes. Cuyo is at the east side of the Andes, and the Argentine Northwest is at the North of it. The Patagonia is a large plateau to the south.[Argentina is predominantly a Spanish-speaking country — the fourth largest after Mexico, Spain, and Colombia (according to a compilation of national census figures and United Nations estimates, see List of countries with Spanish-speaking populations). Based on the 2010 national census and supporting research, there are about 40.9 million Spanish speakers in Argentina (almost the entire population).