Buenos Aires

I

Introduction

Buenos Aires, capital and most populous city of Argentina, located on the western bank of the River Plate, inland from the Atlantic Ocean. Founded in 1580, Buenos Aires is one of the world's great metropolises. In the early 1990s, more than one-third of the country's population lived within the large urban area of greater Buenos Aires; some 2.9 million of these were in the city proper, coextensive with the Federal Capital district, established in 1880. The metropolis covers almost 3,885 sq km (1,500 sq mi). Population 3,018,102 (2005 estimate).

II

Economy

As Argentina's principal seaport, Buenos Aires is the country's commercial centre. Ship basins and docks extend for about 8 km (5 mi) along the River Plate (Río de la Plata), with major port facilities located in the Puerto Nuevo section. The national highway, railway, and airline systems are all centred in the city. Three major terminals—Constitución, Once, and Retiro—serve rail lines that radiate, respectively, south, west, and north of Buenos Aires. Domestic air carriers use the Municipal Airport, situated close to the downtown area, and Ezeiza Airport, about 40 km (25 mi) to the west, handles international flights. The main offices for national and international banks as well as the Stock Exchange and the Cereal Exchange are in a compact financial district located around the junction of Bartolomé Mitre and San Martín avenues, and most major retail outlets and leading boutiques are along Florida and Santa Fe avenues.

Much of the nation's industrial plant has been built within the Federal Capital district and, increasingly since 1930, in the suburbs of greater Buenos Aires. Meat-packing and other food-processing industries, oil refineries, and chemical factories have been concentrated in the southern part of the city; motor-vehicle assembly plants and varied light industry (such as printing establishments and textile mills) are to the west and north.

III

Places of Interest

The Plaza de Mayo, close to the waterfront at Buenos Aires's eastern edge, was the starting point for the original settlement, and, as the city expanded outward in a semicircle, it continued to serve as the principal urban focus. Since the 1950s, outlying shopping centres and other facilities have grown considerably. Hotels, restaurants, and theatres, however, along with financial, commercial, and government offices and a number of luxurious residences, remain concentrated in an area immediately north and west of the plaza. A spurt in the building of high-rise offices and apartments, the expansion of avenues, and the addition of motorway accesses further accentuated the importance of this area in the 1970s and early 1980s.

A main axis runs due west from the Casa Rosada, or Executive Office Building, on the Plaza de Mayo, to the National Congress, along the Avenida de Mayo (which is 1.6 km/1 mi long), and then continues west for more than 40 km (25 mi) as the Avenida Rivadavia. To the south of the main axis lies the colourful neighbourhood of La Boca, with many people descended from emigrants from Genoa, Italy, as well as industrial zones and working-class neighbourhoods. To the north are most of the city's parks, its two racetracks, and many of the middle- and upper-class neighbourhoods, especially along the River Plate. This northern expansion of wealthier districts has extended beyond the Federal Capital district towards Olivos, Vicente López, Martínez, and San Isidro.

Educational institutions, once heavily concentrated in the core area near the Plaza de Mayo, have also been established in the northern area. The nation's leading institution of higher learning, the University of Buenos Aires (1821), has built a new campus near the riverbank, although many of its schools still operate in widely scattered old buildings in the downtown area. Likewise, the National Library occupies new quarters on the city's northern side, the location also for the private University of Belgrano (1964). Other educational institutions in Buenos Aires include the National Technological University (1959), the Catholic University of Argentina (1958), the National Conservatory of Music (1924), and the National School of Fine Arts (1904).

Among the city’s museums is the Malba Museum of Latin American Art, completed in September 2001 and opened to the public in January 2002. It contains works of more than 100 artists, including Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

IV

History

A first attempt by an expedition from Spain to establish a fort at Buenos Aires in 1536 was abandoned after five years, largely because of conflicts with Native Americans. A permanent base was founded in 1580 by Juan de Garay, but the settlement lacked resources beyond the wild horses and cattle that had rapidly spread across the Pampas, and grew only slowly to about 14,000 inhabitants by 1750. Subsequently, prosperity and demographic growth were stimulated by an increasing trade in hides, further bolstered in 1776 by the selection of the city as the seat of the large Spanish vice-royalty of Río de la Plata. Independence from Spain, first proclaimed in 1810 and officially recognized in 1816, opened the port to free trade, especially with Great Britain. Trade flourished, and the population grew to 100,000 by 1850.

The city's greatest period of expansion, based on a flourishing export of hides, wool, grain, and meat, started in the 1860s. European emigrants, especially from Italy and Spain, poured into Argentina's coastal area, but above all into Buenos Aires. Foreign capital, mainly British, added railways, port facilities, trams, and gasworks. Since independence, Buenos Aires had been engaged in a struggle for dominance with other regions of Argentina. The conflict was largely resolved in 1880, when the city was separated from Buenos Aires Province and the Federal Capital district was established. At the same time the city was declared the country's permanent capital (it had been made the provisional capital in 1862). By 1910 Buenos Aires emerged as Latin America's leading economic and cultural centre, with a population of 1.3 million, and was pre-eminent in Argentine politics and economics.

The concentration of population, resources, and transport facilities encouraged the location of factories producing consumer goods in or near the Federal Capital district, especially after 1930. During the late 1930s, migration to Buenos Aires from Argentina's interior provinces supplemented and then largely replaced the flow of European emigrants. By 1950, nearly five million people lived in greater Buenos Aires. Although afflicted since the 1950s by rampant inflation and periodic political crises, the city embarked on modernization programmes for the 1980s and 1990s that promised to accentuate its predominance as Argentina's leading city and to ensure its place among the world's great cities. In late 2001 and early 2002, however, Buenos Aires was affected, along with the rest of the country, by an acute crisis that threatened to destabilize the Argentine economy and its politics.