The conquest of Argentina was caused by the discovery of the Río de la Plata. The sailor Juan Díaz de Solís arrived in 1516 at a huge estuary where large rivers flowed. He was looking for a southern passage that would allow him to enter the South Sea (Pacific Ocean) and he and almost all of his companions perished in the attempt. The survivors reported upon their return to Spain that a white man similar to the one in the legend of El Dorado reigned there, whom they called the silver king or "Argentine" because of the large quantity of this metal that he seemed to possess, a circumstance that he baptized both to the country (Argentina) and to the estuary (Río de la Plata).
Sebastián Cabot Expedition
The colonization of this region was very late, since it was very far from the usual routes of the Antilles and New Spain.
Carlos put together a special expedition in 1526, which he placed under the command of the famous navigator Sebastián Cabot, son of John Cabot, born in Bristol (England), but Venetian by origin. With four ships, he went in search of the Moluccas towards the east, but he turned aside to find the treasures of the mythical Argentine or white king, he entered the Río de la Plata, reached the mouths of the Paraná, Uruguay and Bermejo, and founded next to the first, the fortress of Sancti Spiritus, which the Guarani would later destroy. He returns to Spain in 1530, after having failed economically, and spends his last days in England, failing to convince Henry VIII of the immense possibilities of America and trade with China.
Pedro de Mendoza Expedition
Carlos I, more aware of the power that those lands implied, mounted in 1535 a new expedition composed of sixteen ships and fifteen hundred men, under the command of Pedro de Mendoza, who with the title of advance of La Plata, departed from Sanlúcar de Barrameda . The following year, on the banks of the estuary, he founded the city of Santa Maria de los Buenos Aires, expeditions were immediately sent to the interior of the country and along the Paraná River, in search of a point of union with Peru. The primitive city was destroyed by the Guarani, brave Indians of the area, and Mendoza died the following year, already old and sick, while returning to Spain.
Other Expeditions
Juan de Ayolas replaces him and explores Paraná, Paraguay and Chaco, but he falls dead in an encounter with the Indians (1538).
His successor, Juan Salazar de Espinosa, founded the Fort of Asunción in 1537, the nucleus of the colonization of the Río de la Plata. The settlers from the destroyed Buenos Aires moved there, which remained under the government of Domingo Martínez de Irala.
Government of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
Domingo Martínez de Irala collides with the advanced Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, who had great American experience, since he had traveled the entire southwestern coast of the current United States on foot. He had gone to Florida with the Pánfilo de Narváez expedition and demonstrated an infinite ability to walk and survive in adverse and even lonely conditions, as he arrived in Mexico on foot. Two years later he was appointed Governor of Plata and he left, also on foot, from the south of Brazil to the colony of Asunción, capital of Plata, where he collided with Martínez de Irala. He confirmed the Crown to the latter, to the detriment of Cabeza de Vaca, who was captured by the settlers and sent to Spain in 1545.
Foundationofthefirstcities
The Basque Juan de Caray, after establishing the city of Santa Fe in 1573, returned to found the destroyed Buenos Aires for the second time (June 11, 1580) with some sixty-three settlers.
Later Mendoza and Tucumán were founded and, at the beginning of the 17th century, the extensive territory was divided into the government of the Río de la Plata and that of Paraguay, to the north.
Society and administration
Lacking mines, natural wealth and quite depopulated of Indians, this colony will be the only one that will remain almost exclusively European and, since there is no possibility of exploiting other races, it lays the foundations for a more democratic and egalitarian government.
The region was ideal for Europeans due to its mild and temperate climate and its navigable rivers, which constituted an excellent route to enter the interior and which served for many centuries as easy-to-penetrate river accesses.
The local population resorts to an economic system of self-sufficiency, due to its distance from the usual commercial communications of that time, in contrast to the colonies in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, whose supplies, for a long time, came from relatively close Europe.