Argentina

Sedentary farmers in the northwest, later under Inca rule; nomadic hunters across the Pampas and Patagonia.

Spain settles the Río de la Plata; Buenos Aires is permanently founded in 1580.

Spain creates a viceroyalty with Buenos Aires as its capital.

The 1810 May Revolution leads to a formal declaration of independence in 1816.

Decades of conflict between Unitarians and Federalists end in a unified nation.

Federalist caudillo Juan Manuel de Rosas dominates the Confederation; overthrown at Caseros in 1852.

Federal constitution inspired by Alberdi, still in force with amendments.

Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay defeat Paraguay; Argentina gains Misiones and Formosa.

Roca's campaigns seize Patagonia and the Pampas from Mapuche and Tehuelche peoples.

Millions of European immigrants arrive, reshaping Argentine society and economy.

Beef and wheat exports, British capital and railways make Argentina one of the world's richest countries by 1914.

Writer of Ficciones and El Aleph; central figure of 20th-century world literature.

Ends oligarchic control of elections; Radical Yrigoyen wins the presidency in 1916.

First military coup of the century; fraudulent conservative rule until the 1943 coup that brought Perón to prominence.

Juan Perón's presidency and the movement that dominates later Argentine politics.

Perón returns from exile and dies in 1974; his widow's chaotic presidency ends in the 1976 coup.

A military junta rules amid state terrorism and thousands of forced disappearances.

Junta invades the islands; defeat by Britain hastens the end of the dictatorship.

Defeat in the Falklands War brings down the junta and restores civilian rule.

A severe financial collapse and default trigger mass protests and political turmoil.

Néstor and Cristina Kirchner: debt restructuring, commodity boom, human-rights trials, renewed Peronist dominance.

Archbishop of Buenos Aires becomes the first pope from the Americas.