Argentina, Geography

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Argentina, Geography

The Argentine Republic is located at the southern end of South America, running southwards from the Tropic of Capricorn. With an area of 1,072,200 square miles (2,776,900 square kilometers) and a population of 36,260,000, it is bounded by Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile. It is organized as a federation of twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires, the federal capital. Its official language is Spanish, although indigenous languages are also spoken in some areas. Seven major natural regions are recognized: The Andes, in the west, has the highest elevations located in the north-central section. (Aconcagua, at 22,834 feet [6,959 meters] above sea level, is the highest peak in the Americas.) These are arid mountains, except in the eastern part of the northern sector, where mountain jungle can be found, and in Patagonia, where there is a cold jungle. In the northern sector is the Puna plateau, which is high, dry, and cold. In the north-central region of the country are the Chaco plains, originally covered by semi-arid forest, with a dry subtropical climate. In the northeastern corner of the country is the dense Missionary Jungle, located on a mountain range, with a humid subtropical climate. The Pampas plains, highly degraded grasslands with a temperate climate, run along the east-central part of the country. The west-central region, which receives the least rainfall, is a long strip of semi-arid wooded vegetation known as the woodlands. In the south is the Patagonian plateau, dry and cold, covered by steppes. Approximately 7 percent of the country is under some type of environmental protection, including the 9.14 million acres that make up the country's thirty-four national parks.

The Río de la Plata (River Plate) Basin covers most of the country. Its principal tributaries are the Paraná, with a broad and active delta, and the Uruguay. The two rivers converge to form the great River Plate estuary.

When the Spaniards arrived, Argentina had an indigenous population of at least 500,000, distributed in relatively dense groups in the northwest and more widely dispersed throughout the rest of the country. The Spanish conquerors settled in the northwest, and to a lesser extent in Cuyo and along the banks of the Paraná, whereas Patagonia and the Chaco remained in indigenous hands until the end of the nineteenth century. At the time of independence (1810), the country had no more than 610,000 inhabitants. The population began to grow gradually from that point onwards, but beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, a strong wave of European immigration accelerated that growth, swelling the country's numbers to almost 8.2 million by 1914. This wave was subsequently replaced by immigrants from bordering countries. An urbanization trend increased sharply starting in the early twentieth century, driven by the relocation of large masses of people from the northeast and the northwest to the large coastal cities. This resulted in a population that was more than 90 percent urban by 2001, though the tendency toward population concentration has halted. Internal and external migrations transformed the distribution of the population, with the dense settlements of the northwest replaced by those in the Pampas region, followed by settlements in Patagonia, the Chaco, and the Missions territory.

Argentina has a long tradition of public education that goes back to the end of the nineteenth century. The illiteracy rate is relatively low, encompassing less than 4 percent of the adult population. This is reflected in secondary education enrollment, with one-fourth of adults having completed secondary school.

The economy is based on primary production and its related industries. The greatest share of that sector is held by agricultural and livestock production (9% of the GDP), whereas manufacturing occupies the largest share of the secondary sector, with 27 percent of the total. The push to industrialize began dropping off toward the 1970s, and the center of economic activity shifted for a time to the financial and service sectors. Later, the focus returned to primary production, accompanied by the broadening of agriculturally based industries such as food-oil processing and flour mills. The globalization process and the Mercosur common market have promoted industrial diversification, and in many cases Argentina plays a role in international production chains such as those of the automotive and dairy industries. The vast majority of the GDP—80 percent—is generated in the Pampas region. Agricultural activity is centered in this area, where natural conditions allow for the production of all types of cereals (chiefly soy, wheat, and corn), as well as beef and pork. Agriculture has seen great productivity increases through the application of advanced technologies. Each of the remaining regions of the country exhibits a certain degree of agricultural specialization, based on local environmental circumstances. Thus, sugarcane is cultivated in the northwest; cotton in the Chaco; yerba mate, tobacco, and rice in the northeast; wine grapes and olives in Cuyo; and fruit in northern Patagonia. Beef cattle are raised in almost all regions, with varying degrees of technological enhancement, but almost always on natural pastureland (except in the Pampas region). Sheep are raised in Patagonia. Regional production generally targets the domestic market, while the export of cereals and meat as well as their direct derivatives (oil, dairy products) originates chiefly in the Pampas. Fishing activities are increasing significantly in Argentina, particularly in the Patagonian ports.

For many years, timber farming consisted of the irrational use of the native forests of the northern and central parts of the country for the production of tannin, railroad ties, fence posts, firewood, and charcoal. The period since the middle of the twentieth century has seen an increase in reforestation activities linked to the production of cellulose paste. In the early twenty-first century, mining is seeing a surge in activity, concentrated in the western part of the country, where lead, copper, silver, and gold are mined. Oil and gas development is underway in the northeast, Cuyo, and Patagonia. The country is self-sufficient in both, with an exportable surplus. In the realm of energy production, oil and gas are joined by hydroelectric energy, which has great potential, and to a lesser extent, nuclear energy. Most of the country is covered by an interconnected power grid. Industrial activity has tended to concentrate along the Pampas coast. Chief among the industries is food processing (oils, dairy products, meat by-products, sugar, flour). The metalworking and auto industries are located in the vicinity of Buenos Aires, Rosario, and Córdoba. Although the textile and chemical industries are also concentrated around Buenos Aires, they are more widely distributed, as are petrochemicals. The largest industrial centers are in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, on the axis joining San Nicolás, Rosario, and Santa Fe, and the area surrounding the city of Córdoba. At the same time, other areas exhibit greater industrial specialization, for example, winemaking in Mendoza or sugar production in Tucumán.

The railroad network, formerly quite extensive, has virtually disappeared. Only a few branch lines remain in use for cargo shipments. Its disappearance did not coincide with the growth of quality roadways: There are no more than 37,000 miles (59,500 kilometers) of paved roads, and these are generally narrow, in poor condition, and do not cover the entire country. An enormous fleet of buses (the chief means of interurban transportation in Argentina) travels on the nation's highways, interconnecting virtually all of its towns and cities. River and maritime transportation is almost exclusively for cargo. The principal ports are those of Buenos Aires, Rosario, Santa Fe, Bahía Blanca, Quequén, San Antonio Este, and Mar del Plata. An increasing number of private ports specializing in grain shipments have been established along the Paraná River. Argentina has a large network of oil and gas pipelines that extends to neighboring countries. An activity that has grown considerably in Argentina is tourism, both domestic and international. Domestic tourism has stimulated the growth of towns along the Atlantic coast of Buenos Aires and in the Córdoba Mountains, but Argentina is also a growing center of attraction for international tourism. Revenues from international tourism have come to exceed those from livestock industry exports. The greatest attractions for foreign visitors are the city of Buenos Aires, the Iguaçu Falls, the southern lakes, and the Perito Moreno Glacier.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barsky, Osvaldo, and Jorge Gelman. Historia del agro argentino: Desde la conquista hasta fines del siglo XX. Buenos Aires: Grijalbo Mondadori, 2001.

Brailovsky, Antonio, and Diana Foguelman. Memoria Verde: Historia ecológica de la Argentina, 13th edition. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 2002.

Brown, Alejandro; Ulises Martinez Ortiz, Marcelo Acerbi, and Javier Corchera, comps. La situación ambiental argentina 2005. Buenos Aires: Fundación Vida Silvestre, 2006.

Sawers, Larry. The Other Argentina: The Interior and National Development. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996.

Carlos Reboratti

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture