ARGENTINA

HOME | BIOLOGY | FILMS | GEOGRAPHY | HISTORY | INDEX | INVESTORS | MUSIC | NEWS | SOLAR BOATS | SPORT

Argentina is the second-largest country in South America and the eighth-largest country in the world.

It occupies a continental surface area of 2,791,810 km² (1,078,000 sq mi) and is located between the Andes mountain range in the west and the southern Atlantic Ocean in the east and south. It is bordered by Paraguay and Bolivia in the north, Brazil and Uruguay in the northeast, and Chile in the west and south. It also claims the British overseas territories of the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Under the name of Argentine Antarctica, it claims 969,464 km² (374,312 sq mi) of Antarctica, overlapping other claims by Chile and the United Kingdom.

The country is formally named the Argentine Republic (Spanish: República Argentina, but for purposes of legislation, the form Nación Argentina (Argentine Nation) is used.

Origin and history of the name

The name Argentina derives from the Latin argentum (silver). The first Spanish conquistadors discovered the Río de la Plata ("River of Silver"). Indigenous people gave silver gifts to the survivors of the shipwrecked expedition, who were led by Juan Díaz de Solís. The legend of Sierra del Plata — a mountain rich in silver — reached Spain around 1524. The source of the silver was the area where the city of Potosí was to be founded in 1546. An expedition that followed the trail of the silver up the Paraná and Pilcomayo rivers finally reached the source of the silver only to find it already claimed by previous explorers that had reached it from Lima, the capital of the Viceroyalty.

The name Argentina was first used in Ruy Díaz de Guzmán's 1612 book Historia del descubrimiento, población, y conquista del Río de la Plata (History of the discovery, population, and conquest of the Río de la Plata), naming the territory Tierra Argentina (Land of Silver).

WORLD GEOGRAPHY

Healthier alternative tastes for adventure capitalists

Solar Red | Solar Crush | Solar Cola | Solar Spice | Solar +

This website is Copyright © 1999 & 2007  NJK.   The bird logo and name Solar Navigator are trademarks. All rights reserved.  All other trademarks are hereby acknowledged.       Max Energy Limited is an educational charity.

 AUTOMOTIVE  |  BLUEBIRD  |  ELECTRIC CARS  |  ELECTRIC CYCLES  |  SOLAR CARS