Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Encounter between Native Argentines
and Europeans
The Río de la Plata (River of Silver) region was the focus of much of
the Spanish encounter with the native population in what became
modern-day Argentina. In truth, the Río de la Plata is not a river at
all, but rather an estuary of the great Paraná River drainage system.
Moreover, the name is used to refer to the greater region stretch-
ing westward from the estuary all the way to the Andes Mountains.
The historic Río de la Plata region includes the modern nations of
Uruguay and Paraguay, as well as Argentina. For the entire period of
the encounter and colonial era, the histories of these three countries
were closely intertwined. They were all part of overlapping entities,
so it is inevitable to refer to and discuss events and conditions in
Paraguay or Uruguay, as they are of signal importance to understand-
ing the history of Argentina.
The Río de la Plata was ever at the fringe of an empire. Most of the
region lay outside the great Andean empire of the Inca, and it was to
be of secondary interest to Europeans, too. Fringe areas lacked wealth
and humanpower, and Spaniards occupied them more slowly than
they had in the territories of the great empires of the Aztec and the
Inca, which had been seized in a matter of months. Rich in silver and
indigenous labor, Mexico and Peru formed the core of Spanish inter-
est in the Indies for the next several centuries. The Río de la Plata had
neither of these riches so coveted by the colonists. Rather, the natives
lived in decentralized agricultural or hunting groups, and they had no
precious metals to offer the Spaniards. For complete settlement and
domination settlers had to laboriously defeat the indigenous peoples
one group at a time in a process that took centuries. Spaniards wish-
ing to be supported as great lords could not easily capture the labor
and services of the Charrúa and Querandí. The Spaniards therefore
never conquered the Río de la Plata; they settled it.
The Founding of Asunción
In 1492, Christopher Columbus, with his exploration of the Caribbean
Islands, commenced an incomparable period of European expansion
and empire building. He died believing that he had reached Japan and
China. Other adventurers soon realized that they were not exploring
Asia but two new continents. An Italian mariner who came to the
coast of Brazil soon after Columbus's death returned to Europe and
published a map that named the continents after himself, Amerigo
