About Jewish Argentina:
The Jewish community in Argentina dates back to 140 years ago. In 1862, La Congregacion Israelita de Buenos Aires held the first minyan. By the early 1900s, there were 100,000 Jewish immigrants in Argentina, mostly from Eastern Europe. Some established themselves in the Pampas, the fertile lowlands of Argentina, becoming gauchos (cowboys) who established Jewish rural agricultural communities. The Jewish community in Argentina today is the largest in Latin America. Of a total population of 41.45 million people, about 240,000 are Jewish, the majority of which live in Buenos Aires. There are approximately 70 synagogues, 50 Jewish educational institutions, and 20 kosher restaurants in Buenos Aires.
Historical outline of Argentina
For thousands of years,there have been occupants on the fertile plains and coastal areas of Argentina,and this was also the case when the first Europeans arrived in 1516.It was the Spaniard Juan Diás de Solís who discovered the area when he sailed up the La Plata River, Río de la Plata.However,the expedition of Días de Solís was brief,as he and the other sailors were presumably killed by local Indians.
More than 20 years passed before a Spanish expedition searching for gold in 1536 founded the
first city,Santa Maria del Buen Ayre,the forerunner of today’s Buenos Aires,which originally meant Good Winds. Santa Maria del Buen Ayre was situated in the present San Telmodistrict.The leader of the expedition was Pedro de Mendoza.
In 1541 frequent attacks from local Indians forced the citizens of the new city to escape over the ocean,and the area was once again without European colonisation.This lasted until 1580,
when a permanent settlement was established by Juan de Garay,who sailed from Asunción by the
Paraná River.
In 1600 to 1700, the Spanish colony administration tried to get all trade from South America to go physically through Lima in Peru for tax reasons. This arrangement was a nuisance to the traders in Buenos Aires, and it caused a rising opposition to the Spaniards from the citizens of the city,who were already called Portenõs,”those from the harbour”.
At the end of the 18th century, the pressure to get an easier way of trading with the outside world was so big that the Spanish King Carlos III declared Buenos Aires a free port.However, the new status did not create the immediate,huge progress as hoped for,and with the French revolution in mind,the opposition against the colonial power increased.Spain was gradually weakened,and in 1806 to 1807 Great Britain invaded Buenos Aires twice but was both times defeated by local military units.
In 1810 the citizens of Buenos Aires took advantage of the Spanish weakening. They overthrew the Spanish vice king and established an independent province government, which was not immediately recognized as the government of Argentina.However,it was the beginning of Argentina’s independence,and today the event is celebrated as the national revolutionary day.
1816 Argentina achieved formal independence,and Buenos Aires – as the absolute centre of the
country – became the capital.Buenos Aires was also the place where the liberal-minded population of the country went to,and this created a cultural distance to the more conservative population of the provinces on the countryside.This difference still exists today.
In the 19th century,France and Great Britain tried to internationally strengthen their political positions,and in the 1840’es the countries’ fleets took turns besieging Buenos Aires. However,Buenos Aires did not surrender and therefore stayed an independent nation.In the last half of the 19th century,the surrounding areas were connected to Buenos Aires with railways, and the transportation of raw materials to processing in or discharging from the city created an enormous growth, which made Buenos Aires a metropolis as great as the biggest metropolises of Europe.
Along with the economic success followed a comprehensive cultural development of Buenos Aires, which did not want to be inferior to the European cities.Palaces were constructed,and Teatro Colón was built as one of the leading opera houses of the world. Now celebrities often visited
Buenos Aires,which was the most progressive city in South America.The continent’s highest building and the first metro line were constructed here.Argentina was among the wealthiest countries of the world,not least because of an extremely large meat export.
In the 1920es,many European immigrants came to Argentina,and many stayed in and around Buenos Aires.Today the population of Porteños,far more often than the populations of other South American cities,come from European peoples and not from local Indians.The immigration created slums because temporary and bad homes sprang up close to the factories.This was the beginning of the city’s social problems,which were present for the next decades under different regimes.
After a coup d’état in 1943,Juan Péron was made Work and Welfare Minister,and he quickly obtained a high level of popularity,not least with the working class. He was forced to resign in 1945 and was arrested shortly after.Immediately people took to the streets,and a legendary demonstration on Plaza de Mayo started the Peronism.
The following year Juan Péron became president with more than half of the Argentine votes. His
politics aimed towards strengthening the country’s workers. He nationalised a lot of industry and tried to speed up the industrial development.Despite the great popularity and ambitious reform programme of Juan and Eva (Evita) Perón,Argentina got financial problems,and in 1955
Perón was brought down in a military coup d’état.
Ever since 1945,demonstrations have been held on Plaza de Mayo because of social problems or as reactions against changing governments and regimes.After many years in exile,Juan Perón
returned to Argentina and was elected president again in 1973.He died in 1974 after which
Argentina changed to a junta regime.
The country’s and the city’s economic difficulties have not been solved, but despite a lost war in 1982 against Great Britain over the Islas Malvinas/the Falklands Islands and big social barriers,Buenos Aires is characterised by an optimism and a cheerfulness of the indomitable
Porteños.In recent years,new investments have been made in the city,among other things the harbour area has been developed into the new Puerto Madero.
Uruguay - Timeline
A chronology of key events:
1516 - Spanish navigator Juan Diaz de Solis killed by indigenous people while exploring the Rio de la Plata, his death discouraging further European colonisation for more than 100 years.
Montevideo skyline
Montevideo boasts colonial architecture and sandy beaches
Founded: 1726
Population: 1.4 million
1726 - Spanish found Montevideo and take over Uruguay from the Portuguese; many of the indigenous people are killed.
1776 - Uruguay becomes part of the Vice-royalty of La Plata, which has its capital at Buenos Aires.
1808 - Uruguay rebels against the Vice-royalty of La Plata following the overthrow of the Spanish monarchy by Napoleon Bonaparte.
1812-20 - Orientales, or Uruguayans from the eastern side of the River Plata, fight against Argentinian and Brazilian invaders.
Independence and war
1828 - Brazil, Argentina renounce claims to territories which become the Eastern Republic of Uruguay.
1830 - Constitution approved.
1838-65 - Civil war between Blancos, or Whites - the future conservative party - and Colorados, or Reds - the future liberals.
1865-70 - Uruguay joins Argentina and Brazil in war against Paraguay, which is defeated.
1903-15 - Reformist Jose Batlle y Ordonez (Colorado Party) gives women the franchise and establishes a welfare state, disestablishes the church and abolishes the death penalty during two successive terms as president.
1933 - Opposition groups excluded from politics following military coup.
1951 - President replaced with nine-member council in accordance with new constitution.
Dictatorship, guerrilla warfare, return to democracy
1962 - Campaign by Tupamaros guerrillas begins and lasts until 1973.
Football (soccer) glories include a 1950 World Cup win
1971 - British ambassador to Uruguay Geoffrey Jackson kidnapped by Tupamaros guerrillas and held for eight months. He is freed shortly after a mass jail break-out by Tupamaros convicts which officials deny was arranged in exchange for Jackson's release.
1972 - Sixteen survivors of a Uruguayan plane which crashes in the Andes stay alive by eating the flesh of passengers who died. The survivors, mainly members of a Uruguayan rugby team, are trapped for 10 weeks.
1973 - Armed forces seize power and promise to encourage foreign investment, but usher in a period of extreme repression during which Uruguay becomes known as "the torture chamber of Latin America" and accumulates the largest number of political prisoners per capita in the world.
1984 - Violent protests against repression and deteriorating economic conditions.
1985 - Army and political leaders agree on return to constitutional government and the release of political prisoners; law grants amnesty to members of the armed forces accused of human rights violations during years of dictatorship; Julio Maria Sanguinetti becomes president.
1989 - Referendum endorses amnesty for human rights abusers; Lacalle Herrera elected president.
1994 - Julio Maria Sanguinetti elected president.
1999 - Jorge Batlle elected president.
2000 - Commission begins investigating the fate of 160 people who disappeared during the years of military dictatorship.
2002 April - Uruguay breaks diplomatic ties with Cuba, after Cuba accuses it of being a US lackey for sponsoring a UN resolution which calls on Havana to implement human rights reforms.
Financial crisis
Protest in Montevideo against economic crisis, 2002
Argentina's economic meltdown had knock-on effects for Uruguay
2003: Uruguay gets IMF thumbs up
2002 May - Emergency measures, including tax increases, are announced by President Batlle in an effort to prevent Argentina's financial crisis from spilling over the border.
2002 August - Government orders banks to close for almost a week to stop mass withdrawal of savings. General strike held in protest at economic crisis.
2003 April - World Bank approves loans worth more than $250m.
2003 December - Voters in referendum reject plans to open up state oil monopoly to foreign investment.
2004 May - Senate rejects a bill that would have legalized abortion.
Shift to the left
2004 November - Left-winger Tabare Vazquez wins presidential elections, marking a dramatic political shift.
2005 March - President Vazquez is sworn in. Within hours he restores ties with Cuba, signs an energy deal with Venezuela and announces a welfare package to tackle poverty.
2005 December - Forensic experts unearth remains of individuals who are thought to be victims of military rule. President Vazquez ordered the excavations soon after taking office.
Former Uruguayan dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry (2005 picture)
Juan Maria Bordaberry headed 1970s military regime
2006: Ex-president arrested
2010: Bordaberry jailed
2006 July - International Court of Justice rejects a bid by Argentina to suspend the construction of two Uruguayan pulp mills. Uruguay rejects charges that the plants will pollute the border region.
2006 November - Former president-turned-dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry and his former foreign minister are arrested in connection with the 1976 killings of four political opponents.
2006 December - Uruguay pays off its billion-dollar debt to the International Monetary Fund.
2007 May - A new parliament of South America's leading trading block Mercosur is inaugurated in the capital Montevideo.
2007 September - Hundreds of Argentineans cross into Uruguay to protest outside a paper pulp mill, which Argentina and environmentalists say pollutes rivers.
2008 June - President Vasquez announces discovery of what could be large natural gas field off Uruguay's Atlantic coast.
Former dictators jailed
2009 October - The Supreme Court rules that a law shielding officials of the last military government from prosecution for human rights abuses is unconstitutional.
Former military ruler Gregorio Alvarez is sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder and human rights violations.
Ruling Broad Front coalition wins parliamentary election.
2009 November - Former leftist rebel-turned-moderate Jose Mujica of the governing Broad Front wins presidential election.
2010 February - Former president Juan Maria Bordaberry is sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder and violation of the constitution in the wake of the 1973 military coup. Because of his age he serves the sentence at home, and dies in 2011.
2010 March - Jose Mujica takes office as president.
2011 October - Congress votes to revoke an amnesty law that protected military officers from prosecution for crimes committed under military rule in 1975-1983.
2012 July - Government begins consultations on decriminalizing marijuana.
2012 October - Uruguay becomes the first country in Latin America after Cuba to legalise abortion for all women. The Senate voted narrowly to allow abortions in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
