1.
Argentina
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Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a federal republic in the southern half of South America. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2, Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the second largest in Latin America, and the largest Spanish-speaking one. The country is subdivided into provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system, Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The earliest recorded presence in the area of modern-day Argentina dates back to the Paleolithic period. The country has its roots in Spanish colonization of the region during the 16th century, Argentina rose as the successor state of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a Spanish overseas viceroyalty founded in 1776. The country thereafter enjoyed relative peace and stability, with waves of European immigration radically reshaping its cultural. The almost-unparalleled increase in prosperity led to Argentina becoming the seventh wealthiest developed nation in the world by the early 20th century, Argentina retains its historic status as a middle power in international affairs, and is a prominent regional power in the Southern Cone and Latin America. Argentina has the second largest economy in South America, the third-largest in Latin America and is a member of the G-15 and it is the country with the second highest Human Development Index in Latin America with a rating of very high. Because of its stability, market size and growing high-tech sector, the description of the country by the word Argentina has to be found on a Venice map in 1536. In English the name Argentina probably comes from the Spanish language, however the naming itself is not Spanish, Argentina means in Italian of silver, silver coloured, probably borrowed from the Old French adjective argentine of silver > silver coloured already mentioned in the 12th century. The French word argentine is the form of argentin and derives of argent silver with the suffix -in. The Italian naming Argentina for the country implies Argentina Terra land of silver or Argentina costa coast of silver, in Italian, the adjective or the proper noun is often used in an autonomous way as a substantive and replaces it and it is said lArgentina. The name Argentina was probably first given by the Venitian and Genoese navigators, in Spanish and Portuguese, the words for silver are respectively plata and prata and of silver is said plateado and prateado. Argentina was first associated with the silver mountains legend, widespread among the first European explorers of the La Plata Basin. The first written use of the name in Spanish can be traced to La Argentina, a 1602 poem by Martín del Barco Centenera describing the region, the 1826 constitution included the first use of the name Argentine Republic in legal documents. The name Argentine Confederation was also used and was formalized in the Argentine Constitution of 1853. In 1860 a presidential decree settled the name as Argentine Republic
2.
Retiro, Buenos Aires
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Retiro is a barrio in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Located in the northeast end of the city, Retiro is bordered on the south by the Puerto Madero and San Nicolás barrios, and on the west by the Recoleta barrio. Retiro is one of the largest hubs of transportation services in Argentina, about 26,000 of its people, however, including thousands of illegal immigrants, live in the Villa 31 shantytown built along the Port of Buenos Aires from the 1930s onwards. A major thoroughfare is Avenida del Libertador, which becomes Avenida Leandro N. Alem past the Retiro train terminal, other principal streets and avenues in Retiro are Santa Fe, Córdoba, and Libertador Avenues, pedestrian Florida Street, and Avenida 9 de Julio. Another Retiro landmark spared demolition was the Ortiz Basualdo Palace, completed in 1912 as a private residence, it was acquired by the French Government for use as its Embassy in Argentina in 1939. The neighboring Pereda Palace, built in 1920, serves as the residence of the Ambassador of Brazil. Retiro is home to a number of five hotels, including the Four Seasons, Marriott Plaza, Sheraton. Across the street opposite Retiro train terminal is the leafy Plaza San Martín, surrounded by great palaces and hotels. The most significant landmark opposite the plaza is the Kavanagh building, district of Retiro Unofficial Retiro guide with pictures and sightseeings
3.
Recoleta, Buenos Aires
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It is also an important tourist destination and cultural center of the city. It is also one of the most affluent neighborhoods and it is one of the priciest real estate in the city, the Recoleta is accessible by the “D Line” of the Buenos Aires Subway, which passes through the neighborhood. Neighboring communities are Retiro to the southeast, San Nicolás, Balvanera and Almagro to the south, and Palermo to the northwest, and the River Plate to the northeast. The name of the neighborhood comes from the Monastery of the Recollect Fathers, members of the Franciscan Order which was established in the area at the beginning of the 18th century and they founded a monastery and a church dedicated to Nuestra Señora del Pilar with a cemetery attached. The historical center of the neighborhood is the Church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, for that reason, the neighborhood was occasionally called El Pilar. The church was situated at the edge of the banks that sloped down to the Río de la Plata. The creek, also known as Tercero del Norte, currently flows through an underground pipe and it formed a type of small delta, with channels along the current Austria and Tagle Streets, which flowed into the Río de la Plata. When Buenos Aires suffered terrible cholera and yellow fever epidemics in the 1870s and these families, built mansions and other notable buildings in several European architectural styles of the period. Consequently, Buenos Aires has often referred to as the Paris of South America. Nowadays, what is left of traditional buildings coexist with elegant modern constructions. The Recoleta neighborhood is distinguished by its great cultural spaces, the Recoleta Cemetery is one of the main tourist attractions in the neighborhood. It was designed by the French architect Prosper Catelin, at the request of President Bernardino Rivadavia, next to the cemetery is the former General Juan José Viamonte Shelter, administered in the past by the Recollect Fathers. To the east, along Posadas Street, is the Palais de Glace, which was, at the beginning of the twentieth century and it has since been turned into a multimedia exhibition center. Behind Carlos Thays Park is located the Centro Municipal de Exposiciones, several of the oldest and most prestigious schools in the capital are located in the Recoleta neighborhood. Many university schools are found in Recoleta, Derecho, Medicina, Odontología. A construction in the brutalist style, located on Agüero Street between Libertador Avenue and Las Heras, is home to the new National Library of Argentina, the building was completed in 1992, after 20 years of construction work. It contains more than four volumes, including twenty priceless editions. Several cabarets in the served as locales for tango music
4.
Palermo, Buenos Aires
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Palermo is a neighborhood, or barrio of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. With a total area of 17.4 km2, Palermo is the largest neighborhood in Buenos Aires, as of 1991 it had a population of 256,927 inhabitants. It is the only barrio within the division of Comuna 14. The name of the district is derived from the still-existing Franciscan abbey of Saint Benedict of Palermo, Saint Benedict the Moor lived from 1526 to 1589 and is a complementary patron saint of Palermo, the capital city of Sicily. Juan Manuel de Rosas built a residence there which was confiscated after his fall in 1852. The most upmarket part of Palermo, Palermo Chico, is on Palermos north-eastern edge, across Figueroa Alcorta Avenue, once a quarter full of splendid mansions set in broad private parks, many have unfortunately since been demolished by developers. The area nevertheless remains one of the wealthiest in the city, home to luxury condominium and apartment developments, MALBA, is located next door between Barrio Parque and the Paseo Alcorta shopping centre. Alto Palermo is downtown Palermo, the shopping area and transport hub around Santa Fe Avenue. Centered on Las Heras Park and the Alto Palermo Shopping Center, Palermo Norte is located along Libertador Avenue to the northwest of Palermo Chico, and the site of landmarks such as the Argentine Automobile Club and the National Museum of Decorative Arts. Villa Freud, based around Plaza Güemes, is an area known for its high concentration of psychoanalysts and psychiatrists. The King Fahd Islamic Cultural Center was built in the 1990s just east of the Polo fields, the Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers headquarters and other military installations, such as the Central Military Hospital and the Military Geographic Institute, are located to the south. La Imprenta, west of Las Cañitas, borders the Belgrano ward, one of its best-known landmarks is the Parish of San Benito Abad and the neighboring Solar de la Abadía shopping gallery. Palermo Viejo is, as its name implies, the oldest part and it runs from Santa Fe Avenue south to Córdoba Avenue, and from Avenida Dorrego east to Coronel Díaz Street. The neighborhood is centred on Plaza Palermo Viejo, and reflects an older Spanish Colonial Revival style in architecture, the new headquarters of the National Research Council, opened in 2011 in the refurbished former GIOL winery, is a notable recent example of this trend. Such well-known figures as Jorge Luis Borges and Che Guevara once lived in this ward, borgess poem Fundacion mitica de Buenos Aires names a typical square adjacent to his childhood home, a popular tourist landmark. Palermo Soho is an area of Palermo Viejo around Plaza Serrano on Serrano near Palermos south-western edge. It is a fashionable area for fashion, design, restaurants, bars. The atmosphere in many cafés and restaurants strives to be alternative, the traditional low houses have been adapted into boutiques and bars, creating a bohemian feel
5.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
6.
Spanish Empire
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The Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in history. The Spanish Empire became the foremost global power of its time and was the first to be called the empire on which the sun never sets, the Spanish Empire originated during the Age of Discovery after the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Following the Spanish–American War of 1898, Spain ceded its last colonies in the Caribbean and its last African colonies were granted independence or abandoned during Decolonisation of Africa finishing in 1976. The unity did not mean uniformity, nevertheless, some historians assert that Portugal was part of the Spanish monarchy at the time, while others draw a clear distinction between the Portuguese and Spanish empires. During the 15th century, Castile and Portugal became territorial and commercial rivals in the western Atlantic. The conquest was completed with the campaigns of the armies of the Crown of Castile between 1478 and 1496, when the islands of Gran Canaria, La Palma, and Tenerife were subjugated. The Portuguese tried in vain to keep secret their discovery of the Gold Coast in the Gulf of Guinea, chronicler Pulgar wrote that the fame of the treasures of Guinea spread around the ports of Andalusia in such way that everybody tried to go there. Worthless trinkets, Moorish textiles, and above all, shells from the Canary and Cape Verde islands were exchanged for gold, slaves, ivory and Guinea pepper. The Crown officially organized this trade with Guinea, every caravel had to get a government license, the treaty delimited the spheres of influence of the two countries, establishing the principle of the Mare clausum. It was confirmed in 1481 by the Pope Sixtus IV, in the papal bull Æterni regis, thus, the limitations imposed by the Alcáçovas treaty were overcome and a new and more balanced worlds division would be reached at Tordesillas between both emerging maritime powers. Seven months before the treaty of Alcaçovas, King John II of Aragon died, Ferdinand and Isabella drove the last Moorish king out of Granada in 1492 after a ten-year war. The Catholic Monarchs then negotiated with Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor attempting to reach Cipangu by sailing west, Castile was already engaged in a race of exploration with Portugal to reach the Far East by sea when Columbus made his bold proposal to Isabella. Columbus discoveries inaugurated the Spanish colonization of the Americas and these actions gave Spain exclusive rights to establish colonies in all of the New World from north to south, as well as the easternmost parts of Asia. The treaty of Tordesillas was confirmed by Pope Julius II in the bull Ea quae pro bono pacis on 24 January 1506, Spains expansion and colonization was driven by economic influences, a yearning to improve national prestige, and a desire to spread Catholicism into the New World. The Catholic Monarchs had developed a strategy of marriages for their children in order to isolate their long-time enemy, the Spanish princes married the heirs of Portugal, England and the House of Habsburg. Following the same strategy, the Catholic Monarchs decided to support the Catalan-Aragonese house of Naples against Charles VIII of France in the Italian Wars beginning in 1494. As King of Aragon, Ferdinand had been involved in the struggle against France and Venice for control of Italy, these conflicts became the center of Ferdinands foreign policy as king. Only a year later, Ferdinand became part of the Holy League against France and this war was less of a success than the war against Venice, and in 1516, France agreed to a truce that left Milan in its control and recognized Spanish control of Upper Navarre
7.
President of Argentina
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The President of the Argentine Nation, usually known as the President of Argentina, is both head of state and head of government of Argentina. Under the national Constitution, the President is also the executive of the federal government. Through Argentine history, the office of the Head of State has undergone many changes, current President Mauricio Macri was sworn into office on 10 December 2015. The Constitution of Argentina, along with constitutional amendments, establishes the requirements, powers, and responsibilities of the president and term of office. The origins of Argentina as a nation can be traced to 1776, the Head of State continued to be the King, but he was represented locally by the Viceroy. These Viceroys were seldom natives of the country, by the May Revolution of May 25,1810, the first Argentine autonomous government, known as the Primera Junta, was formed in Buenos Aires. It was later known as the Junta Grande when representatives from the provinces joined and this power was vested in one man when the position of Supreme Director was created by the 1813 National Assembly. The Supreme Directors became Heads of State after Independence was declared on 9 July 1816, in 1819, Congress declared Independence and composed a Constitution. This established a figure, named Supreme Director, who was vested with presidential powers. This constitution gave the Supreme Director the power of appointing Governors of the provinces, due to political circumstances, this constitution never came into force, and the central power was dissolved, leaving the country as a federation of provinces. A new constitution was drafted in 1826 and this constitution was the first to create a President, although this office retained the powers described in the 1819 constitution. This constitution did come into force, resulting in the election of the first President, because of the Cisplatine War, Rivadavia resigned after a short time, and the office was dissolved shortly after. A civil war between unitarios and federales ensued in the following decades, in this time, there was no central authority, and the closest to that was the Chairman of Foreign Relations, typically the Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires. The last to bear this title was Juan Manuel de Rosas, in 1852, Rosas was deposed, and a constitutional convention was summoned. This constitution, still in force, established a federal government. The term was fixed as six years, with no possibility of reelection, the first elected President under the constitution was Justo José de Urquiza, but Buenos Aires seceded from the Argentine Confederation as the State of Buenos Aires. Bartolomé Mitre was the first president of the country, when Buenos Aires rejoined the Confederation. In 1930, and again in 1943,1955,1962,1966 and 1976, in 1966 and 1976, federal government was undertaken by a military junta, where power was shared by the chiefs of the armed forces
8.
Florida Street
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Florida Street is an elegant shopping street in Downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina. A pedestrian street since 1971, some stretches have been pedestrianized since 1913, the pedestrian section as such starts at the intersection of Perú Street and Avenida de Mayo, a block north of the Plaza de Mayo, Perú Street crosses Rivadavia Avenue, and becomes Florida Street. Florida Street runs northwards for approximately one kilometer to Plaza San Martín and it intersects Buenos Airess other pedestrian street, Lavalle, at the heart of the former cinema district. Florida is one of the leading tourist attractions. Florida Street bustles with shoppers, vendors, and office workers alike because of its proximity to the financial district, by evening, the pace relaxes as street performers flock to the area, including tango singers and dancers, living statues, and comedy acts. Its variety of stores, shopping arcades, and restaurants is of great interest to foreign tourists. The beginnings of Florida Street date back to the founding of Buenos Aires in 1580 and its first official name was San José, enacted by Governor Miguel de Salcedo in 1734. In the late eighteenth and early centuries, the street was known popularly as Calle del Correo in reference to the post office located on what later became Perú Street. It was also known as Empedrado. Improved with boulders brought from Montevideo beginning in 1789, it became the first paved street in the city, the street was first named Florida in 1821. The name was designated in honor of the battle fought in 1814 in Upper Peru against the royalists during the Argentine War of Independence, Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas renamed the street Perú in 1837, and in 1857, the name was returned to the present one. The Argentine National Anthem was first performed in 1813 at the Florida Street home of Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson, Argentine elites began to leave the central and southern wards of the city mainly due to epidemics, especially the 1871 yellow fever outbreak. They decided to move to ground in the city and chose the area known as Retiro. Numerous private mansions were built along Florida Street in the 1880s and 1890s. The Civic Youth Union, was organized in 1889 at the intersection with the Avenida Córdoba and this organization would foment the Revolution of the Park in 1890, and from its ranks the Radical Civic Union would be established in 1891. A tram was installed along Florida Street in the 1890s, vehicular traffic was barred during business hours in 1911 by request of the growing number of shop owners along Florida, and in 1913 the tram was dismantled to pedestrianize a section of the street. The 1914 inaugural of the Gath & Chaves department store coincided with the inaugural of Harrods Buenos Aires, the overseas branch of Harrods. The merger of Gath & Chaves and Harrods in 1922 created two of the most ornate institutions of their kind in the Americas
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of the Buenos Aires Underground was laid out underneath Santa Fe in the 1920s. The availability of frequent subway stations past this point has helped maintain the more residential setting of the remaining stretches of the avenue. Past Coronel Díaz Avenue, the avenue provides easy access to the Alto Palermo Shopping Center, one of the most important in Buenos Aires. Entering the Palermo district, it continues past the Buenos Aires Zoo, the Botanical Garden and Plaza Italia, a point overlooked by the Monument to the "Sword of Italy," Giuseppe Garibaldi. The avenue continues past the Argentine Rural Society's ornate exposition grounds and into the Carranza Viaduct, where it becomes Cabildo Avenue.[3]
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