1.
Argentina
–
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.
Juan Manuel de Rosas
–
Juan Manuel de Rosas, nicknamed Restorer of the Laws, was a politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confederation. Although born into a family, Rosas independently amassed a personal fortune. Rosas enlisted his workers in a militia, as was common for rural proprietors. Victorious in warfare, personally influential, and with vast landholdings and he eventually reached the rank of brigadier general, the highest in the Argentine army, and became the undisputed leader of the Federalist Party. In December 1829, Rosas became governor of the province of Buenos Aires, in 1831, he signed the Federal Pact, recognising provincial autonomy and creating the Argentine Confederation. When his term of office ended in 1832, Rosas departed to the frontier to wage war on the indigenous peoples, after his supporters launched a coup in Buenos Aires, Rosas was asked to return and once again took office as governor. Rosas reestablished his dictatorship and formed the repressive Mazorca, an armed parapolice that killed thousands of citizens, elections became a farce, and the legislature and judiciary became docile instruments of his will. Rosas created a cult of personality and his regime became totalitarian in nature, Rosas faced many threats to his power during the late 1830s and early 1840s. Rosas persevered and extended his influence in the provinces, exercising control over them through direct and indirect means. By 1848, he had extended his power beyond the borders of Buenos Aires and was ruler of all of Argentina, Rosas also attempted to annex the neighbouring nations of Uruguay and Paraguay. When the Empire of Brazil began aiding Uruguay in its struggle against Argentina, Rosas declared war in August 1851 and this short conflict ended with the defeat of Rosas and his flight to Britain. His last years were spent in living as a tenant farmer until his death in 1877. Rosas garnered a public perception among Argentines as a brutal tyrant. In 1989, his remains were repatriated by the government in an attempt to promote unity, seeking forgiveness for him. Rosas remains a figure in Argentina in the 21st century. Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rosas was born on 30 March 1793 at his familys house in Buenos Aires. He was the first child of León Ortiz de Rosas and Agustina López de Osornio, León Ortiz was the son of an immigrant from the Spanish Province of Burgos. A military officer with a career, León Ortiz had married into a wealthy Criollo family
3.
Italianate architecture
–
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. The style of architecture that was created, though also characterised as Neo-Renaissance, was essentially of its own time. The Italianate style was first developed in Britain about 1802 by John Nash and this small country house is generally accepted to be the first Italianate villa in England, from which is derived the Italianate architecture of the late Regency and early Victorian eras. The Italianate style was developed and popularised by the architect Sir Charles Barry in the 1830s. Barrys Italianate style drew heavily for its motifs on the buildings of the Italian Renaissance, the style was not confined to England and was employed in varying forms, long after its decline in popularity in Britain, throughout Northern Europe and the British Empire. From the late 1840s to 1890 it achieved popularity in the United States. A late intimation of Nashs development of the Italianate style was his 1805 design of Sandridge Park at Stoke Gabriel in Devon. Later examples of the Italianate style in England tend to take the form of Palladian-style building often enhanced by a belvedere complete with Renaissance-type balustrading at the roof level. Sir Charles Barry, most notable for his works on the Tudor, unlike Nash he found his inspiration in Italy itself. Barry drew heavily on the designs of the original Renaissance villas of Rome, the Lazio and his most defining work in this style was the large Neo-Renaissance mansion Cliveden. Thomas Cubitt, a London building contractor, incorporated simple classical lines of the Italianate style as defined by Sir Charles Barry into many of his London terraces. Following the completion of Osborne House in 1851, the became a popular choice of design for the small mansions built by the new. These were mostly built in cities surrounded by large but not extensive gardens, on occasions very similar, if not identical, designs to these Italianate villas would be topped by mansard roofs, and then termed chateauesque. However, after a modest spate of Italianate villas, and French chateaux by 1855 the most favoured style of an English country house was Gothic, the Italianate style came to the small town of Newton Abbot in Devon, with Isambard Brunels atmospheric railway pumping houses. An example that is not very known, but a clear example of Italianate architecture, is St. Christophers Anglican church in Hinchley Wood, Surrey. When the Ottomans exiled Fakhreddine to Tuscany in 1613, he entered an alliance with the Medicis, upon his return to Lebanon in 1618, he began modernising Lebanon. He developed an industry, upgraded olive-oil production, and brought with him numerous Italian engineers who began the construction of mansions. The cities of Beirut and Sidon were especially built in the Italianate style, the influence of these buildings, such as the ones in Deir el Qamar, influenced building in Lebanon for many centuries and continues to the present time
4.
Romanticism
–
Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was embodied most strongly in the arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, Romanticism assigned a high value to the achievements of heroic individualists and artists, whose examples, it maintained, would raise the quality of society. It also promoted the individual imagination as a critical authority allowed of freedom from classical notions of form in art, there was a strong recourse to historical and natural inevitability, a Zeitgeist, in the representation of its ideas. In the second half of the 19th century, Realism was offered as a polar opposite to Romanticism, the decline of Romanticism during this time was associated with multiple processes, including social and political changes and the spread of nationalism. Defining the nature of Romanticism may be approached from the point of the primary importance of the free expression of the feelings of the artist. The importance the Romantics placed on emotion is summed up in the remark of the German painter Caspar David Friedrich that the feeling is his law. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others believed there were laws that the imagination—at least of a good creative artist—would unconsciously follow through artistic inspiration if left alone. As well as rules, the influence of models from other works was considered to impede the creators own imagination, so that originality was essential. The concept of the genius, or artist who was able to produce his own work through this process of creation from nothingness, is key to Romanticism. This idea is called romantic originality. Not essential to Romanticism, but so widespread as to be normative, was a strong belief, however, this is particularly in the effect of nature upon the artist when he is surrounded by it, preferably alone. Romantic art addressed its audiences with what was intended to be felt as the voice of the artist. So, in literature, much of romantic poetry invited the reader to identify the protagonists with the poets themselves. In both French and German the closeness of the adjective to roman, meaning the new literary form of the novel, had some effect on the sense of the word in those languages. It is only from the 1820s that Romanticism certainly knew itself by its name, the period typically called Romantic varies greatly between different countries and different artistic media or areas of thought. Margaret Drabble described it in literature as taking place roughly between 1770 and 1848, and few dates much earlier than 1770 will be found. In English literature, M. H. Abrams placed it between 1789, or 1798, this latter a very typical view, and about 1830, however, in most fields the Romantic Period is said to be over by about 1850, or earlier
5.
Mythology
–
Mythology refers variously to the collected myths of a group of people or to the study of such myths. Myths are the people tell to explain nature, history. Myth is a feature of every culture, mythologizing continues, as shown in contemporary mythopoeia such as urban legends and the expansive fictional mythoi created by fantasy novels and comics. A cultures collective mythology helps convey belonging, shared and religious experiences, behavioral models, the study of myth began in ancient history. Rival classes of the Greek myths by Euhemerus, Plato and Sallustius were developed by the Neoplatonists, the nineteenth-century comparative mythology reinterpreted myth as a primitive and failed counterpart of science, a disease of language, or a misinterpretation of magical ritual. Recent approaches often view myths as manifestations of psychological, cultural, or societal truths, the term mythology predates the word myth by centuries. It first appeared in the fifteenth-century, borrowed from the Middle French term mythologie, the word mythology, comes from Middle French mythologie, from Late Latin mythologia, from Greek μυθολογία mythología from μῦθος mythos and -λογία -logia. The word mythología appears in Plato, but was used as a term for fiction or story-telling of any kind, combining mỹthos. From Lydgate until the seventeenth or eighteenth-century, mythology was similarly used to mean a moral, fable, from its earliest use in reference to a collection of traditional stories or beliefs, mythology implied the falsehood of the stories being described. It came to be applied by analogy with similar bodies of traditional stories among other cultures around the world. The Greek loanword mythos and Latinate mythus both appeared in English before the first example of myth in 1830, in present use, mythology usually refers to the collected myths of a group of people, but may also mean the study of such myths. For example, Greek mythology, Roman mythology and Hittite mythology all describe the body of myths retold among those cultures, dundes defined myth as a sacred narrative that explains how the world and humanity evolved into their present form. Lincoln defined myth as ideology in narrative form, scholars in other fields use the term myth in varied ways. In a broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story, due to this pejorative sense, some scholars opted for the term mythos. Its use was similarly pejorative and now commonly refers to its Aristotelian sense as a plot point or to a collective mythology. The term is distinguished from didactic literature such as fables. Main characters in myths are usually gods, demigods or supernatural humans, however, many exceptions or combinations exist, as in the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid. Myths are often endorsed by rulers and priests and are linked to religion or spirituality
6.
Tango music
–
Tango is a style of music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay. It is traditionally played on a guitar, guitar duo, or an ensemble, known as the orquesta típica. Sometimes guitars and a clarinet join the ensemble, Tango may be purely instrumental or may include a vocalist. Tango music and dance have become popular throughout the world, the first Tango ever recorded was made by Angel Villoldo and played by the French national guard in Paris. Villoldo had to record in Paris because in Argentina at the time there was no recording studio, early tango was played by immigrants in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. The first generation of players was called Guardia Vieja. It took time to move into wider circles, in the early 20th century it was the music of thugs and gangsters who visited the brothels. The complex dances that arose from such rich music reflects how the men would practice the dance in groups, demonstrating male sexuality and causing a blending of emotion and aggressiveness. The music was played on instruments, flute, guitar and violin trios. The organito, a portable player-organ, broadened the popularity of certain songs, Eduardo Arolas was the major instrument of the bandoneóns popularization, with Vicente Greco soon standardizing the tango sextet as consisting of piano, double bass, two violins and two bandoneóns. Like many forms of music, tango was associated with the underclass. In spite of the scorn, some, like writer Ricardo Güiraldes, were fans, one song that would become the most widely known of all tango melodies also dates from this time. The first two sections of La Cumparsita were composed as an instrumental in 1916 by teen-aged Gerardo Matos Rodríguez of Uruguay. Besides the global influences mentioned above, early Tango was locally influenced by Payada, the Milonga from Argentine and Uruguay Pampas, in Argentina there was Milonga from the country since the mid eighteenth century. The first payador remembered is Santos Vega, the origins of Milonga seem to be in the Pampa with strong African influences, especially though the local Candombe. It is believed that this existed and was practised in Argentina since the first slaves were brought into the country. In 1876 a tango-candombe called El Merenguengué became very popular, after its success in the Afro-Argentines carnival held in February of that year and it is played with harp, violin and flute in addition to the Afro-Argentine Candombe drums. This has been considered as one of the strong points of departure for the birth
7.
Argentine rock
–
Argentine rock is composed or made by Argentine bands or artists mainly in the Spanish language. For nearly half a century it has been a popular genre. Rock and roll itself, however, began in Argentina almost a decade before, during that time until the rise of Argentine rock, local groups recycled the hits of English-language rock & roll. Since then, Argentine rock started a continued and uninterrupted evolution through the 1970s and into the 1980s and it is widely considered one of the most prolific and successful forms of Rock en Español, and one of the most important non-English language forms of rock music in the world. In Argentina it is known as Rock Nacional, literally National Rock, a distinct trait of Argentine rock is its uncompromising stance to sing rock only in the Spanish language. Rock music is made in languages around the world. The Argentine rock movement was one of the first non-English forms of rock to be commercially successful overseas, today its rare for an Argentine rock band to sing in a foreign language as it happens in other nations, even within Latin America and Spain. Argentine rock today is a term describing a number of rock styles and sub-cultures within Argentina. Argentine garage bands sprung up in the wake of the days of rock. Most notable among them was Sandro y Los de Fuego, who recorded a series of Spanish language covers of rock and roll hits from that time. Sandro would soon embark on his own contemporary pop standards career that would make him popular internationally, the first few years of rock music in Argentina were confined to cover bands. In 1964, as most of the world, Argentina was shaken by The Beatles phenomenon, there was a development unique to Argentina which may help to explain, in retrospect, why the country would become a very important rock producing nation. The historians call a parallel development curve with the United States in certain aspects of culture, both countries were the destination for millions of Europeans, and their musical heritage were heavily influenced by Pan-European folk and traditional marches. These similar musical infusions yielded related results in both, a grass-roots rural guitar-based musical tradition, becoming Bluegrass and Country in the US, in Argentina Folklore, Country music is an important pillar of Rock & Roll. In Argentina folklore, was crossing over to popular musical trends by the late 1950s. By 1965, rock music was making rapid developments in Argentina, but it was in the underground where the most fundamental figures of early Argentine rock would emerge. Los Beatnicks, of which Moris and Martinez where members, began the transition that would slowly take Argentine rock from imitator to a creative state. Forming in quiet beaches of Villa Gesell, they recorded the first Spanish language single in 1966 called Rebelde, the definitive breakthrough of Spanish-language, original material rock would be up to the band Los Gatos
8.
Level crossing
–
A level crossing, or grade crossing, is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road or path at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using a bridge or tunnel. The term also applies when a rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion. Other names include railway crossing, road through railroad, railroad crossing, early level crossings had a flagman in a nearby booth who would, on the approach of a train, wave a red flag or lantern to stop all traffic and clear the tracks. Manual or electrical closable gates that barricaded the roadway were later introduced, intended to be a barrier against intrusion of any road traffic onto the railway. In the early days of the railways much road traffic was horsedrawn or included livestock, when opened to allow road users to cross the tracks, the gates were swung across the width of the railway, preventing any pedestrians or animals getting onto the tracks. The first US patent for such crossing gates was awarded on 27 August 1867, to J. Nason and J. F. Wilson, later, as motor vehicles appeared, this type of barrier became less effective, while the need for a barrier to livestock diminished dramatically. Many countries therefore replaced the fully gated crossings with weaker but more-visible barriers, Railroad trains have a much larger mass relative to their braking capability, and thus a far longer braking distance than road vehicles. In general, trains do not stop at level crossings but rely on vehicles, Level crossings constitute a significant safety concern internationally. On average, each year 400 people are killed in the European Union, collisions can occur with vehicles as well as pedestrians, pedestrian collisions are more likely to result in a fatality. Among pedestrians, young people, older people and males are considered to be high risk users, fewer collisions take place at level crossings with active warning systems. Modern radar sensor systems can detect if level crossings are free of obstructions as trains approach and these improve safety by not lowering crossing barriers that may trap vehicles or pedestrians on the tracks, while signalling trains to brake until the obstruction clears. At railway stations, a level crossing is sometimes provided to allow passengers to reach other platforms in the absence of an underpass or bridge. Level crossings in Thailand, and Malaysia are largely manually operated, a significant number of crossings are without barriers. But there are some that are used on the line between Port Klang - Westport. However, it seems like only the crossing near Port Klang Komuter Station has the barrier. Speed up campaigns have largely eliminated many crossings on heavily used main lines though some still do exist. Most at-grade crossings in China are for smaller industrial spur and access lines which may or may not have crossing gates, chinas level crossing barriers are the fastest in the world. Most of Hong Kongs railway network is either underground or on elevated viaducts, however, level crossings continue to exist on the MTR Light Rail network, and one such level crossing was the site of a level crossing accident in 1994
9.
Sarmiento Line
–
The Sarmiento line is a broad gauge commuter rail service in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, run by the state-owned Trenes Argentinos since 11 Sep 2013. This line had previously run by the state-owned company Ferrocarriles Argentinos since nationalisation of the Argentine railways in 1948. FA operated the trains until 1991 when residual company FEMESA temporarily took over all the urban services prior to be privatized, after the Government of Carlos Menem privatized the urban railways services private company Trenes de Buenos Aires took over Mitre Line. TBA operated the line until the 2012 Once station rail disaster happened. A, in 2014 the Government announced the acquisition of new trains to replace the existing Sarmiento Line rolling stock. The cars were manufactured by Chinese company CSR Corporation Limited, with the first arriving in June 2014, the incorporation of the rolling stock was also accompanied by the replacement of rails between Once and Moreno. During 2015 a series of improvement works were conducted and completed on the line and these included remodelling stations, new signaling and other infrastructure improvements such as replacing track and third rail segments, as well as the refurbishing of workshops. The line has two underground segments not currently in use for passenger services, in May 2014, this connection was being restored with tracks replaced in order to restore the lines service to the Underground. The second is a tunnel runs directly from Once railway station to Puerto Madero in the centre of the city. Today this is used for freight to the Port of Buenos Aires. The tunnel is around 5 km long and runs through the middle of the city below Line A, construction of the tunnel had been initiated by the Buenos Aires Western Railway in 1912, however it was not completed until 1916 due to delays caused by the First World War. The restoration of this tunnel is currently under way according to SOFSE, the performance of the Sarmiento line will be greatly improved by drilling a new tunnel. Under plans announced in 2006, a 33 km tunnel is to be bored between Moreno and Caballito in order to replace the alignment of the Sarmiento commuter route. According to the Minister of the Interior and Transport, the first stage will cost 11.5 billion pesos, removing many level crossings which would avoid many accidents and much loss of life. The new underground alignment should increase the frequency to every 3 min. The tunnel segment will have 13 underground stations, during the construction, service on the surface line will continue. Rail transport in Argentina Sarmiento Railway CSR EMU Official website Tren Sarmiento Line Mitre-Sarmiento
10.
Once railway station
–
Once railway station, IPA, ) is a large railway terminus in central Buenos Aires, Argentina in the barrio of Balvanera. The station, inaugurated on December 20,1882, is located in the barrio of Balvanera immediately north of Plaza Miserere, the station is named after the September 11,1852, rebellion of Buenos Aires against the Federal government of General Justo José de Urquiza. Coincidentally President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento also died on September 11, but contrary to belief in Argentina. The Buenos Aires Western Railway was the first railway line of Argentina, the first intermediate stop was named Once de Septiembre. That first Once de Septiembre station was a modest building made of wood and it had only one platform and some warehouses to store wood and other materials. The increasing growth of Buenos Aires as a consequence of mass immigration to Argentina meant the closure of Del Parque railway station, a new building was built for that purpose, which was inaugurated on January 1,1883. The building was made of wood, the continuous expansion of Buenos Aires produced a growth of road traffic with a large number of trams and carriages in the city. By the 1890s new groups of immigrants established near Once station, the original terminal, an unassuming clapboard structure, was ordered to be replaced by larger facilities following its 1890 purchase by the Buenos Aires Western Railway. A similar, though severe, incident took place on the morning of October 19,2013. The conductor, Julio Benítez, was arrested after he was found with the event recorder hidden in his backpack. Estación Once handles both long-distance and local passenger trains, the publicly owned provincial railway company Ferrobaires operates trains over four principal rail lines which fan out west over the surrounding Buenos Aires Province. Destinations include Pehuajó, Bragado, Bahia Blanca and points between, the station is accessible by numerous public bus services and by the A line of the Buenos Aires Underground via its Plaza Miserere station. Estación Once underwent extensive renovations prior to 2007, when the new H line of the reached the heavily transited terminal. Rail transport in Argentina Sarmiento Line Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Railway Balvanera Del Parque railway station Trenes Argentinos Ferrobaires
Argentina
