San Miguel de Tucumán, usually called simply Tucumán, is the capital and largest city of Tucumán Province, located in northern Argentina 1,311 kilometres (815 mi) from Buenos Aires. It is the fifth-largest city of Argentina after Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Rosario and Mendoza and the most important of the northern region. The Spanish conquistador Diego de Villarroel founded the city in 1565 in the course of an expedition from present-day Peru. Tucumán moved to its present site in 1685.

What today is commonly referred as the Independence of Argentina was declared on July 9, 1816, by the Congress of Tucumán. In reality, the congressmen who were assembled in Tucumán declared the independence of the United Provinces of South America, which is one of the official names of the Argentine Republic. The Federal League Provinces, at war with the United Provinces, were not allowed into the Congress. At the same time, several provinces from the Upper Peru that would later become part of present-day Bolivia, were represented at the Congress.