| POPULATION: |
38.7 million
(2004) |
| CAPITAL: |
Buenos Aires |
|
AREA:
|
3,761,274 sq.km (1,452,228 sq.mi) of which about three-quarters is
located on the South American continent, the rest consists of a
section of Antarctica and three groups of islands in the South
Atlantic. |
|
CURRENCY: |
The unit of currency is the peso ($), quoted at 2.92 per US$1
or 2.20 per A$1 (2005).
 
Bartolomé Mitre (2 pesos)
José de San Martín (5 pesos)
Manuel Belgrano (10 pesos)
Juan Manuel de Rosas (20 pesos)
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (50 pesos)
Julio Argentino Roca (100 pesos) |
|
NATIONAL
DAY: |
25th of May - Anniversary of
the 1810 Revolution which led to formal independence from
Spain on the 9th of July, 1816.
|
| LANGUAGE:
|
The official language is Spanish. English is widely spoken, while other
languages such as Italian, French and German derive their popularity from the
large immigrant population and cultural links with Europe. |
|
FLAG:
|
.gif) The
flag consists
of three horizontal stripes, two sky blue with a white stripe with the sun in
the centre. This became the
country's official
flag when it formalized independence from Spain in 1816. The "Sun
of May" in the centre was added in 1818 to depict the sun shining
through the clouds of Buenos Aires on the 25th of May 1810, when Argentina established
its first independent government. |
|
THE
NAME ARGENTINA: |
The Europeans were the first to visit Argentina. In 1516, a time when
Spanish sailors were searching for precious metals, they sailed into a beautiful
wide estuary which they named "Rio de la Plata" or river of silver.
They called the land Argentina, after the Latin word meaning silvery. |
