In 1516 Juan Díaz de Solís entered the mouth of a great river from the Atlantic, which he called the Sweet Sea. Killed the discoverer by the Charrúas Indians, the survivors changed its name to Río de Solis. Then prevailed the name, used by the Portuguese, of Rio da Prata, and in Spanish de la Plata (river of silver), derived from the persuasion that, judging by the silver ornaments used by the natives, there must be vast deposits of that mineral. Argentine Latinism arose alongside the Spanish form, which is consecrated in the title of a poem by Martino del Barco Centenera: La Argentina or the conquest of the Río de la Plata (1602). After the revolution the name Argentina prevailed, while at the time of the governorates and the viceroyalty it had been in honor of Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata ; and Ar gentini the residents of the new American state were called. Nor was the adoption of the Latin form without reason, since it was rightly observed that a part of the former provinces of Plata had passed to integrate other states (Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia), while with the name of nación argentina or pueblo argentino it had always been intended to designate that particular ethnic agglomeration, which in fact constituted the first nucleus of today’s federal republic. The name of Plata, however, remained the river recognized by the Solís, and when, in 1882, the Congress decreed the foundation of a new city, destined to become the capital of the province of Buenos Aires, it was given the name of La Plata.

According to ask4beauty.com, at the Solís expedition (we do not deal with the debated question of whether Vespucci went down to the Plata estuary) he kept behind that of the Portuguese Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães), who sailed on behalf of Spain, and whose fleet, from 1519 to 22, made the first world tour. On the outward voyage, Magellan’s fleet penetrated the Plata estuary, making surveys and observations there; indeed one of the ships, the Santiago, commanded by Juan Serrano, discovered and went up the Uruguay river (January-February 1520). to the Río de Solís, and, first founded the strong Sancti Spiritus (May 27, 1527), he advanced into Paraná, from this passing into the Paraguay river, while his lieutenant Michele Rifos, later murdered by the natives, left to explore the Bermejo and Pilcomayo rivers. Returning to the base, Caboto came into conflict with the incoming Diego García, former companion of Vespucci, Solís and Magellano, who boasted the exclusive concessionaire for the exploration of the Río de Solís; then, having settled the dispute, he resumed navigation on the Paraguay River. But the Indians rebelled, the strong Sancti Spiritus he fell, and so the daring navigator thought it appropriate to return to Spain (1530). In 1534 the news spread of the discovery of immense riches in Peru, conquered by Pizarro, and the greedy eyes of the conquerors pinned on that region. The Rio della Plata gained importance by reflection, since it was considered as the natural road to reach the fabulous plateau, thus realizing the happy intuition of Caboto, who had climbed the great rivers to reach the kingdom of Rey Blanco, that is to the empire of the Inca. Another reason induced the Spanish crown to have the Platensian lands permanently occupied: the threat of a Portuguese occupation. Already several times the Portuguese and the Spaniards had found themselves in conflict over not having, now one now the other, respected the pacts of the Treaty of Tordesillas; and in 1531 a Portuguese ship, belonging to the fleet of Martim Alfonso de Souza, the first donor of Brazil, had gone as far as the mouth of the Paraná, under the pretext of noting the point. Therefore in 1535 an expedition led by Pedro de Mendoza, whom Charles V had named, ” adelantado and governor general of the lands of the Rio della Plata “. Mendoza, a mediocre soldier, had participated in the sack of Rome and had gained enormous wealth, with which he had set up the ultramarine enterprise. The contemporaries wanted to see, in his misfortunes, the punishment for the excesses he had indulged in during the sacking, “stripping convents and even churches”.

Pedro de Mendoza’s fleet, made up of 14 ships with a thousand men and a few women, entered the Plata in January 1536; and in the first days of February, the Ciudad de Santa María de los Buenos Aires was founded on the left bank of the Riachuelo, the first nucleus of today’s great metropolis. The beginnings of the new colony were not happy: the Querandíes Indians, at first benevolent to the Spaniards, then came into conflict with them; and, in a fight, he found death with others Admiral Diego de Mendoza, brother of the adelantado ; the settlers had to suffer the torments of hunger, and so severely, that cases of anthropophagy occurred, reported by the German synchronous chronicler, and eyewitness, Ulrico Schmidel; Mendoza himself became seriously ill, and gave his lieutenant Juan de Ayolas the powers to go up the rivers Caboto explored and meet with Pizarro and Almagro to discuss their respective jurisdictions. Mendoza could not wait for Ayolas’ return: his illness worsened, he embarked for Spain, leaving Captain Francisco Ruiz Galán in Buenos Aires. He then ceased to live during the journey (1537). Continuing Ayolas in his exploration (in which he had to find death), his field teacher Domingo Martínez Irala detached himself from him, and in 1541 he transported the last remains of the population of Buenos Aires to the city of Asunción in Paraguay (founded in 1537 by Juan Salazar de Espinosa). The center of the Platensian provinces moved towards Paraguay, and Buenos Aires would have disappeared from American history, if two powerful factors had not prepared its resurgence. In the first place, while Irala tended to expand the conquest towards the eastern part of Paraguay, to get closer to the Brazilian runway, whose port of S. Vicente, very frequented by French, Dutch and Portuguese ships, became the outlet of Asunción, the smuggling it naturally flowed towards Buenos Aires. Secondly, when Irala deliberately depopulated Buenos Aires, razing their houses to the ground,