Buenos Aires Founded: Spain Claims South America
Pedro de Mendoza established a settlement on the western bank of the Rio de la Plata in February 1536, naming it Santa Maria del Buen Ayre after the patron saint of fair winds. The colony nearly perished. Starvation drove settlers to eat rats, shoe leather, and reportedly each other. The indigenous Querandi, initially cooperative, turned hostile after the Spanish demanded food tributes. Attacks and disease reduced the settlement to a fraction of its original 2,500 colonists. Mendoza himself was dying of syphilis and sailed back toward Spain, perishing at sea. The survivors abandoned Buenos Aires in 1541, retreating upriver to Asuncion. The site was refounded in 1580 by Juan de Garay with sixty-three settlers and became the permanent colonial hub that would eventually grow into South America's most cosmopolitan capital, home to over 15 million people in its modern metropolitan area.
February 2, 1536
490 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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