Project on Argentina
1- Look at the pictures and decide which of them belong to Argentina
2- Read the text and transfer the data onto the map
Argentina
The southernmost country in eastern South America,
a democratic republic 1.1 million square miles (2.8 million sq km)
in size bordered on the north by Uruguay, Brazil,
Paraguay, and Bolivia, and on the west by Chile.
By area, Argentina is the second-largest
country in South America and the eighth-largest
in the world. It stretches south from the
Tropic of Capricorn almost to the Antarctic Circle
and consists of twenty-three provinces
and one federal district. Most of the nation’s 40
million people live in the cities of central
Argentina, the largest of which is the capital,
Buenos Aires, with a population of 12 million.
3- Scan the text on Geography and find key vocabulary shown in pictures from Act 1
GEOGRAPHY
In the north is the Gran Chaco, a subtropical woodland of rivers and small, thorny trees. In the northeastern part between the Paraná and Uruguay rivers lies the Mesopotamia (“between two rivers”). Many cattle and sheep ranches, called estancias, are found here. Both rivers empty into the Río de la Plata , a huge estuary, or bay, of the Atlantic Ocean; it is the second-largest estuary in South America after that of the Amazon River. In the center of the country lie plains and low hills called pampas. Once covered by tall grasses, this area is now good pastureland for cattle and sheep, which are raised by cowboys called gauchos. The high cool desert of Patagonia covers southern Argentina. Much of it is barren wasteland, and heavy settlement did not begin until the nineteenth century. The Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas in Spanish) lie off the shore of Patagonia and are claimed by both the United Kingdom and Argentina.Argentina’s Chilean border lies in the Andes Mountains, which are snow-covered year round. The highest mountain in South America, Mount Aconcagua, is in Argentina and rises 22,834 feet (6960 m ) above sea level. Popular ski resorts stretch along the Andes from San Carlos de Bariloche to Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of the country.
4- History: Find these proper names in the text and order them in chronological order
Juan Domingo Perón................ Isabel Perón.................
José de San Martín.......... Juan Manuel de Rosas.......
Juan Díaz de Solís…………. Eva (“Evita”) Duarte.............
HISTORY
The Spanish claimed Argentina as a colony in 1516, when Juan Díaz de Solís sailed into the Río de la Plata. They did not begin settling there, however, until 1580. For the next 200 years, the lands that became the present-day nations of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay all were parts of the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. The Europeans who settled there raised mules, herded cattle, and raised crops such as cotton, wheat, and rice.
In 1776, Spain made the area comprising these three countries a separate viceroyalty called La Plata , with Buenos Aires as its capital. The British tried to take over these colonies in 1806 and 1807, but the colonists fought them off with no help from Spain, spurring the realization that they did not need the parent country for protection. Following a wave of similar revolutionary movements throughout Latin America, a group of Argentineans declared independence in 1810, but it took six years of fighting under the leadership of José de San Martín, an Argentine general, before Argentina achieved full independence. On July 9, 1816, Argentina’s first Congress issued the nation’s declaration of independence at Tucumán.
The first years of independence in Argentina were marked by feuds among caudillos— charismatic populist leaders of local militias. One of these, Juan Manuel de Rosas, gained control of Buenos Aires in 1829 and proceeded to unite the country through brute force, killing his opponents and enforcing his rule with violence. During the twenty-three years of Rosas’s rule, Argentina’s economy boomed and many immigrants moved there. By the early 1900s, it was the richest country in South America; between the 1850s and the 1930s, some three and a half million immigrants arrived in Argentina, the majority of them Italian and Spanish. Also during this period, Argentina waged wars of expansion against the indigenous peoples who inhabited Patagonia; many immigrants subsequently settled there.
Between World War I and World War II, however, Argentina’s economic and social stability crumbled. Wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few, while the majority of Argentineans were poverty stricken. Popular unrest led to a military coup in May 1943, in part led by the colonel Juan Domingo Perón. Married to radio actor Eva (“Evita”) Duarte in 1945, Perón became ahero to the working classes and was elected president the following year. Although Perón and his wife were well loved by the poor for their support of economic reforms, he was widely criticized as a dictator, as well as for sheltering Nazi war criminals after World War II. During his second term in the early 1950s, Argentina faced an economic crisis, and when Perón outlawed political parties other than his own and openly criticized the Catholic Church (a powerful political force in the country), other military officers forced him to resign in 1955. After living in exile in Europe, Perón returned to a politically unstable Argentina and was reelected president in 1973. His second wife, Isabel Perón, was elected vice president; when he died in 1974, she succeeded him as president. Her government lasted barely two years, as the military seized power again in 1976.
The period of military rule in Argentina (1976–1983) was a dark one. A Dirty War was waged against political opponents of the regime, so called because more than 30,000 Argentineans disappeared, secretly arrested and executed by the government. The 1982 Falklands (Malvinas) War with the United Kingdom, which Argentina lost, undermined the regime and paved the way for a return to democracy in October 1983. Argentina’s subsequent social and economic recovery was interrupted by an economic crisis in 2001–2002, when the peso experienced a precipitous decline in value.
Today, Argentina has a diverse economy and exports cooking oils, fuel, cereals, feed, and motor vehicles. Its population is well educated in comparison with those of other South American nations. Although it continues to face considerable economic problems, its participation in the Mercosur regional trade agreement has helped stabilize Argentina’s economy.
5- Read this biography. Who are we talking about?
.......................................... was born May 7, 1919, in Los Toldos, Argentina. She moved to Buenos Aires in the 1930s and had some success as a performer. In 1945 she married Juan Perón, who became president of Argentina the following year. ...................... used her position as first lady to fight for women's suffrage and improving the lives of the poor, and became a legendary figure in Argentine politics.
Actor, politician, former first lady of Argentina grew up in small towns with little money. She moved to Buenos Aires in 1930s and had some success as a performer.
Her life changed dramatically when she married Juan Perón, a colonel and government official, in 1945. He became president of Argentina the following year and she was a powerful political influence on him. She used her position as first lady to fight for causes she believed in, such as women's suffrage and improving the lives of the poor. She also ran the ministries of health and labor in her husband's government.
................................. became a legendary figure in Argentine politics. A skilled speaker, she was adored by the poor she worked hard to help, but she was not without critics and detractors. She tried to run for vice president with her husband in 1951, but she was opposed by the army. She died of cancer in Buenos Aires on July 26, 1952. Since her death, her life continues to fascinate people around the world and was the basis for the successful musical Evita (1979).
6- Choose one of the people mentioned above and write his/her biography
Final task
Prepare a Slide show with Argentina’s history stages with a brief description of the photographs
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