When is Argentina shown on the map?

The border data draws Argentina 1930–2024. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.

How large was Argentina?

At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Argentina covered about 2.7 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

South America · The modern republics

Argentina

drawn on the map 1930–2024

See it on the map → Wikipedia ↗

Shown on the map: 1930–2024
Peak area: 2.7M km²
Region: South America

Overview

Modern Argentina has been shaped above all by Peronism. Juan Domingo Perón (1895–1974), an army officer, was elected president in 1946, building a movement (Justicialism) based on labor rights, industrialization, nationalism, and state intervention, with his charismatic wife Eva Perón ("Evita") as an icon of the working classes until her death in 1952. Perón was overthrown by a military coup in 1955 and exiled, but Peronism remained the dominant force in Argentine politics. He returned and was elected president again in 1973, dying in office on 1 July 1974; he was succeeded by his third wife and vice president, Isabel Perón — the world's first woman president — whose chaotic tenure ended in a coup.

History

The military coup of 24 March 1976 installed the "National Reorganization Process," a brutal dictatorship under a junta first led by General Jorge Rafael Videla (with Admiral Emilio Massera and Brigadier Orlando Agosti). The regime waged the "Dirty War" (Guerra Sucia), a campaign of state terror against suspected leftists that "disappeared" thousands. The number is genuinely contested: human-rights groups cite the symbolic figure of 30,000 desaparecidos, while the official CONADEP report (Nunca Más, 1984) documented 8,961 verified cases as a deliberately conservative minimum; scholarly estimates range from about 10,000 to 30,000 killed.

Later history and present status

Facing economic collapse, the junta under General Leopoldo Galtieri invaded the British-held Falkland Islands (Malvinas) on 2 April 1982. The resulting Falklands War (2 April – 14 June 1982) ended in a decisive British victory, with roughly 649 Argentine military, 255 British military, and 3 Falkland Islander deaths. The humiliating defeat discredited the military and precipitated the return to democracy under Raúl Alfonsín, inaugurated on 10 December 1983, who oversaw the landmark 1985 Trial of the Juntas (Videla and Massera received life imprisonment). Later presidents included Carlos Menem (1989–1999, market liberalization), Néstor and Cristina Kirchner (2003–2015, left-Peronism), Mauricio Macri (2015–2019, center-right), and Alberto Fernández (2019–2023). The current president is the libertarian economist Javier Milei (La Libertad Avanza), inaugurated on 10 December 2023, who has pursued radical fiscal austerity ("the chainsaw") and deregulation; by early 2026 his government reported Argentina's first fiscal surplus in over a decade and a steep fall in inflation (from a peak near 300% in 2024), though at significant social cost, and his coalition won the October 2025 midterms decisively. [FLAG: 2025–2026 economic figures are recent and partly government-stated (some drawn from Milei's own Davos 2026 address); independent bodies confirm the broad disinflation and surplus but note persistent vulnerabilities.]

Common questions

What was Argentina?: Modern Argentina has been shaped above all by Peronism. Juan Domingo Perón (1895–1974), an army officer, was elected president in 1946, building a movement (Justicialism) based on labor rights, industrialization, nationalism, and state intervention, with his charismatic wife Eva Perón ("Evita") as an icon of the working classes until her death in 1952.
When is Argentina shown on the map?: The border data draws Argentina 1930–2024. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
How large was Argentina?: At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Argentina covered about 2.7 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Who ruled Argentina?: The military coup of 24 March 1976 installed the "National Reorganization Process," a brutal dictatorship under a junta first led by General Jorge Rafael Videla (with Admiral Emilio Massera and Brigadier Orlando Agosti). The regime waged the "Dirty War" (Guerra Sucia), a campaign of state terror against suspected leftists that "disappeared" thousands.
What is the present status of Argentina?: Facing economic collapse, the junta under General Leopoldo Galtieri invaded the British-held Falkland Islands (Malvinas) on 2 April 1982. The resulting Falklands War (2 April – 14 June 1982) ended in a decisive British victory, with roughly 649 Argentine military, 255 British military, and 3 Falkland Islander deaths.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. It names English Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica and the World History Encyclopedia as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by academic and museum sources and, for recent events, by reputable news outlets. The article this entry is anchored on:

Wikipedia — Argentina en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina

This entry was last updated 12 September 2026.

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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