(Redirected from Province of Buenos Aires)
'Buenos Aires Province' (,
Spanish: Provincia de Buenos Aires) is the wealthiest and most populated
province of
Argentina. The city of
Buenos Aires, located next to provincial territory, is an autonomous city and not part of the province. The province has a population of 13,827,203 (2001) and its capital is
La Plata (850,000 inhabitants), 50
kilometers south of the city of
Buenos Aires.
History
The aboriginals that inhabited the provinces before the arrival of the
Spanish colonisation were the
Pampas Indians and other subgroups such as the
Querandíes, but their culture has be lost for they have been almost exterminated, and the few survivors joined other tribes.
Pedro de Mendoza founded ''
Santa María del Buen Ayre'', and even though the first contact with the aboriginals was peaceful, it soon became hostile. The city was evacuated in
1541.
Juan de Garay re-founded it in
1580 as ''Santísima Trinidad y Puerto Santa María de los Buenos Aires''.
Always among fights with the aboriginals, the cattle farms extended from Buenos Aires, whose port was always the centre of the economy of the territory. At the end of the 18th century, with the creation of the
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, the exportation of meat, leather and derivatives thought the port of Buenos Aires was the base of the economical development of the region.
Jesuits unsuccessfully tried to peacefully assimilate the aboriginals into the
European culture brought by the
Spanish conquistadores. A certain balance was found at the end of the 18th century, when the
Salado River became the limit between both civilizations, even though the frequent ''
malones'' aboriginal attacks to border settlements. The end to such situation came as late as 1879 with the
Conquest of the Desert (''Conquista del Desierto'') in which the aboriginals where almost completely exterminated.
After the independence from
Spain in
1816, Buenos Aires Province and the Buenos Aires city were in constant confrontation with the other provinces because of the federal system that was managed at Buenos Aires. This period of internal instability lasted for decades.
La Plata was founded in
1882 with the purpose of becoming the province's capital. By that time, the province had around half a million inhabitants.
Geography
The Buenos Aires province has an area of 307,571
km² and its neighbouring provinces clockwise from the southwest are
Rio Negro,
La Pampa,
Córdoba,
Santa Fe and
Entre Rios. To the east is the
Atlantic Ocean. It is also the largest
province of Argentina.
The landscape is mainly flat, with two low mountain ranges; ''Sierra de la Ventana'' (near
Bahía Blanca) and ''Sierra de Tandil'' (
Tandil). The highest point is ''Cerro Tres Picos'' (1.239
m amsl; 38° 8' S, 61° 58' W) and the longest river is ''
Río Salado'' (700
km).
As part of
The Pampas the weather of the province is strongly influenced by the ocean, with hot summers and temperate winters. Humidity is high and precipitations are abundant and distributed over the year. The Western and Southwestern regions are dryer.
Climate
The weather of the Buenos Aires Province is temperate with average temperatures between 13 and 17
°C. At the coast, the wind from sea cools down the nights during the summer and keeps a high humidity during the winters.
Precipitations vary from 500
mm to 1,000 mm per year on the coast, and due to the flatness of the terrain can produce
flooding.
The geography of the province is crossed by occasional west
Pampero winds. The southern ''
Sudestada'' produces storms and temperature drops, most notably the ''Santa Rosa'' storm
[1], which takes place every year almost exactly on
August 30.
Economy
Even though cattle is historically the main animal husbandry activity, Buenos Aires is also the top producer of
sheep,
pork, and
chicken meat of the country. Equally important is the
Dairy industry.
Another activity of the province that in the last decades has become even more important than cattle is agriculture. The most important crops include
soybean,
maize,
wheat,
sunflower. These are also grown as
Oilseeds.
The industry of the province is diverse. Chemical, metallurgic, auto-mechanics, textile and food industry are the most notable, and signify the 50% of the country's industrial production.
Tourism
Tourists, mainly from Buenos Aires, visit the
Atlantic coast.
There are many cities and town along the coast line that starts some 250 kilometres from Buenos Aires after the
Samborombón Bay.
Among them, the biggest and most important is
Mar del Plata, followed by Pinamar, Villa Gesell, Miramar and
Necochea.
Other destinations include the Sierras of
Tandil,
Tigre and the many islands of the
Río de la Plata delta, the
Martín García Island, the
Chascomús Lagoon, and the
La Plata city.
Lately
agritourism in ''estancias'' ranches has become somewhat popular for foreigners visiting the province.
Political division

Political division of the province and its capital La Plata (red dot)
The province is divided in 134 administrative sections called ''"partidos"'' (administrative centres in brackets).
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Adolfo Alsina (
Carhué)
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Adolfo Gonzales Chaves (
Adolfo Gonzales Chaves)
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Alberti (
Alberti)
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Almirante Brown (
Adrogué)
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Arrecifes (
Arrecifes)
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Avellaneda (
Avellaneda)
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Ayacucho (
Ayacucho)
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Azul (
Azul)
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Bahía Blanca (
Bahía Blanca)
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Balcarce (
Balcarce)
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Baradero (
Baradero)
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Benito Juárez (
Benito Juárez)
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Berazategui (
Berazategui)
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Berisso (
Berisso)
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Bolívar (
San Carlos de Bolívar)
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Bragado (
Bragado)
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Brandsen (
Coronel Brandsen)
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Campana (
Campana)
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Cañuelas (
Cañuelas)
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Capitán Sarmiento (
Capitán Sarmiento)
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Carlos Casares (
Carlos Casares)
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Carlos Tejedor (
Carlos Tejedor)
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Carmen de Areco (
Carmen de Areco)
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Castelli (
Castelli)
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Chacabuco (
Chacabuco, Buenos Aires)
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Chascomús (
Chascomús)
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Chivilcoy (
Chivilcoy)
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Colón (
Colón)
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Coronel Dorrego (
Coronel Dorrego)
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Coronel Pringles (
Coronel Pringles)
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Coronel Rosales (
Punta Alta)
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Coronel Suárez (
Coronel Suárez)
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Daireaux (
Daireaux)
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Dolores (
Dolores)
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Ensenada (
Ensenada)
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Escobar (
Belén de Escobar)
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Esteban Echeverría (
Monte Grande)
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Exaltación de la Cruz (
Capilla del Señor)
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Ezeiza (
Ezeiza)
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Florencio Varela (
Florencio Varela)
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Florentino Ameghino (
Florentino Ameghino)
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General Alvarado (
Miramar)
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General Alvear (
General Alvear)
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General Arenales (
General Arenales)
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General Belgrano (
General Belgrano)
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General Guido (
General Guido)
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General La Madrid (
General La Madrid)
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General Las Heras (
General Las Heras)
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General Lavalle (
General Lavalle)
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General Madariaga (
General Juan Madariaga)
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General Paz (
Ranchos)
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General Pinto (
General Pinto)
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General Pueyrredón (
Mar del Plata)
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General Rodríguez (
General Rodríguez)
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General San Martín (
General San Martín)
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General Viamonte (
General Viamonte)
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General Villegas (
General Villegas)
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Guaminí (
Guaminí)
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Hipólito Yrigoyen (
Henderson)
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Hurlingham (
Hurlingham)
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Ituzaingo (
Ituzaingo)
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José C. Paz (
José C. Paz)
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Junín (
Junín)
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La Costa (
Mar del Tuyú)
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La Matanza (
San Justo)
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La Plata (
La Plata)
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Lanús (
Lanús)
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Laprida (
Laprida)
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Las Flores (
Las Flores)
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Leandro N. Alem (
Vedia)
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Lincoln (
Lincoln)
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Lobería (
Lobería)
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Lobos (
Lobos)
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Lomas de Zamora (
Lomas de Zamora)
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Luján (
Luján)
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Magdalena (
Magdalena)
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Maipú (
Maipú)
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Malvinas Argentinas (
Los Polvorines)
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Mar Chiquita (
Coronel Vidal)
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Marcos Paz (
Marcos Paz)
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Mercedes (
Mercedes)
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Merlo (
Merlo)
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Monte Hermoso (
Monte Hermoso)
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Moreno (
Moreno)
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Morón (
Morón)
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Navarro (
Navarro)
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Necochea (
Necochea)
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Nueve de Julio (
Nueve de Julio)
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Olavarría (
Olavarría)
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Patagones (
Carmen de Patagones)
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Pehuajó (
Pehuajó)
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Pellegrini (
Pellegrini)
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Pergamino (
Pergamino)
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Pila (
Pila)
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Pilar (
Pilar)
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Pinamar (
Pinamar)
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Presidente Perón (
Guernica)
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Puán (
Puán)
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Punta Indio (
Verónica)
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Quilmes (
Quilmes)
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Ramallo (
Ramallo)
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Rauch (
Rauch)
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Rivadavia (
América)
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Rojas (
Rojas)
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Roque Pérez (
Roque Pérez)
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Saavedra (
Pigüé)
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Saladillo (
Saladillo)
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Salto (
Salto)
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Salliqueló (
Salliqueló)
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San Andrés de Giles (
San Andrés de Giles)
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San Antonio de Areco (
San Antonio de Areco)
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San Cayetano (
San Cayetano)
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San Fernando (
San Fernando)
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San Isidro (
San Isidro)
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San Miguel (
San Miguel)
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San Miguel del Monte (
San Miguel del Monte)
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San Nicolás (
San Nicolás de los Arroyos)
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San Pedro (
San Pedro)
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San Vicente (
San Vicente)
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Suipacha (
Suipacha)
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Tandil (
Tandil)
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Tapalqué (
Tapalqué)
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Tigre (
Tigre)
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Tordillo (
General Conesa)
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Tornquist (
Tornquist)
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Trenque Lauquen (
Trenque Lauquen)
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Tres Arroyos (
Tres Arroyos)
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Tres de Febrero (
Caseros)
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Tres Lomas (
Tres Lomas)
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Veinticinco de Mayo (
Veinticinco de Mayo)
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Vicente López (
Olivos)
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Villa Gesell (
Villa Gesell)
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Villarino (
Médanos)
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Zárate (
Zárate)
See also
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Buenos Aires (city)
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Police of the Buenos Aires Province
External links
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Official website
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Short History of the partidos
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Secretary of Interior of the Province
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Buenos Aires Province Pictures
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Brief history of the Buenos Aires partidos
News WebPage
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InfoBAN Buenos Aires News