Southern Cone Under the British



Regions and Provinces of Argentina

 

 

     
     The Argentina of Auchmuty-Whitelocke World (AWW) can be divided into four distinct regions based on provincial boundaries: the Pampas, the Northeast, the West, and Patagonia.  The Pampas consist of the provinces of Plate Province, New Lancashire, South Mesopotamia, and Pampa Province, plus the Capital District where Wilsonton (the national capital) is located.  (In our world, they respectively correspond to Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Entre Rios, and La Pampa provinces, plus the Capital District of Buenos Aires.)  The Northeast is made up of Missions, North Mesopotamia, Pilcomayo, and Chaco provinces (in our world, respectively corresponding to Misiones, Corrientes, Formosa, and Chaco provinces), though in many classifications, New Lancashire and South Mesopotamia are also included. 

 

     In the West, there are the provinces of Cuyo (Mendoza, San Juan, and San Luis provinces in this world), Cordova (Cordoba and La Rioja provinces in this world), Tucuman (Tucuman, Catamarca, and Santiago del Estero provinces in this world), and Salta (Salta and Jujuy provinces in this world).  Finally, Patagonia is composed of the provinces of Neuken, Black River, Chubut, and Santa Cruz, plus the territory of Fireland, Antarctica, and the South Atlantic Islands.  (In our world, they respectively correspond to Neuquen, Rio Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz, and Tierra del Fuego provinces.)


Pampas


     Argentina’s most important region economically and demographically is the Pampas.  (Note that the regional definition presented here is not exactly consistent with the physical and ecological region of the Pampas, which covers an even wider area.)  Especially along the Rivers Plate and Parana, the Pampas are considered Argentina’s cultural heartland, what with many of the country’s largest cities (including Buenos Aires, the single-largest one by far) and the capital being located there.  They have been home to most of Argentina’s immigrants since the 19th century, and are the most agriculturally productive areas of the country.  It was the first region in Argentina to be settled by the British since they took a hold on the former Rio de la Plata viceroyalty.  Largely inhabited by English-speakers, it nonetheless has an important hispanoparlant minority.  Besides Buenos Aires and Wilsonton, important cities include Rosario, Santa Fe, Parana, Plate City, Platesea, and White Bay.  The cities in the Pampas are home to much of the country’s industry. 


     The Pampas can be divided into the Humid Pampas (home to much agriculture, with some of the world’s richest topsoil) and the Dry Pampas, the former being further east than the latter.  The flatness of the Pampas is broken by the Tandil and Ventana Ranges, in southern Plate Province.  In the countryside, or “the camp” as the angloparlant locals like to say, the mainstays are wheat and beef.  Indeed, those two are the main products in Plate and Pampa Provinces.  In New Lancashire and South Mesopotamia, though, these are supplemented by corn and flax, along with oranges around Concord in South Mesopotamia.  New Kent, the northern part of New Lancashire, has much more in common with the Northeast than with the Pampas, though; conditions are more reminiscent of the Chaco found in Chaco and Pilcomayo provinces. 

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The Northeast


     Argentina’s most subtropical region is the Northeast, just north of the Pampas.  Also known as the Littoral, the Northeast can include the Pampean provinces of New Lancashire and South Mesopotamia also.  Without the last two provinces, it can be divided into two main areas – the Chaco and northern Mesopotamia – on either side of the Parana River.  The provinces of Chaco and Pilcomayo (as well as the New Kent region of New Lancashire) are located in the Chaco, which is semi-arid thorny grassland in the west and open woodland and marshland in the east; the provinces of North Mesopotamia and Missions are east of the Parana in northern Mesopotamia (Mesopotamia = between the Parana and Uruguay Rivers), with subtropical rain forests.  The population is about half angloparlant and half hispanoparlant.  In the Northeast, the leading cities include Formosa, Rennie, Corrientes, Lodge, and Chapecó.

 

     One of the leading crops in the Chaco is the quebracho tree, from which one can tan leather; in northern Mesopotamia, it is yerba maté, which is the tea of choice in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, along with various subtropical fruits.  Cattle ranching is another important agricultural activity, especially in cleared areas.  The rain forests in the far Northeast are being lost at a rapid rate due to logging.  The eastern half of Missions province is characterized by a sandstone and basalt plateau which rises from the lowlands and results in rough terrain and fast-flowing rivers; the Iguazu Falls on the border with Brazil and Paraguay is an example of this, with many separate cataracts (the most famous of which is Devil’s Throat), higher than Niagara Falls.  

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The West


     The most traditional and hispanoparlant region in Argentina is the West – the part of the country that is west of the Pampas and Northeast, and north of Patagonia.  This can be further subdivided into two areas – the Midwest (Cordova and Cuyo provinces) and the Northwest (Tucuman and Salta provinces).  The West was the part of Argentina that the Spanish first settled in significant numbers; it was the most important part of what is now Argentina before the Pampas took over in the late 1700s.  Spanish is the mother tongue of 71.5% of the people in the West.  There has been a significant separatist movement in the West for the past few decades, either for an independent federation (in the West alone or with all the other Spanish-speaking areas of Argentina) or to unite with Chile or Bolivia.

 

     Argentina’s Midwest is probably the most important area of the country outside the Pampas.  Most of it is outside of the Pampas, being virtual desert, thanks to the rain shadow of the Andes.  A significant portion of Cordova province, however, is technically part of the Pampas, in terms of the climate, the crops, and a greater angloparlant presence than anywhere else in the West, especially east and southeast of Cordova City.  In Cuyo province and in the northwesternmost part of Cordova province, the Andes rise dramatically into a single lofty sierra, with many peaks over 6000 metres above sea level.  In fact, the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere, Aconcagua, rises to 6980 metres just west of Mendoza.  Lesser ranges in the Midwest include the Cordova Sierras, just west of Cordova City, and the San Luis Sierra in eastern Cuyo province. 


     Wheat and corn, and cattle ranching, are important activities throughout the region, but in Cuyo, winemaking is tremendously important, thanks to the arid climate, endless sunshine, and generous irrigation.  Also in Cuyo, mineral activity like with copper, lead, uranium, and oil is substantial.  Much of the population in the Midwest consists of Spanish-speaking whites, with some mestizos, English-speaking whites, and others.  The most significant cities in the Midwest are Cordova and Mendoza, followed by San Juan, San Luis, La Rioja, and Rio Cuarto.

 

     The Northwest is quite diverse topographically and climatically, though less so in terms of the people.  Largely plateau, the Northwest can nonetheless be divided into three main sections: quebradas, yungas, and the puna.  In the central section, the quebradas, there are cacti and other desert vegetation, deep canyons, and wide valleys with painted hillsides.  The yungas are subtropical mountain rainforests interspersed with fields of sugar cane and other warm-weather crops, along with cattle-ranching.  Finally, the puna is a high-altitude desert plateau near the borders with Chile and Bolivia along the Andes where the populace, mainly mestizo, farms llamas, goats, and sheep.  This geographical setup spills over into Bolivia and Peru to the north. 

 

     The main cities in the Northwest are Tucuman City (considered the Garden of the Republic, with fields of sugar-cane, vegetables, and other produce around the city in a perpetually mild climate), Salta City, San Salvador de Jujuy, San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, and Santiago del Estero.  The Inca Empire extended south to the Northwest at one point before the Spanish conquistadors invaded Peru in the 1520s.  The vast majority of people in the Northwest speak Spanish and are of white or mestizo descent; it also has the largest population of Aboriginal people in Argentina.  

     The Northwest (along with Mendoza in Cuyo, and the Northeast) is also home to many retirees/"snowbirds" (moving seasonally between their hometowns and a winter warm-weather locale) from further south in Argentina along with Uruguay.  They are attracted by the sunny and dry climate.  That region, the Northeast, and Cuyo, along with northern Chile to a lesser extent, is second only to Brazil in attracting such people from Argentina/Uruguay in general.


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Patagonia


     Patagonia is the southernmost and emptiest region in Argentina; it is shared with Chile, though the two sides are quite different.  It extends from the Red River (or the Black River) all the way down to the island of Fireland (along with the Falklands, South Georgia Islands, South Sandwich Islands, other South Atlantic islands, and the Argentine share of Antarctica), and has captured the popular imagination around the world.  Argentine Patagonia, which covers more than 800,000 square kilometres (308,000 square miles), occupies one-third of the country, and can be divided physiographically into the coast, the plateau, and the Andes.  The climate is cool but, for its latitudes, relatively mild; it is quite windy over there, so it can feel quite cold there, even in the summer. 

 

     Sheep and cattle herding are quite big there, but so are oil exploration (especially in Chubut and Santa Cruz) and tourism (with ski resorts in the Andes and Fireland, and lots of adventure tourism).  Patagonians are mostly white and English-speaking, including the large Welsh colony in Chubut; the small hispanoparlant population there is mostly Mapuche Indian and/or Chilean-born, most of whom work as peones, or sheep hands, for the angloparlant farmers.  In fact, Patagonia is the most angloparlant region of Argentina by percentage – the further south, the higher the angloparlant proportion.  The principal cities there are Neuken, Raglan, Bariloche, Trelew, Rawson, Port Madryn, Rivers, and Gallegos River.

 

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         Argentine Provinces


province

population (2001)

area (km.²)

area (miles²)

capital

Black River

552,822

203,013

78,384

Raglan

Chaco

1,014,446

99,633

38,469

Rennie

Chubut

413,237

224,686

86,752

Rawson

City of Wilsonton

351,842

107

41

Wilsonton

Cordova

3,806,784

255,001

98,457

Cordova City

Cuyo

2,917,607

315,226

121,709

Mendoza

Fireland (territory)

103,987

37,810*

14,599*

Ushwaya

Missions

1,905,522

59,602

23,012

Lodge

Neuken

474,155

94,078

36,324

Neuken

New Lancashire

3,448,859

132,900

51,313

Santa Fe

North Mesopotamia

950,991

88,199

34,054

Corrientes

Pampa

299,294

143,440

55,382

Mason

Pilcomayo

486,559

72,066

27,825

Formosa

Plate

12,653,341

307,774

118,832

Buenos Aires

Salta

1,940,939

208,707

80,582

Salta City

Santa Cruz

196,958

243,943

94,187

Gallegos River

South Mesopotamia

1,458,147

78,781

30,418

Parana

Tucuman

2,827,548

261,477

100,957

Tucuman City

 
* Not including the Argentine claim in Antarctica.

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        The Foreign Born by Province 


province

population (2001)

proportion of FBs in population

# of FBs

Black River

552,822

8.76%

48,578

Chaco

1,014,446

3.20%

32,462

Chubut

413,237

6.64%

27,535

City of Wilsonton

351,842

18.21%

64,070

Cordova

3,806,784

9.96%