I have found that to get the best out of the great historical city of Buenos Aires it is helpful to understand the history of Argentina. In my experience, it is history that moulds a people and their culture, more so Buenos Aires than any other city I have visited over the last 20 years.

The summary you read at Buenos Aires Stay offers just a glimpse of the important historical milestones from the XVI century to recent times. You understand from this summary that Buenos Aires for much of the time since the XVI century is Argentina:

• Amerigo Vespucci may have visited the region now called Argentina in 1502. He discovered that the Atlantic coast of this landmass went further south than ever imagined; his accounts lead too much controversy, as seafarers of the period crossing the south Atlantic thought they would reach Asia (the Indies).
  
  
• Christopher Columbus had found great fame for his discovery and it has often been cited that the Spanish throne looking to protect its interests in the region may have suppressed Vespucci's ship's log and his personal diaries before their full publication.
  
  
• Vespucci never went to sea again and the new and very grand title of Chief Navigator of Spain was bestowed upon him.
  
  
• In 1507 Martin Waldseemüller produced an incredible work of the time, Universalis Cosmograpiae, a world map on which he named a new continent 'America,' a homophone of Amerigo Vespucci's first name. A book published as reference to the map was said by the Spanish Court to hold 'dubious information'.
  
  
• Even if Waldseemüller had failed to publish contemporaneous logs and diaries, his work would prove all too accurate, even by modern standards. It is telling that the title America did not appear in a later work.
  
  
• Juan Díaz de Solís, an accomplished Portuguese seafarer and traitor to his Country fled to Spain before his treachery was uncovered by British Agents in Lisbon in 1504. On the death of Vespucci he became Pilot Major in the Spanish navy and planned a major expedition to the area south of the Indies.
  
  
• In 1515, Juan Diaz de Solis sailed straight for the east coast of South America and navigated directly to its largest and most important estuary, arriving at the Rio del la Plata in 1516 and originally naming it Mar Dulce or Sweet Sea.
  
  
• It was said that his expeditionary force perished after an attack by local tribes, some accounts suggest the men were eaten alive. More likely, this traitor, who may have stolen Vespucci's thunder, was killed by mutiny or maybe to order.
  
  
• The Mar Dulce (the modern Río de la Plata) was not explored again until Magellan arrived in 1520, followed by Sebastian Cabot in 1526.
  
  
• Sebastian Cabot discovered the Paraná and Paraguay rivers and established the fort of Sancti Spíritus (the first Spanish settlement in the Rio del la Plata basin). He also sent home reports of the presence of gold and silver.
  
  
• In 1528 Cabot met another expedition from Spain under Diego García, commander of a ship from the earlier Solís expedition. Both Cabot and García had planned to sail for the Moluccas but altered their courses, influenced by excited tales of the Enchanted City of the Caesars (a variant of the Eldorado legend), which later incited many explorations and conquests in Argentina. While Cabot was preparing to search for the fabled city, a surprise attack by the Indians in September 1529 wiped out the Sancti Spíritus settlement.
  
  
• Inspired by the conquest of Peru and the threat from Portugal's growing power in Brazil, Spain in 1535 sent an expedition under Pedro de Mendoza (equipped at his own expense) to force a permanent settlement on the tribes of Mar Dulce.
  
  
• Pedro de Mendoza founded a small settlement on the site that is now modern day San Telmo in 1536, first called Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre,which literally means City of Our Lady Saint Mary of the Fair Winds, the proper title of Buenos Aires. San Telmo would later be a great and historical barrio (district) in modern Buenos Aires. A monument to the 1536 settlement is found there today.
  
  
• The settlement was attacked by unified local tribes and burnt to the ground. The expedition was only saved when Mendoza’s brother Gonzalez came to the rescue. Mendoza returned home in 1537, and like his predecessor, died before reaching Spain.
  
  
• In 1537, a party from Buenos Aires under Juan de Ayolas and Domingo Martínez de Irala, both lieutenants of Mendoza, pushed a thousand miles up the Rio del la Plata and Paraguay rivers. Ayolas was lost on an exploring expedition, but Domingo Martinez de IralaIa founded Asunción (now capital of Paraguay).
  
  
• In 1541, the few remaining inhabitants of Buenos Aires abandoned it and moved to Asunción, which was the first permanent settlement in the Rio del la Plata basin.
  
  
• In the next half century Asunción played a major part in both the conquest and settlement of Argentina.
  
  
• Buenos Aires was re-settled in 1580 by Juan de Garay with settlers from Asunción. Juan de Garay forced the first permanent settlement on the Southern shore of Rio Del La Plata.
  
  
• Northern Argentina as well as Buenos Aires was settled mainly by an overflow from the neighbouring Spanish colonies of Chile, Peru, and Paraguay (Asunción).
  
  
• Initially, there was little direct migration from Spain, probably because of the threat from local tribes and the success of Mexico, Peru, and other Spanish colonies, whose rich mines, large supply of Indian labour, accessibility, and the privilege of direct trade with Spain made them more attractive.
  
  
• Tucumán and Córdoba where dominant regions and early intellectual and economic power bases in Argentina during both the late XVI and XVII centuries. They prospered as the main source of agricultural production for Upper Peru’s (Bolivia) mineworkers and traded for silver and goods from the old-world. These regions would find great wealth and establish local government and the oldest surviving ecclesiastical schools and universities in Argentina.
  
  
• Tucumán, Córdoba and the fledgling Buenos Aires would form part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, an office set up in 1542 to administrate Spanish America, which made Lima the most important city in South America.
  
  
• The natural port of the Río de la Plata was not allowed to trade, with communication and commerce embargoed in favour of the port of Lima so Spain could control trade, taxes and the distribution of resource.
  
  
• This stifled the growth of Buenos Aires for many years making the early Porteños (people of the port of Buenos Aires) angry and poor. Buenos Aires port first based in La Boca fast became a centre for contraband, piracy and much discontent aimed at the Spanish crown. La Boca is today a centre for tourism and is the city's bohemia.

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