Ill 
ARGENTINE 
Juan Diaz de Solis in 1508 discovered the 
Rio de la Plata, otherwise known as the River 
Plate, while searching for a southerly pas 
sage to the Pacific Ocean. In 1525 Sebastian 
Cabot entered the river and gave it the name 
it now bears, at the same time erecting a fort 
near its mouth. A wealthy Spaniard, Pedro 
de Mendoza, in 1536, in exchange for certain 
landed rights and governmental privileges, 
established what is now the present city of 
Buenos Aires. 
It is unnecessary for the purposes of this 
book to do more than state briefly that the con 
ditions imposed by Spain on all its colonies 
were outrageously unjust and caused much dis 
sension. Efforts to progress were throttled 
and the friction between the mother country 
developed until the conquest of Spain by Na- 
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