JAMES BENNETT – GEOGRAPHY HUMANITIES ASSIGNMENT
ARGENTINA
4 - Political factors
a) Argentina was colonised by the Spanish for three hundred years. They declared independence in 1816. b) In the 1970’s it was a military government or a dictatorship but became a democracy in 1982. c) Recent wars were the Falklands War in 1982 when the military dictatorship of Argentina decided it would fight the British over ownership of the Falklands Islands. They were defeated by the British and this led to the dictatorship being destroyed and the Democracy winning. Argentina is still a democracy. This military rule started in the 1970s and a lot of Argentinian people went missing or were murdered. 1 (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/33657/Argentina - Encyclopedia Britannica)
Economic Factors
a) Argentina did borrow a lot of money from the World Bank and several other organisations. In 2003 they owed $800 million to the world bank and others. They defaulted on this loan (didn’t pay it) but the International Monetary Fund organised a new loan. They still owe a lot of institutions in the US especially money like Elliott Associates and Aurelius Capital and are in debt to about $141 million US dollars. They have paid off some of their loans but still owe money.

b) Argentina produces more grain than any other country in the latin America and is second in cattle. They exported corn, wheat, flax & meat in the early 20th century but had a depression in the 1930s and this became less. These are a legacy of colonisation when the Spanish bought horses and cattle to the country.

Figure 2: 2000 Exports Source: http://www.invertir.com/argentina/c02-23.html

c) The balance of trade is $280 billion US dollars in January 2013.

Social Factors
a) Argentina was one of the worlds richest country in the 1990s but had huge depression and in 2001 it was in really bad shape and was in an economic, social and political crisis. Over 60% of Argentine people were living below the poverty line. 2 (Argentina Economy 2013 http://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/argentina/argentina_economy.html
SOURCE: 2013 CIA WORLD FACTBOOK AND OTHER SOURCES)
Argentina has a literacy rate of 97.1% and 118% of GDP school children attend primary school. (Fundacion Invertir Argentina 2002; CIA 2004). But the poor people in Argentina have less employment and less chance to finish high school with about 24% of people who have higher education being from poor families. Primary education is good because the government support this for poor people but they need to try and get more kids to finish high school which means they