Home to the tango, which was born in the bars of La Boca, to soccer champion Maradona and the national obsession with El Futbol, to both the revolutionary Che Guevara and the legendary Eva Peron, Argentina is a fascinating culture. The country often seems to express a tortured sense of inferiority in its insistence on being more European than Europe itself, a state of mind particularly evident in the capital of Buenos Aires, with its Harrods department store and glittering art deco opera house, where Placido Domingo and Pavarotti often sing.

Argentinas contradictions stem from its history. Its name pays quixotic tribute to the silver that Spanish explorers hoped to find here upon arriving in 1516. The usual pattern of conquest and plunder was repeated in the country, as Spanish conquistadores were succeeded by Spanish settlers--but all were intent on exterminating the indigenous peoples.

The arrival of the Jesuits stemmed the slaughter, as the priests established missions whose paternalistic goals were to teach utopian ideals of work, education and religion to the tribes. In this effort, the Jesuits collided head on with the landowners, who were anxious to clear Argentina of both tribes and missionaries in order to establishbigger and bigger estancias, their private estates.

In the 19th century, Argentina experienced a major boom as the worldwide demand for Argentine meat and wheat fuelled economic prosperity. The native tribes were exterminated wholesale so that cattle could roam unchallenged on the vast plains of the pampas, guarded only by the gauchos (cowboys) whose free-ranging lifestyle passed into legend.

For Europe, Argentina was a promised land, and thousands of immigrants arrived, mostly from Spain and Italy, but also from Wales, Germany, and Ireland. As a result, Argentinas population is primarily European in descent, an unusual circumstance in South America.

The countrys political structure was closely linked to its economy, with large-scale grazing and farming concerns dominating the distribution of power. As Argentinas economy oscillated between boom and bust, fluctuating according to the worldwide clamor for cheap food, political stability became more important than the development of a functioning democracy.