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Mar del Plata

City in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina

  • 18 min read
  • 12 chapters
The Monk's Tower, another iconic building.
Planmdq · CC BY-SA 4.0

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History

Pre-Spanish era: The region was inhabited by Günuna Kena nomads (also known as northern Tehuelche). After the 11th century they were strongly influenced by the Mapuche culture.

1577–1857: First European explorers. Sir Francis Drake made a reconnaissance of the coast and its sea lion colonies; Don Juan de Garay explored the area by land a few years later, in 1581. The Tehuelche were largely untouched by Spanish colonization because they were distant from major areas of settlement.

In 1742, during the War of Jenkins' Ear, eight survivors of HMS Wager, part of Admiral Anson expedition and led by midshipman Isaac Morris, lived through a ten-month ordeal before being captured by the Tehuelche. The indigenous people eventually passed the captives on to the Spaniards. After holding the Englishmen as prisoners, the Spanish returned Morris and his surviving companions to London in 1746. The first colonization attempt in 1751 by the Jesuit Order near Laguna de los Padres ended in disaster.

1857–1874: The Portuguese entrepreneur José Coelho de Meirelles, taking advantage of the country's abundance of wild cattle, built a pier and a factory to produce and export salted meat near Cabo Corrientes, but the business lasted only a few years.

1874–1886: Patricio Peralta Ramos acquired the now abandoned factory along with the surrounding terrain, and founded the town on February 10, 1874. Basque rancher Pedro Luro bought a part of Peralta Ramos land for agricultural production. First docks also erected around this time.

1886–1911: The railway line from Buenos Aires, built by the Buenos Aires Great Southern reached Mar del Plata in 1886; the first hotels were founded around the station stop. Upper-class people from Buenos Aires traveled by train to become the first tourists of the developing seaside village. They also established a local government that reflected their conservative ideals. Gradually a French style resort was built.

On 19 July 1907, the provincial legislature approved a bill that declared Mar del Plata as a city.

1911–1930: The residents, mostly newly arrived emigrants from Europe, demanded and obtained control of the Municipality administration. In this period socialists were the mainstream political force; they carried out social reforms and public investment. The main port was built and inaugurated in 1916.

1930–1946: A military coup reinstated the Conservative hegemony in national politics through electoral fraud and corruption. At the local levels officials were quite progressive; their policies viewed as a continuity of the socialist trend. In 1932, the construction of National Route 2 was completed, which connected Mar del Plata to Buenos Aires. Before this, a dirt road connected Mar del Plata to Buenos Aires via a different route, which required almost two days to travel by car. The seaside Casino complex opened in 1939, designed by architect Alejandro Bustillo, dates from this period.

1946–1955: Birth of the Peronist movement.

A coalition between socialists and radicals defeated this new party by a narrow margin in Mar del Plata, but by 1948 Peronism came to dominate the local administration. Massive tourism, triggered by the welfare politics of Perón and the surge of the middle class, contributed to marked growth in the city's economy.

1955–1970: After the fall of Perón, during which the city was the subject of a naval bombardment, the socialists regained the upper hand in local politics. The city reached a peak in activities like the construction business and building industry. The jobs attracted numerous emigrants from other regions of Argentina.

1970–1989: A slight decline in tourism was counterbalanced by the increase of other industries such as fishing and machinery. There was general infrastructure renewal under the military rule. The centrist Radical Civic Union became the main political force after the return of Democracy in 1983.

1989–2010: Though Peronism replaced the radicals in central government amid a national financial crisis, the latter party continued to rule in Mar del Plata. Some resurgence of mass tourism in the early '90s was followed by a deep social crisis in town, with an increase of poverty, jobless rates and emigration. By contrast, the first decade of the 21st century showed quick recovery in all sectors of the ailing economy.

In November 2005 the city hosted the 4th Summit of the Americas.

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