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BUENOS AIRES

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 754 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BUENOS AIRES , a See also:

city and See also:port of See also:Argentina, and See also:capital of the See also:republic, in 34° 36' 21" S. See also:lat. and 58° 21' 33" W. See also:long., on the See also:west See also:shore of the La See also:Plata See also:estuary, about 155 M. above its mouth, and 127 M. W. by N. from See also:Montevideo. The estuary at this point is 34 M. wide, and so shallow that vessels can enter the docks only through artificial channels kept open by See also:constant dredging. Previously to the construction of the new port, ocean-going vessels of over 15 ft. See also:draught were compelled to See also:anchor in the See also:outer roads some 12 M. from the city, and .communication with the shore was effected by nfans of See also:steam tenders and small boats, connecting with long landing piers, or with carts driven out from the See also:beach. The city is built upon an open grassy See also:plain extending inland from the See also:banks of the estuary, and See also:north from the Riachuelo or See also:Matanzas See also:river where the " Boca " port is located. Its See also:average See also:elevation is about 65 ft. above See also:sea-level. The federal See also:district, which includes the city and its suburbs and covers an See also:area of 72 sq. m., was detached from the See also:province of Buenos Aires by an See also:act of See also:congress in r880. With the construction of the new port and reclamation of considerable areas of the shallow See also:water frontage, the area of the city has been greatly extended below the See also:line of the See also:original estuary banks. The streets of the old city, which are narrow and laid out to enclose rectangular blocks of See also:uniform See also:size, run nearly parallel with the See also:cardinal points of the See also:compass, but this See also:plan is not closely followed in the new additions and suburbs. This uniformity in plan, combined with the level ground and the See also:style of buildings first erected, gave to the city an extremely monotonous and uninteresting See also:appearance, but with its growth in See also:wealth and See also:population, greater diversity and better See also:taste in See also:architecture have resuhed. The prevailing style of domestic architecture is that introduced from See also:Spain and used throughout all the See also:Spanish colonies—the grouping of one-See also:storey buildings See also:round one or two patios, which open on the See also:street through a wide See also:doorway. These residences have heavily barred Windows on the street, and See also:flat See also:roofs with parapets admirably adapted for See also:defence.

The domiciliation of wealthy foreigners, and the introduction of See also:

foreign customs and foreign culture, have gradually modified the style of architecture, both public and domestic, and See also:modern Buenos Aires is adorned with many costly and attractive public edifices and residences. See also:French See also:renaissance, lavishly decorated, has become the prevailing style. The Avenida Alvear is particularly noted for the elegance of its private residences, and the new Avenida de See also:Mayo for its display of elaborately ornamented public and business edifices, while the suburban districts of Belgrano and See also:Flores are distinguished for the attractiveness of their See also:country-houses and gardens. A See also:part of the population is greatly over-crowded, one-fifth living in conventillos, or See also:tenement-houses. Among the city's many plazas, or squares, twelve are especially worthy of mention, viz.: 25 de Mayo (formerly See also:Victoria) on which See also:face the See also:Government-See also:House and See also:Cathedral, See also:San See also:Martin (or Retiro), Lavalle, See also:Libertad, Lorea, Belgrano, 6 de Junio, Once de Setiembre, Independencia (formerly See also:Concepcion), Constituci6n, Caridad and 29 de Deciembre. These vary in size from one to three squares, or 4 to 12 acres each, and are handsomely laid out with See also:flowers, shrubbery, walks and shade trees. There are also two elaborately laid out alamedas, the Recoleta and the Paseo de Julio, the latter on the river front and partially absorbed by the new port See also:works, and the See also:great See also:park at See also:Palermo, officially called 3 de Febrero, which contains 84o acres, beautifully laid out in drives, footpaths, lawns, gardens and artificial lakes. In all, the plazas and parks of Buenos Aires See also:cover an area of 96o acres. The cathedral, which is one of the largest in See also:South See also:America, dating froth 1752, resembles the Madeleine of See also:Paris in See also:design, and its classical See also:portico facing the Plaza 25 de Mayo has twelve stately Corinthian columns supporting an elaborately sculptured See also:pediment. The See also:archbishop's See also:palace (Buenos Aires became an archiepiscopal see in 1866) adjoins the cathedral. There are about twenty-five See also:Roman See also:Catholic churches in the city, one of the richest and most popular of which is the Merced on Calle Reconquista, and four See also:Protestant churches—English, Scottish Presbyterian, See also:American Methodist and See also:German Lutheran. Twenty asylums for orphans and indigent persons and one for lunatics are maintained at public expense and by private religious associations, while the demand for organized medical and surgical treatment is met by fifteen well-appointed hospitals, having an aggregate of 2600. beds, and treating 17,000 patients annually.

Of these, five belong to foreign nationalities. The city has six cemeteries covering 230 acres. Among the more noteworthy public buildings are the Casa Rosada (government-house), facing the Plaza 25 de Mayo and occupying in part the site of the fort built by See also:

Garay in 158o; the new congress See also:hall on Calle See also:Callao and Avenida de Mayo, finished in 1906 at a cost of about £1,300,000; the new municipal hall on Avenida de Mayo; the bolsa or See also:exchange, distributing See also:reservoir, See also:mint, and some of the more modern educational buildings. Higher See also:education is represented by the university of Buenos Aires, with its several faculties, including See also:law and See also:medicine, and 3562 students (1901), four See also:national colleges, three normal See also:schools and various technical schools. There are, also, a national library, a national museum, a zoological See also:garden and an See also:aquarium. The See also:people are fond of See also:music, the See also:drama and amusements, and devote much See also:time and expense to diversions of a widely varied See also:character, from See also:Italian See also:opera to See also:horse-racing and See also:pelota. They have two or three large public See also:baths, and a large number of social, sporting and athletic clubs. The Portenos, as the residents of Buenos Aires are called, are accustomed to See also:call their city the " Paris of America," and not without See also:reason. Buenos Aires has become the See also:principal manufacturing centre of the republic, and its See also:industrial establishments are numbered by thousands and their capital by hundreds of millions of dollars. The growth of Buenos Aires since settled conditions have prevailed, and especially since its federalization, has been very rapid, and the city has finally outstripped all rivals and become the largest city of South America. At the time of its firstauthentic See also:census in 1869, it had a population of 177,767. In 1887, when the suburbs of Belgrano and Flores with an aggregate population of 28,000 were annexed, its population without this increment was estimated at 404,000.

In 1895 the national census gave the population as 663,854, and in 1904 a municipal census increased it to 950,891. At the See also:

close of 1905 the national statistical See also:office estimated it at 1,025,653. The excess of births over deaths is unusually large (about 14 per thousand in 1905). The city has about one-fifth of the population of the whole republic. The government is vested in an intendente municipal (See also:mayor) appointed by the national executive with the approval of the See also:senate, and a concejo deliberante (legislative See also:council) elected by the people and composed of two councillors from each See also:parish. The See also:police force is a military organization under the See also:control of the national executive, and the higher municipal courts are subject to the same authority. Every ratepayer, whether foreigner or native, has the right to See also:vote in municipal elections and to serve in the municipal council. The water-See also:supply is See also:drawn from the estuary at Belgrano and conducted 32 M. to the Recoleta, where three great settling basins, with an aggregate capacity of 12,000,000 gallons, and six acres of covered filters, are located. It is then pumped to the great distributing reservoir at Calles See also:Cordoba and Viamonte, which covers four acres and has a capacity of 13, 500,000 gallons. These works were begun in 1873. Up to 1873, when the water and drainage works were initiated by See also:English See also:engineers and See also:con-tractors, there were no public sewers, and the sanitary See also:state of the city was indescribably See also:bad. The See also:cholera epidemic of 1867-1868, with 15,000 victims, and the yellow See also:fever epidemic of 1871, with 26,000 victims, were greatly intensified by these insanitary conditions.

The construction of the sewers lasted about 19 years, when in 1892 the water and drainage works were taken over by the government, and are now administered at public expense and at a profit. The See also:

main See also:sewer is 16 m. long and extends southward beyond Quilmes. The See also:total cost of the two systems exceeded six millions See also:sterling. Buenos Aires is now provided with a See also:good water-supply, and its sanitary See also:condition compares favourably with that of other great cities, the See also:annual See also:death-See also:rate being about 18 per thousand, against 27 per thousand in 1887. Its mean annual temperature is 64° Fahr., and its annual rainfall 34 in. The See also:lighting includes both See also:gas and See also:electricity, the former dating from 1856. Previously to that time. street lighting had been effected at first with lamps burning mares' grease, and then with See also:tallow candles. The streets were at first paved with cobble-stones, then with dressed See also:granite paving-stones (parallelepipedons), and finally with See also:wood and See also:asphalt. The tram service is in the hands of nine private companies, operating 313 m. of track (31st of See also:December 1905), on almost five-sevenths of which electric See also:traction is employed. The city is the principal See also:terminus and port for nearly all the See also:trunk railway lines of the republic, which have large passenger stations at the Retiro, Once de Setiembre, and Constituci6n plazas, and are connected with the central produce See also:market and the new Madero port. The great central produce market at Barracas al Sud (Mercado Central de Frutos), , whose lands, buildings, railway sidings, machinery and See also:mole cost £750,000, is designed to handle the See also:pastoral and agricultural products of the country on a large See also:scale, while 20 markets in the city meet the needs of See also:local consumers. The most important feature of the port of Buenos Aires is the " Madero docks," constructed to enlarge and improve its See also:shipping facilities.

Improvements had been begun in 1872 at the " Boca," as the port on the Riachuelo is called, and nearly £1,500,000 was spent there in landing facilities and dredging a channel 12 M. in length, to deep water. These improvements were found in-sufficient, and in 1887 See also:

work was begun on plans executed by See also:Sir See also:John See also:Hawkshaw for a See also:series of four docks and two basins in front of the city, occupying 3 M. of reclaimed shore-line, and connected with deep water by two dredged channels. The north See also:basin is provided with two dry docks, and the new quays are equipped with 24 warehouses, See also:hydraulic See also:cranes, and 28 m. of railway sidings and connexions. The total cost of the new port works up to 1908 was about £8,00o,00o sterling ($40,000,000 See also:gold). In See also:September of that See also:year it was decided by congress to See also:borrow £5,000,000 for still further extensions which were found to be required. The channels to deep water require constant dredging because of the great quantity of silt deposited by the river, and on this and allied purposes an See also:expenditure of 56o,000 was voted in rgo8. In 19o7 there were 29,178 shipping entries in the port, with an aggregate of 13,335,737 tons, the merchandise See also:movement being 4,360,000 tons imports and 2,900,000 tons of produce exports. The revenues for 1907 were $5,452,000 gold, and working expenses, $2,213,000 gold, the profit ($3,229,000) being equal to about 8 % on the cost of construction. See also:History.—Three attempts were made to establish a See also:colony where the city of Buenos Aires stands. The first was in 1535 by See also:Don Pedro de See also:Mendoza with a large and well-equipped expedition from Spain, which, through mismanagement and the hostility of the See also:Indians, resulted in See also:complete failure. An expedition sent up the river by Mendoza founded See also:Asuncion, and thither went the colonists from his " See also:Santa Maria de Buenos Ayres " when that See also:settlement was abandoned. The second was in 1542 by a part of the expedition from Spain under Cabeza de Vaca, but with as little success.

The third was in 158o by Don Juan de Garay, See also:

governor of See also:Paraguay, who had already established a See also:half-way See also:post at Santa Fe in 1573, and from this See also:attempt See also:dates the See also:foundation of the city. The need of a port near the sea, where sup-plies from Spain could be received and See also:ships provisioned, was keenly See also:felt by the Spanish colonists at Asuncion, and Garay's expedition down the See also:Parana in 158o had that See also:special See also:object in view. Garay built a fort and laid out a See also:town in the prescribed Spanish style above Mendoza's abandoned settlement, giving it the name of " See also:Ciudad de la Santissima See also:Trinidad," but retaining Mendoza's descriptive name for the port in appreciation of the agreeable and invigorating See also:atmosphere of that locality. Buenos Aires remained a dependency of Asuncion until 162o, when the Spanish settlements of the La Plata region were divided into three provinces, Paraguay, See also:Tucuman and Buenos Aires, and Garay's " city " became the capital of the latter and also the seat of a new bishopric. The increasing population and See also:trade of the La Plata settlements naturally contributed to the importance and prosperity of Buenos Aires, but Spain seems to have taken very little See also:interest in the town at that time. See also:Peru still dazzled the See also:imagination with her stores of gold and See also:silver, and the See also:king and his councillors and merchants had no thought for the little trading station on the La Plata, for which one small shipment of supplies each year was at first thought sufficient. The proximity of the Portuguese settlements of See also:Brazil and the unprotected state of the See also:coast, however, made See also:smuggling easy, and the colonists soon learned to supply their own needs in that way. The heavy See also:seigniorage tax on gold and silver, and the See also:costs of transportation by way of See also:Panama, also sent a stream of See also:contraband See also:metal from Charcas to Buenos Aires, where it found eager buyers among the Portuguese traders from Brazil, who even founded the town of Colonia on the opposite See also:bank of the estuary to facilitate their hazardous See also:traffic. In time the magnitude of these operations attracted See also:attention at See also:Madrid and efforts were made to suppress them, but without complete success until more liberal provisions were made to promote trade between Spain and her colonies. In 1776 the Rio de la Plata provinces were erected into a See also:vice-See also:royalty, and Buenos Aires became its capital. Two years later the old commercial restrictions were abolished and a new. See also:code was promulgated, so liberal in character compared with the old that it was called the " See also:free trade regulations." Under the old See also:system all intercourse with foreign countries had been prohibited, with the exception of Great See also:Britain and Portugal—the former having a See also:contract (1715 to 1739) to introduce See also:African slaves, and permission to send one shipload of merchandise each year to certain colonial ports, and the latter's Brazilian colonies having permission to import from Buenos Aires each year 2000 fanegas of See also:wheat, Soo quintals of jerked See also:beef and 500 of tallow. The African slaves introduced into Buenos Aires in this way were limited to 800 a year, and were the only slaves of that character ever received except some from Brazil after 1978, when greatercommercial activity in the port created a sudden demand fot labourers.

Under the new regulations g ports in Spain and 24 in the colonies were declared puertos habililados, or ports of entry, and trade between them was permitted, though under many restrictions. The effect of this See also:

change may be seen in the exportation of hides to the See also:mother country, which had been only 150,000 a year before 1778, but See also:rose to 700,000 and 800,000 a year after that date.

End of Article: BUENOS AIRES

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