Argentina
A country of Parisian-style boulevards at the edge of an endless grass sea. In Buenos Aires, book-lined cafés and late-night tango clubs sit one turn from the pampas, while far to the south glaciers calve into turquoise lakes under the Patagonian wind.
- Region
- South America
- Capital
- Buenos Aires
- Major language
- Spanish
- Quiz questions
- 80 across three rounds
What is Argentina?
Its full name is the Argentine Republic, which declared independence from Spain in 1816. Around 46 million people live in this long, slender country that stretches from the tropics to the edge of Antarctica, and the currency is the peso.
Argentina is a federal republic with a dramatic economic history, famous for its cattle, grain, wine and the dramatic rises and falls of its markets. It is also one of the most distinctly European countries in South America, built by waves of Italian and Spanish immigrants whose recipes, accents and architecture still define the capital.
From the pampas to the end of the world
The pampas are the country's green heart: flat, fertile plains of grass and cattle where the gaucho, the South American cowboy, became the national romantic hero. Westward the Andes rise in a wall of peaks, including Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside the Himalayas.
Patagonia fills the south with steppe, granite spires and glaciers like the Perito Moreno, which groans and sheds walls of ice in front of visiting crowds. At the continent's tip lies Tierra del Fuego, and in the north the Iguazu Falls explode through the jungle. The country is essentially a catalogue of spectacular geography.
Viceroyalty, independence and the age of icons
Indigenous peoples lived across these lands for millennia before the Spanish arrived and made Buenos Aires a wealthy colonial center. The May Revolution of 1810 opened the road to independence, formalized in 1816, and the liberator San Martín led armies across the Andes to free neighboring countries too.
The modern story includes the strongman Rosas, the beloved and controversial Peróns, Eva among the poor, and a painful military dictatorship in the 1970s whose desaparecidos are still remembered. The 1982 Falklands war helped end that junta and restore democracy. The Atlas questions trace the whole arc from conquistadors and gauchos to the modern republic.
Tango, asado and a shared obsession with football
Tango was born in the port neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, a dramatic, close-embrace dance that moved from working-class streets to the grand ballrooms of the world. The country's writers, including Borges, made its libraries famous, and its cinema and theater scenes stay busy well past midnight.
Social life revolves around the table: asado, the long barbecue of many meats, empanadas, Malbec wine from the Mendoza vineyards and mate, the shared herbal tea passed hand to hand in a ritual of friendship. Football is the national passion, and the country's clubs and players have written some of the game's most beautiful pages.
Argentina in the Atlas quiz
Eighty questions wait in three rounds. First Steps is a gentle ten-question warm-up; Finding Your Way stretches to twenty; Well Versed offers thirty that roam from the wars of independence to tango halls and World Cup finals. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so even a wrong guess leaves you with a story worth keeping.
Pass a round with enough correct answers and Argentina changes color on your learning map, saved right in your browser. Replay any round whenever you like.