Europeans arrive in present-day Argentina in 1502 with the voyage of Amerigo Vespucci. The area is annexed to the Spanish Vice-Royality of Peru in 1534. Spain establishes a permanent colony on the site of Buenos Aires in 1580, although initial settlement is primarily overland from Peru. Spain further integrates Argentina into its empire by establishing the Vice Royalty of Rio de la Plata in 1776. Rio de la Plata declares under José de San Martin independence from Spain in 1816 as the United Provinces in South America.

Although the country becomes independent, this doesn't mean that it is a true union. Especially the northwest of the country resists central authority. 1826 marks the moment in disunification when a new constitution is written for the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata. Bernardino Rivadavia becomes president, but he is not accepted by the provinces. This leads to a civil war. Federal leader Juan Manuel de Rosas comes to power and is elected president in 1829. He renames the country Argentine Confederation. When his term ends in 1832, he steps down. Consequently chaos rises and Rosas returns in office in 1835. Although he was elected, he establishes a dictatorship. His rule ends in 1851 when Rosas is defeated by rebels.

Justo José de Urquiza comes to power, but Buenos Aires secedes in 1854 from Argenina under Bartolome Mitre. This seccesion ends in 1859. In 1860 the country is renamed Argentine Nation. In 1861 Buenos Aires rebels under Mitre defeat Urquiza and consequently Mitre is elected president. He is succeeded by Domingo Sarmiento in 1868. Under Sarmiento constitutional government becomes a fact. Sarmiento is succeeded by Alejo Julio Argentino Roca Paz of the Unión Civica (Civic Union, UC) in 1880, by Miguel Juárez Celman of the Partido Autonomista Nacional (National Autonomist Party, PAN) in 1886, by his co-partisan Carlos Enrique José Pellegrini Bevans in 1890 and by Luis Sáenz Peña Dávila of the UC in 1892. Between 1905 and 1904 the Autonomistas are in power with José Evaristo de Uriburu y Álvarez de Arenales (1895-1898) and Roca Paz again (1989-1904). In 1904 the Partido Conservador (Conservative Party) gain the presidency with presidents Manuel A. Quintana y Sáenz de Gaona (1904-1906), José Figueroa Alcorta (1906-1910), Roque Sáenz Peña Lahitte (1910-1914) and Victorino de la Plaza y Palacios (1914-1916). The elections in these decennia are not considered to be open and honest and this leads to new movements. Eventually this brings the formation of the liberal Unión Civica Radical (Radical Civic Union, UCR). The UCR tries to overthrow government but doesn't succeed in that.

In the period until to 1930 Argentina becomes one of the world's 10 wealthiest nations based on rapid expansion of agriculture and foreign investment in infrastructure. Conservatives dominate Argentine politics until 1916, when their traditional rivals, the UCR, win control of the government. This party, with their emphasis on fair elections and democratic institutions, gives the rapidly expanding middle class as well as to groups previously excluded from power entrance to power. The first radical president is Juan Hipólito del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Yrigoyen Alem (1916-1922), succeeded by Máximo Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear (1922-1928). In 1928 Hipólito Yrigoyen is re-elected president. He is ousted in 1930 by a military coup d'état which leads to a dictatorship of José Félix Benito de Uriburu y Uriburu (1930-1932) and Agustín Pedro Justo Rolón (1932-1938). More or less democratic structures are restored in 1938. This brings the UCR back to power with Jaime Gerardo Roberto Marcelino (1938-1942) and Ramón S. Castillo Barrionuevo.

In 1943 the military ousts the constitutional government. Juan Domingo Perón Sosa, an army colonel, is one of the coup's leaders and he soon becomes the government's dominant figure. Presidents of the military government are mainly Pedro Pablo Ramírez Machuca (1942-1944) and Edelmiro Julián Farrell Plaul (1944-1946). Elections carry Perón and his peronist movement to the presidency in 1946. He pursues policies aimed empowering the working class and greatly expands the number of unionized workers. Peron rules the country in an authoritarian way, although formal democratic structures are continued. He wins reelection in 1952, but the military sends him into exile in 1955. This preludes 1955 a transition to democracy, which is restored in 1958. The main military president is are Pedro Eugenio Aramburu Cilveti. In 1958 the radical leader Arturo Frondizi of the Unión Civica Radical Intransigente (Intransigent Radical Civic Union, UCRI) is elected president.

A military coup leads to an end of his government and in new elections in 1963 Arturo Umberto Illía of the UCR (then named UCR del Pueblo, UCR of the People) is elected president. The pendulum between democracy and dictatorships leads in 1966 to military dictatorship under Juan Carlos Onganía. He is succeeded as dictator by Roberto Marcelo Levongston in 1970 and Alejandro Lanusse in 1971. In 1973 democracy is shortly restored. Peron is prevented from running, but voters elect his stand-in, Héctor José Cámpora Demaestre, as president. The peronists command strong majorities in parliament. Campora resigns in 1973, paving the way for new elections, in which Perón, now leader of the Partido Justicialista (Justicalist Party, PJ) wins a decisive victory. He returns in the presidency in 1973 with his third wife, Maria Estela Isabel Martinez de Perón, as vice president. During this period, extremists on the left and right carryout terrorist acts. The government resorts to a number of emergency decrees, including the implementation of special executive authority to deal with violence. This allows the government to imprison persons indefinitely without charge. After his death in 1974 he is succeeded by his wife.

The army retakes power in 1976 and a new dictatorship under general Jorge Rafael Videla Redondo is installed. The army formally exercise power through a junta composed of the three service commanders until 1983. The armed forces apply harsh measures against terrorists and many suspected of being their sympathizers. Videla is succeeded in 1981 by Roberto Eduardo Viola Prevedini and later that year by Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli.

After the Falkland war with Britain the dictatorship collapses in 1982 and after the interim presidency of Reynaldo Benito Antonio Bignone Ramayón democracy is restored. Argentine is now a presidential democratic federal republic. The candidate of the UCR, Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín Foulkes, is elected president in 1983. One of his main goals is to prevent the army to stage another coup by reconciliation. However, failure to resolve endemic economic problems and an inability to maintain public confidence undermine the effectiveness of his government. In 1989 the peronist PJ wins the elections and Carlos Saúl Menem Akil becomes president. He is re-elected in 1995. Four years later Fernando de la Rúa Bruno of the UCR in an alliance with the left-wing Frente País Solidario (Federation for a Country in Solidarity, Frepaso) wins the elections. After a corruption scandal and a collapse in confidence in the economy, De la Rúa has to resign under public pressure in 2001. After four interim presidents, Federico Ramón Puerta, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá Páez Montero and Eduardo Oscar Camaño (only for two days) and Eduardo Alberto Duhalde Maldonado of the PJ (2002-2003), in new elections in 2003 Néstor Carlos Kirchner Ostoic of the peronist faction Frente para la Victoria (Front for Victory) is elected president.