The capital of the country, Buenos Aires is also Argentina"s leading city in population, commerce, and industry. It is located near the Atlantic Ocean coast, on the broad Río de la Plata, an estuary at the mouth of the Paraná and Paraguay rivers. The early Spanish colonists named the city for the "good winds" that brought them to the port. Today about 10 million people live in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, one of the largest in the world. The city proper makes up a federal district, and its mayor is appointed by the nation"s president. The city is not...
Aires was a major center for the movement to free the country from Spain. The city leaders had foreseen great economic advantages from the free trade that independence would bring. After independence the city grew rapidly as the center of Argentine political power. In 1880 it was made the permanent capital of the republic. Through World War I the city benefited from a stable economy and substantial foreign immigration. During and after World War II heavy industrial growth contributed to the city"s expansion and reinforced its political and economic dominance of the country. Population 1986 estimate, federal district, 2,924,000.