Total population | |
---|---|
(100,000) | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Mainly Buenos Aires | |
Languages | |
Argentine Spanish. Minority speaks English as first language. | |
Religion | |
Roman Catholicism, Protestantism (Episcopalianism, Methodism, Presbyterianism et al.) | |
Related ethnic groups | |
English, Scottish Argentines, Welsh Argentines, Irish Argentines, English Paraguayans, English Chileans, English Mexicans, British Mexicans |
English Argentines (also known as Anglo-Argentines) are citizens of Argentina, or the children of Argentine citizens brought up in Argentina, who can claim ancestry originating in England. The English settlement in Argentina (the arrival of English emigrants), took place in the period after Argentina's independence from Spain through the 19th century. Unlike many other waves of immigration to Argentina, English immigrants were not usually leaving England because of poverty or persecution, but went to Argentina as industrialists and major landowners. The United Kingdom had a strong economic influence in Argentina during the Victorian period. However the position of English Argentines was complicated when their economic influence was finally eroded by Juan Perón's nationalisation of many British-owned companies in the 1940s and, more recently, by the Falklands War in 1982. Famous Argentines such as Presidents of Argentina Raúl Alfonsín and Carlos Pellegrini, adventurer Lucas Bridges, Huracan football club president Carlos Babington and writer Jorge Luis Borges are partially of English descent.
English settlers arrived in Buenos Aires in 1806 (then a Spanish colony) in small numbers, mostly as businessmen, when Argentina was an emerging nation and the settlers were welcomed for the stability they brought to commercial life. As the 19th century progressed more English families arrived, and many bought land to develop the potential of the Argentine pampas for the large-scale growing of crops. The English founded banks, developed the export trade in crops and animal products and imported the luxuries that the growing Argentine middle classes sought.