Rosario

Early settlement Even though the city did not have a clear foundation date or any official acknowledgement thereof, most commentators state that Rosario was founded on 7 October 1793 with a local population of 457 inhabitants. Nonetheless, the town was officially declared a city on 3 August 1852, at the time it was known as Pago de los Arroyos ("land of the streams"), a reference to the several small rivers that traverse the southern region of Santa Fe, like the Ludueña Stream, the Saladillo Stream and others, emptying into the Paraná River. In 1689, captain Luís Romero de Piñeda received part of the lands of the Pago de los Arroyos by royal decree, as payment for services to the Spanish Crown. Before that, the area was originally inhabited by various indigenous tribes, some of which lived in reducciones, a type of mission founded by Franciscans. These missions were ultimately attacked and destroyed by hostile tribes of the Chaco region. Romero de Piñeda established the first permanent settlement, an estancia — intended as farmland, not as a town. In 1719, the Jesuits bought another part and established Estancia San Miguel. The area was still so scarcely populated that it had no central authority; it was ruled from the provincial capital (Santa Fe), and in turn from Buenos Aires. In 1724, another colonial settlement was initiated by Santiago de Montenegro, who set up a mill, drew plans for the future town, built a chapel, and was appointed mayor in 1751. The area of control of this local government extended northward from today's Rosario; only in 1784 was it divided into two smaller jurisdictions. On February 27, 1812, General Manuel Belgrano raised the newly created Argentine flag on the shores of the Paraná, for the first time. Because of this, Rosario is known as the "Cradle of the Argentine Flag". The National Flag Memorial marks the occasion. 19th century The province of Santa Fe suffered greatly from the civil war that afflicted Argentina after 1820. Demographic growth was relatively slow. During this period, Rosario was a small settlement and a stop on the way from the city of Santa Fe to Buenos Aires. In 1823, it was elevated to the category of "village" (Ilustre y Fiel Villa del Rosario). Charles Darwin travelled through the area in 1832 and described Rosario as "a large town" with about 2,000 residents. In 1841, a decree of the caudillo and Governor of Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel de Rosas, banned navigation of the Paraná and Paraguay rivers to non-Argentine vessels, and thus shut off the Port of Rosario to foreign trade. On 25 December 1851, a small group of locals and the military guard of the city declared their support for the rival caudillo Justo José de Urquiza. As a reward for their participation in the Battle of Caseros, triumphant Urquiza wrote to the governor of Santa Fe on 9 June 1852 asking for Rosario to be granted city status. Governor Domingo Crespo justified the request at the provincial legislative body, marking the geographically strategic position of the town for national and international trade, and on 5 August, Rosario was formally declared a city. Urquiza opened up the river for free international trade. The city's economy and population expanded at an accelerated rate. By 1880, Rosario had become the first export outlet of Argentina. During the last 15 years of the 19th century, the city more than doubled its population, in part due to immigration. By 1887 it had about 50,000 inhabitants, of whom 40% were European immigrants, who brought new ideas from Europe and began to turn Rosario into a politically progressive city (contrasting with the more conservative, aristocratic Santa Fe). During the second half of the 19th century, there was a movement promoting that the city of Rosario become the capital of the republic. Ovidio Lagos, founder of the oldest Argentine newspaper, La Capital, was one of the strongest proponents of this idea (one of the main avenues in Rosario now carries his name). Rosario was indeed declared the federal capital on three occasions, but each time the law was vetoed by the Executive Branch (once by Bartolomé Mitre and twice by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento). In 1911, the French-owned railway company Ferrocarril Rosario y Puerto Belgrano opened a line between Rosario and Puerto Belgrano, Argentina's main naval base. By 1926, Rosario had 407,000 inhabitants, 47% of them foreign, many coming from Europe in the wake of World War I. Modern history , downtown Rosario In 1969 workers and students took to the streets and organized strikes in what has been dubbed the "Rosariazo" against the dictatorship. A few years later, in 1976, the military dictatorship made hundreds of dissident citizens "disappear" in what is known as the Dirty War. In 1983, Argentina returned to democratic rule, but in 1989, hyperinflation caused the economic collapse of the country. In Rosario there were riots and looting episodes. Under the Menem administration, the situation worsened as the industrial sector of the city was dismantled by foreign competition, and agricultural exports stagnated. In 1995, unemployment in the area reached 21.1% and a large part of Rosario's population fell below the poverty line. Since the recovery of the national economy that followed the 2001 collapse, Rosario's economic situation has improved. The boom in agricultural exports has caused a large increase in consumer spending and investment. The Socialist Party has won mayoral races in the city in every election since Councilman Héctor Cavallero's 1989 election. Cavallero's successor, Hermes Binner (elected in 1995), was elected Governor of Santa Fe in 2007 and became the runner-up in the 2011 presidential election on the FAP ticket. Mayor Miguel Lifschitz's administration, elected in 2007, took advantage of the economic boom to invest heavily in public works as well as in public health (which takes up about a quarter of the whole budget). Mayor Mónica Fein became, in 2011, the first Socialist woman elected mayor in Argentine history. After the 1990s, Rosario became a major city of the illegal drug trade in Argentina, headed by a drug dealing family called "Los Monos" ("The Monkeys"). Early during 2018, it was estimated by national news sources that a turf war between local drug gangs ("Los Funes" and "Los Camino") was costing an average of one life every twenty five hours. A ordinance aproved by the Municipal Council in 27 November 2025, maked the city autonomus and no longer part of Santa Fé Province. A Stuatory Convention for 2027 was convened for the redaction the city Constitution ====== File:Mercado del Sud (postal MA).jpg|Mercado Sud (c. 1903) File:Palacio de Justicia de Rosario.jpg|Palace of Justice (c. 1905) File:Hotel Savoy Rosario (postal FR).jpg|Hotel Savoy (c. 1910) File:Plaza San Martin en Rosario.jpg|San Martín Square (c. 1920s) File:Yrigoyen en Rosario.jpg|Hipólito Yrigoyen on a train during an electoral campaign (1926) File:Inauguración del Monumento a la Bandera.jpg|Inauguration of the National Flag Memorial (1957) ==Government==