Plata, Río de la

Estuary of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers, between Uruguay and Argentina.

It is about 170 mi (275 km) long, with a maximum width at its mouth of about 140 mi (220 km); at Montevideo it is about 60 mi (97 km) wide but narrows gradually to the northwest as it approaches Buenos Aires, where it is about 25–28 mi (40–45 km) wide. Discovered by the Spanish in 1516, it was explored by Ferdinand Magellan in 1520 and by Englishman Sebastian Cabot (1527–29). The first permanent settlement in the area was at Asunción in 1537.

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▪ estuary, South America

Introduction

Spanish“River of Silver”, English  River Plate  

 a tapering intrusion of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of South America between Uruguay to the north and Argentina to the south. While some geographers regard it as a gulf or as a marginal sea of the Atlantic, and others consider it to be a river, it is usually held to be the estuary of the Paraná (Paraná River) and Uruguay rivers (Uruguay River) (as well as of the Paraguay River, which drains into the Paraná).

      The Río de la Plata receives waters draining from the basin of these rivers, which covers much of south-central South America; the total area drained is about 1,600,000 square miles (4,144,000 square kilometres), or about one-fourth of the surface of the continent. Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, is located on the northern shore of the estuary, and Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, is on the southwestern shore.

      The delta of the Paraná and the mouth of the Uruguay meet at the head of the Río de la Plata. The breadth of the estuary increases from the head seaward, a distance of about 180 miles (290 kilometres): it is 31 miles from the city of Punta Lara on the southern (Argentine) shore to the port of Colonia del Sacramento on the northern (Uruguayan) shore, and 136 miles from shore to shore at the Atlantic extremity of the estuary. To those who regard the Río de la Plata as a river, it is the widest in the world, with a total area of about 13,500 square miles.

Physical features

      The Paraná River (Spanish: Río Paraná; Portuguese: Rio Paraná), together with its tributaries, forms the larger of the two river systems that drain into the Río de la Plata. The Paraná—meaning “Father of the Waters” in the Guaraní language—is 3,032 miles (4,880 kilometres) long and extends from the confluence of the Grande and Paranaíba rivers in southern Brazil, running generally southwestward for most of its course, before turning southeastward to drain into the Río de la Plata. The Paraná customarily is divided into two segments: the Alto (Upper) Paraná above the confluence with the Paraguay River and the Paraná proper (or lower Paraná) below the confluence.

Physiography of the Alto Paraná basin

      The Grande River rises in the Serra da Mantiqueira, part of the mountainous hinterland of Rio de Janeiro, and flows westward for approximately 680 miles; but its numerous waterfalls—such as the Marimbondo Falls, with a height of 72 feet (22 metres)—makes it of little use for navigation. The Paranaíba (Paranaíba River), which also has numerous waterfalls, is formed by many affluents, the northernmost headstream being the São Bartolomeu River, which rises just to the east of Brasília.

      From its origin in the Grande-Paranaíba confluence to its junction, some 750 miles downstream, with the Paraguay, the Alto Paraná receives many tributaries from both the right and the left. The three most important tributaries—the Tietê (Tietê River), Paranapanema (Paranapanema River), and Iguaçu rivers (Iguaçu River)—all join the Alto Paraná on its left bank and have their sources within a few miles of the Atlantic coast of Brazil.

      The Alto Paraná first flows in a southwesterly direction down a deep cleavage in the southern slope of the ancient Brazilian Highlands, the configuration of which determines its course. Just before it begins to run along the frontier between Brazil to the east and Paraguay to the west, the river has to cut through the Serra de Maracaju (Mbaracuyú), which in the past had the effect of a dam, until the Itaipu hydroelectric dam (Itaipú Dam) project was completed there in 1982; the river once expanded its bed into a lake 2.5 miles wide and 4.5 miles long, with Guaíra, Braz., standing on the southern shore. The river's passage through the mountains was, until 1982, marked by the Guairá Falls (Salto das Sete Quedas (Guaíra Falls)), which had eight times the water volume of the Niagara River of North America. Since the completion of the Itaipu project's first stage, the falls and lake have been submerged, and a reservoir now extends upstream for some 120 miles and covers more than 700 square miles.

      The Iguaçu River (Iguaçu meaning “Great Water” in the Guaraní language) joins the Alto Paraná at the point where Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina converge. Rising in the Serra do Mar near the Brazilian city of Curitiba (for which reason it is sometimes called the Rio Grande de Curitiba), the Iguaçu flows about 380 miles from east to west, during which some 70 waterfalls reduce the river's elevation by a total of about 2,650 feet. While the Ñacunday Falls are 131 feet high, the spectacular Iguaçu Falls, on the frontier between Brazil and Argentina, 14 miles upstream from the Iguaçu–Alto Paraná confluence, have a height of about 270 feet—almost 100 feet higher than Niagara Falls. As the river approaches the falls, it widens before plunging over the crescent-shaped edge, producing horseshoe-shaped cataracts more than two miles wide. Below the falls, the river passes for several miles through a gorge (Garganta del Diablo; (Garganta del Diablo) literally, “Devil's Throat”) that is only 164 feet wide between heights varying from 65 to 328 feet.

      From the Iguaçu confluence to its junction with the Paraguay River, the Alto Paraná continues as the frontier between Paraguay and Argentina. So long as it is flanked on the left (Argentine) bank by the steep edge of the Sierra de Misiones, the river proceeds in a generally southwesterly direction, but it twists repeatedly to and fro over a rocky bed studded with outcrops of porphyritic basalt. At Posadas, Arg., however, where it is about 1.5 miles wide, the river turns abruptly westward and begins a more meandering course, embracing islands of considerable size and punctuated so frequently by rapids and by outcrops of basalt that navigation is difficult. At the Apipé Rapids the river is only about 4 to 6 feet deep.

Physiography of the Paraguay basin

      At Paso de Patria, on the right (Paraguayan) bank, the Paraná receives its greatest tributary, the Paraguay River. The fifth largest river in South America, the Paraguay (Spanish: Río Paraguay; Portuguese: Rio Paraguai) is 1,584 miles (2,550 kilometres) long. The name Paraguay, also taken from the Guaraní language, could be translated “river of paraguas (coloured, plumed birds)” or “river of cockades,” an allusion, perhaps, to the plumed headdresses once worn by the riverine peoples.

      The Paraguay also rises in southern Brazil, in the central plateaus of Mato Grosso state, at an altitude of 980 feet above sea level. Where it becomes navigable for small craft—about 150 miles downstream, near Cáceres, Braz., after its confluence with the Sepotuba River—it is 275 feet wide and 20 feet deep. Another 20 miles downstream, where the Jauru River joins it at an elevation of 400 feet, the Paraguay enters the Pantanal, a vast seasonal swamp that covers much of southern Mato Grosso and northwestern Mato Grosso do Sul state. During the dry season (May to October) the swamps in the Pantanal shrink to small patches of marshy land. With the onset of the rains in November, the slow-flowing rivers are quickly filled to capacity, and a large, shallow lake is formed. Spanish missionaries mistook this for a permanent lake, and it appeared as “Lago Xarays” on early maps of the region.

      The Paraguay's main channel skirts the Pantanal's western edge over a sandy bed, flowing around the many islands in its course. During its passage through the Pantanal, the river receives such important tributaries as the Cuiabá (Cuiabá River), Taquari, and Miranda rivers. About 470 miles downstream, it flows north-south to form the boundary between Brazil and Paraguay before being joined by a tributary, the Apa River, that flows in from the east and demarcates part of the Brazilian-Paraguayan frontier. The river then enters Paraguay, having traveled about 640 miles from its source. After flowing for more than 200 miles across Paraguay, it is joined by the Pilcomayo River at the Argentinian border, near Asunción. It then flows south-southwest along the Argentine-Paraguayan frontier for about 140 miles, until it is joined on its west bank by the Bermejo River. Continuing along the border for another 40 miles, it then empties into the Paraná River at a short distance from the Argentine city of Corrientes.

      From its confluence with the Apa for the 630 miles to its mouth, the Paraguay runs on a shallow, broad bed, with an average width of about 2,000 feet. South of Asunción, the river's right (Argentine) bank gradually lowers, whereas its left (Paraguayan) bank becomes elevated, forming cliffs. Along this stretch, floods develop principally on the western bank, spreading over the Argentine plain for distances of from three to six miles. These lands form part of the Gran Chaco.

Physiography of the lower Paraná basin

      After its juncture with the Paraguay, the combined stream of the Paraná turns southward as it passes Corrientes. It now becomes a typical “plains” river, banked by its own alluvial deposits and having an extensive floodplain on its right bank, with tracts up to 24 miles wide subject to inundation. Its permanent bed, about 2.5 miles wide at Corrientes, narrows to about 8,000 feet at Bella Vista, to about 7,000 feet at Santa Fe, and to about 6,000 feet at Rosario, and it is strewn throughout with chains of islands. Santa Fe, on the right bank opposite the port of Paraná, stands where the Paraná receives its last major tributary, the Salado River. Between Santa Fe and Rosario, however, the right bank begins to rise as the river skirts the edge of the undulating plain, which flanks it down to the delta, and reaches altitudes ranging from about 30 to 65 feet. The left bank, meanwhile, is always higher than the right but has to sustain the erosive action of the water, which becomes increasingly turbid as great masses of soil are constantly falling into it; in the delta the main branch of the river runs along a break in the terrain, with its left bank consisting of a cliff about 75 feet high.

      The delta of the Paraná has its apex as far north as Diamante, upstream from Rosario, where branches of the river begin to turn southeastward. About 11 miles wide at its upper end, the width of the delta grows to roughly 40 miles at the river mouth, where the separated branches of the Paraná flow into the Río de la Plata, about 200 miles from Diamante. With an area of 5,500 square miles, the delta is advancing steadily, as an estimated 165 million tons of alluvial deposits are added annually. Within the delta the river divides again and again into distributary branches, the most important being the two last great channels, the Paraná Guazú and the Paraná de las Palmas. The islands of the delta, alluvial in origin, are low-lying and of varying size. Their shores and the outer fringes of the river have protective embankments covered with trees but nevertheless may be submerged in times of flooding, when they present the appearance of flooded forests.

Physiography of the Uruguay basin

      The Uruguay River (Spanish: Río Uruguay; Portuguese: Rio Uruguai) is the other major system, 990 miles (1,593 kilometres) in length, that flows into the Río de la Plata. Like the Alto Paraná and the Paraguay, the Uruguay originates in southern Brazil, formed by several small streams that rise on the western slopes of the Serra do Mar. From the south it is joined by the Pelotas River, which divides the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. After flowing west, the Uruguay turns southwest at its juncture with the Peperi Guaçu River, the first sizable tributary to join it from the north. For most of its course, the fast-flowing Peperi Guaçu marks the boundary between the Argentine province of Misiones and Brazil; and after its confluence with the Uruguay, the latter river divides Brazil and Argentina. A few miles beyond the juncture with the Peperi Guaçu, the river is constricted between rocky walls in the Grande Falls, a two-mile stretch of rapids with a total descent of 26 feet in 8 miles. At the cataracts, the river narrows suddenly from 1,500 feet to a minimum of 100 feet.

      Several small rivers join the Uruguay from the west and are navigable in their lower reaches by canoes and small boats. The principal ones, from north to south, are the Aguapey, Miriñay, Mocoretá (which divides Entre Ríos and Corrientes), and Gualeguaychú. The important tributaries of the Uruguay, however, come from the east. The Ijuí, Ibicuí, and the Cuareim are short rivers but of considerable volume; the last forms part of the boundary between Brazil and Uruguay. At the mouth of the Cuareim, the Uruguay becomes the boundary line between Argentina and Uruguay, and the river flows almost directly south. A dam above the falls at Salto, Uruguay, impounds Salto Grande Reservoir some 40 miles upstream. The Negro River, approximately 500 miles long and the Uruguay's largest tributary, joins the latter only 60 miles from the Río de la Plata. The Negro rises on the Brazilian border in Rio Grande do Sul state and flows westward through central Uruguay. Like the Alto Paraná, the Uruguay generally is clear and carries little silt, except in the seasonal floods. After its juncture with the Negro, the Uruguay broadens sharply to a width of 4 to 6 miles and becomes a virtual extension of the Río de la Plata estuary.

Physiography of the Río de la Plata

      The two contributory river systems bring down an immense quantity of silt each year. The muddiness of the water in the Río de la Plata itself is increased by the tides and winds that hinder the deposition of silt on the bed. When sediments do settle, the mineral and organic matter form great shoals (shoal), banks, or bars: the Playa Honda Shoal is just off the Paraná delta, the Ortiz and Chico shoals are farther downstream, and the Rouen, Inglés, Alemán, and Arquímedes shoals are still farther out. The depth of the water—varying from 6 feet above the shoals to 65 feet in the intervening channels—is reduced along the southern coast by an offshore shoal.

      The Argentine coast of the estuary is low-lying; its banks are of marine debris and coarse sand, and the coast is subject to flooding in places. The entrances to Argentine ports (including that of Buenos Aires) require constant dredging. The Uruguayan coast stands considerably higher and consists largely of rocks and dunes. Off the Uruguayan coast are several small islands, such as Hornos, San Gabriel, López, Lobos, Farallón, and—opposite the mouths of the Uruguay and Paraná (Paraná River) Guazú rivers—Martín García.

Hydrology of the system

      The velocity of the Paraná's current changes frequently during the river's long course. For the Alto Paraná, the rate becomes slower wherever the bed widens (especially when a real lake is formed, as at Itaipu Dam) and much faster wherever the bed narrows (as in the canyon downstream from Itaipu). Farther downstream, it slackens on its way to Posadas but accelerates thereafter over a series of rapids and races. It becomes slower again downstream from Corrientes, stabilizing its flow at a mean rate of 2.5 miles per hour on the way to the Río de la Plata.

      Throughout the basin of the Paraguay Rive (Paraguay River)r, which covers more than 380,000 square miles, elevations rarely exceed 650 feet above sea level. Thus, over a long distance, the gradient of the river varies only slightly from about 0.75 to 1 inch per mile (1.2 to 1.6 centimetres per kilometre). The various streams of the basin have low banks or natural levees, built up when silt is deposited along the slower-flowing portions of the river channel during flood stage. When the river recedes, its banks thus remain elevated above the level of the neighbouring plains. During floods a continuous water table, often as much as 15 miles wide, underlies the inundated plains, and about 38,600 square miles of surface area are flooded. The Paraguay has varying rates of flow between its source and its confluence with the Paraná. Above Corumbá, in Brazil, it has a typically tropical regime—at its highest in February and at its lowest from July to August. Below Corumbá, the high point occurs in July and the low point from December to January.

      The volume of the lower Paraná is, for practical purposes, correlated to the amount it receives from the Paraguay, which supplies about 25 percent of the total. High periods occur normally between November and February and low periods in August and September. The river's mean overall volume at the Río de la Plata is about 610,700 cubic feet (17,293 cubic metres) per second, with the highest recorded volume being 2,295,000 cubic feet per second (1905) and the lowest 86,400 (1945).

      An important factor in the hydrologic regime of the lower Paraná is that the Alto Paraná and the Paraguay reach their maximum flow at different times. Whereas the mountainous basin of the Alto Paraná is drained so rapidly that water begins to rise at Corrientes in November, reaching its maximum height there in February, the Pantanal swamps of the upper basin of the Paraguay retain precipitation so much longer that the Paraguay's high water does not reach Corrientes until May, reaching its maximum in June. Thus, levels on the lower Paraná begin to sink in March, rise from May, and sink again from July to September. Whenever both the Alto Paraná and the Paraguay reach their highest levels at the same time, the lower Paraná has to carry an exceptionally heavy volume of water—as it did in 1905, when the delta experienced heavy flooding.

      The volume of water discharged by the Río de la Plata into the Atlantic is estimated at about 776,900 cubic feet per second. Although the water of the tributary rivers is so widely distributed over the length and breadth of the estuary that variations in their volume do not affect the level of the water, the estuary's level is considerably affected by variations of the tides (tide) and, especially, of the winds reaching it. The ocean tides are relatively weak, but they flow 120 miles up the Paraná and the Uruguay rivers from their mouths on the estuary. The average tidal range is 0.5 foot at Montevideo and 2.5 feet at Buenos Aires. The pampero (a wind from the south to southwest) and southeasterly winds called sudestados both exert a great influence on the Río de la Plata: the pampero, when it is most powerful, drives the water onto the Uruguayan coast, so that the water level drops on the Argentine side; the southeasterly wind has the effect of flooding the Paraná delta and causing the level to drop on the Uruguayan coast.

Climate

      The basins of the Alto Paraná and Paraguay have a hot and humid climate throughout the year. The winters (April to September) are dry, and the summers (October to March) are rainy. Annual mean temperatures in the upper basin are above 68° F (20° C), the absolute maximum temperature being from 104° to 107° F (40° to 42° C) and the absolute minimum temperature being about 37° F (3° C). January frequently is the warmest month. More than four-fifths of the annual precipitation occurs in the summer months, with the least amount of rain falling in July and August. Annual rainfall varies from 80 inches (2,000 millimetres) in the mountains to the east to 40 inches in the west. Rainfall takes the form of drenching downpours often accompanied by hailstorms.

      The climate of the middle and lower basins progresses from subtropical in the north to temperate in the south. The mean annual temperature along the Río de la Plata is 55° F (13° C), and monthly averages are always over 50° F (10° C). Frosts are frequent in the winter months in the south but can occur as far north as Asunción and Paraná state in Brazil. Humidity in the lower basin is notably high—averaging 70 percent annually along the Río de la Plata—and sometimes is quite stifling in summer; the moist vapours become still thicker when the Paraná brings down the torrential waters of the tropical basin. Rainfall in the southern basin is somewhat less plentiful than in the north, but it occurs at all seasons. The mean annual precipitation along the Río de la Plata is 44 inches.

Plant life

      The Brazilian section of the Alto Paraná forms the boundary between two zones: that of the forest to the east and of the savanna to the west. Forests include stands of Paraná pine (Araucaria angustifolia), an evergreen conifer valued for its softwood timber. The treeless savanna, with grasses and bushes, is used for cattle raising.

      In the upper Paraguay River basin, some of the Pantanal's vegetation, called the “Pantanal complex,” is typical of the Mato Grosso Plateau, while the remainder of the basin is typical of lowlands. Plants that thrive in water and in moist soils, as well as those that flourish at moderate temperatures or are adapted to dry regions, are found within the complex. The water plants, found on the permanently flooded lands, are typified by the water hyacinth and by the Amazon, or royal, water lily (Victoria amazonica). Moisture-loving species, such as the trumpetwood and the guama, flourish over most of the floodplain. On the savanna, after the floods, various grasses such as paspalum and knotroot bristle grass reappear. Vegetation of a more evolved type, which thrives at moderate temperatures, occupies the unflooded highland. It is represented by nut-bearing palms and by various types of laurels. Dense, evergreen forest galleries grow along stream banks. In the forests of the region, the carandá (a tropical palm that yields a wax similar to carnauba wax), the paratudo, the muriti palm (a large fan palm), and various types of quebracho trees (South American hardwoods that are a source of tannin) predominate.

      Farther south, thick, subtropical, semi-deciduous forests extend westward from the Misiones region of Argentina along the Paraná and cover much of eastern Paraguay. These forests provide such decorative hardwoods as lapacho and also contain Ilex paraguariensis, a member of the holly family whose roasted leaves are used to prepare the brewed beverage maté. Some forest trees, outside the forest zone proper, still occur in areas of woodland downstream to the Paraná delta. In the Gran Chaco region along the west bank of the river, and in other sections where drought is more pronounced, a thorn forest of xerophytic (drought-tolerant) plants occurs. In the lowlands of eastern Paraguay, forest cover and savanna grasslands alternate.

Animal life

      The river system has a rich and varied animal life throughout its length. Among its many edible fish are the dorado (a gold-coloured river fish that resembles a salmon), the surubí (a fish with a long rounded body, flattened at the nose), the patí (a large, scaleless river fish that frequents deep and muddy waters), the pacu (a large river fish with a flat body, almost as high as it is long), the pejerrey (a marine fish, silver in colour, with two darker bands on each side), and the corbina (white sea bass); the stretch of the Paraná upstream from Corrientes is popular for its dorado sport fishing. Also of note is the meat-eating piranha, a fish resembling the bluegill that travels in large schools and inhabits the tropical parts of the system.

      Reptiles include the iguana lizard, two species of caiman (a crocodilian), the water boa, the rattlesnake, the cross viper, and the yarará (the most prevalent South American representative of the viper family). Frogs and toads are plentiful, as are freshwater crabs. There are innumerable species of insects and spiders, and the islands are plagued by mosquitos. Herons, cormorants, storks, and game birds also are plentiful, as are terrestrial mammals.

The people

      Before the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century, the aboriginal population of interior south-central South America was culturally diverse and highly fragmented. The northern basins of the Alto Paraná and Paraguay rivers were inhabited primarily by Guayacurú (Mbayá)- and Bororo-speaking peoples. Nomadic hunter-gatherers roamed Mato Grosso and the Pantanal, where the seasonally abundant fish were of particular importance. To the south, along the Paraguay and Alto Paraná rivers, the Guaraní occupied semipermanent villages and cleared patches of surrounding forest for the cultivation of corn (maize), cassava (manioc), and other crops. West of the Paraguay River, the Gran Chaco supported sparse populations of nomadic foragers, such as the Lengua and Abipón, as did the Argentine Pampa (Pampas, the) on the southern shore of the Río de la Plata.

      In what is now Paraguay, the Spaniards and Portuguese interbred with the indigenous peoples. Consequently, the present riverine population of the country largely is mestizo, or mixed, and Guaraní as well as Spanish is the common language. In Brazil, however, miscegenation was less general, and some groups of indigenous peoples have remained relatively intact, forming isolated nuclei. Others, like the Bororo, Tereno, and Bacairi, constitute minorities who have adopted some aspects of Christianity and Brazilian culture but who also have retained separate tribal identities and live on the fringe of the region. A significant element in the population of the Alto Paraná region of Brazil consists of descendents of mainly German and Japanese immigrants.

      The shores of the Río de la Plata now contain the highest population concentrations of the river system and are the most densely populated areas of both Argentina and Uruguay. In contrast to most of the upper basin, this region is populated mainly by people of European descent. Buenos Aires, on the Argentinian shore, is the centre of one of the world's largest urban agglomerations and contains about a third of Argentina's population; Montevideo, on the Uruguayan side, is considerably smaller but still is one of South America's major cities.

The economy

Resource exploitation

      The economic usefulness of these river systems is not commensurate with the area that they drain. Economic uses to which these rivers might lend themselves, such as irrigation or hydroelectric power, are difficult to achieve. The swamps of the Pantanal and the Chaco long made agriculture a virtual impossibility in these areas. The gradual use of the potential electric power represented by sites such as Itaipu or Foz do Areia, however, has begun to stimulate the development of industry and agriculture.

      The economic development of the upper basin has been hindered by limited natural resources. Paraguay and adjacent parts of Brazil and Argentina are virtually devoid of mineral deposits. Industry, therefore, is limited to processing agricultural products, mainly hides and starch from cassava, or gathering such forest products as petitgrain oil from naturally growing citrus trees. Decorative hardwoods from eastern Paraguay and softwood timber (Araucaria) have declined in importance as stocks have been depleted. Cattle grazing long has dominated the Chaco, Mato Grosso, and the grasslands of eastern Paraguay. Small-scale farming of food crops occupies most of the rural population. Along the Alto Paraná, successful plantations have been established that produce maté, tung oil, and tea.

      The lower basin also has been a traditional region of livestock production. Corrientes province and the Pampa region near Río de la Plata in Argentina and the prairies of Uruguay long have supported ranches raising high-quality cattle and sheep; livestock products still dominate the exports of both countries. Crops of cotton, flax, and corn are important along the Argentine shore of the Paraná. Uruguay has attempted to diversify its agriculture, but nearly all of the land area is still used for grazing.

Transportation

      A major impediment to economic development in the upper part is poor navigation. A large portion of the upper basin cannot be used at all or is limited to vessels with shallow drafts. Elsewhere, navigation can be maintained in many areas only by constant dredging and renovation of port facilities. The value of these river systems as commercial arteries, therefore, is concentrated on the lower reaches.

 The current, narrowness, curves, and presence of exposed rock sills on the Alto Paraná restrict considerably the size of vessels, and several rapids can be passed only with the use of winches to pull the vessels. The river's narrowness, whirlpools, and the increased speed of the current make navigation more dangerous as the mouth of the Iguaçu is approached. A railroad to the town of Guaíra circumvents the Itaipu hydroelectric site and opens up another 400 miles of navigable river farther upstream; in addition, a nearby bridge across the river between Brazil and Paraguay and another across the Iguaçu between Brazil and Argentina are vital links in the regional road system. On the Paraguay River, navigation is complicated by the large seasonal fluctuations in the water level. Small oceangoing ships can reach Asunción but risk being stranded during the dry season. Shallow-draft vessels are able to reach Corumbá, Braz., at all seasons, and smaller craft can reach Cáceres.

      By contrast, large oceangoing vessels can travel up the lower Paraná as far as Santa Fe or Paraná. Ocean trade also can reach Concepción del Uruguay directly by the Uruguay River. Long fleets of barges carry the bulk of the river freight. For the people living along its shores, the Río de la Plata always has been useful as a waterway. As a thoroughfare for trade, the estuary is important not only to the people of the coasts but also to the inhabitants of the most remote areas of the drainage basin. Buenos Aires is one of the principal seaports of the world and is the main port of Argentina. Both Buenos Aires and Montevideo are concerned primarily with meat and grain exports from the hinterland; the refrigerators, flour mills, and shipyards required for this trade are located in the coastal zone, as are factories for vegetable oils, textile industries, metallurgical plants, and petroleum refineries.

History

Early European exploration and settlement

      The Río de la Plata was first explored by Europeans in 1516, when an expedition led by Juan Díaz de Solís (Díaz de Solís, Juan), chief navigator of Spain, traversed the estuary as part of its effort to find a route to the Pacific; the estuary was temporarily named in memory of Díaz de Solís after his death on its shores at the hands of unfriendly Charrua Indians. The Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan (Magellan, Ferdinand) reached the estuary in 1520 and explored it briefly before his expedition continued on its circumnavigation of the globe. Between 1526 and 1529 the Italian explorer Sebastian Cabot (Cabot, Sebastian) made a detailed study of the estuary and explored the Uruguay and Paraná rivers. Cabot ascended the Paraná as far as the present city of Asunción, Paraguay, and also traveled some distance up the Paraguay River; at Asunción he obtained silver trinkets in barter with the Guaraní Indians, and his interest in these objects gave rise to the estuary's permanent name, Río de la Plata, in the hope that it might indeed become a river of silver.

      Several failed attempts at establishing settlements on the south shore of the estuary (notably near the present location of Buenos Aires) eventually led to explorations upriver and to the founding of Asunción in 1537; Buenos Aires was not refounded until 1580. By about 1610 Jesuit priests had established the first of more than 30 mission settlements that, until the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, were the heart of what became known as the “Jesuit Empire.” Remarkable ruins of mission churches in Argentina's Misiones province and in eastern Paraguay are all that remain of this extraordinary enterprise. Throughout the Spanish colonial era the Río de la Plata remained a backwash of the empire. The estuary was virtually closed to legal commerce, and Spain ignored the region until Portuguese and English ambitions threatened to expand into the estuary in the 1760s.

Mapping (cartography) of the basin

      The Spaniard Sebastián del Cano, who accompanied the Magellan expedition, was able to include relatively accurate markings of the Paraná, Paraguay, and Uruguay rivers in the map of the estuary that he drew up in 1523. Further cartographic work by agents of the Spanish crown was supplemented considerably by that of Jesuit missionaries, who first covered the entire basin of the Paraná (including the Paraguay River) in an extensive series of maps produced in the 17th century. In the second half of the 18th century, commissioners demarcating the frontiers between Spanish and Portuguese possessions produced a new series of maps. Of later cartographers, the Spanish naturalist and geographer Félix de Azara and the French physician and naturalist Martin de Moussy are the most important.

The region since 1800

      Navigation of the river system became a problem when the independent states of Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Bolivia emerged on its courses. Territorial conflicts and restrictions on navigation caused several wars, culminating in the Paraguayan War (Triple Alliance, War of the), or War of the Triple Alliance (1864/65–70), in which Francisco Solano López (López, Francisco Solano) led Paraguay in a disastrous struggle against Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. In the 20th century, similar conflicts, sharpened by rumoured oil wealth, resulted in the Chaco War (1932–35) between Paraguay and Bolivia.

      The development of agricultural wealth, particularly in Argentina, resulted in greater appreciation of the commercial value of these river systems after the mid-19th century. Beginning in the 1850s, thousands of German, French, and Italian colonists settled along the lower Paraná River in Santa Fe province. In the 1890s, German pioneers began to carve agricultural settlements from the forests along the Alto Paraná in Paraguay and Argentina. These people later were followed by other Europeans and by a significant number of Japanese.

      Wheat, beef, wool, cotton, and hides entered the river and world trade in increasing quantities from Argentina and Uruguay, while from Brazil and Paraguay came forest and tropical products and maté. Port construction and dredging made Buenos Aires more valuable as a seaport, and by 1902 similar improvements had been completed at Rosario. Channel marking, soundings, dredging, and other aids to navigation became a responsibility of all the riparian states.

Waldir Freitas Oliveira David Oteiza Norman R. Stewart

Additional Reading

English-language sources on the Río de la Plata are scarce. For the Paraná–Paraguay–Río de la Plata basin, see Ernst Griffin, “The Agricultural Land Use Regions in Uruguay,” Revista Geográfica, 76:121–151 (June 1972); Mark Jefferson, Peopling the Argentine Pampa (1926, reprinted 1971); Robert C. Eidt, Pioneer Settlement in Northeast Argentina (1971); Paraguay: Regional Development in Eastern Paraguay (1978), a World Bank country study; and Norman R. Stewart, Japanese Colonization in Eastern Paraguay (1967).William M. Denevan

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