Province of Córdoba
Located in the geographic center of the Argentine Republic, the province of Córdoba covers 4% of the national territory. It has a surface of 165,321Km2, thus positioning itself in fifth place among the biggest argentine provinces by size.

Historical aspects
Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the mountain region of this province was inhabited by Comechingones; the Pampa area of the province was inhabited by the Het, also called Old Pampas; the northeast by Sanavinones or Salavirones and in the northwest was occupied by the Diaguitas or Olongastas

Diego de Rojas was the first Spaniard who explored the area of the mountain ranges of Córdoba.
On 1573, Jeronimo Luis de Cabrera founded the city of Cordoba ("Cordoba of the New Andalusia"); Cabrera had looked for two objectives: the first was an exit to "the Sea of the North" (is that to say, to the Atlantic Ocean - he thought that the Lagoon of Mar Chiquita was a bay of this ocean); the second objective was the fabulous City of the Césares. By doing this, he disobeyed the orders of the viceroy of Peru (the city of Cordoba was founded to the south of the jurisdiction that was assigned to him). This was a pretext so that soon a "veedor"(a kind of roya supervisor) made Cabrera beheaded.
In 1778, the region had a population of 44,000 and began to be part of the Virreinato of the "Rio de la Plata", within the Interior of Cordoba of the Tucumán of which he was capital (the region of Córdoba of the Tucumán included the territories of San Luis, Mendoza, San Juan, La Rioja and Santiago del Estero).

. . When the Revolution of May took place (although a great majority of the population adhered to the revolution) Cordoba was the initial bastion of "the realistic" opposition led by Liniers. Troops from Buenos Aires and Santa Fe were sent and end up defeating and shooting almost all of the Realistics (including Liniers).
During 1815, Cordoba transformed into the geographic center of the fight between Federals and Unitarians. In 1816, the province of Cordoba participated in the Congress of Tucumán and proclaimed Argentina’s independence definitively. For such a Congress, the province of Cordoba sent three deputies, the only federals who could participate: Jose Antonio Cabrera y Cabrera, Eduardo Perez Bulnes and Jerónimo Salguero. Nevertheless all at first refused to continue in the Congress when it was transferred to Buenos Aires. Just a short time later the territory of the province was transformed into a battlefield between the federals and the faction of the Unitarians. From 1833 to 1852, after to have led a unitary league governed by J.M. Paz, the province happened to have governments of apparently federal sign.

In February of 1852, all of Argentina passed to the control of the Unitarians, although with a nominally Federal constitutional system. The economic-political power of Cordoba in this period is reflected in the fact that three presidents of Argentina in that time were Cordoban (Santiago Derqui, Juárez Celman and Jose Figueroa Alcorta).

During the decade of 1870-80, the province passed through a period of prosperity and advance facilitated by the accomplishment of the railways and the arrival of a great amount of immigrants, mainly Italian, Spanish, Germans, Armenians, etc.
In 1918, the University Reform, a social movement headed by students of the National University of Cordoba, finished with the writing of a statute and autonomy of the universities that was soon followed as an example by other Latin American universities.

In 1927, with the creation of the Military Airplane Factory, a new era began: the industrial, consolidating thirty years later with the installation of great automotive complexes and numerous manufacturing establishments.

In 1969, another social movement initiated in Cordoba had repercussions at a national level. The students followed the factories workers that had gone out to protest the unjustified dismissal of coworkers and the working conditions. The marches were transformed into a rebellion that after several episodes of violence, ended one year later with the fall of president General Onganía and subsequent democratic elections. This revolution is known as the CORDOBAZO.

The "economic opening" initiated in the second half of the 1970’s and intensified during the 90's negatively effected the industrial sector of all Argentina, especially the province of Cordoba.
In 1989, the national scene included an economy in fast decomposition, hyperinflation and external debt. Once in the presidency, Dr C.S. Menem, started up a low deficit program that included health, education and social security budget cuts, forgetting his campaign promises of high salaries and productive revolution. A great privatization plan was implemented in an attempt to stop the crisis, where the state companies were privatized, even those that were not in debt. Another characteristic of this government was the "1 to 1"; that is, the parity of 1 peso national currency to 1 dollar United States currency.
In 1999, after two terms of Menem’s government, Dr Fernando de la Rúa assumed the presidency .He had to face a hard economic situation. On the first of december 2001Cavallo, Minister of Economy, decreed a monetary state of emergency; an emergency situation that implied the partial immobilization of all the banking deposits within 90 days, known as "the corralito". As a consequence, it diminished the consumption and the production activity. The diverse social actors, political parties and unions arranged mobilizations. Sackings of commerce took place. The Government responded with the resignation of Cavallo and the declaration of the state of siege. This decision was repudiated, during days of the 20 and 21 of December, with "cacerolazos" of protest and mobilizations that the police could hardly repress. De la Rúa invited the justicialism to participate in a government of national agreement. The justicialists did not accept, and the president, after reading in national chain his resignation, slipped out of the Pink House in a helicopter that took it to the Olives Residence. During and after the crisis, numerous efforts of diverse sectors of the society created small and medium size companies that gave their fruits primarily because of the competitive exchange rate.

After the serious crisis of 2002, Cordoba has resurged again as an important industrial pole in the country. With the high yield of the farming activity, Cordoba has experienced a strong economic growth as of 2004. The rise of the construction of horizontal properties and private districts, the expansion of the commercial sector (impelled by the greater consumption) and the improvement of the productive capacity and the new installation of big and small companies has given to the city of Cordoba the pre-crisis economic power.
Since 2006, the technological sector has expanded, fed by the new companies of national capital and the installation of foreign branches. It is projected that in 2008, the city of Cordoba will be established as the largest technological sector in the country.

Economy
Other economic activities, aside from industry and tourism, are:

Agriculture: sorghum, corn, wheat, potatoes, soybean, sunflower, and the agriculture of Argentine peanut. Important plantations of olive trees and grapes also exist.

Mining: an important production of granite, salt, mica, quartz, onix, clay, manganese, uranium and small gold deposits.

Tourism
Fresh air, and pleasant temperatures in almost every month of the year. With these climatical qualities, Cordoba was recommended as a place in where one could recover from astmma and other respiratory diseases. And thus began a great commercial activity.
The province, and particularly "the Sierras" have been throughout XX century one of the main touristic attractions of Argentina. Villa Carlos Paz (35km from the city of Cordoba) is recognized as the second most important touristic city in the country.
Carlos Paz has an intense commercial activity that includes dining rooms, restaurants and theaters. There are all kinds of accommodations such as hotels, inns, hostels, cabins, bungalows, houses and apartments to rent. The province has organized "Touristic Paths", which are routes with a series of attractions:

History Path: Includes the north area and the area of the "Sierra Chica" that leaves from the Royal Path that tied Peru with the Virreinato of the La Plata River. It is a zone with a mountain landscape covered by native vegetation and crystalline streams and includes: Villa Beyond, the Limekiln, Unquillo, Río Ceballos, Aguas de Oro, Salsipuedes, La Granja, Ascochinga, Jesús María, Colonia Caroya, Villa of the Totoral, Dean Funes, Tulumba, Colorado Hill and Villa de Maria.

Palavachasca area: Privileged by its beauty, it offers a variety of camping. Sites in order to be in permanent contact its natural surroundings.
City of Alta Gracia born from the old Alta Gracia Jesuits Stay. Which are a member of agroup of constructions that were declared Cultural Patrimony of the Humanity by UNESCO. The Stay has one of the first hydraulic engineer installations and the Stem was the dam that fed the orchards and the mills. The church presides over the central seat of the City, and to its flank, the residence is today a museum of great architectural and historical interest.
The National Historical Museum, House of Virrey Liniers; in 1810, the penultimate Virrey of the La Plata river, resided here for five months.
The"CHE" Guevara Museum: Villa Nydia is one of the houses habited by his family, in the rooms are showed the experiences of the childhood and adolescence of Ernesto Guevara of the Serna in High Grace.

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© Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC), Córdoba, Argentina