Argentina is a country in South America covering most of the southern part of the continent. It is known as the eighth-largest country in the world. Argentina has played an important part in the continent's history by declaring independence from Spain in 1816 after three centuries. After they declared independence Argentina has grown into a Republic Democracy in the present day. Also in 1861 forty-five years after independence Buenos Aires finally confirmed with Argentina to unite and make a larger country. Also in 1880, Argentina started what was to come decades of liberal economic and immigration policies. These policies lead the country to massive income growth, as well as population growth. In 1826 Bernardino Rivadiva became the first president. Another important fact about Argentina's history is when Hipolito Yrigoyen was elected president, and declared war on Japan. Before the European colonization of Argentina, there was a giant empire called the Inca. The Inca colonized the Andes and were a total of 12 million people. The Inca belonged to 100 different cultural groups and spoke twenty different languages. Now that might seem a lot but compared to England back then there was a total population of 4 million. Natives started building temples around 2500 B.C., and the first American pyramids were built around 1800 B.C. Even though many other groups of people have lived in the Andes since the Inca, the Inca were able to live under a certain system of government. Although the Inca were a powerful empire with almost a decade of power, Europeanspower Europeans colonized the Inca around the mid to late 1500’s. Now for modern-day Argentina the current ethnic groups are European 97%, mostly of Spanish and Italian descent; Mestizo, Amerindian, or other nonwhite groups 3%. Also, the religion data is,  Roman Catholic 92%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 2%, other 4%.