Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic (Spanish: República Argentina, IPA: [reˈpuβlika aɾxenˈtina], Nación Argentina (Argentine Nation) for many legal purposes), is a South American country, second in size in the continent to Brazil and eighth in the world. Argentina occupies a continental surface area of 2,766,890 km² (1,078,000 sq mi) between the Andes mountain range in the west and the southern Atlantic Ocean in the east and south.
It is bordered by Paraguay and Bolivia in the north, Brazil and Uruguay in the northeast, and Chile in the west and south. The country claims the British controlled territories of the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Under the name of Argentine Antarctica, it claims 969,464 km² (374,312 sq mi) of Antarctica, overlapping other claims made by Chile and the United Kingdom.

"Argentina" derives from the Latin argentum (silver). When the first Spanish conquistadors discovered the Río de la Plata, they named the estuary Mar Dulce ('Sweet Sea', as in a fresh water sea). Indigenous people gave gifts of silver to the survivors of the shipwrecked expedition, who were led by Juan Díaz de Solís. The legend of Sierra del Plata – a mountain rich in silver – reached Spain around 1524, and the name was first seen in print on a Venice map from 1536. The source of the silver was the area where the city of Potosí was to be founded in 1546. An expedition that followed the trail of the silver up the Paraná and Pilcomayo rivers finally reached the source only to find it already claimed by explorers who reached it from Lima, the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
The name Argentina was first used extensively in the 1612 book Historia del descubrimiento, población, y conquista del Río de la Plata (History of the discovery, population, and conquest of the Río de la Plata) by Ruy Díaz de Guzmán, naming the territory Tierra Argentina (Land of Silver).
(Spanish) Supreme Court of Justice of Argentina
(Spanish) Presidency of Argentina
(Spanish) Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Comercio Internacional y Culto (official website of the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Relations, International Trade and Worship)
The Special Relationship between Argentina and Brazil
(Spanish) Historia de las Relaciones Exteriores Argentinas. History of Argentine foreign relations.
(Spanish) (English) Argentina.gov.ar - Official national portal
(Spanish) Gobierno Electrónico - Government website
(Spanish) Presidencia de la Nación - Presidential website
(Spanish) Honorable Senado de la Nación - Website of the Senate
(Spanish) Honorable Cámara de Diputados de la Nación - Website of the CHamber of Deputies
(Spanish) Secretaría de Turismo de la Nación - National Tourism Secretariat website
(English) WikiTravel's Argentina Page
(English) Library of Congress
(English) Open Directory Project
(English) Encyclopaedia Britannica - Argentina's Country Page
(English) CIA World Factbook entry on Argentina
(English) - Travel Advice & Recommendations From Local Experts
For links to online newspapers, see List of newspapers in Argentina.
(English) Argentina Paper Money