Argentina Was Richer Than France... Then It Destroyed Itself (Where Did It All Go Wrong?)

On the night of the 25th of May 1908, the richest families in Buenos Aires walked into the brand new Teatro Colón for Verdi's Aida. Within five years, the average Argentine would be richer than the average Frenchman, German or Italian, and in Paris people said a man with too much money was "rich as an Argentine." On 20 December 2001, a short drive from that opera house, the President of Argentina fled the Casa Rosada by helicopter, the banks were frozen, and the country was heading into its seventh default. This full documentary traces how Argentina went from one of the richest countries on earth to nine sovereign defaults. It covers the beef and grain boom that built Buenos Aires, the Paris of South America, and the millions of Italian and Spanish immigrants who chose it over the United States. Then come the 1930 coup and the Supreme Court note that blessed it, the Infamous Decade, and Juan and Eva Perón. After that, the bombing of the Plaza de Mayo, the coups of 1955, 1962, 1966 and 1976, the Dirty War and the disappeared, the Falklands War, the 1989 hyperinflation, convertibility and the 2001 corralito, and the defaults of 2014 and 2020. It is a story with plenty of blame to go around, from the generals and the Peronists to the bankers and the IMF, and one decision that made every later collapse possible. Who do you think carries the most blame for Argentina's decline? Tell us in the comments, and subscribe to Empty Palaces for more documentaries on how rich countries fall. Canada and Australia were built on the same grass, the same grain and the same immigrant ships, and in 1913 they were in the same league as Argentina. Today the Teatro Colón still fills its boxes for Verdi. A few blocks away, on Florida Street, the building that held the only Harrods ever opened outside Britain has stood largely empty since 1998. Everything that made Argentina rich is still there. The pampas are still there.