Before the arrival of the Spanish conquest, the Guaraní lived in a big area that also covered most of the current province of Corrientes. The city of Corrientes was founded on April 3, 1588 by Juan Torres de Vera y Aragón as a mid-stop between Asunción and Buenos Aires; the city flourished thanks to the traffic from the route. Jesuits erected missions in the north of the province, where they dedicated themselves to the expansion of the faith. In the wars of independence from Spain, Corrientes joined Artigas' Liga de los Pueblos Libres (1814–1820). The attack of Paraguayan forces on the province in 1865 marked the start of the War of the Triple Alliance.
In 1819 the National University of the Littoral was founded, which in 1956 became the National University of the Northeast.
Corrientes is legendary in the world of philately for the postage stamps it issued from 1856 to 1880. These are among the very early or "classic" postage stamps of the world (the first, from Great Britain, were issued in 1840; those by the United States in 1847). The Corrientes stamps were close copies of the first issue of stamps from France, which depicted the profile head of Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, and were individually crudely engraved by hand, so that each dieis noticeably different, and were printed in small sheets. The first issues, from 1856 to 1860, bore the denomination in the lower panel; in 1860, the value panel was erased; the different denominations thereafter being indicated by the color of the paper used. As locally produced "primitives", the early Corrientes stamps have long been prized by collectors. After 1880, stamps of Argentina were used.
During much of the 19th and 20th centuries, politics in Corrientes were dominated by the Romero Feris family, large local landowners who control most of the province's tobacco output. During most of this time, the Romero Ferises created one of Argentina's most bloated government payrolls (over 10% of total employment) and suppressed dissent and efforts at even modest land reform. Following contentious election results in 1991, however, public protest forced President Carlos Menem to remove Gov. Raul "Tato" Romero Feris from office and, though he was elected mayor of the province's capital in 1997, Romero Feris was ultimately indicted for embezzlement of public funds in 1999. He was sentenced to 7 years in prison in May, 2002.
The northeastern tip of Corrientes Province was chosen as the site for Yacyretá Dam following an agreement between President Juan Perón and Paraguayan President Alfredo Stroessner in 1974. Yacyretá, whose 20 year-long construction and US$11 billion cost far exceeded initial estimates, is one of the largest hydroelectric dams in the world. Currently, an agreement is being pursued with Paraguay which would allow reservoir expansion works that could double the facility's current installed electric capacity of 4,050 MW.
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The province of Corrientes region covers roughly the Guaranis, ancient inhabitants of the area, called Taragüí (lizard, by the abundance of them in the area). It is difficult to determine exactly when the data population of this territory by guaraníes nomads, but is likely to come to him, along the rivers in the middle of I millennium a. C., after the division that separated the speakers of Tupi Guarani ñe'engatu of themselves.
The primitive Corrientes were established along the coast of Paraná, semi-nomadic communities formed, that last well into the era colonial.4 maintained hostile relations with its inhabitants, the bellicose Charrua (Pampa), who lived in the province of Entre Rios and the Eastern Republic of Uruguay.
In December 1527, Sebastian Gaboto, Venetian navigator in the service of Spain, discovered the river Paraná and March 31 of 1528, the Paraguay river, being thus the first sighted the west coast of Corrientes.
When given the adelantazgo Pedro de Mendoza in the Region of the Rio de la Plata, by Capitulaciones held between him and the king of Spain, flows remained in the territories granted to it.
The city of Corrientes was founded by Juan Torres de Vera advance and Aragon with the help of Alonso de Vera y Aragón, called Tupi and Hernando Arias de Saavedra-Hernandarias on April 3, 1588. The front needed to do to comply with the surrender of his post, as way station between Asuncion, Paraguay, and Buenos Aires, the growth of the region was favored. Tower of Vera and Aragon did not remain in the new foundation, as it continued to travel to Spain for the ratification of his office. Is the common but erroneous assertion that the founder named the city as San Juan de Vera of the Seven Currents, the minutes of the foundation recorded just the city of Vera, expanded over time to honor the founder and patron of the then apocopation in its current form.
The initial settlers were 62 Spaniards and Creoles from Asunción, who joined 86 others who arrived in the city of Concepción de Buena Esperanza. The same movement that led to years of Santa Ana Huacas, Itatí and Saint Lucia, which were organized as villages whose inhabitants were Indians in the great majority of the local Amerindian population.
Many Jesuit missions were set in the present northeast of the province (then part of Misiones), where he developed an intense and peculiar work of evangelization. This was the true catalyst of Guarani society in the region, as the alliance of political leaders (the mburuvicha guazú) with the Society of Jesus won the temporary protection of the Crown of Spain from the pressures of the colonial hacienda, interested in submitting to a system of parcels, and looting of the Brazilian Bandeirantes. Not all tribes Guaranito benefited from this system, however, while a large number of guaraníes settled in the missions and retrajeron remained hostile to the most isolated and remote areas of the region. The population Guaranito resulted in much of the social fabric that was the basis for the current organization of the province, despite the expulsion of the Jesuits led to the depopulation and loss of eastern territory of the Missions, which will eventually fall into the hands of Brazilians.
When the Royal Charter by December 16 of 1617, the government initially assigned to Pedro de Mendoza was divided into two, the City of San Juan de Vera of the Seven Currents, was, along with others, in the jurisdiction of the Governor's River of silver.
In the eighteenth century, conflicts between the natural flows and the governorship of Buenos Aires, to which he belonged, were intense, were mainly due to refusal to perform military service against the inhabitants of other areas or the natives. In 1732 an uprising commoner rose up against the governor Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, taking the side of the community of Asuncion, was harshly suppressed by troops sent from the capital. 30 years later, Governor Pedro de Ceballos was faced with a similar situation, caused by the order of recruiting militia to open a path towards real Tucumán.
Retaliation from the central government included the relocation of the River Uruguay which developed commercial transport in the Paraná, which was a blow to the local economy based on shipbuilding, providing naval carpentry throughout the Viceroyalty and tissues for the provision of autoabastecimento and neighboring markets.
Governors of the Royal Ordinance of 28 January 1782, which amended the administrative organization of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata by creating the Governor's Intendencias made that flows are assigned to the municipality of Buenos Aires.
Own body is an organized militia, Hunters Corrientes, which during the English Invasions of 1806 and early 1807, assisted in the defense of Buenos Aires under the command of Juan José Fernández Blanco, assistant to the Third of Vizcaino. The body was removed after the failed coup of January 1, 1809 led by Martin de Álzaga.
The city of Corrientes, and endowed with a clear identity for the time of independence argentina, now allied with the province and Spanish Creoles of Buenos Aires, becoming part of the alliance of provinces which form the Republic of Argentina later in 1811 people correntino adhered firmly to the May Revolution sending Simón José García de Cossio as first deputy in the Primera Junta of Buenos Aires, about the same time received little liberating troops under the command of General Manuel Belgrano in voluntarily going to review them many young Corrientes.
An open forum meeting at the March 11 Corrientes 1814 Juan Bautista Mendez elected as governor of the province. On April 20 of that year, the Town Council declared the independence of the province under the federal system recognizing General Jose Gervasio Artigas as Protector of the Free Peoples.
Established as an autonomous province, and indeed, the Director of the State Supreme Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, by decree of September 10, 1814, available form the provinces of Entre Rios and Corrientes (this also with the peoples of missions including the theory Brazil current) separately from the Governor's Office of Buenos Aires and fixing their respective jurisdictions.
General José de San Martín, born in the village of Yapeyú located in the province of Corrientes, but at the time of his birth was part of the territory of the Guarani Missions of the Interior, where you can see the ruins of his birthplace and a museum in his memory. Also Sergeant Juan Bautista Cabral, who legend says that at the Battle of San Lorenzo gave his life for the general San Martin, was correntino; Cabral was born in a village called Salted, located 110 km southeast of the capital.
Current stood by the side artiguista in fighting that followed and was a member of the League of Free Peoples, headed by him; Corrientes representatives attended the 1815 Congress of the East, where the provinces of Banda Oriental, Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Rios, Misiones and Santa Fe were declared independent of Spain and any other foreign power.
Between 1818 and 1819, the government of the province was conducted by Andres Guazurary, lieutenant of Artigas, flatly rejected by the local patrician Guarani origin, however Guazurary was a wise and enlightened governor. A defeat of Artigas, the provincial government remained in the hands of the Supreme entrerriano, Francisco Ramirez, who later proclaimed the Republic of Entre Rios, which also included the territory correntino. Evaristo Carriego would be the military commander of the Department of transient currents during the Republic period, which was founded on no fewer than 12 schools and conducted the first census of the postcolonial era. Fallen Ramirez in July 1821 for his disagreements with the Santa Fe Estanislao Lopez, who allied himself with the board porteño against it, an uprising deposed Carriego.
In open council was appointed governor of Ramon Atienza, who convened a Provincial Congress. It issued 11 December 1821 the Provisional Rules, Constitution Correntina first. The Provincial Congress appointed governor Juan José Fernández Blanco at the end of that year.
Following Fernández Blanco deal chair of the provincial government one of its key figures, Brigadier General Pedro Ferré. Ferré ensure the region's eastern province, lawlessness by the conflict with the Brazilians, who had come to the weapons, which ultimately gave way to the provincial territory, also signed peace with the chieftains Chaco, ending the system of reductions and promote the region's economy. His relationship with Buenos Aires, and governed by Juan Manuel de Rosas, serious conflicts, the centralism of Buenos Aires, no less in phase than during the preceding Federal Directory, which would result in 1839 the governor of Genaro Berón aliase Astrada was against the East Fructuoso Rivera Rosas. Defeat in Battle of Pago Largo would end this attempt, but would lead to a continuing conflict with Buenos Aires, which would continue the campaign of José María Paz and then on secondment from the Governor Virasoro Benjamin, son of Ferro, in ruling by Justo José de Urquiza. The Corrientes fought against Rosas in Caseros and weight would be a faction of the Confederation in Argentina.
During the War of the Triple Alliance territory was invaded by the Paraguayan troops.
For the Interstate Agreement signed in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1978, the provinces of Chaco and Corrientes settled the dispute for the possession of islands in the Parana River, defining its borders completely.