Machagai () is a city in

Chaco Province Chaco (; Wichi: ''To-kós-wet''), officially the Province of Chaco ( es, provincia del Chaco ), is one of the 23 provinces in Argentina. Its capital and largest city, is Resistencia. It is located in the north-east of the country. It is borde ...

, Argentina. It is the head town of the Veinticinco de Mayo Department.

Toponimy

In the

Qom language Toba Qom is a Guaicuruan language spoken in South America by the Toba people. The language is known by a variety of names including Toba, Qom or Kom, Chaco Sur, and Toba Sur. In Argentina, it is most widely dispersed in the eastern regions of th ...

''"Machagai"'' means ''"lowland"'', referring to its geographical features as a slope near rivers like the Bermejo and Paraná.

History

Native Argentines like the

Qom people The Toba people, also known as the Qom people, are one of the largest indigenous groups in Argentina who historically inhabited the region known today as the Pampas of the Central Chaco. During the 16th century, the Qom inhabited a large part of ...

used to wander through the area, giving the place its name. After the end of the

Argentine Civil War The Argentine Civil Wars were a series of civil conflicts of varying intensity that took place through the territories of Argentina from 1814 to 1853. Initiation concurrently with the Argentine War of Independence (1810–1820), the conflict p ...

, the government turned its attention to scarcely populated regions of the country like

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and gl ...

and Chaco and started to promote the arrival of immigrants to populate and strengthen them. The province of Chaco was one of the most transformed by this wave of immigration.De Europa al Chaco: Colectividades, Mutualismo y Mantenimiento Cultural
/ref> In 1909 the first Serbian immigrants from the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

came to Machagai and founded their agricultural colonies, in 1921 by State decree it was promoted to the category of town. Until the mid-20th century, Machagai continued to receive immigrants from

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

and Spain.

References

External links

Populated places in Chaco Province {{ChacoAR-geo-stub