[citation needed] In 1845 Sweden formally recognized Argentine sovereignty and shortly afterwards the warships Lagerbjelke and Eugenie paid a visit to the new country while also checking out trade routes on the South American continent.

But the travel accounts written by two naval officers aboard were as much, if not more, about the beautiful porteña women of Buenos Aires, as they were about the dramatic political events taking place.

Swedes were drawn to the province Misiones at the beginning of the 20th century, at the prospect of growing yerba mate, used to make the herbal tea that is Argentina's national favourite drink.

Around 1913 word started going around that across the border, in the Argentinian territory of Misiones, the land was more fertile and the government was providing incentives for farmers to grow a profitable cash crop known as the green gold – yerba mate.

The first Swedes to cross the border to Argentina found not only Brazilian, Paraguayan and German colonists, but also a group of Finnish intellectuals who had fled their country in 1906 for political reasons.

They were disciples of botanist Carl von Linné and accompanied Captain Cook on his world expeditions to pick exotic flowers and record anomalies.

[citation needed] For many people in Sweden, Argentina is both a familiar and a mythological place brought to life by the lyrics of the popular singer-songwriter Evert Taube who lived in the South American country for five years between 1910 and 1915.

Contrary to widespread perceptions, Taube did not work as a gaucho (cowboy) on the Pampas but as a foreman supervising workers who were digging canals designed to prevent flooding on the vast plains.

[4][5][6][7] On 15 September 1927, his wife Jenny Katarina Wågberg died and on 28 February 1929, he left Argentina with his four children and returned to Sweden where he married his housekeeper, Bertha Debora Engström.