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History
The first European explorers to set
foot in Uruguay were Spaniards, five hundred years,
ago. The native Charrúa Indians thwarted those early
expeditions. In 1680, the first permanent settlement
was founded by the Portuguese at Colonia as competition
to the rival Spanish city of Buenos Aires on the
opposite shore of the Rio de la Plata. In 1726, Spain
responded by building a citadel at Montevideo, now
Uruguay’s capital. Montevideo became the major Spanish
port of the South Atlantic.
For a century or so, in these
colonial times, Uruguay was in
the middle of a tug of war between the Portuguese and
the Spanish. Eventually, Uruguay became an independent
state, constituting a buffer zone between Argentina and
Brazil. Uruguay’s neighboring countries would
repeatedly test its fragile independence.
Uruguayan national hero, José
Gervasio Artigas, declared Uruguay independent in 1815
with his “revolution of the poor.” A year later,
Brazilians attacked Montevideo from the north, and,
after four years of fighting, Uruguay was annexed to
Brazil in 1821. On August 25, 1825, Juan Antonio
Lavalleja and his little group of brave men issued a
declaration of independence. After a three-year fight, a
peace treaty between Argentina and Brazil was brokered
by Britain and signed on August 28, 1828 guaranteeing
Uruguay's independence.
During the mid 1800’s, two warring
factions emerged within the country. These factions
later evolved into the two modern day political parties
of Uruguay: The Blancos (Whites) and the Colorados
(Reds). Uruguay was plagued by civil war, dictatorship,
and political intrigue. It was not until the early
nineteen hundreds that stability began to take hold with
the presidency of José Batlle y Ordóñez. He instituted
a variety of reforms and social services.
In 1984, Julio María Sanguinetti won the presidential election. His
government embraced democratic traditions and
fostered a process of national reconciliation between
political factions.
Uruguay’s economic difficulties
enabled Tabaré Vázquez to win the presidency without a
runoff in 2004; his Broad Front coalition also won
majorities in both legislative houses. Vázquez became
the first leftist to be elected president in Uruguay.
Today, Uruguay’s political conditions are among the
freest on the continent.
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