URUGUAY PUSHED AROUND (1811-1828)
Uruguay's history of being pawned off from Spain to Portugal wasn't over yet. When Argentina gained their independence in 1811 as the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata. While the Uruguayans weren't thrilled to be under Argentine control it was better than Spanish control. Well, almost anything was better than being under Spanish rule. At least now they wouldn't get taxed excessively and have all of their exports stolen by a country that was thousands of miles away, now they would just be stolen by a country tens of miles away... Better, I guess.
Their brief period of independence was just that... brief when Portuguese Brazil attacked in 1816. Portugal saw all of this independence floating around South America and they weren't having any of that so they ordered their most powerful possession Brazil to annex Uruguay as a province of Brazil. This was hard with a Spanish speaking populace that had ties to Argentina and Spain, but they figured they could do it because Uruguay had history as a Portuguese colony, and it was successful by 1824.
Uruguayans were pissed. They had now been traded off three times to different governments and it was getting stressful to have to change the signs, money, national anthem and flag every two years just because some colonial power felt threatened so they decided "enough of this bullshit" and ordered for independence.
I've noticed most declarations of independence can be summed up with "Enough of this bullshit. I'm out".
BURGEONING POLITICAL FREEDOM (1828-1864)
The revolutionaries that called for Uruguay's freedom were called the Thirty-Three Orientals, called this because there were Thirty-Four of them... Good job! These Thirty-Three or Four Orientals were hugely popular as liberators and both formed new political parties: the Blancos and the Colorados.
The parties immediately aligned with their much more powerful neighbor to the south Argentina, but that proved rough when half of the country was exiled during the rule of dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas.
The Blancos aligned with Rosas, while the Colorados aligned with his opposition, most of which had been exiled, conveniently, to Uruguay.
After yet another invasion, this time by Argentina, Uruguay was a bit tired of being constantly invaded so they fought off the invasion and invested in less easily-invaded cities, I would think.
URUGUAYAN CIVIL WAR & AFTERWARDS (1864-1933)
Uruguay saw what was going on the United States at this time, fighting a huge Civil War and thought "that's a great idea" and set off, not the first, but the second civil war in Uruguay's only 36 year history. Come on guys!
This one was extra-bad because other countries got involved in a proxy-war, that escalated into a full-on real one (Vietnam style). The Blancos were backed by Brazil, while the Colorados were backed by Argentina, so this was less of a Uruguayan civil war and more of an excuse for Brazil to fight Argentina.
This war was less important for Uruguay than it was for Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil as it fucked up the whole area for decades.
After the war the victorious Colorados ruled Uruguay for almost a century. It was a rough time for the country. The Colorados were ideologically split, the Blancos staged several attempted coups and revolts (because they didn't like losing 95 years in a row) and huge number of immigrants from Europe flooded the border. This was back when Europeans immigrated to Latin America, rather than the opposite. (You have to remember that a lot of Western Europe in the late 19th century was really shitty.)
For the second time in Uruguayan history a problem was solved with cows (and sheep) as the government invested in livestock to reinvigorate the economy. The bank was established and the country was connected with telegraph and major ports and canals.
The industrial revolution didn't miss Latin America and Uruguay reaped many of the benefits of it.
In 1903 these changes were furthered by president Jose Batlle y Ordonez who set up a system of welfare and introduced universal male suffrage, lowered taxes for the poor, set up schools, gave women the right to divorce, brought Telephone to Uruguay, introduced Unemployment benefits, set up an 8 hour day and 5 day work week and abolished religion in government. This guy was like Uruguayan Bernie Sanders, or maybe FDR, but in 1903!!!
Turning this photo of Stalin with some guys to his left and a young-looking soldier on the right into a photo of Stalin with some guys to his left.
This tactic makes it hard to tell how many were killed by the military regime, because they weren't just killed, they were made to look as if they never existed.
Their brief period of independence was just that... brief when Portuguese Brazil attacked in 1816. Portugal saw all of this independence floating around South America and they weren't having any of that so they ordered their most powerful possession Brazil to annex Uruguay as a province of Brazil. This was hard with a Spanish speaking populace that had ties to Argentina and Spain, but they figured they could do it because Uruguay had history as a Portuguese colony, and it was successful by 1824.
Uruguayans were pissed. They had now been traded off three times to different governments and it was getting stressful to have to change the signs, money, national anthem and flag every two years just because some colonial power felt threatened so they decided "enough of this bullshit" and ordered for independence.
I've noticed most declarations of independence can be summed up with "Enough of this bullshit. I'm out".
BURGEONING POLITICAL FREEDOM (1828-1864)
The revolutionaries that called for Uruguay's freedom were called the Thirty-Three Orientals, called this because there were Thirty-Four of them... Good job! These Thirty-Three or Four Orientals were hugely popular as liberators and both formed new political parties: the Blancos and the Colorados.
The parties immediately aligned with their much more powerful neighbor to the south Argentina, but that proved rough when half of the country was exiled during the rule of dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas.
The Blancos aligned with Rosas, while the Colorados aligned with his opposition, most of which had been exiled, conveniently, to Uruguay.
After yet another invasion, this time by Argentina, Uruguay was a bit tired of being constantly invaded so they fought off the invasion and invested in less easily-invaded cities, I would think.
URUGUAYAN CIVIL WAR & AFTERWARDS (1864-1933)
Uruguay saw what was going on the United States at this time, fighting a huge Civil War and thought "that's a great idea" and set off, not the first, but the second civil war in Uruguay's only 36 year history. Come on guys!
This one was extra-bad because other countries got involved in a proxy-war, that escalated into a full-on real one (Vietnam style). The Blancos were backed by Brazil, while the Colorados were backed by Argentina, so this was less of a Uruguayan civil war and more of an excuse for Brazil to fight Argentina.
This war was less important for Uruguay than it was for Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil as it fucked up the whole area for decades.
After the war the victorious Colorados ruled Uruguay for almost a century. It was a rough time for the country. The Colorados were ideologically split, the Blancos staged several attempted coups and revolts (because they didn't like losing 95 years in a row) and huge number of immigrants from Europe flooded the border. This was back when Europeans immigrated to Latin America, rather than the opposite. (You have to remember that a lot of Western Europe in the late 19th century was really shitty.)
For the second time in Uruguayan history a problem was solved with cows (and sheep) as the government invested in livestock to reinvigorate the economy. The bank was established and the country was connected with telegraph and major ports and canals.
The industrial revolution didn't miss Latin America and Uruguay reaped many of the benefits of it.
In 1903 these changes were furthered by president Jose Batlle y Ordonez who set up a system of welfare and introduced universal male suffrage, lowered taxes for the poor, set up schools, gave women the right to divorce, brought Telephone to Uruguay, introduced Unemployment benefits, set up an 8 hour day and 5 day work week and abolished religion in government. This guy was like Uruguayan Bernie Sanders, or maybe FDR, but in 1903!!!
COUP & DICTATORSHIP (1933-1985)
Of course all of these good things couldn't last. Most world leaders are more Mussolini that Ordonez and in 1933 Mussolini fanboy Gabriel Terra took hold during one of the world economy's worst times: the Great Depression. The Great Depression affected all countries that were connected to the stock market, one of which was Uruguay.
Uruguay was in full insane-spiral. A new constitution was drafted which was so revolting to former president Baltasar Brum that he ran into the central square of Montevideo and shot himself in protest.
In WWII Gabriel Terra broke ties to Germany (because even Hitler was too dictator-y for some dictators). It was neutral in WWII, but supplied food (primarily those cows) to the allies. Uruguay did pretty well economically during the 40s & 50s, even though it was run by Gabriel Terra, a guy who looks like an Indiana Jones villain's slightly more buffoonish brother and his cronies.
In the 60s a group tired of government rule began robbing banks and giving money to the poor like Uruguayan Robin Hood, but unlike real Robin Hood they were immediately quelled by CIA affiliate US OPS who trained the Uruguayan police to use crocodile clamps and car batteries to torture people. Yay America!?
Full Dictator-mode was put into effect once again in 1973 when civil liberties were slowly stripped away and the government was replaced with a Military administration. There were elections in the late 70s and 80s, but the only voters were a shadowy military council, so is it really democracy... The answer is no.
The military administration made heavy use of the Stalinist tactic of dissapearance. This is when you kill someone, and then take incredible, almost insane care to wipe every instance of their existence off of any records: census, destroying anything they've written, destroying records of conversations and even photoshopping them out of photos like Stalin did.
Turning this photo of Stalin with some guys to his left and a young-looking soldier on the right into a photo of Stalin with some guys to his left.
This tactic makes it hard to tell how many were killed by the military regime, because they weren't just killed, they were made to look as if they never existed.
RETURN TO STABILITY (1985-PRESENT)
After the military administration was deposed Uruguay returned to a pattern of democratic voting. In 1989 Luis Alberto Lacalle instituted some new economic reforms. In the 90s primary elections were instituted to make their democracy more closely resemble our broken democracy. Which is an odd choice, but okaaaaaay...
The Colorados which had existed from Uruguays beginning to the present still are in government. You might also know president Jose Mujica who became kind of famous on the internet for being both president of Uruguay and a cute old man. He was called "the poorest president" only recieving a salary of $14,000 a year, after he donated 90% of it to charity. He also drove a rusty Volkswagen Beetle instead of the presidential car. This guy seems pretty legit.
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