Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0382/03828.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 35KB | 587 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03828}
$Pretitle{297}
$Title{Uruguay
Chapter 3.    Historical Setting}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{The Director Foreign Area Studies}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{president
uruguay
government
ch
blancos
colorados
country
de
montevideo
political}
$Date{1971}
$Log{}
Country:     Uruguay
Book:        Area Handbook for Uruguay
Author:      The Director Foreign Area Studies
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1971

Chapter 3.    Historical Setting

     In 1970 the early history of the country was clearly reflected in the
characteristics of the people and their culture. Spanish, the national
language, and Roman Catholicism, the prevailing religion, were legacies of the
colonial period. The virtual absence of mestizos (people of mixed European and
American Indian ancestry) was traceable to the fact that the Spanish settlers
did not superimpose the colony on an existing Indian civilization, as was the
case in some other parts of Latin America, and the indigenous tribes in the
territory were eliminated at an early date. The people's spirit of
independence and freedom of action may mirror the life of the wide-ranging
gauchos (cowboys) who opened up the country in colonial times, as well as the
nation's experience in contriving to survive, during its early history, as a
buffer state.

     The struggle between Spain and Portugal and, later, between Brazil
and Argentina for control of Uruguay loomed large in the early history of the
country. Lacking precious metals, the territory was not exploited by the
Spaniards until settlers moved in to gain a livelihood by slaughtering horses
and cattle for their hides.

     The people honor their national hero Jose Gervasio Artigas, who in
1820 launched an unsuccessful attempt to gain autonomy for the country
within the boundaries of a regional federation. In 1828 independence was
finally and formally gained after a war fought by Argentina and the Uruguayan
patriots against Brazil. Civil wars, foreign intervention, and invasions
harassed the country until the beginning of the twentieth century.

     A leader known as the Father of Modern Uruguay was Jose Batlle y
Ordonez, who served as president in the early twentieth century and
established the pattern for the future political development of the country.
Batlle initiated social and political reforms that were still in evidence in
1970-extensive welfare programs and widespread government control and
operation of enterprises.

     The early history of political rivalry is preserved in the names of the
two political parties. Colors worn for identification by the troops of the
two Uruguayan leaders who opposed each other at the battle of Carpinteria in
1836 were red (colorado) and white (blanco). The Colorado party, whose most
prominent leader in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was
Batlle y Ordonez, took up the cause of the urban middle and lower class
citizens, whereas the National Party (Partido Nacional), commonly known as
the Blanco party, represented the large landowners, the Church hierarchy, and
persons in big business. The Colorados, who controlled the government from
1865 to 1958, were defeated by the Blancos in the elections of 1958 and 1962
but returned to power after the 1966 election. Except for a period of rule by
decree between 1933 and 1938, politics in the twentieth century have been
conducted within a constitutional framework, and transfers of power from one
party to the other have been orderly.

     Throughout the history of the Republic, the economy has been based
primarily on pastoral and agricultural production and the export trade. Thus
the lives of the people have been directly affected by world conditions
determining the prices paid for their exports. In this connection the growth
of industry, commerce, and banking and the appearance of a middle class and
an articulate laboring class have tended to perpetuate the traditional
rivalry between the city and the countryside.

     In the mid-twentieth century the country faced serious economic
difficulties. Agricultural producers had not taken full advantage of modern
methods, exports failed to earn as much foreign exchange as was needed, and
industry was disrupted by strikes and demands for higher wages. Inflation ate
up the benefits originally intended for a vast number of recipients in one of
the most far-reaching social welfare structures in the world. In the face of
widespread dissatisfaction, governments in the mid-twentieth century were
making determined efforts to put stabilization programs into effect, but the
distribution of wealth had been so generous that it threatened to outrun the
productivity of the country's economy.

     Having been the target of numerous foreign interventions in the
nineteenth century, the country has had a foreign policy of non-intervention
in the affairs of other nations. It has played an active role, however, in
international organizations.

     History shows that a country originally peopled by frontiersmen who were
a law unto themselves became a laboratory of political and social
experimentation that has produced a society notably dependent on its
government for social services and everyday needs.

The Colonial Period

     In 1493 and 1494 papal bulls were issued dividing the New World between
Portugal and Spain, and the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) provided that the
line of demarcation should be drawn 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde
Islands. This line, which crossed the continent of South America near the
mouth of the Amazon, secured for Portugal the title to Brazil. All territories
to the west were to belong to Spain.

     Early in the sixteenth century Juan Diaz de Solis, sailing for Spain and
searching for a strait leading to the Pacific Ocean, landed with some of his
followers on the shores of the estuary of the Rio de la Plata. De Solis and
his companions were killed by Charruan Indians, and the remaining members of
the expedition loaded their ships with brazilwood and returned to Spain.

     The rivers emptying into the estuary were explored by Sebastian Cabot,
sailing for Spain, who named one of them the Rio de la Plata because of a
mistaken notion that silver deposits existed in the area. Another explorer,
who founded the settlement of Buenos Aires, was a Spanish knight named Pedro
de Mendoza, who led an expedition seeking a route from the estuary to the
Pacific. The settlement was attacked by Indians, and Mendoza returned to
Spain.

     During the sixteenth century most of the Spaniards who landed on the
eastern shores of the estuary were driven off by the warlike Charruas, who
fought with clubs, bows and arrows, and bolas (stones fastened to thongs).
Lacking precious metals, the land did not attract colonists to the extent that
other areas of the New World did, and it was the last region to be claimed for
Spain.

     Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries came to Uruguay in 1624 and,
gathering Indians in mission villages, spread Spanish influence. They played
an important role in holding Uruguay against the Portuguese, who founded Nova
Colonia de Sacramento on the Rio de la Plata opposite Buenos Aires in 1680.
In 1767, however, Jesuits were banned from Spanish territories in the New
World, and their settlements were gradually broken up. It was not until 1726
that the Spaniards established Montevideo as a stronghold against the
Portuguese in Brazil to the north (see ch. 10, Religion).

     In 1776 the lands of the Rio de la Plata region were separated from the
control of the viceroy in Lima, Peru, and the Viceroyalty of La Plata was
established with Buenos Aires as the viceregal seat. In the same year the
Spaniards seized Nova Colonia de Sacramento, which was formally ceded to them
by Brazil in 1777. This cession consolidated Spanish control over the Banda
Oriental, or eastern bank of the estuary, for the time being.

     In 1796 Spain was at war with England, and Spanish power was declining.
A series of British naval and