Uruguay history · History of Uruguay
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History of Uruguay
History of Uruguay
Uruguay was discovered by Spanish Adelantados in the ends of the XVI century, and was part of the River Plate Virreynate until 1811.
When Buenos Aires expelled the last Viceroy, Baltasar Cisneros, the capital moved to Montevideo.
The rebel navy sailed from Buenos ires in an attempt to overcome the Spanish troops in that city, aided by the local rebel troops.
When finally Montevideo was freed from Spain, Uruguay intended to secede from Buenos Aires, only to be invaded by the Brazilian Empire, which started the Argentine-Brazilian war in 1813.
The war eventually ended in a tie, both warring countries agreeing to end their territorial claims on the country, giving birth to the new Republic.
The coming Argentinian Civil War was not strange to Uruguay, which soon gave birth to two opposing parties, the Whites (liberals) and the Reds (traditionalists) that eventually also led to a Civil War that intermitently went on until the beginnings of the XX century.
The solution was very unusual: a collegiate Executive Office in which a different member was designated President every year.
In this way, Uruguay became the "Latin American Switzerland" for a long time, acting as model of democracy and banking liberties until a military coup ended all this.
A Marxist urban guerrilla movement, the Tupamaros, launched in the late 1960s, led Uruguay's president to agree to military control of his administration in 1973. By the end of the year the rebels had been crushed, but the military continued to expand its hold throughout the government, with widespread torture of political opponents. Civilian rule was not restored until 1985. Uruguay's political and labor conditions are among the most free on the continent. In 2004, a leftist coalition which included the Tupamaros won elections which left them in control of both houses of congress, the presidency, and most city and regional governments.
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Uruguay Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.