Uruguay

Uruguay is situaded in South America, with its East Coast on the South Atlantic Ocean, between parallels 30° and 35° South latitude and meridians 53° and 58° West longitude. It is threfore located in the warm temperate area of the Southern Hemisphere, boasting mostly maritime weather.

It is bounded on the North with Brazil; on the West with Argentina (Uruguay River); on the South with the Río de la Plata and on the East the Atlantic Ocean. As you might see, it boasts a privileged and strategic location within the Southern Cone of the continent that might become a real strength when it comes to regional integration.

Uruguayan topography is slightly undulated and marked by ranges of low hills that become more prominent in the north as they merge into the highland of southern Brazil. Even these hilly, monotonous areas are remarkably featureless and its elevations known as “cuchillas”, seldom exceed 500 metres. Cuchilla Grande that lies between the Rio Negro, Rio de la Plata and the Atlantic Ocean and Cuchilla de Haedo which becomes Cuchilla Negra and Santa Ana, as it comes close to the Brazilian border, stand out over the undulated ground/plateau. In the East part of the territory you find a chain of mountains called “Serranías” such as Sierra de las Animas which boast two peaks: Cerro de las Animas and Cerro Catedral.

The country has 450 km of coast on the Rio de la Plata and 220 km of maritime coasts. This littoral offers a succession of sandy beaches that are a great tourist attraction alternated with rocky points. The Atlantic coast which is more regular than that of the Rio de la Plata, is prone to flooding at certain places and lagoons are abundant. The most important islands close to the littoral are Juncal, Flores, Gorriti and Lobos.

The country’s fluvial net consists basically of tributaries of the Río Uruguay whose watercourse is 1.600 km. It is born in Brazil and is navigable all the way up to Paysandú even by vessels of great draft. Its tributaries are Cuareim, Arapey, Daymán, Queguay and Río Negro with 600 km that also proceeds form Brazil and crosses the country from east to west and collects Rivers Yí and Tacuarembó, among others. The territory which is well irrigated by a great number of streams boasts over 1.100 km of navigable courses.

Most of the Uruguayan population is of European descent (particularly Italians, Spanish and Portuguese). The reason is simple: the result of different migratory waves that started from the very beginning but the most important wave took place during the first half of the 20th century. There is a small black community that arrived from Africa at the time when the Spanish ruled our country.

Uruguay at present has no indigenous population, making it different from the other countries in the hemisphere.

Uruguayan climate is temperate. Average temperatures: 17º Centigrade in Spring, 25º Centigrade in Summer, 18º Centigrade in Autumn and 12º Centigrade in Winter. Extreme temperatures can climb to 35º centigrade in summer or descend / drop to 3º Centigrade in winter.

The winds that predominate in Uruguay come from the North or the South. The former are hot and damp and the latter are cold and dry.

Uruguay was first inhabited by an indigenous group: the Charrúas. Europeans arrived in 1516 when the land was discovered by the Spanish explorer Juan Diaz de Solis. However, the European attempts of colonization were delayed by the charrúas who would not yield easily.

Between 1680 and 1683, there were disputes between the Spanish and the Portuguese; the latter, finally set up several colonies at the banks of the Rio de la Plata, Colonia de Sacramento among them. Meanwhile, the Spanish kept up the colonization process and found founded Montevideo, in 1726.

The confrontation between the Spaniards and the Portuguese continued throughout the XVIII century, to end up in 1777 when the Spaniards got hold of the territory which came to depend directly from the Viceroy in Buenos Aires.

In 1810 and 1811, under the leadership of José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguayan revolutionaries got together with Buenos Aires patriots and turned against Spain. Spanish authorities were then expelled from Montevideo in 1814 and a national government was set up in 1815. Brazilian Portuguese took advantage of the situation and decided to invade the territory. The Portuguese conquest ended in 1821 with the annexation of the country under the name of Provincia Cisplatina.

However, their authority was not accepted by all the population and a group of insurgents known as – the “Treinta y Tres Orientales” led by Juan Antonio Lavalleja brought independence to the country in 1825.

The Republic Oriental del Uruguay was set up and its constitution adopted in 1830. But soon after independence a number of tensions broke out, ending in a civil war. This opposed follower of President Manuel Oribe and of the first president of the country, Fructuoso Rivera; the former were called “white”, and the latter “red”, because of the colour of their flags.

President Bordaberry (Colorado Party) won the 1971 elections but the country was immersed in an atmosphere of violence that culminated in 1972 with the confrontation between Tupamaros (guerrillas) and the Army.

The political atmosphere became worse and worse until the military coup of 27 June 1973.

Democracy was restored in 1984 and presidential elections took place. Julio Maria Sanguinetti, member of the Colorado Party was elected President – swearing in on 1st March 1985.

In Novembers 1989, Luis Alberto Lacalle, member of the Partido Nacional was elected president. MERCOSUR, (Common Market of the South) was then created with the purpose of integrating the economies of the following regional members: Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

The 1994 election was won by former President Julio Maria Sanguinetti.

In 1994 Jorge Batlle (Partido Colorado) won the elections and it was during his tenure that the 2002 financial crisis , one of the worst in Uruguayan economic history, took place.

In 2004, for the first time in Uruguayan history, a left party led by Tabaré Vázquez came into power.