Uruguay historical timeline

Origins

The Charrúa and other peoples lived on these grasslands and resisted Spanish settlement for a long time; there was no gold and no dense population to conquer, so Spain largely ignored the territory until Portugal began to take an interest. Colonia del Sacramento was founded by the Portuguese in 1680 and Montevideo by the Spanish in 1724 to counter it, and the country spent the next century as the buffer between two empires.

Turning points

José Artigas led the fight against Spain and then against Buenos Aires, arguing for a federal arrangement that lost. Brazil annexed the territory, the Thirty-Three Orientals crossed the river to reclaim it, and in 1828 British mediation produced an independent Uruguay — created, in effect, so that neither neighbour would have it. Beef and wool made the country rich, and immigration from Spain and Italy built Montevideo. Then came the reforms of José Batlle y Ordóñez: between 1903 and 1915 Uruguay separated church from state, legalised divorce at a woman’s request, abolished the death penalty and introduced the eight-hour day — a welfare state before most of Europe had one. Uruguay won the first football World Cup in 1930 at home, and the 1950 final in Brazil. Economic decline, guerrilla conflict and a military dictatorship from 1973 interrupted the record; democracy returned in 1985.

Influential people

José Artigas, the national hero, whose federalist argument lost and whose statue is in every town. Batlle y Ordóñez, who built the modern state. Eduardo Galeano, whose Open Veins of Latin America was read across the continent. José Mujica, a former guerrilla who spent years in solitary confinement, became president, gave away most of his salary and drove a 1987 Beetle. And Luis Suárez, because this is Uruguay.

Cultural evolution

Mate is carried in the crook of the arm with a thermos, constantly, by everyone; Uruguay drinks more of it per head than any country on earth. Candombe — drumming in three interlocking parts, descended directly from enslaved Africans in Montevideo — is UNESCO-listed and still played through the streets of its own neighbourhoods. Carnival runs for forty days, the longest anywhere. And the asado is not a barbecue so much as a weekly institution.

Present-day significance

Uruguay consistently ranks at or near the top of Latin America for democracy, press freedom, low corruption and income equality. It legalised cannabis nationally in 2013, the first country in the world to do so. Around ninety-five per cent of its electricity comes from renewables. Agriculture, forestry, software and a large financial services sector carry a population of three and a half million.