Uruguayan Democratization
A history of Uruguayan democratization.
Contents
Banda Oriental
The Uruguay River basin was sparsely populated by nomadic peoples. The river itself served as the legal boundary between Spanish and Portuguese land claims. In actuality though, control over the eastern bank (Banda Oriental) traded hands repeatedly. Early on, the Portuguese exploited the remoteness of the region and settled Colonia del Sacramento opposite Buenos Aires on the Río de la Plata, securing a trade and smuggling route on the river. This city traded hands repeatedly, including a cession back to Portugal through the Treaty of Utrecht. On the other hand, Portuguese control over the region was waning in the 18th century, to which point the Spanish settled a fortification at Montevideo to consolidate control.
Territorial conflict in this region ultimately forced the abandonment of the legal complex formed by the Treaty of Tordesillas, the Treaty of Zaragoza, and the papal bull Inter caetera. The Treaty of Madrid in 1750 set the border at the Uruguay River. The seven Jesuit missions that had been established on the eastern bank (the so-called Misiones Orientales) were ordered to relocate west. The Guaraní nation refused the relocation however, and Sepé Tiaraju led a militarized defense. The Guaraní War lasted from 1754 to 1756 and ultimately ended in victory for the joint Spanish and Portuguese forces. However, the Seven Years War broke out that same year; Charles III rose to the throne in 1759 and immediately resolved to renege on the treaty. This theater of the war is sometimes known as the Fantastic War. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 restored the territory to Spain. Portugal soon resumed conflict but the Spanish-Portuguese War ended in decisive Spanish victory. The First Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1777 confirmed Spanish control.
The viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata was established in 1776 with Buenos Aires as its capital. Banda Oriental was incorporated into this viceroyalty, but it remained a substantially independent region. Furthermore, as part of the Napoleonic Wars, the British repeatedly invaded Buenos Aires. There were also fears that the Portuguese, with their royal court relocated to Brazil from 1807, would resume regional conflict. The failure of the Junta of Seville and the emergence of a provisional Primera Junta in Buenos Aires were the final blows. José Gervasio Artigas led the Union of Free Peoples (Unión de los Pueblos Libres) and held effective power in Montevideo. They declared independence from Spain in 1815 and established a federalist government in the Federal League (Liga Federal). Brazil did in fact invade however, and ultimately crushed the league.
Under Portuguese (and after 1822 Brazilian) rule the region became known as Cisplatina. The Cisplatine War then broke out from Argentine agitation, although their forces were unable to meaningfully advance. Nonetheless, the Treaty of Montevideo in 1828 established Uruguay as a state independent of both Brazil and Argentina.
Guerra Grande
The early politics of Uruguay were dominated by the conservative Blancos and the liberal Colorados. Their names are derived come from the uniforms worn throughout the Uruguayan Civil War, which began almost immediately.
Fructuoso Rivera served as the first president. Aside from two insurrections led by Juan Lavalleja, the new country saw peace. Manuel Oribe succeeded him in 1835 and brought in dramatic policy shifts; he granted amnesty to Lavalleja and purged Rivera and his supporters from the Army. He was also a known ally of Juan Manuel de Rosas.
Rivera began organizing a rebellion the next year, drawing on the variety of exiled liberal movements that had settled in Montevideo (especially the Argentine Unitarios). He directed his supporters to wear blue and later red ribbons, in contrast to the white Army uniforms. These Colorados fled into the Riograndense Republic but returned to seize power in 1838.
In 1839 the Colorados invaded Argentina, marking the beginning of a conflict known as either the Great War (Guerra Grande) or the Uruguayan Civil War. The front quickly collapsed however, and Montevideo was beseiged for 9 years. Nominally the Gobierno de la Defensa formed by the Colorados was led by president Joaquín Suárez throughout this time. Undeniably however, effective power was held by Oribe and the Gobierno del Cerrito he led.
Montevideo attracted international attention during this protracted stalemate. Several foreign legions were raised. The most famous of these was the Italian Foreign Legion a.k.a. the Redshirts, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi. Beginning in 1845, the British and French also intervened by blockading Buenos Aires and occupying the Río de la Plata. They withdrew after securing a treaty with Argentina in 1850 however.
In 1851, Justo José de Urquiza launched a rebellion within Argentina and Brazil joined the war on Colorado's side. This stage of the conflict is commonly referred to as the Platine War. Oribe was quickly defeated and de Rosas was forced to stand down within a year.
The treaties negotiated between Uruguay and Brazil at this time created their modern border following the Quaraí River (Rio Quaraí, Río Cuareím) and the Jaguarão River (Rio Jaguarão, Río Yaguarón). Uruguay ceded all land north of the Quaraí and recognized Brazil as having exclusive navigation on the Jaguarão (as it is only navigable up to the town of Jaguarão).
Republic of Uruguay
Juan Francisco Giró of the Blancos was elected president in March 1852. In September of the next year, he was overthrown by a Colorado coup. A triumvirate of Rivera, Lavalleja, and Venancio Flores was established. The former two died shortly after however, leaving Flores as sole president. He in turn was overthrown in 1855 by a Blanco rebellion.
The 1860s were characterized by the Uruguayan War and the Paraguayan War. Bernardo Berro had become president in 1860 and established an alliance with Francisco Solano López of Paraguay. Pedro and Mitre sought to reinstall Flores to counter López. Brazil and Argentina invaded Uruguay together in 1864. Following the Treaty of the Triple Alliance of 1865, Argentina and Uruguay joined on Brazil's invasion of Paraguay. While the conventional war was largely a success for the allies, López mounted a guerilla war with devastating success. The conflict repeatedly spilled back into Uruguay; Flores was assassinated in 1868. Only when López was killed in action in 1870 did the conflict end.
The Colorados now dominated politics, but rivalry with the Blancos remained contentious. The Revolution of the Lances (Revolución de las Lanzas) forced a power sharing agreement; the Blancos were afforded some representation in the legislature and power over 4 of the 13 departments (Canelones, San Jose, Florida, and Cerro Largo). The Colorados began to split over reconciliation; the principistas were in favor and the netos were against. José Eugenio Ellauri was elected president in 1973 amid this deepening factionalism. In January 1975, a military coup led by Lorenzo Latorre overthrew the government. Pedro Varela formed a new government that was dominated by militarists including Latorre, who served as minister for War and the Navy. By March 1976, Varela had lost Latorre's support and resigned. Latorre reigned as dictator until 1880.
Civil conflict between the Colorados and Blancos resumed in the Revolution of 1897 and the Revolution of 1904, both largely led by Aparicio Saravia. The Colorados remained dominant and rather repudiated power sharing. José Batlle y Ordóñez was first elected president in 1903 and remained the dominant figure in national politics through to his death in October 1929. He pushed through the Constitution of 1918, which divided executive power between the presidency and a new National Council of Administration (Consejo Nacional de Administración). This body by design gave 6 seats to the governmental party and 3 to the opposition.
In November 1930, amid the Great Depression, Gabriel Terra was elected president. A militarist and fascist, he frequently criticized the new constitution and the power afforded to the NAC. Ultimately, in 1933, he used an auto coup to dissolve it. The Constitution of 1934 that he pushed through guaranteed equal representation in the Senate Terra handed power to Alfredo Baldomir in 1938. In the context of the now-ongoing World War 2, Baldomir framed his policies as neutral on fascism and pro-democracy. He did use another auto coup, in 1942, to override political opposition. New elections were held that year and he peacefully left power.
Civic-Military Dictatorship
Exacerbating economic problems led to gradual but widespread failure of the state.
First, in an upset, the National Party (which succeeded the Blancos) won the 1958 elections and formed a government for the first time since the Uruguayan War. The Nationalists pursued dramatic reforms in the way of laissez faire economics and free trade, but could not resolve the underlying economic problems. The Colorados were returned in 1966.
More importantly, the National Liberation Movement emerged as a communist revolution. More commonly known as the Tupamaros, this organization launched a series of terrorist attacks, assassinations, and disappearances. Reactionary death squads then targeted groups perceived as associated with the Tupamaros.
Finally in 1972, the government declared the conflict against the Tupamaros to be an intrastate war. The military was authorized to mobilize domestically; they quickly and brutally suppressed the Tupamaros while also suppressing a broad spectrum of political opposition.
After completing the eradication of the Tupamaros, the military declined to let go of power. The so-called civic-military dictatorship continued the suppression of political opposition and broadly employed torture and disappearances. In 1984, the informal Naval Club Pact agreed to begin a transition back to democratic governance in exchange for amnesty.
Return to Democracy
A general election was held in 1984. The Colorados and Nationalists remained dominant and, between them, continued to monopolize the presidency until 2005. In 2019 they came together to form the Republican Coalition (Coalición Republicana).
Many of the parties which had been banned by the dictatorship, including the surviving Tupamaros, came together to form the Broad Front. From 1999 onwards, they have continuously held a majority in the legislature.