The name "Uruguay" comes from Guaraní, the original language of the native people of the region. It has many possible meanings since Guaraní is a highly agglutinative language. Two of them are "river of the urus" (uru is a kind of bird) and "river of colorful or 'painted' birds."

The first Europeans arrived in the area in the early 16th century. Both Spain and Portugal pursued the colonization of the Uruguayan territory, with the Spanish eventually gaining control. The future capital, Montevideo, was founded in the early 18th century and became a rival to Buenos Aires across the Río de la Plata. Montevideo, however, was thought of as a military center for the Spanish empire, while Buenos Aires was a commercial center.

The Uruguayan territory was part of the Spanish Virreinato del Río de la Plata (Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata). The first name given to this land was Banda Oriental ('Eastern Shore') and then Uruguayans were known as "Orientales." This name is not really related to the Uruguay River (as many people may think) but to the Río de la Plata, because from Buenos Aires, the Uruguayan shore is seen as it were at the East of the Río de la Plata (and not at the North as it really is.)

The administration of the Banda Oriental was divided in two: Montevideo controlled the areas near the city and Buenos Aires had control over the rest of the territory. Later on, the Banda Oriental, including part of the southern region of the Misiones Jesuíticas (Jesuit Reductions), became the Provincia Oriental. In 1816 Portugal invaded the Provincia Oriental and finally annexed it in 1820 under the name of "Provincia Cisplatina" as a new province for Brazil.

In the early 19th century, independence movements sprung up across South America, including Uruguay. From 1811 to 1816, Jose Artigas, who was born in the province and was former captain in the Spanish army, lead the patriots against Spain, Portugal and the attempts made for the aristocratic government which took the power in Buenos Aires to centralized all the authority in the region. Artigas , who has advanced social ideas taken from the French and American Revolutions and the free-mason ideology, wanted a federation of the provinces and proclaimed progressive law about the property of the land, freedom for blacks and indians, promoted democracy and popular education. Artigas' ideas are comparable with a few other Latin American leaders, the Argentine Mariano Moreno and in particular the Mexicans Bartolome Hidalgo and -later- Benito Juarez and Emiliano Zapata. Artigas was betrayed and defeated in 1816 by the agreement between Spain, Portugal and the authorities of Buenos Aires. He went to exile to Paraguay and died there in 1850. A group of Oriental patriots, former Artigas' lieutenants, the Treinta y Tres Orientales, began a revolt on April, 1825 in the Uruguayan territory and finally on August 25, 1825, the Provincia Oriental declared its independence "from the King of Portugal, the Emperor of Brazil, and from any other in the universe."

Being free now, the province decided to be reunited with the other provinces of the Virreinato that had formed the Provincia's Unidas del Río de la Plata (later known as Argentina.) It was finally accepted by the Provincia's Unidas, but this started a war with Brazil. After the war was over, the Provincia Oriental became an independent country (Treaty of Montevideo in 1828) under the name of "Estado Oriental" which was changed later to República Oriental del Uruguay. The British diplomacy pretty much "invented" Uruguay as an independent country, for 2 reasons:, number 1, to solve the conflict between the Provincia's Unidas (Argentina) and the Empire Of Brazil, and, number 2, to create a smaller country easy to control for the British and gifted with the best port in the whole region: Montevideo.

It is clear that the name of the territory was changed to become "Uruguay", but it is hard to know whether the word "Oriental" refers to the people (the Orientales in plural, Oriental in singular) or the geographical location of the country (at the east of the Uruguay River.) Then "República Oriental del Uruguay" could mean "the Republic of the Oriental people who leaves in the territory of Uruguay," or "the Republic that is at the eastern shore of the Uruguay River." Even when the second option may be the easiest way to understand this official name, the first option may be more logical for Uruguayans still use the word "Oriental" as a synonym for "Uruguayo" (Uruguayan) and the 'official' translation into English that appears eg in Uruguayan passports is "Oriental Republic of Uruguay" and not "'Eastern' Republic of Uruguay".

The original population of Charrúa Indians was gradually decimated over three centuries, culminating on 11 April 1831 in a mass killing at Salsipuedes, which was led by General Fructuoso Rivera, Uruguay's first president. After that date the few remaining Charrúas were dispersed and a viable Charrúa culture was a thing of the past, although Charrúa blood still runs in the veins of many Uruguayans today as a result of extensive Charrúa-Spanish intermixing during colonial times. Four Charrúas — Senaqué, the leader Vaimaca Pirú, the warrior Tacuabé and his wife Guyunusa — were taken to Paris in 1833 to be displayed as circus attractions.

In the latter part of the 19th century, Uruguay participated in the War of the Triple Alliance against Paraguay.

The Uruguayan economy relies largely on agricultural exports. The world wars brought prosperity as Uruguayan beef and grain went to feed a war-ravaged Europe. World food prices dropped precipitously following the end of WWII, which triggered years of decline for the Uruguayan economy. By the 1960's, the stable social system began to break down as the economy spiraled. The government started losing popular support as students, workers and lower-class families felt the pain of an economy unable to adapt to a post-agricultural world economy. The Tupamaros, a radical group, responded to the crisis with violence, which triggered government repression that ended with the suspension of individual rights by the president, Jorge Pacheco Areco, and his successor, Juan María Bordaberry. Finally, in 1973, the army seized power, ushering in 11 years of military dictatorship in what was once one of the most stable democracies in the region. In 1984, democracy was finally restored and Julio María Sanguinetti was elected.

Uruguay received enormous publicity in 1972 due to the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 whose passengers were the alumni rugby team of Stella Maris College (Montevideo). Sixteen survivors were rescued in the Andes mountains when Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa climbed over the mountains in search of help. The story was first told in the 1974 book, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors and more recently in the 2006 book, Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home.

The other source for Uruguayan notoriety is soccer (football, spelled "futbol"). Uruguay won 2 Olympic and 2 World Cup titles, several South American Cups and the Uruguayan soccer teams National and Penarol were crowned several times as the monarchs of the Intercontinental Cup. An amazing accomplishment for a nation of just 3 million people. In later years the economics have determined the decadence of the Uruguayan national teams and clubs, however, Uruguayan individual footballers play for most of the big clubs in Italy, Spain and England.

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( Rio de la Plata in 1603 )

( General Fructuoso Rivera )