Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the Atlantic ocean to the southeast. It is part of the Southern Cone region of South America. Uruguay covers an area of approximately 181,034 square kilometres (69,898 sq mi) and has a population of around 3.4 million, of whom nearly 2 million live in the metropolitan area of its capital and largest city, Montevideo.
The history of Uruguay comprises different periods: the pre-Columbian time or early history, the Colonial Period (1516–1811), the Period of Nation-Building (1811–1830), and the history of Uruguay as an independent country (1830-present).
The politics of Uruguay abide by a presidential representative democratic republic, under which the president of Uruguay is both the head of state and the head of government, as well as a multiform party system. The president exercises executive power and legislative power and is vested in the two chambers of the General Assembly of Uruguay. The Judiciary is independent from the executive and legislature.
The term federalist describes several political beliefs around the world. It may also refer to the concept of parties, whose members or supporters called themselves Federalists.
José Gervasio Artigas Arnal was a soldier and statesman who is regarded as a national hero in Uruguay and the father of Uruguayan nationhood.
The Broad Front is a left-wing political coalition from Uruguay. It was the ruling party of Uruguay from 2005 to 2020 and has produced two presidents: José Mujica (2010–2015) and Tabaré Vázquez. Since 1999, it has been the largest party in Uruguay's General Assembly.
The municipal elections held on May 14, 2000, resulted in the consolidation of the EP-FA as the most popular party, a strong recovery for the Partido Nacional after its worst ever performance in the 1999 general elections, and a slight drop of support for the incumbent Partido Colorado of President Jorge Batlle.
The Portuguese conquest of the Banda Oriental was the armed-conflict that took place between 1816 and 1820 in the Banda Oriental, for control of what today comprises the whole of the Republic of Uruguay, the northern part of the Argentine Mesopotamia and southern Brazil. The four-year armed-conflict resulted in the annexation of the Banda Oriental into the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves as the Brazilian province of Cisplatina.
Foreign relations between the Argentine Republic and the Oriental Republic of Uruguay have existed for over a century. Both countries were part of the Spanish Empire until the early 19th century.
Líber Seregni Mosquera was a Uruguayan military officer and politician. In his youth he was a member of the Colorado Party. Under successive governments of that party, he had a successful military career until his retirement in 1968.
Artiguism is the set of political ideas, economic and social, of José Gervasio Artigas, the main leader of the Oriental Revolution held in the Oriental Province of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, which was a predecessor of the modern Republic of Uruguay.
Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre and broadly conform with progressivism. Ideologies of the centre-left include social democracy, social liberalism and green politics. Ideas commonly supported by the centre-left include welfare capitalism, social justice, liberal internationalism, and multiculturalism. Economically, the centre-left supports a mixed economy in a democratic capitalist system, often including economic interventionism, progressive taxation, and the right to unionize. Centre-left politics are contrasted with far-left politics that reject capitalism or advocate revolution.
María Julia Muñoz is a Uruguayan doctor in medicine and politician. She served as Minister of Public Health from 2005 to 2010 and as Minister of Education and Culture between 2015 and 2020.
Americans in Uruguay are mostly persons born in the United States and living in Uruguay. There are as well some Uruguayan-born persons of American descent.
Yamandú Ramón Antonio Orsi Martínez is a Uruguayan politician serving as the 24th intendant of the Canelones Department since November 26, 2020. A member of the Movement of Popular Participation – Broad Front, he previously served as the 23rd intendant of Canelones from 2015 to 2020.
Adelia Silva was a Uruguayan educator, writer and social activist. She became the first Afro-Uruguayan to earn a teaching degree. She taught in rural schools, weathering racial and sexist discrimination. She moved to Montevideo in 1956, but was transferred numerous times as a result of racial discrimination, ultimately returning home to Artigas. She filed a complaint with the National Council of Primary Education, which led to widespread media coverage of her treatment, heightening awareness of the racial and gender divides in Uruguayan society.
The Battle of Paso Cuello took place on 19 March 1817 between forces commanded by Carlos Frederico Lecor, at that time Baron of Laguna, and artiguist forces, that is, followers of the caudillo José Gervasio Artigas, led by Fructuoso Rivera and Miguel Barreiro at Paso Cuello, a small stream that divides the modern day Uruguayan departments of Canelones and Florida.
The Artiguist Legion was an anti-communist social and political movement in Uruguay.
The Legion of the Lieutenants of Artigas is an active ultranationalist secret society in the Uruguayan Army. Originally styled as a "lodge" despite not holding any relationship with freemasonry, it later abandoned the term.
