'Puerta de la Ciudadela' Colonia del Sacramento

Puerta de la Ciudadela

IŽll try to make this a short history lesson of Uruguay.

Republica Oriental del Uruguay is the official name. It means "Uruguay's Eastern Republic" as it is situated at the east of River Uruguay (the border with Argentina), so the name is actually a geographical situation. The name Uruguay is a native word and means "river of the coloured birds"

At the begining this country was part of the Spaniard dominance over South America and later became a province of what is actually Argentina. Later invaded by the portuguese who later became Brazil we declared our independence in 1825 to become an independent country.

This is just a short introduction. You can google for more detailed information.

Regards,

Rafa

1) About the name. Though all you say is true, it doesn't give the whole picture about why the name of Republica Oriental del Uruguay. Yes, it means "the republic on the east bank of the Uruguay River". However, it's historical origin has another component. It comes from the traditional name of "Banda Oriental" (the Rio de la Plata bank East from Buenos Aires), as known in the Viceroyalty capital of Buenos Aires even before Montevideo was founded. The people of the Banda Oriental were traditionally known as Orientales (long before the "Uruguayo" new name was even imagined). When the Country was founded in 1830, the name had to include someway the "Oriental" word in it so the people won't think it sounded alien, somehow. That's why the ROU name (I guess some one added the concept East of Uruguay Riv, instead of East of Buenos Aires as a much more exact geografic reference). The Uruguayo term only started to substitute the predominance of the Oriental term in the last couple of generations (my grandparents, minded themselves as orientales instead of uruguayos).

2) We haden't declared independence in 1925. What we know as our "Declaration of Independence" is really a declaration to go out from the Brazilian rule and "rejoin" Argentina. Though it migh sound weird to current days Uruguayans, we ended up being independent against the will of the people of that era, as a result of the Peace agreement of the 1925-1928 Argentina+orientales vs. Brazil war.

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