Uruguay THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARMED FORCES
The colonial Watchman's Tower at Maldonado
Courtesy Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
The military history of Uruguay is rooted in
seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century clashes between settlers from Spain's
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata ruled from Buenos Aires
to the
west and settlers from Portugal's Viceroyalty of Brazil to
the
northeast
(see The Struggle for Independence, 1811-30
, ch.
1). At
stake was the territory on the east bank of the Río
Uruguay known
as the Banda Oriental (eastern side, or bank), which
formed a
buffer between the two viceroyalties. In 1720 Spanish
colonists
built a fortress at Montevideo as an overt manifestation
of their
interest in the Banda Oriental and to put a stop to
Portuguese
expansion.
Data as of December 1990
|