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Uruguay MODERN URUGUAY, 1875-1903
Militarism, 1875-90
Between 1875 and 1886, political parties--as
represented by
the caudillo and the university sectors--were in decline,
and the
military became the center of power. A transition period
(1886-
90) followed, during which politicians began recovering
lost
ground, and there was some civilian participation in
government.
Nevertheless, political parties during this period were
not
parties in the modern sense of the term. Nor, however, was
the
army a professional institution despite its successful
foreign
and domestic campaigns.
Because of serious disturbances, Ellauri was forced to
resign
in 1875. His successor, José Pedro Varela (1875-76),
curtailed
liberties, arrested opposition leaders and deported the
most
notable among them to Cuba, and successfully quelled an
armed
rebellion. At the beginning of 1876, Colonel Lorenzo
Latorre
(1876-80) assumed power; he was appointed constitutional
president in 1879, but the following year he resigned,
after
declaring that Uruguayans were "ungovernable," and moved
to
Argentina.
Colonel General Máximo Santos (1882-86) was appointed
president in 1882 by a General Assembly elected under his
pressure, and his political entourage named him leader of
the
Colorado Party. In 1886 Santos suppressed an insurrection
led by
the opposition, but after an attempt against his life, he
too
resigned and went to live in Europe.
During this authoritarian period (1875-86), the
government
took steps toward the organization of the country as a
modern
state and encouraged its economic and social
transformation.
Pressure groups, particularly businessmen, hacendados, and
industrialists, were organized and had a strong influence
on
government, as demonstrated by their support of numerous
measures
taken by the state.
In the international realm, the country improved its
ties
with Britain. Loans increased significantly after the
1870s, when
the first one was granted. In 1876 British investors
acquired the
national railroad company, the North Tramway and Railway
Company.
They later dominated construction of railroads and
continued
their policy of ensuring control over, and concessions to,
some
essential services in Montevideo, such as gas (1872) and
running
water (1879). Uruguay's adoption of the gold standard
facilitated
commercial transactions between the two countries.
Under Latorre's administration, order was restored in
the
countryside. His government vigorously repressed
delinquency and
unemployment (those without jobs were considered
"vagrants") to
protect farmers and ranchers. Fencing of the countryside
stimulated modernization of the system. Barbed wired was
such an
indispensable element for livestock improvement and for
the
establishment of accurate property boundaries that an 1875
law
exempted imports of barbed wire from customs duties. This
measure
was accompanied by the approval of the Rural Code (1875),
drawn
up with the participation of the Rural Association. The
code
ensured land and livestock ownership and thus social
order.
The government adopted a number of measures to promote
national industrial development. Most important was a
series of
customs laws in 1875, 1886, and 1888 raising import duties
on
products that could be manufactured in the country, thus
protecting indigenous industry. The Latorre government
also
improved the means of transportation and communications,
giving
tax and other concessions for the construction of
railroads,
whose network doubled in size in ten years. The state also
reorganized and took over the postal service and connected
all
departmental capitals by telegraph.
Education reform authored by Varela and implemented in
1877
under the Latorre administration established free
compulsory
primary education. Reform also reached the University of
the
Republic (also known as the University of
Montevideo--established
in 1849 and the country's only university until 1984),
where the
medical and the mathematics faculties were created in 1876
and
1877, respectively.
The secularization process also continued during this
period.
Under the pretext of needing to deal with the chaos in
parochial
archives, Latorre created the Civil Register (1876), which
transferred to the state the registration of births,
deaths, and
marriages. Under the Santos administration, the Law of
Mandatory
Civil Marriage (1885) established that only marriages
performed
in accordance with this law would be considered valid.
Data as of December 1990
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