Uruguay

Uruguay is a small country in southeastern South America, between Argentina and Brazil, on the Río de la Plata and the Atlantic. Montevideo is the capital and largest city, and its metropolitan area holds more than half of the people. Spanish is the national language in practice, and Uruguayan Sign Language has been official since 2001.

Hunter-gatherers lived here 13,000 years ago, and the Charrúa, Chaná and Guaraní met the first Europeans in the 16th century. The Portuguese founded Colonia del Sacramento in 1680, and the Spanish answered with Montevideo in 1726. José Gervasio Artigas, the national hero, defeated Spanish forces at Las Piedras in 1811, but Portuguese Brazil occupied the land as the Cisplatina province. The Thirty-Three Orientals declared independence on 25 August 1825, and after the Cisplatine War the country became a separate state, adopting its first constitution in 1830. The Colorados and Blancos, its two traditional parties, competed for power through the 19th century.

José Batlle y Ordóñez, president in 1903–07 and 1911–15, introduced welfare programs and a plural executive, and waves of migrants from Spain, Italy and France shaped the society. Uruguay won the first football World Cup on home soil in 1930 and again in 1950. In 1973 the armed forces dissolved parliament and ruled until 1985, when civilian government returned under Julio María Sanguinetti. Under the 1967 constitution a single president leads the state and the cabinet, and citizens can propose laws by initiative. In 2013 Uruguay became the first country to fully legalize cannabis, a year after legalizing abortion.

The land covers 176,215 km² (68,037 sq mi) without mountains. Beef cattle, soybeans and wool lead farm exports, and the country has more cattle than people. In 2023 about 98% of its electricity came from renewable sources. Punta del Este is the main beach resort, the colonial quarter of Colonia del Sacramento draws visitors, and the tango La cumparsita was written by a Uruguayan.