Portal:Uruguay
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The Uruguay Portal
Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in the Southern Cone of southeastern 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. Uruguay covers an area of approximately 176,215 square kilometers (68,037 sq mi). It has a population of almost 3.5 million people, of whom nearly 2 million live in the metropolitan area of its capital and largest city, Montevideo. The area that became Uruguay was first inhabited by groups of hunter gatherers 13,000 years ago. The first European explorer to reach the region was Juan Díaz de Solís in 1516, but the area was colonized later than its neighbors. At the time of European arrival, the Charrúa were the predominant tribe, alongside other groups such as the Guaraní and the Chaná. However, none of these peoples were socially or politically organized in large groups, which contributed to their decline. Amid territorial disputes, the Portuguese established Colônia do Sacramento in 1680, and the Spanish founded Montevideo as a military stronghold. Uruguay secured its independence between 1811 and 1828, following a four-way struggle involving Portugal, Spain, and later the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and the Empire of Brazil. In 1830, the country enacted its constitution and was formally established as an independent state. During the early years following its independence, Uruguay remained subject to foreign influence and intervention, along with a series of internal conflicts and political turmoil. From the second half of the 19th century, the country saw significant waves of European migration—mainly from Spain, Italy, and France—which greatly influenced its demographics and laid the foundation for modern-day Uruguayan culture and society. National politics were dominated by two political parties: the Colorado Party and the National Party, which clashed in several civil wars during the 19th century and are collectively known as the 'Traditional Parties'. In the early 20th century, a series of pioneering economic, labor, and social reforms laid the foundations of an advanced welfare state. Combined with a period of sustained political stability, these developments earned the country the reputation of being the "Switzerland of the Americas". A series of economic crises and the fight against far-left urban guerrilla warfare in the late 1960s and early 1970s culminated in the 1973 coup d'état, which established a civic-military dictatorship until 1985. Uruguay is today a democratic constitutional republic, with a president who serves as both head of state and head of government. Uruguay is highly ranked in international measurements of democracy, government transparency, economic freedom, social progress, income equality, per capita income, innovation, and infrastructure. It is classified as a high-income economy. It is also highly socially liberal, and has fully legalized cannabis—the first country in the world to do so—as well as same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia. Uruguay is also a founding member of the United Nations, the OAS, and Mercosur. (Full article...) Selected article - Uruguay is a country in the southeastern region of South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, between Argentina and Brazil. It is located in the Southern Hemisphere on the Atlantic seaboard of South America between 53 and 58 west longitude and 30 and 35 south latitude. It is bordered to the west by Argentina, on the north and northeast by Brazil, and on the southeast by the Atlantic Ocean, which makes up Uruguay's coast. To the south, it fronts the Río de la Plata, a broad estuary that opens out into the South Atlantic. Montevideo, the capital and major port, sits on the banks of the Río de la Plata and is on approximately the same latitude as Cape Town and Sydney. Uruguay is the smallest Spanish-speaking nation in South America with a land area of 175,015 km2 (67,574 sq mi) and a water area of 1,200 km2 (463 sq mi). It has an Exclusive Economic Zone of 142,166 km2 (54,891 mi2). It is the only country in South America situated completely south of the Tropic of Capricorn, as well as one of only four such in the world. (Full article...) Selected picture - Carlos Páez Vilaró's "Casapueblo.", Maldonado, Uruguay. Did you know -
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Images of Uruguay People -Eduardo Germán María Hughes Galeano (Spanish: [eˈðwaɾðo ɣaleˈano]; 3 September 1940 – 13 April 2015) was a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist considered, among other things, "a literary giant of the Latin American left" and "global soccer's pre-eminent man of letters". Galeano's best-known works are Las venas abiertas de América Latina (Open Veins of Latin America, 1971) and Memoria del fuego (Memory of Fire, 1982–6). "I'm a writer," the author once said of himself, "obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia." (Full article...) General imagesThe following are images from various Uruguay-related articles on Wikipedia.
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