Uruguay

URUGUAY. - I. GEOGRAPHY. - A South American state, enclosed between Brazil and Argentina and facing the estuary of the Rio de la Plata.

It is a country of plains, over which rise modest hill-like swells (600 m. in height), both covered with grasslands, and therefore with a marked pastoral vocation. Livestock raising remains even today the basic activity of Uruguay's economy (22 million head of sheep and 7 million cattle; from these are obtained meat, hides, fats and dairy products), but it tends to be complemented ever more extensively by agriculture: the warm-humid climate permits cereal crops (wheat, maize) and oilseed crops (flax, sunflower) and does not hinder those of the vine, citrus fruits and fruit trees. Mineral resources are lacking, and for this reason too the development of industries is still insignificant.

The area is 186,926 sq km; the population (2.4 million inhabitants; 12 per sq km) is made up almost entirely of whites (95%; among these about 70,000 Italians), and one third is concentrated in the capital, Montevideo (900,000 inhabitants), which is the country's greatest industrial and commercial center.

Uruguay is a unitary Republic, with an elective bicameral parliamentary government and a president renewable every 4 years.

Giuseppe Caraci

II. HISTORY

The first to touch the coasts of U. were: Juan Díaz de Solís who, following in the footsteps of Balboa, while seeking, in 1515, the passage to the South Sea, was slaughtered by the natives on a small island facing the Uruguayan shore; Magellan, whose ships penetrated in 1520 into the Rio de la Plata up to the point where Montevideo would later rise; Sebastian Cabot who, in 1526, sailed up the river without exploring it. Only in 1559 did its colonization begin; in 1564 the first colony would be founded at the mouth of the Rio Negro: it was S. Domingo de Soriano, still existing today. The complete exploration of the country was accomplished only in the 19th century.

The Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, by which Spain and Portugal accepted the famous "raja" devised on the suggestion of Pope Alexander VI, caused a series of struggles between the Portuguese and the Spanish for the possession of U., to which both nations laid claim. This state of affairs ceased only with the Treaty of S. Ildefonso of 1777, after the Spanish governor of Buenos Ayres, De Zabala, had already, from 1726, founded Montevideo, populating it with elements from his own city. Charles III included Montevideo and its territory in the intendancy of Buenos Ayres around that time.

After the battle of Trafalgar (1805), England sent a naval squadron into American waters under the orders of Commodore Home Popham, the conqueror of the Dutch colony of the Cape, to conquer the countries of the Rio de la Plata. The latter, having occupied Buenos Aires for two months (6 Aug. 1806), blockaded the coasts of U., made himself master of Maldonado whence, having received reinforcements, he moved on Montevideo which, after a bitter defense, surrendered (3 Feb. 1807). During the seven months of their occupation the English spread throughout the country the ideas of political and commercial liberty, which led to the first organized revolutionary attempt on 11 Feb. 1811 by a local parish priest, d. Silverio Antonio Martines. His succession was taken up by José Gervasio Artigas. Attacked by the Spanish of Buenos Ayres and by the Portuguese of Brazil themselves, Artigas and his companions, about 16,000 men, determined to make themselves independent of Spain, withdrew into upper U. with that march which is remembered as the "exodus of the eastern people." Artigas dreamed of a confederation between U., the Argentine provinces of Entre Ríos, Santa Fé, Corrientes, Cordoba and the mission territory included in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul: but the Argentines, the Portuguese and the Brazilians were against him. Despite perfect knowledge of the area, the total devotion of his men, their proverbial courage and the many acts of heroism performed by all, it was not possible to resist the continuously renewed offensive action; forced by the superiority of his adversaries to declare himself defeated, Artigas, having set his men free, took refuge in Paraguay, where he remained until his death (Sept. 23, 1850) in a certain sense a prisoner of the dictator Francia.

The war against the Portuguese first, then the Brazilians, lasted from 1820 to 1828, and the Portuguese succeeded in subjugating U., which became their Cisplatine Province (1821). Then the patriots of the region, led by one of Artigas's principal lieutenants, Gen. Rivera, aided by the Argentines under the orders of Gen. Alvear, succeeded in defeating the enemy in the clash of Ituzaingo (Feb. 1827), while the small Argentine flotilla of the Irishman Brown prevailed over the Brazilian squadron. A successful offensive by Gen. Rivera into Brazilian territory led to peace, in 1828, thanks to the intervention of the English minister at Rio de Janeiro, Lord Ponsonby.

Having made itself definitively independent in the Assembly of La Florida on Aug. 25, 1825, on July 18, 1830 it gave itself a constitution from which arose, within its present boundaries, the Eastern Republic of U. In the state the two parties that had led the country to independence dominated, the colorados (liberals) and the blancos (nationals), which still make their valid contribution to the country's evolution. However, until the peace of Oct. 8, 1851 there were continuous struggles among the presidents, between the two parties, and against the Argentine dictator Rosas, who, an enemy of Gen. Rivera, president of Uruguay in 1830-34 and in 1839-1843, organized veritable expeditions from Buenos Aires to seize Montevideo, the center of the Unitarians and the patriots. Giuseppe Garibaldi then carried out his work, who, after commanding with Colonel Coe the Uruguayan flotilla against Tosas's squadron, won numerous successes on the Paraná and elsewhere, to the point of enabling Rivera to return victorious to a liberated Montevideo, following an eight-year siege.

The second fifty-year period was nevertheless difficult also because of the incessant struggles between the parties, pronunciamientos by leaders, and dictatorial attempts by presidents. The transition from military leaders to civilian ones, the origin of economic rebirth, came with the appointment to the supreme office of the State of the jurist Julio Herrera y Obes, an excellent politician (1890-94). After him there alternated in the presidency Juan Lindolfo Cuestas, who began the works to make Montevideo one of the most important and best-equipped ports (1899-1903); José Batlle y Ordóñez (1903-1907), an enterprising and intransigent creole, promoter of a series of social reforms of the broadest scope, continued and implemented by his successor, Claudio Williman (1907-11), who turned his attention to the judiciary and to education, giving life to the High Court of Justice. For the first time in its history, Uruguay saw its budget in surplus. An ally of the Allies in the First World War, Uruguay drew notable financial advantages from the maximum growth of its agrarian economy and of its livestock raising, the main source of its prosperity.

A region constitutionally and profoundly Catholic, with its metropolitan see at Montevideo and suffragan sees at Florida-Melo and at Salto, the Republic has been able, in recent years, to overcome internal difficulties due to rising prices, inequitable wages, strikes, and drought, which imposed harsh restrictions.

Nardo Naldoni

III. EVANGELIZATION OF URUGUAY

The missions established by the Jesuits in the 17th and 18th centuries on the U. River, belonging to the famous "Reductions" (v.) of Paraguay, extended only in their estancias to the north-western part of the present State of U. The few tribes of Indians, numbering 4000, of the territory of present-day U. probably did not undergo the direct influence of the Franciscan and Jesuit missions.

The first place among the Indians was held by the Charuas, known for their stubborn resistance to Portuguese and Spanish colonization in the 18th century, and finally completely exterminated in 1832 by Gen. Ribera. Only after the founding of the State of U. in 1825 was an apostolic vicariate erected in Montevideo in 1830 and then definitively in 1832, elevated to a diocese in 1878 and to an archdiocese in 1897.

In 1897 the dioceses of Salto and Melo were created, the latter from 1931 Florida y Melo, but only in 1919 were they detached and had their own bishops.

Giovanni Rommerskirchen

IV. LEGAL STATUS OF THE CHURCH

The Uruguayan Constitution declares all forms of worship free and asserts that the State does not support any religion in particular (art. 5).

The Catholic Church is recognized as a legal person under private law. The same recognition is granted to the dioceses presently existing (that is, to the archdiocese of Montevideo [v.] with the suffragan sees of Salto and Flora y Melo). The Ordinary, in order to be recognized by the State as representative of the diocese, must present to the Government a certificate from the apostolic nunciature declaring him legitimately appointed. The State has no interference in the appointment of bishops. Other moral persons contemplated by canon law may obtain legal personality according to the norms of ordinary Uruguayan law.

The Church may, subject to certain restrictions, acquire, possess and administer temporal goods. The Constitution recognizes its ownership of all buildings of worship constructed in part or entirely with funds from the treasury, excepting the chapels destined for the service of asylums, hospitals, prisons and other public institutions (art. 5). The same article exempts from taxes the buildings destined for the worship of any religion, and a decision of the Supreme Court of Justice of 29 July 1940 extended this privilege also to annexed buildings. Sacred and religious things are not subject to seizure, and objects destined for worship are not subject to customs duties.

Priests are placed on the same footing as other citizens in the exercise of political rights, and the penal code protects the ministers of any form of worship in the exercise of their ministry. As regards religious, the so-called Ley de conventos of 13 July 1885 has never been explicitly repealed, although in practice it is not applied.

The law of 12 Feb. 1879, besides establishing the civil status registry, provides that "parish priests shall not admit any entry of baptism in their parish books before the certificate of registration in the civil registry of births has been presented to them by the interested parties." This provision was confirmed by the law of 10 May 1886, but no penalty is imposed on transgressors.

The only marriage recognized by the State is the civil one, introduced by the law of 22 May 1885; the religious rite may be celebrated only after the civil one. The civil code, which fully adopted the law, imposes penalties on the minister of worship who assists at a marriage before the civil act has been performed; an exception is made for marriage in extremis, which however produces no civil effects. Divorce is permitted on many grounds. A law of Apr. 1909 prohibited all religious teaching in state schools. The Constitution guarantees freedom of teaching and recognizes the right of parents and guardians to choose for their children or wards the school they desire. State intervention in private schools concerns hygiene, morality, safety and public order (art. 68).

The municipal Regulation provides that corpses be transferred directly from the dwelling to the cemetery. Rarely do the authorities grant exemptions from this rule. The Republic of U. maintains diplomatic relations with the Holy See through, respectively, an Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary and the Apostolic Nuncio in Montevideo.

Ippolito Rotoli

V. For the literature: v. ISPANO-AMERICANA LETTERATURA, XI.

VI. SCHOOL SYSTEM

It can be said that in U. the organization of schools has for several years been moving toward a greater degree of stability and a more keenly felt adherence to the needs of the times and to the increased cultural level of the nation.

a) Preschool education is provided from ages 3 to 6 in kindergartens.

b) Primary education begins at age 7 and comprises two levels: the first of 4 years, the second of 2. The schools that cover both levels and are located in urban centers are called urban, while those that cover only the first level are called suburban and are located in agricultural centers. Linked to the primary schools are other types of school that are more practical than theoretical; for example, schools of musical initiation, agricultural or rural schools, established in centers in the interior of the country and suited to the mentality of the local populations; traveling schools, that is, those in which instruction is given sporadically by teachers who go to groups of workers' children; auxiliary schools, established to eradicate the scourge of illiteracy. All these types naturally share some part of the curriculum with the urban schools, but the rest must be adapted to the capacity and character of the populations.

c) Secondary education (the baccalaureate) is the one that over the years underwent the most radical transformations in order to achieve the level of a true and solid formation and preparation for the various university Faculties. At first the courses were conducted aiming only at the requirements of the Faculties to which the students aspired, without taking into account the studies previously completed, and there were curricula not in keeping with the needs of the times. Until 1912 the secondary school or baccalaureate comprised a period of 6 years, divided into two cycles: the first, of 4 years, with common curricula, the second, of two years, with specialized curricula. The reform of 1912 created 18 lyceums in the capitals of the various departments, preserving the two cycles, in the second of which there were specializations in law, notarial studies, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, engineering, architecture and agriculture. In 1942 the specializations underwent additions and mergers, being reduced to six: 1) medicine, pharmacy, industrial chemistry, dentistry and veterinary medicine; 2) law and notarial studies; 3) economic sciences; 4) engineering and surveying; 5) architecture; 6) agriculture. But not all lyceums possess the 2nd cycle, nor did this type of school win the favor of students, because it increasingly departed from the 1912 model, which conceived the 1st cycle as a completion of primary school and the formation of the pupil for life, developing intelligence and physique, without worrying about forming them exclusively for the various Faculties. Hence the need for a radical reform, which, made flexible through modifications and additions, would impose differentiated lyceums, with 4 years (1st-degree lyceum) of common subjects, after which one may enter the 2nd-degree lyceum, which in addition to common subjects has subjects of a technical character. The schools of a technical character are attached to the Labor University, the others to the University of the ordinary type.

d) University education. The Labor University was rebuilt in 1942 as an autonomous body and aims to train in the most complete manner technicians for industries of the most varied types. The other University (Montevideo), created in 1833, now comprises ten Faculties: law and social sciences, medicine in its various branches, humanities, sciences, etc., and is organized in conformity with the other Universities of South America. Noteworthy is the Institute of Professors, established in 1949, for the training of secondary school teachers.

e) As for school assistance, in 1933 the "Code of the Child" was issued, from which derived the "Council of the Child" in its various sections: prenatal, early childhood (1-3 years), second childhood (4-14), adolescence and work (15-21), hygiene, social and legal service.

Celestino Testore