History of Uruguay
aspect of history
The history of Uruguay comprises different periods: the pre-Columbian time or early history (up to the 16th century), the Colonial Period (1516–1811), the Period of Nation-Building (1811–1830), and the history of Uruguay as an independent country (1830–present).
Written history began with the arrival of Spanish chroniclers in the expedition of Juan Díaz de Solís in 1516 to the Río de la Plata, which marks the beginning of Spanish occupation of the region.
In 1527 the first European settlement was established in the territory of present-day Uruguay. It was called Sán Lázaro and founded by Sebastian Cabot who was in command of a Spanish expedition. In 1777 the Spanish Crown established the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, which began to disintegrate with the Revolution of May 1810.
The territory of present-day Uruguay was invaded by the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarve, initially becoming part of the Portuguese kingdom as Cisplatina Province. In 1824 it was annexed to the Empire of Brazil, and a year later it declared its independence, which began the Cisplatine War. In 1828, with British mediation, a peace agreement was signed and the independence of Uruguay was recognized. In 1830 the country's first constitution was promulgated.
Native
The earliest traces of human presence are about 10,000 years old and belong to the hunter-gatherer cultures of Catalanense and Cuareim cultures, which are extensions of cultures originating in Brazil.
The public source identifies “History of Uruguay” as aspect of history. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around History, Uruguay and aspect.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1132690. The Library of Congress control number is sh85141489. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1516, 1811, 1830 and 1527.
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This entry incorporates text from “History of Uruguay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.