The current territory of Uruguay, before the discovery of the Rio de la Plata (Silver River but generally known as River Plate) by the Spanish explorers, was inhabited by various native tribes mostly of the “guaraní-tupí” ethnic and linguistic group. The tribes that lived in what is now Uruguay were mainly the Charrúas, the Minuanos, the Yaros, the Bohanes and the Guenoas. They were mostly nomads and lived of hunting and fishing.
The Rio de la Plata was discovered in 1516 by the Spanish explorer Juan Díaz de Solís who was searching for a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, and a way towards Asia. When he found the estuary of the river he thought that was the path he was looking for. They slowly made their way west until they arrived to the site near what is now the city of Colonia. There he realized that it was a river and not the passage West he had expected.
Trying to find more information from natives they saw ashore, Solis and some mariners disembarked in a spot near Carmelo, but they were attacked by the Charrúas and killed. The expedition was abandoned and the rest of the mariners returned to Spain.
In 1536, Pedro de Mendoza founded what he called the port of Santa María Nuestra Señora de los Buenos Ayres on the opposite side of the Rio de la Plata. This fortress port did not survive long as they were attacked by native tribes. But the Spanish crown needed a port of access to the Atlantic ocean, so they built a second city in the same spot, which they called Ciudad de la Santisima Trinidad y Puerto de Nuestra Señora del Buen Ayre, which goes to show that the Spanish lords were not in for short names.
The Spanish conquerors founded also the city of Asunción, in what is now Paraguay, and from there started building cities and fortresses in all the territories that now are Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile and Perú. But the "oriental" side of the territory, east of the river Uruguay, was difficult to conquer because of the defense of the Charrúa natives. In 1605 Governor Hernando Arias de Saavedra (Hernandarias), first American born ruler (he had been born in Asunción), seeing that the land was excellent for growing cattle, sent one hundred cows and horses to be set free in that territory. The pastures were so good that the animals multiplied so that two centuries later they were counted by the million. This territory, then called La Banda Oriental (the oriental band) become very interesting due to the great quantity of meat and leather available. It was specially interesting for the Portuguese in Brazil as it also offered access to the Rio de la Plata.
In 1680 they invaded the territory. They built the port of Colonia del Sacramento in front of Buenos Aires. But when the Portuguese began to build a fort further up the river, the Spanish saw their access to the Rio de la Plata threatened and send an expedition to force them to leave the territory. When the Portuguese receded the Spanish built a fortress to maintain a defence of their territories. Soon a city called San Felipe y Santiago de Montevideo began to grow next to the fort.
There are different theories on the origin of the name Montevideo. One states that a Portugese mariner when he saw the hill of Montevideo shouted, “Monte vide eu” which means “I saw a hill”.
A second theory states that an exploratory ship sailing up the Rio de la Plata counted the hill of Montevideo as the sixth hill or mount going from East to West. This was written down as “Monte VI-D-E-O” (Monte VI de Este a Oeste) which means “VI Mount going from East to West”. I´m not sure if it´s likely but it surely is romantic.
Montevideo soon developed and grew into an important city for the Virreinato del Rio de la Plata (Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata) that had its capital in Buenos Aires. The other important city in the Banda Oriental was Colonia del Sacramento that for many years went back and forth between the Spanish and the Portuguese.
In 1806 and 1807 the Rio de la Plata was invaded by an English army and the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo taken and placed under the British Crown. Receiving no support from Spain or the Viceroy a defense was organized by local soldiers and civilians. The English were finally defeated and they retreated. This gave the inhabitants of the Rio de la Plata the first notion that they could function on their own without the support of Spain. This was the first seed of what later on led to the independence from Spain.
In 1810 Buenos Aires declared its will to become an independent state and under the military leadership of Generals José de San Martin and Manuel Belgrano began the war of Independence. Most of the inhabitants of the Banda Oriental did nos support this effort. On July 9th 1816 what is now Argentina became an independent state named Provincias Unidas del Sud (United Provinces of the South).
In 1822 Brazil declared its Independence from the Portuguese crown. They invaded the Banda Oriental which had been abandoned by the Spanish government. In 1825 a group of 33 men, now famous as the "33 Orientales", led by Juan Antonio Lavalleja crossed the river in small boats and disembarked on the coast of the Uruguay river. Slowly they made their way towards Montevideo, gathering followers on the way, and were able to free the region from the Brazilian invaders. The Argentine Congress in Buenos Aires declared the Independence of the Oriental Province. Brazil then declared war against the Provincias Unidas and this led to a long and bloody war, known as the War of Brazil or Argentine-Brazilian War, that lasted almost three years. Finally peace was achieved.
As a consequence of the peace treaty, the Banda Oriental became a country independent both from Brazil and from Argentina that became known as "El Estado Oriental del Uruguay". Later on it became La República Oriental del Uruguay, better known just as Uruguay.
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