Uruguay during the First World War
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: In the historiography of the First World War and the partici-pation of Latin American countries in it, Uruguay does not occupy the place compared to Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Nevertheless, the problems analyzed in the article are of great interest: the transition from neutrality to entering into conflict on the side of the Entente; conflicts between "unionophiles", "germanophiles and supporters of neutrality in the two main political parties of the country "Colorado" and "Blanco"; par-liamentary debates and diplomatic relations with the United States and Great Britain; reformist activities of J. Batlle-y-Ordóñez and his supporters, as well as the transition during the post-war period to the stage of neocolonialism, the re-placement of the British «informal empire» by the American hegemony. Considerable attention is paid to the skillful ac-tions of the administration of W. Wilson and the Ambassador to Montevideo, R.E. Jeffrey, who used the rhetoric of pan-Americanism to attract the Uruguayan government to their side in the fight against the Triple Alliance, especially Germa-ny. Artificially fueled fears about the "threat" emanating from German settlements on the Brazilian border played a signifi-cant role in this. The author provides data on the considerable growth of the Uruguayan economy during the war and the post-war period, but concludes that the country's experience (as well as other Latin American satellite states) proved that national industrial development could be effective only in the conditions of weakening or termination of ties with the me-tropolises. When the United States and Britain recovered from the post-war crisis and restored trade and investment flows, they came close to restoring their positions in Uruguay, dragging the satellite country into the global system, and strangling local independent industry. The result was the process of «the development of underdevelopment», which led in the 1930s to an acute economic crisis, the fall of democracy, a coup d'etat and the establishment of the dictatorship of G. Terra.
Author: Nikolay Ivanov
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4405059858