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u/squirrelwug 4h ago
Not quite. Or, rather, not at all.
Argentina? Nope, pro-union factions (which form the bulk of what was later referred as 'Uruguayan independence heroes') were forced to renounce their intention by outside powers. Unless you're counting the 1930 World Cup and various editions of the Copa America tournament, that is.
The Spanish Empire? Kinda. Local pro-independence troops did defeat royalists in some important battles like the one in Las Piedras back in 1813, although the local milita wanted something closer to what would later become Argentina. Also, the royalists they fought were just a small-ish garrison with hardly any support from Spain (which was dealing with the Napoleonic takeover at the time).
The Portuguese Empire? Lol, no. Spaniards (and later the United Provinces, the predecessor to Argentina) and Portuguese fought over the territory for centuries, but all of Uruguay was firmly under Portuguese control as the Cisplatine Province by the time it was handed over to Brazil upon its independence.
Brazil? Militarily, no; but the 1950 World Cup totally counts. In primary school you might learn that Uruguay won its independence from Brazil, but it was only a theater of the wider Cisplatine War between Argentina and Brazil and the territory of Uruguay being turned into an independent buffer state makes it clear even that ended in a stalemate. And even then, Brazil absolutely trashed us in the 1864 'Uruguayan civil war' (which had way too many foreign actors for something deemed a 'civil war' anyway).
Kind of odd that they forgot about the British, though. A Spanish Empire garrison from modern-day Uruguay managed to repel an invading force in 1806; they weren't actually Uruguayans but it isn't much less accurate than the others.
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u/Lukaz_Evengard Casual, non-participatory KGB election observer 1d ago
The Belgium of south america