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Uruguay Facts
Uruguayan Facts
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 Did you know ? |
Uruguayan women obtained the right to open separate bank accounts in 1918, before Canadian women.
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Language : Castellano (spanish)
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Currency : Peso
(You can use Euros or American dollars) |
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| Map > select place |
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Legend :  articles
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| General Information |
 The capital is Montevideo and the country has less than 3,5 million of people. Knowing that almost 80% of the people live in the capital, makes you understand how much is left for nature.
Uruguay is a country with a mix of nationalities. You will find people that have their origen from Italy, Portugal, Russia, Poland, Germany, Belgium and Spain.
The ancesters from Spain are coming from a time that the conquers invaded South-America. The mix of the other nationalities rooted from the fact that after the world wars people were looking for other places to live. Especially in the ´50th, a lot of people came to Uruguay, because the economy was blosseming.
Especialy the export of meat to europa. In those days Uruguay was known as the Switzerland of South-America.
Export products for Uruguay are most of all meat. But also rice, fruits leather products & wool, diaryproducts and electricity. Uruguay is a land of water. More than 95% of their electricity is made by water.
Uruguay has 19 departments, has a democratic and uses Spanish as his language.
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| Anthem of Uruguay |
Orientals, our nation or the grave,
Liberty or with glory we die.
Its the vows that our souls pronounce
and which heroicly we will fullfill.
Liberty, Liberty, Orientals.
This is the outcry which our nation saved
and its braves in fierce battles
of sublime enthusiasm enflamed
This Holy gift of Glory we deserved
Tyrants: Tremble!
Liberty in combat we will Cry Out!
and even dying, Freedom we shall also Shout!
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 Did you know ? |
 In 1939, the Graf Spee , a small Nazi battleship, after sinking several British ships in the Battle of the Atlantic, was cornered near Montevideo harbour by the British navy.
Rather than surrender to the British, Captain Hans Langsdorf sent his crew ashore and scuttled his ship in the Río de la Plata.
This event is remembered as an important confrontation early in the Second World War.
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Battle of River Plate
| The Graf Spee lays exactly where she sank in 1939.
She is in 65 feet of murkey water inside the Rio de la Plata about 3 miles from Montevideo.
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| When the great ship first reached the bottom, much of her superstructure was above water.
However, today nothing remains above the surface.
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Restored parts of the Graff Spee.
Go to see it in the port of Montevideo
Graff Spee project
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| The country |
 Uruguay is a triangular shaped country located on the Atlantic coast between Brazil and Argentina.
It is bordered on the east by the Atlantic ocean, on the south by the Rio de la Plata and Rio Uruguay, and on the north by the Rio Quareim. With about 68,000 sq. miles (176,000 sq. km).
It is the smallest independent country of South America. It’s highest point is just over 1600 ft. It’s landscape is mostly grasslands in the central regions and long sandy beaches at the coast.
Being surrounded by such large amounts of water, its climate is not too hot in summer (max. 35c) and not too cold in winter (min 3c).
The official name of Uruguay is ” Republica oriental del Uruguay”. The “oriental” comes from the fact that the country lies on the oriental (east) part of Rio Uruguay. The name Uruguay itself originates from the language of the first inhabitants, the Guarani Natives. Their word “Uru” was given to a bird that lived near the river. Their word “gua” means “to proceed from” and “y” means “water”. Combining the three words you spell Uru-gua-y and it means “water where the uru comes from”.
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| The Shield |
 The oval shield, crowned with a sun is divided into four quarters. If you take a look at it, on the upper left on a blue field, you will see a pair of scales, representing.
Equality and justice. On the upper right, on a field of silver, is a mountain - El Cerro de Montevideo - a symbol of power. On the lower left, also on a silver field, is a horse running free - a symbol of liberty. On the right on a blue field you will see an ox - a symbol of abundance, and at the base are branches of olive and laurel - symbols of peace.
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| The flag |
 The present flag was adopted on July 11-th, 1830. On that date, the number of stripes was reduced by law to five white and four blue, one for each of the nine political divisions originally forming the Republic of Uruguay.
The original flag was a white field with nine horizontal azure blue stripes with El sol de Mayo (The Sun Of May) in a white canton. El Sol De Mayo has sixteen rays. They change the rays from straight to wavy (this symbolizes Uruguay’s independence), while the white and blue stripes indicate her former association with Argentina.
Uruguay’s originally used the flag of Jose Artigas, their national hero who first tried, in the early 19th century, to free the country from the Spanish rulers. This flag was a blue, white and blue triband with a red diagonal line.
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