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Rh all contributed to the extinction of the Spanish power on the Rio de la Plata. During the War of Independence, Montevideo was taken in 1814 by the Buenos-Airean general Alvear (see further ). A long struggle for dominion in Uruguay between Brazil and the revolutionary government of Buenos Aires was concluded in 1828, through the mediation of Great Britain, Uruguay being declared a free and independent state. The republic was formally constituted in 1830. Subsequently Juan Manuel Rosas, dictator of Buenos Aires, interfered in the intestine quarrels of Uruguay; and Montevideo was besieged by his forces, allied with the native partisans of General Oribe, for nine years (1843–52).

After the declaration of independence the history of Uruguay becomes a record of intrigues, financial ruin, and political folly and crime. The two great political factors for generations have been the Colorados and the Blancos. So far as political principles are concerned, there is small difference between them. Men are Colorados or Blancos largely by tradition and not from political conviction. The Colorados have held the government for many years, and the attempts of the Blancos to oust them have caused a series of revolutions. The military element, moreover, has frequently conspired to elect a president amenable to its demands. In 1875 General Latorre headed a conspiracy against President Ellauri and at first placed Dr Varela in power as dictator, but in 1876 proclaimed himself. In the following year Latorre caused himself to be elected president, but political unrest caused him to resign in March 1880. The president of the senate, Dr Vidal, nominally administered the government for two years, when General Santos, who had held the real power, became president. His administration was so vicious and tyrannical that the opposition organized a revolution. Their forces, however, were surprised by the government troops at Quebracho, on the Rio Negro, and defeated. Ultimately the Colorados themselves exiled Santos. He had plundered the national revenues and scorned constitutional government. The Colorados now made General Tajes president, the practical direction of the administration being in the hands of Julio Herrera y Obes. In March 1890 General Tajes handed over the presidency to Herrera y Obes, a clever but unscrupulous man, who filled every official post with his own friends and ensured the return of his supporters to the chamber. In 1891 he was obliged to suspend the service of the public debt and make arrangements by which the bondholders accepted a reduced rate of interest. The country was at this period conducted practically as if it were the private estate of the president, and no accounts of revenue or expenditure were vouchsafed to the public. In 1894 the Colorados nominated Senor Idiarte Borda for the presidency. He seemed at first inclined to govern honestly, but corruption soon became as marked as under the preceding régime. The Blancos, using the fraudulent elections in 1896 as a pretext, now broke out in armed revolt under the leadership of Aparicio Saraiva. The president made no attempt to conciliate them, and in March 1897 a body of government troops suffered a reverse. On the 25th of August 1897 Borda, after attending a Te Deum at the cathedral in Montevideo, was shot dead by a man named Arredondo, who was sentenced in 1899 to two years’ imprisonment. The defence was that the murder was a political offence, and therefore not punishable as an ordinary case of assassination for personal motives.

The president of the senate, Juan Cuestas, in accordance with the constitution, assumed the duties of president of the republic. He arranged that hostilities should cease on the conditions that representation of the Blancos was allowed in Congress for certain districts where their votes were known to predominate; that a certain number of the jefes politicos should be nominated from the Blancos; that free pardon be extended to all who had taken part in the revolt; that a sufficient sum in money be advanced to allow the settlement of the expenses contracted by the insurgents; and that the electoral law be reformed on a basis allowing the people to take part freely in elections. Cuestas. on attempting to reform corrupt practices, was soon threatened with another revolution, and on the 10th of February 1898 he assumed dictatorial powers, dissolved the Chambers and suspended all constitutional guarantees. In the following year he resigned and was re-elected to the presidency on the 1st of March 1899. His second term was marked by premonitions of further disorder. In July 1902 a plot for his assassination was frustrated, and in 1903, on the election of Iosé Battle to the presidency, civil war broke out. On September 3, 1904, the revolutionary general Saraiva died of wounds received in battle; and later in the year peace was declared. Claudio Williman became president in 1907. The Colorados favoured Battle as his successor, and before the elections to the chamber in November 1910 the Blancos were again in arms.

URUGUAYANA, a city and river port of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on the left bank of the Uruguay river, 348 ft. above sea-level (at the R. R. station) and about 360 m. in a direct line W. of Porto Alegre. Pop. (1900) 13,638. A railway connects with Quarahim (47 m.) on the Uruguayan frontier, and thence by a Uruguayan line with Montevideo by way of Paysandú. The same line extends N. 62 m. to the naval station of Itaquy. A cross-country line was under construction in 1909 to Cacequy, which is in direct communication with Porto Alegre and the city of Rio Grande. The upper Uruguay is navigable from the Quarahim to the town of Sao Tomé, and small river steamers ply regularly between Ceibo, on the Argentine side, and the latter. Opposite Uruguayana is the Argentine town of Restauracion, or Paso los Libres. The river is 2 m. wide at this point, and 154 ft. above sea-level. Uruguayana is prettily situated on a low hill rising gently from the riverside and its low houses are surrounded by orange groves. There are large military barracks near the shore, a theatre and a custom-house. The surrounding country is chiefly pastoral, but there is a small area under vineyards, and in addition to grapes some other fruits are produced. Uruguayana was captured by a Paraguayan force under General Estigarribia on the 5th of August 1865, and was recaptured without a fight by the allied forces under General Bartolomé Mitre on the 18th of September. The Paraguayan occupation left theitown partially in ruins, and it remained in a decadent condition until near the end of the century, when reviving industries in the state and a renewal of railway construction promoted its commercial activity and growth.

USAS (from the root vas, to shine, and cognate to Latin Aurora and Greek  ,) in Hindu mythology, the goddess of dawn. She is celebrated in some twenty hymns of the Rig Veda, and is the most graceful creation of Vedic poetry. She is borne on a shining car drawn by ruddy cows or bulls. She is the daughter of the sky and the sun is her lover. She is described as “ rising resplendent as from a bath, showing her charms she comes with light ever shortening the ages of men she shines forth  she reveals the paths of men and bestows new life she opens the doors of darkness as the cows their stalls.” Scarcely the name of the goddess survives to-day, so completely was she associated with the Vedism long dead and gone.

USEDOM, an island of Germany, in the Prussian province of Pomerania, lying off the Baltic coast, and separated by the Swine from the island of Wollin, which together with it divides the Stettiner Haff from the open sea. It is 31 m. in length.