URUGUAY, FLAG OF

national flag consisting of five white stripes and four blue stripes arranged horizontally and a white canton bearing a golden Sun of May. The flag's width-to-length ratio is 2 to 3. As part of the United Provinces of the Ro de la Plata (formed in 1816), the Banda Orientalwhich would eventually become the country known as Uruguaywas originally under the blue-white-blue horizontally striped flag raised by General Manuel Belgrano in 1812. However, like many other Argentine provinces, Uruguay developed a flag of its own. The earliest example, dating from January 13, 1815, had a red horizontal stripe added in the centre of each blue stripe. On August 25 of that year, the flag was changed to equal horizontal stripes of blue-white-red. When it finally obtained recognition from both Argentina and Brazil as an independent country, the new republic of Uruguay adopted a definitive national flag on December 16, 1828. Designed by Joaqun Surez, it effectively combined a symbol of Argentina with the flag pattern of the United States: on a white background were nine blue horizontal stripes for the nine original departments of the republic. On the white canton appeared the golden Sun of May, whose appearance during a major public gathering on May 25, 1810, in Buenos Aires was taken as a favourable omen for the independence struggle of the Spanish colonies of South America. The number of blue stripes was reduced to four in the flag law of July 11, 1830, which is still in effect. The symbolism of the nine original departments is now expressed by both blue and white stripes, rather than the blue stripes alone. Whitney Smith History Before the Europeans Before the arrival of Europeans, the territory which is now Uruguay supported a small population estimated at no more than 5,000 to 10,000. The principal groups were the Charra and Chan Indians. These seminomadic tribes did not develop the tools necessary to farm Uruguay's grasslands. They moved to the shore in summer to fish and gather clams, fruits, and roots, and inland in the winter to hunt deer, rheas, and smaller game with bolas and bows and arrows. Bands of eight to 12 families under a chief lived in villages of five to six houses made of matted windscreens. The fierce Charra attacked enemies to expand hunting grounds and capture women and children. Colonial period Though the area was explored by the Spanish explorer Juan Daz de Sols in 1516, the absence of mineral wealth or sedentary Indians who could be compelled to work made the Banda Oriental del Uruguay (the east bank of the Uruguay River) unattractive for Spanish settlement. Cattle from neighbouring regions, allowed to roam freely in Uruguayan territory, multiplied over the years until their numbers reached the millions. They were hunted for their hides by gauchos, cowboys of mixed Spanish-Indian ancestry, who nevertheless did not settle the land. In 1680 Portuguese Brazil established Colnia do Sacramento (Spanish: Colonia del Sacramento) in the Banda Oriental on the Ro de la Plata opposite Buenos Aires in order to trade with the Spanish settlers in contraband and siphon off silver from Peru. Spanish authorities countered this move by founding San Felipe de Montevideo as a fortified city in 1726 and attacking Colnia do Sacramento, which was finally ceded to Spain in 1777. Montevideo became the major Spanish port of the South Atlantic, and the process of dividing the Banda Oriental into huge unfenced ranches began. In 1776 the Banda Oriental became part of the Viceroyalty of la Plata, the capital of which was Buenos Aires.