[1821-1826 A.D.] new empire was taken, and the emperor Dom Pedro I proclaimed; thus the territory of Uruguay came to be known as the Cisplatine State in the provinces of Brazil in the last months of 1823 and beginning of 1824. The Argentine government had taken advantage of these incidents due to the policy of Banda Oriental to demand from Brazil the evacuation of the territory to which the government of Rio de Janeiro replied in the negative. Public opinion was loud in protestations against these last proceedings, the emigrants from Banda Oriental alleged the necessity of their country being reincorporated with the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata. A declaration of war between the Argentine Republic and Brazil was expected and demanded, but the general government of the first had been dissolved since 1820, and the provinces were separated; and although Buenos Ayres had greatly prospered since the separation, she was not sufficiently strong to declare war alone against the empire, the government of Buenos Ayres was thus compelled to await a more favourable opportunity. Meanwhile the press and the public were in a constant state of agitation, and the convocation of a congress for the purpose of re-establishing a common government for the state was sufficient to cause public feeling in favour of the war to greatly increase. This was the moment for a few natives of Banda Oriental, resident in Buenos Ayres, to form a plan to invade the Cisplatine province, for the purpose of separating it from the empire, and restoring it to the United Provinces. They came to an unanimous decision, and won others to their cause, until the band of the Thirty-three was complete, and entered their native land under the command of Juan Antonio Lavalleja on the memorable day of the 19th of April, 1825, taking with them a few horses, carbines, pistols, and swords, and a few ounces of gold to pay preliminary expenses. URUGUAY BECOMES INDEPENDENT Although the uninhabited and undulating country enabled the cavalry to make surprise attacks, and afforded shelter from danger, yet the expedition of the Thirty-three is worthy to be considered one of the most daring and most deserving of praise for the confidence of victory, which it reveals, in spite of the extreme scarcity of resources with which it was commenced and for the daring courage needed to face the numerous troops of the line defending the Brazilian posts, and the no less terrible power which his fame gave to Rivera in the campaign, his complete knowledge of the territory, and his surpassing ability in guerilla warfare. Results, however, rewarded their heroism; within ten days they captured Rivera, who since Artigas' disappearance had adopted the cause of Brazil, and compelled him to surrender with all the forces under his command; they besieged the fortress of Montevideo, and within two months established in Florida the first revolutionary government. The assembly of deputies within four months declared the acts of incorporation. with Portugal and Brazil null, and Banda Oriental to be united to the other provinces of Rio de la Plata; at the end of five months Rivera won the hard fought battle of Rincon de Haedo; within six the forces of Uruguay gained a splendid victory on the field of Sarandi, and immediately obtained from the Argentine congress the recognition of the incorporation of Banda Oriental with the united provinces of Rio de la Plata (1825). As it may be presumed, the emperor of Brazil lost no time in declaring war upon the Argentine Republic, and in 1826 war was begun. An army composed of infantry, cavalry, and artillery invaded Brazil under command of General Alvear; the vanguard composed of Uruguayans was commanded by Lavalleja; a fleet was equipped [1826-1840 A.D.] in Buenos Ayres, under the orders of Admiral Brown, and glorious hand-tohand battles followed one on the other for eighteen months; but their forces being weakened the opponents accepted England's friendly mediation in 1828, and on the 27th of August celebrated a preliminary treaty of peace by which Brazilians and Argentines settled differences by converting Banda Oriental into a sovereign independent state. In virtue of this treaty the constituent assembly of Banda Oriental published the republican constitution, by which the new political power was to be governed, and the public and public authorities took a solemn oath adopting it (July 18th, 1830). Such are the most important details of the history of Uruguay up to the time when it is presented to other powers as an independent constitutional state. i PARAGUAY Paraguay proclaimed its independence in 1811, and almost immediately came under the power of one man who ruled like a dictator until his death in 1840. This remarkable man was José Gaspar Rodriguez, usually called Doctor Francia, of Brazilian origin, who was secretary to the national junta of 1811.a When the congress or junta of 1813 changed the constitution and established a duumvirate, Doctor Francia and the Gaucho, General Fulgencio, were elected to the office. A story is told in connection with their installation, which recalls the self-coronation of William I of England and Napoleon the Great. In theatrical imitation of Roman custom, two curule chairs had been placed in the assembly, one of them bearing the name of Cæsar, and the other that of Pompey. Francia seated himself in the Cæsar chair, and left his colleague to play the part of Pompey as best he might. In 1814 he secured his own election as dictator for three years, and at the end of that period he obtained the dictatorship for life. He was no mere nominal sovereign; but for the next twenty-five years he might have boasted, with even more truth than Louis XIV, "L'état c'est moi." In the accounts which have been published of his administration we find a strange mixture of capacity and caprice, of far-sighted wisdom and reckless infatuation, strenuous endeavours after a high ideal, and flagrant violations of the simplest principles of justice. He put a stop to the foreign commerce of the country, but carefully fostered its internal industries; was disposed to be hospitable to strangers from other lands, and kept them prisoners for years; lived a life of republican simplicity, and punished with Dionysian severity the slightest want of respect. As time went on he appears to have grown more arbitrary and despotic, more determined to maintain his mastery over the country and more apprehensive lest he should lose it. And yet at the time of his death it is said that he was generally regretted, and his bitterest opponents cannot deny that if he did much evil he also did much good. Deeply imbued with the principles of the French Revolution, he was a stern antagonist of the church. He abolished the Inquisition, suppressed the college of theology, did away with the tithes, and inflicted endless indignities on the priests. "What are they good for?" was his saying; "they make us believe more in the devil than in God." discouraged marriage both by precepts and example, and left behind him several illegitimate children. For the extravagances of his later years the plea of insanity has been put forward. The circumstances of his death were in strange keeping with his life. He was about to sabre his doctor when he was seized with a fit, and he expired the same day, September 20th, 1840.k He ONE year after Bolivar's death the republic of Colombia was split up into the three independent republics of Venezuela, New Granada, and Ecuador, with similar constitutions, which were in general modelled after the constitution of North America. An elective president, with ministers or governmental councillors, stood at the head of the executive power; the legislative was in the hands of a congress consisting of a senate and representatives; the armed power consisted of a standing army, land militia, etc. But whereas in the United States of North America the parties opposed one another only within the bounds of the constitution, the history of the South American republics is an unbroken succession of upheavals, now in a revolutionary, now in a reactionary sense, during which every one of the great parties, into which the population even here was divided, tried to get the control into its own hands and to organise the state after its own principles, until finally racial passions and wars between the white and coloured populations were added to the political struggles. The division into separate states under a weakly organised central power was not sufficient, as in North America, to assure the feeling of liberty, but rather favoured the inclination to internal discord and division. VENEZUELA In the forties the republic of Venezuela was split up into two factions -oligarchists (conservatives) and federalists (radicals)-through whose rivalries and hostilities the state fell into a condition of anarchy, of which the family of Manazas tried to take advantage for the purpose of establishing a sort of autocratic dictatorship. For ten years members of this family, through corruption and revolts, managed to keep in power, until finally General Castro was raised to the presidential chair by the oligarchic or conservative party, and caused a revision of the constitution by a "national con [1841-1887 A.D.] vention." But Castro, who tried to steer his way between parties, succeeded in satisfying none; soon federalists, conservatives, and liberals began to fight one another, and the presidency changed hands four times in three years. Finally Falcon, the leader of the federalists, attained the highest dignity (1863), and, with a newly summoned constitutional assembly, brought about a new constitution, which closely resembled that of the North American union and which gave a most complete victory to the federative system. Eighteen states, independent of one another in their internal political and legislative life, composed the confederated republic of the United States of Venezuela, with a president and congress at Caracas as the highest central authority, and with laws and institutions as in the United States of North America (1864). But the state, by this division of the whole into many single parts, was distracted by revolution and civil dissensions, which, nevertheless, were restricted to a smaller circle and hinged mostly upon a change of persons in authority and upon private interests.b The period of revolutions and civil wars continued until 1870, at the end of which year Guzman Blanco, the leader of the federalists, was made provisional president, and three years later he was elected constitutional president. For the next fifteen years the actual power was in his hands, although according to the terms of the constitution he could hold only alternate presidencies. This period was one of material advance to the country. BOUNDARY DISPUTE The question of the boundary of British Guiana was one of old standing. In the latter part of the thirties Sir Robert Schomburgk had mapped the boundary, and in 1841 he was sent again to survey the line, Venezuela immediately sending a special minister to England to object. In 1876 the dispute was reopened by Venezuela's offer to accept the line proposed by Lord Aberdeen, terminating on the coast at the Rio Moroco, near Cape Nassau. This offer was refused and the question remained open. In 1879 it was claimed that the British made a naval demonstration at the mouth of the Orinoco, to which the United States in the following year objected, intimating that the United States government "could not look with indifference on the forcible acquisition of such territory by England." In the same year the constitution was modified so as to give more power to the central government and to take away much from the separate states. Lord Granville offered a new line, coinciding inland with the Aberdeen line of 1844, but demanding much more of the coast than the Moroco line, though making no claim to the mouth of the Orinoco. The Venezuela government refused this line, which was the least favourable thus far offered to it, and on November 15th, 1883, Venezuela formally proposed arbitration, and in 1885 Granville agreed, but on June 24th, before the agreement was signed, he went out of office and was replaced by Salisbury, who refused his consent to the convention. By this time relations were becoming greatly strained; both Great Britain and Venezuela accused each other of occupying the territory in dispute, contrary to the agreement of 1850. In December, 1886, Secretary Bayard offered the arbitration of the United States, and the pope also offered to arbitrate. But Great Britain refused both offers. Guzman Blanco, before resigning, brought the boundary question to a head by insisting on British evacuation of the disputed territory before February 20th, 1887, so that diplomatic relations were broken off in 1887. Meanwhile [1887-1896 A.D.] Blanco went to Europe with plenipotentiary powers, settled in Paris, and enriched himself by selling Venezuelan concessions. In 1889 there was a revolt against the rule of Blanco and scenes of riot ensued in the capital, statues and portraits of Blanco being destroyed wherever found. In 1890 Andueza Palacio became president by congressional proclamation, and in the same year an attempt was made to revise the constitution. The amendments proposed lengthened the president's term to four years, and extended the power of the president and of the congress by cutting down the powers of the states. Palacio urged the immediate proclamation of the new constitution, so that his term might be lengthened, and, meeting with opposition, resorted to violent measures, which led to a rising against him, headed by the ex-presidents, Joaquin Crespo and Rojas Paul. The fighting began early in April, and by the middle of June Palacio was hemmed in at Caracas, and resigned in favour of Guillermo Tell Villegas, Domingo Monagas and Julio F. Sarra becoming actual leaders of the liberals. On October 5th the decisive battle of San Pedro gave the victory to Crespo and the legalists. Caracas was occupied by the Crespists on October 7th, and on the 10th Crespo was chosen provisional president by proclamation. His authority was recognised by the United States two weeks afterwards. On May 2nd, 1893, the constituent assembly met, drew up a new constitution, made Crespo provisional president, and gave the control of public property, such as lands or mines, to the central government, although they were formerly controlled by the states. In October Crespo was regularly elected president, extending from February 20th, 1894, to February 20th, 1898. In 1895 the boundary question was brought to a crisis. A party of Venezuelan officers without authorisation arrested, at Yuran, in April, two British police officers, Barnes and Baker, who were released, however, as soon as the arrest was reported in Caracas. England claimed an indemnity in October, and proposed arbitration afterwards; Venezuela denied the claim and refused the offer, since each implied British possession of Yuran. On July 20th United States Secretary of State Olney vigorously protested against Great Britain's "indefinite but confessedly very large" claim, urged arbitration as a means of solution, and applied the Monroe Doctrine to the case. In reply, Lord Salisbury denied that the Monroe Doctrine had any relation to modern politics and that it had ever been recognised by any government save that of the United States. He stated the arguments for the British claim, at the same time refusing to arbitrate, except as to the ownership of the territory west of the Schomburgk line. To Salisbury's two notes of November 26th President Cleveland replied by a message to congress, dated December 17th, "practically stating that any attempt on the part of the British government to enforce its claims upon Venezuela without resort to arbitration would be considered as a casus belli by his government." The congress of the United States authorised the president to appoint a commission to report the actual line between British Guiana and Venezuela. Meanwhile in Venezuela itself Rojas Paul raised a revolution against Crespo, but met with little success, the people being unanimous in support of the government because of its foreign difficulties. In 1896 the Venezuelan government created a commission to prepare the case for an arbitrating tribunal. Lord Salisbury refused the terms suggested by the United States for the formation of such a tribunal, and insisted on a settlement of the claim for damages because of the arrest of Barnes, the |