Some of the history of Uruguay regarding the political environment of Uruguay includes General Maximo Tajes who ruled fro 1886-1890.  This general worked hard to return the constitution and remove military chiefs who had supported Santos.  During the time frame of 1886-1890 and Tajes administration, civilian political activity resumed.

In 1890, A Colorado party individual was elected president, Julio Herrera y Obes.  He was instrumental in removing the military from power.   He selected his aides from a group of friends and what is described as “directing influence”.  Having executives play a leading role in elections and the General Assembly.  While most saw this as a positive change for the political environment of Uruguay, others resisted it, such as Jose Batlle y Ordonez, son of the former president.

In 1894, the General Assembly appointed Juan Idiarte Borda as Uruguay’s new president.  The new president was only given control of 3 of the 4 departments.  To even further the trouble in a typically peaceful Uruguay, an armed uprising by Blanco forces occurred in 1897.  The leader of this uprising was led by Aparicion saravia, a caudillo from a ranching family that had lived in Brazil.  The Saravia revolution resulted in electoral guarantees, the secret ballot and proportional representation. 

President Borda was assassinated in 1897.  Juan Lindolofo Cuestas, president of the Senate, was placed as provisional president from 1897 to 1903.  He became the constitutional president in 1899 whereas he signed a peace agreement with the National Party.  This important piece of Uruguay history gave the people of Uruguay their political rights back.  An interesting fact about Cuestas was the restrictions he place on Catholicism and he even went as far as trying to prevent friars and Catholic priests from entering the country.

In 1898, the General Assembly proposed another candidate for president.  However, Cuestas did not want to give up power and resisted with a revolution.  Cuestas did include members of the opposition in his government.  Some key achievements for Cuestas were the initiation of Elections Law, which gave minority representation.  This gave the opposition one-third the seats in the government if I secured one fourth of the total votes.  In 1899, Uruguay could be described as 2 countries, Blanco and Colorado, due to the differing political parties that were so apparent in Uruguay. 

While Uruguay had some political and economic fluctuations, immigration still continued from Europe and other South American countries.  In 1910, Uruguay’s population doubled to just over1 million inhabitants. Thirty percent lived in Montevideo, Uruguay. From the 1870s to the 1900s, Montevideo saw modernization take place with a phone system installed in Montevideo (1878) and public lighting in 1886.  This same time frame was a period of many banks starting and land sales increasing dramatically. Finally, Montevideo was seeing multifamily dwellings being constructed as modern times and number of people increased.

1890 served as an economic crisis that is an important part of Uruguay’s history. Bankruptcies ensued and the fall of the important banking system that had played an important role in the construction and production of Uruguay.
From this point on, the state involvement of economy would play an important role.   Uruguay was aware of the importance of industrial development and to encourage it in Uruguay.  State intervention continued with electrical utility company was transferred to the municipality of Montevideo and the Bank of Uruguay was created as an autonomous entity. Cuestas also took over the construction of the modern harbor of Montevideo.

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