On August 25, 1825, in the small town of La Florida, 33 brave revolutionaries gathered around a wooden table and signed a declaration that their land would be free. They called themselves the Treinta y Tres Orientales, the Thirty-Three Easterners, because they had crossed the Río de la Plata from Argentina to liberate their home from Brazilian rule. Their leader was a fearless general named Juan Antonio Lavalleja. Their new country would soon be called Uruguay.
Uruguay was a strip of land sandwiched between giant Brazil and giant Argentina, and both wanted it. The war that followed dragged on for years, but the Thirty-Three's daring strike sparked a movement that wouldn't be crushed. By 1828, with a little help from Britain, both bigger neighbors agreed that Uruguay should be an independent buffer state. The new country wrote its constitution in 1830 and got busy building itself.
Despite being one of the smallest countries in South America, Uruguay has packed an enormous punch. It was the first nation to host and win the FIFA World Cup, back in 1930. It gave women the right to vote and made free public education a law way ahead of most of the world. Its capital, Montevideo, is famous for its leafy plazas, sizzling steak grills, and the rhythmic drumming of candombe music. Uruguayans still celebrate August 25 with parades and a fierce pride in those 33 patriots who decided one summer day that their little corner of the continent was worth fighting for.
