As measured by the usual indices of modernity, Uruguay has been the most successful of South American nations. It has enjoyed political stability in a democratic context throughout most of this century. The causes of this relative “modernity” and democracy pose highly interesting problems. Possible answers range through such phenomena as its geographic compactness and strategic location between two large rival nations, the absence of a native Indian population, a prosperous primary economic sector, the early development of a peculiar two-party system, a high degree of urbanization, the growth of a large middle class, and the leadership of an unusual individual, José Batlle y Ordóñez, at a critical time.
Another very significant factor has been the “melting pot” character of Uruguay. Juan Antonio Oddone graphically describes the growth of Uruguay, and particularly of Montevideo, in terms of this process of immigration. He notes, for example, that by 1889 Montevideo contained thirty-five percent of the nation’s populace and that forty-seven percent of these urban residents were immigrants. In the agricultural areas surrounding the capital immigrants outnumbered nationals. Oddone’s valuable and interesting monograph, centering on the second half of the nineteenth century, treats the numbers and national origins of these new settlers, as well as government policies toward them. The author examines some of the economic and social ramifications, but not the more cultural and political ones. He mentions the process of mutual assimilation, but concludes that this is beyond the scope of his work. I am hopeful that he will return in a sequel to such matters as the political views of the immigrants, the nature of the nationality “clubs,” which were vital to this gradual mutual assimilation, and the role of the parties (especially the Colorados) in the enfranchisement and political socialization of the new arrivals.
