Background In February 1807, following
their victory at Cardal, the British Army
captured Montevideo and occupied the city for several months as part of their ultimately failed
Campaign in the River Plate. While brief, the occupation was arguably a "commercial success" and foreshadowed the close economic relationship Uruguay and the United Kingdom later developed. As summarised by the travel writer
William Henry Koebel, the local merchant class appreciated the liberal trading regime overseen by the occupiers: In 1824 mercantile elites in Montevideo lobbied to have the
Banda Oriental become a British colony. This was rejected, although
Lord Ponsonby encouraged them to believe that an independent Uruguay would be protected by Britain and receive British capital and skilled migrants. At first, British citizens came to Uruguay mainly to work on the ranches, often as owners of their own
estancias. As a group, British landowners in rural Uruguay were few in number though highly influential. They were "modernizers" who imported pedigree livestock and erected wire fencing to
mark their property. After 1870, Uruguay had more sheep than cattle. They thrived thanks to a combination of technical knowledge, entrepreneurial spirit, and a strongly capitalist mentality. An example is
Richard Bannister Hughes. He founded one of the first tourist estancias, Estancia La Paz, in 1856, and in 1859 set up a meat-salting business at Villa Independencia, a location that became synonymous with meat processing under its later name of
Fray Bentos. In 1865 the first railroads were constructed in Montevideo. This was a turning point both for the Uruguayan economy and immigration patterns. The national expansion of the rail network in the coming decades altered Uruguay's
economic geography decisively in favour of Montevideo — a port city where all rail networks lead for export of products, many of which were destined for Britain. Notably, meat-packing technology arrived in the 1860s, which allowed the canning of meat for export. By 1909, the average family had only three children, and many had fewer. Eventually, the main group of incomers were administrators and technicians employed by British companies in Montevideo. Half the foreign shipping tonnage entering Montevideo was British. Despite this, adaptation to native customs was not unheard of. Cuenca prefers a more conservative estimate of 2,000 nationwide for the last decade of the 19th century, and argues that the vast majority were concentrated in Montevideo, where they lived and worked in the same neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, complaints over the inadequate and expensive services provided by British-owned public utilities — already a matter of general comment before the end of the 19th century — were reaching a crescendo. Uruguay's position in the "imperial system" also failed to serve the interests of an aspiring middle-class,
whose desire for social improvement was undermined by foreign companies recruiting mainly from their own countries. Political backlash was inevitable. The reformist politics of President
José Batlle y Ordóñez clashed with British commercial interests; his power base consisting of small producers and immigrant labourers in urban Montevideo. Nevertheless, Britain retained some leverage despite the drying up of British capital, as it remained the principal market for chilled and frozen meat. However, the 1940s proved to be the last decade of the special relationship between Britain and Uruguay. As a sign of the changing times, Uruguay switched to
driving on the right, having initially
driven on the left in the British fashion. Approximately 250 Anglo-Uruguayans fought for the British during the war, but by now they were "practically as
criollo" as the natives. The last English language newspaper,
The Montevidean, was founded in 1951 and appeared bi-weekly. Other than reporting on the social activities of British residents, it expressed a consistently right-wing political stance characterised by loyalty to Empire,
anti-communism, hostility to
Juan Perón, and concern over the high
inflation that then troubled Uruguay. Due to declining interest it shortened the length of its issues before ending publication in November 1969. Such was the speed of integration that by the 1970s the number of people in Uruguay living in "distinctly ethnic communities" was minimal. ==Culture==