Immigration to Uruguay increases after the Great…

Immigration to Uruguay increases after the Great War, primarily from Spain and Italy.

Brazilians and Britons also flock to Uruguay to snap up hundreds of estancias (ranches).

The proportion of the immigrant population in Uruguay rises from forty-eight percent in 1860 to sixty-eight percent in 1868.

Many are Basques of Spanish or French nationality.

In the 1870s, another one hundred thousand Europeans settle in Uruguay.

By 1879 the total population of the country will be over four hundred and thirty-eight thousand.

Montevideo, where approximately one-fourth of the population lives, expands and improves its services.

Gas services had been initiated in 1853, the first bank in 1857, sewage works in 1860, a telegraph in 1866, railroads to the interior in 1869, and running water in 1871.

The creation in 1870 of the typographers' union, the first permanent workers' organization, is soon followed by the establishment of other unions.

Montevideo remains mainly a commercial center.

Thanks to its natural harbor, it is able to serve as a trade center for goods moving to and from Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.

The cities of Paysandu and Salto, on the Rio Uruguay, complement this role.