ABSTRACT
During the first half of the nineteenth century, Uruguay failed to consolidate as a nation-state, often relying on its relationship with Great Britain for protection and support. Yet, Britain's foreign policy toward the small nation shifted considerably over the century and can only be understood through a broader transnational examination of its evolving relations with Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina. When this protection did not lead to the profitable informal empire it envisioned, London downgraded Uruguay in its plans and relied on Brazil as its sub-imperial collaborator, until Brazilian expansion in Uruguay interfered with British economic interests. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the British finally consolidated an informal empire in Uruguay. It was an empire of trade and investment, not a colony or protectorate, but it was valuable nonetheless. The biggest boom in British investment in Uruguay was during the late 1880s, when Uruguay was seen by British investors as a mini-Argentina, which was undervalued and therefore ripe for profitable British investments, in transportation, urban development and utilities, and in the London loans that financed these projects. Ultimately, although British informal empire in Uruguay was conceived as mutually beneficial, many Uruguayans came to believe that the benefits they received were less than the costs they incurred. By the turn of the century, Uruguay was ready to use a strengthened state to oppose British power and contest British pretensions to turn Uruguay into what a U.S. ambassador called “a colony in disguise.”
