Charrua

The Charrúa inhabited the grasslands and river country of the Río de la Plata and Uruguay basin. Their communities lived by hunting, fishing and gathering, moving through a landscape of rivers and open plains. Spanish and Portuguese settlement, livestock and warfare transformed the region, but Indigenous groups continued to pursue their own alliances and resist encroachment.

During the struggle for independence some Charrúa fought in the armies of the new states, before the republic turned against communities that had taken part in those conflicts. In 1831 forces under the Uruguayan president Fructuoso Rivera attacked a gathering of Charrúa at Salsipuedes. The massacre and subsequent persecution caused grave loss and dispersed survivors. The event became a defining episode in the relationship between the new republic and Indigenous peoples.

The later city of Montevideo lies here.