Banda Oriental, or more fully Banda Oriental del Uruguay (sometimes rendered in English as "Eastern Bank" or "Eastern Strip"), was the name of the South American territories east of the Uruguay River and north of Río de la Plata, coinciding approximately with the modern nation of Uruguay, the modern Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul and some parts of Santa Catarina. It was the easternmost stripe of land of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.
After decades of disputes over these territories, the 1777 First Treaty of San Ildefonso settled the division between the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire: the southern part was to be held by the Spanish Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and the northern territories by the Portuguese Capitanía de São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul (English: Captaincy of São Pedro of the Southern Río Grande).
The Banda Oriental was not a separate administrative unit until the de facto creation of the Provincia Oriental (English: Oriental Province) by José Gervasio Artigas in 1813 and the subsequent decree of the Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata of 7 March 1814, which formally established the Gobernación Intendencia Oriental del Río de la Plata (English: Governorship-Intendency East of the Río de la Plata), making it a constituent part of the United Provinces of South America.
Read more about Banda Oriental: The Indigenous Tribes and The 16th Century, The 17th Century, The 18th Century, The 19th Century
Famous quotes containing the word oriental:
“The Oriental philosophy approaches easily loftier themes than the modern aspires to; and no wonder if it sometimes prattle about them. It only assigns their due rank respectively to Action and Contemplation, or rather does full justice to the latter. Western philosophers have not conceived of the significance of Contemplation in their sense.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)