“MONSTROUS AND ILLEGAL PROCEEDINGS”: LAW ...

found them. In the disorder, plagues of wild dogs roamed the borderlands and attacked the
remaining herds. 6
The conflicts during the Guerra Grande had also revealed the persistent inability of the
small “buffer” state to escape foreign intervention in its domestic affairs. As we saw in the
preceding chapter, struggles between the unitarists and federalists across the Uruguay in the
Argentine Confederation continued to spill over into the Estado Oriental. Similarly,
Brazilian ranchers repeatedly challenged Uruguayan authorities. These incursions ultimately
culminated in the 1851 Brazilian invasion that ended nearly two decades of war between the
colorados and blancos. The invasion also reaffirmed the empire’s longstanding right to
intervene in Uruguayan affairs. Imperial power over its small neighbor was formally codified
in five treaties ratified in October of 1851. The treaties established a permanent alliance
between the two countries, provided loans to the Uruguayan government and harsh
conditions for their repayment, guaranteed free commerce across the border, fixed national
boundaries and ensured the return of fugitive Brazilian slaves to their masters. The treaties
further gave the Brazilian government the right to intervene in Uruguayan affairs to ensure
that recurring factional conflicts did not undermine the national government. 7
Utilizing their rights under the 1851 agreements, Brazilian forces repeatedly crossed
into Uruguay to assert their control over the tumultuous republic. For much of the decade,
the imperial army served as the ultimate arbiter of domestic political disputes. It also
brokered favorable economic arrangements for its subjects in Uruguay’s northern
borderlands. Thus, while ostensibly respecting Uruguayan sovereignty, the imperial
government clearly intended to ensure that the small republic could not govern itself.
6 Barrán, Apogeo y Crisis, 50-52.
7 Juan E. Pivel Devoto and Alcira Ranieri de Pivel Devoto, La Guerra Grande, 1839-
1851 (Montevideo: Editorial Medina, 1971), 100-04.
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