Place:Colonia del Sacramento, Colonia, Uruguay

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Colonia del Sacramento is a city in southwestern Uruguay, by the Río de la Plata, facing Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is one of the oldest towns in Uruguay and capital of the Colonia Department. It has a population of around 27,000.

Its historic quarter is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Modern Colonia del Sacramento produces textiles and has a free trade zone, in addition to a polytechnic centre and various government buildings.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Following the restoration of the Portuguese crown, King Peter II sought the resolution of the southern border of Brazil. with 5 ships containing about 400 soldiers, craftsmen, carpenters and stonecutters, and 18 guns, reached on 20 January 1680. On 28 January, they commenced establishing a post.

José de Garro sent spies from Santo Domingo de Soriano on 22 February 1680, after receiving a negative response on 10 February to his ultimatum to leave the site. Garro sent a force of 3,400 men under the command of Antonio de Vera Mujica, capturing the besieged town on the night of 6-7 August 1680. Lobo was taken as a prisoner to Buenos Aires, where he died on 7 January 1683. A treaty between Spain and Portugal signed in 1681 returned Colonia to Portugal.^[1]

Field Marshal Duarte Teixeira Chaves arrived off the San Gabriel islands on 25 January 1683, and commenced to rebuild the settlement. Field Marshal Cristóvão Dornelas Abreu was its governor until 1690, when Dom Francisco Naper de Lencastre took over. Smuggling, and cattle hunting from the Banda Oriental, were the main components of the colony's economy. Lencastre ordered the building of houses of stone and mud with tile roofs, the enlargement of the city walls, and the addition of a fortified tower. The colonists grew wheat, hemp flax, and grape vines, exported cattle hides to Rio de Janeiro, while importing wood and foodstuffs. Sebastião da Veiga Cabral took over as governor in 1699.^[1]

As a consequence of the War of the Spanish Succession, the governor of Buenos Aires, Valdes Incian, initiated the Siege of Colonia del Sacramento. The forces of the Spanish governor were commanded by Baltazar Garc%C3%ADa Ros from 18 October 1704 until 14 March 1705, when the colonists were evacuated by Portuguese ships. Only the churches and bridge remained undestroyed.^[1]

The colony was given back to Portugal in the Treaty of Utrecht. Manuel Gomes Barbosa took possession on 10 February 1718 with 1,040 colonists. More colonists arrived in 1721. Antonio Pedro de Vasconcellos took over as governor on 14 March 1722 and transformed it into the richest and best defended city in the Rio de la Plata region. This included the coastal bastions of São Pedro de Alcântara, São Miguel, Santo António, São João, Carmo, and Santa Rita.^[1]

Another attack during the Spanish-Portuguese War, 1735-1737, failed. Don Luis Garcia de Bivar took over as governor in 1749, but died on 5 March 1760. During that time, the Treaty of Madrid (13 January 1750) was never complied with and finally considered null and void. Brigadier Vicente da Silva da Fonseca then took over as governor. Fonseca was forced to surrender the colony to Pedro Antonio de Cevallos on 11 October 1762. Spain returned the colony in the 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau, and Dom José Pedro de Figueiredo Sarmento took over as governor on 27 December 1763. He was replaced by Francisco José da Rocha on 15 March 1777.^[1]

With the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1777, the colony became a Spanish possession once more.^[1]

It then transferred to Portuguese control again, being later incorporated into Brazil after 1816, when the entire Banda Oriental (Uruguay) was seized by the government of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves and renamed the Cisplatina province.

On 10 January 1809, before the independence of Uruguay, it was designated as a "Villa" ("town" in 19th century Portuguese) and has since been elevated to the status of "Ciudad" ("city" in Spanish).

Since independence, Colonia del Sacramento has expanded to the north and east, but the original Barrio Histórico (historic quarter in Portuguese or Barrio Histórico, current Spanish spelling) retains its irregular, terrain-fitting street plan built by the Portuguese, contrasting with the wider, orthogonal calles in the newer Spanish area.

In 2022, It was confirmed Colonia was going to make a Silicon Valley in Colonia called 'Colonia Ala Este' to bring more Argentine immigrants due to the bad economy in Argentina doubling their population making their goal reach to about 60,000 people in total in Colonia. With an initial investment of more than US$ 100 million, it was planned to build a sustainable city open to the community to generate a hub for the knowledge economy industry on a 500-hectare site, which includes forests and seven kilometers of coastline. with beaches such as Calabrés and Fernando.

Timeline of rule

The rule from 1680 to present (with flag of the period) is:

Research Tips