Who they were
A former frontier soldier, Artigas led the people of the Banda Oriental, today’s Uruguay, against Spanish and then Portuguese and Buenos Aires control. He built a federal league of provinces resisting central rule.
What they did
He pushed radical reforms, including land redistribution to the poor, Indigenous people, and freed slaves. His federalist vision clashed with the centralists of Buenos Aires.
Legacy
Defeated, Artigas spent his last decades in exile in Paraguay. Uruguay honors him as the father of its nationhood and its foremost hero.