Instructions of the Year XIII

Set of Uruguayan mandates brought upon the Assembly of the Year XIII

Part of a series on the
History of Uruguay

Early History Indigenous peoples in Uruguay Banda Oriental Spanish-Portuguese War Treaty of Madrid British invasions
Fight for Independence José Gervasio Artigas Federal League Portuguese conquest Cisplatina Thirty-Three Orientals Cisplatine War Treaty of Montevideo Constitution of 1830
Independent State Civil War Uruguayan War Paraguayan War Revolution of the Lances Battle of Masoller
20th Century Batllism 1933 coup d'etat Neo-Batllism
Military Regime Tupamaros 1973 coup d'etat Civic-military dictatorship (1973-1985) Uruguayan constitutional referendum, 1980
Modern Uruguay Mercosur Elections in Uruguay Politics of Uruguay Uruguayan constitutional referendum, 1996 Cannabis in Uruguay
Uruguay portal
v t e

The Instructions of the Year XIII (Spanish: Instrucciones del año XIII) were the mandate brought by the representatives from the Oriental Province to the Assembly of the Year XIII of the United Provinces of the River Plate.

In 1813, a meeting called by the Second Triumvirate was meant to define the type of government for the new nation. The people of the Oriental Province (what is now Uruguay) drafted a federalist document, opposed to the centralism of the Second Triumvirate.

Among other ideas, the following principles were proclaimed:^[1]

independence,
republic,
federalism,
full civic and religious freedom,
the capital should not be Buenos Aires.

These Instructions were the origin of an unending conflict between the Oriental leader, José Gervasio Artigas, and the authorities that be in Buenos Aires.

Some scholars see the influence of American founding father Thomas Paine in these Instructions.^[2]

References

^ Carlos Maggi. "A high-quality democratic document". EL PAIS. Archived from the original on 2013-05-06. Retrieved 2013-05-06. (in Spanish)
^ John Street, Artigas and the Emancipation of Uruguay (London: Cambridge University Press, 1959), 178-186.