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Uruguay - History

Uruguay - History
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 7 to 9
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   10.08

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    buffer, government-supported, once-lonely, once-thriving, corruption, well-guarded, oddity, corrupt, takeover, shores, punched, estuary, somewhat, political, civil, economy
     content words:    South America, Atlantic Ocean, Charrua Indians, Juan Diaz, Buenos Aires, Jose Artigas, Jose Batlle

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Uruguay - History
By Ekaterina Zhdanova-Redman 		  
1     Do you know what it feels like to be "stuck in the middle?" Maybe it's a time you've been the smallest person around. Worse yet, you're the person everyone is shoving around. You're squeezed, pushed, and punched. How would that feel? There's a small country in South America that's stuck between two larger and stronger nations. And throughout most of its history, this country has been pushed around.
 
2     Uruguay is a small country in southeastern South America. It is sandwiched between Argentina, Brazil, and the Atlantic Ocean. Its location kept it at the center of a tug-of-war between Brazil and Argentina for many years.
 
3     Uruguay's first inhabitants were the Charrua Indians, who lived in this remote area of South America. The Charrua Indians kept mostly to themselves and shunned outsiders. They didn't welcome European explorers who began arriving in the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries. In fact, the Charrua Indians killed the Spanish explorer Juan Diaz de Solis and most of de Solis' exploration crew in 1516. The Charrua Indians were doing well by the 17th century, which made them somewhat of an oddity. Throughout much of the Americas, Europeans were overrunning many native groups. Having successfully defended their land from the explorers, the Charrua Indians began trading with the Spanish.

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