José Batlle y Ordóñez

Born: 21 May 1856 in

Montevideo, Uruguay

Died: 20 october 1929

(aged 73) in
Montevideo
Personal Political party:
details: Colorado party

Spouse: Matilde
Pacheco

Ocupation: Journalist

Children: Cesar,
Rafael, Lorenzo,
Amalia Ana, Ana
Amalia

Uruguayan politician, who served two terms as President of

Uruguay for the Colorado Party. He was the son of a former
president and was widely praised for his introduction of his political
system, Batllism, to South America and for his role in modernizing
Uruguay through his creation of extensive welfare state reforms.

In 1898, he served as interim president for a few weeks. He was

later elected to the presidency for two terms: from 1903 to 1907
and from 1911 to 1915. He remains one of the most popular
Uruguayan presidents, mainly due to his role as a social reformer.
Influenced by Krausist liberalism, he is known for introducing
unemployment compensation, universal suffrage and the eight-hour
workday, as well as free high school education. He was one of the
main promoters of Uruguayan secularization, which leaded to the
division of the state and the Catholic Church.

Batlle’s political career began in 1887, when he was appointed as

the jefe político of department of Minas. His appointment was
short-lived, for he resigned after six months to seek election to the
Chamber of Deputies as a candidate on the Colorado ticket. After a
disagreement with then-president Máximo Tajes, however, Batlle
lost his spot on the ticket. He was eventually elected in 1891 as a
deputy for the department of Salto, and quickly rose to further
prominence within the Colorado party.

Reforms planned by Batlle and Ordóñez

•Creation of the State Insurance Bank with the monopoly of most risks.

•Creation of the Mortgage Bank of Uruguay with privileges in the granting of

mortgage loans for housing.

•Creation of the UTE (General Administration of State Power Plants and

Telephones) with the monopoly of the generation and distribution of electrical
energy and telephone service.

•Nationalisation of the Bank of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay.

•Creation of the State Railways Administration.

•Maximum working day of 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week.

•Prohibition of labour for children under 13 years of age

•Restriction of the working day to children under 18.

•Right to strike.

•Protection for the unemployed.

•Divorce law by the sole will of the woman

•Protection of the rights of natural children

•Creation of high schools (secondary education)

•Installation of schools and night high schools for workers.

•Installation of the Ministry of Public Instruction

•Creation of the National Physical Education Commission.

•Creation of the Women's University.

•Creation of new university careers (Engineering, Architecture, Agronomy,

Chemistry, Veterinary).

•Constitutional reform of 1918

Batllismo, with its nationalising policy, its advanced social

legislation, its economy directed with a punctilious care for
macroeconomic balances, managed to forge an exceptional
mesocratic society in Latin America, the "Switzerland of
America" to whose memory the nostalgic still cling.

We know that Batlle attached enormous importance to the

education of Uruguayans