The aftermath of the French Revolution brought, among other political consequences, the cultural setting for the formation of nation-states. The period between the years 1780-1848 saw thousands of soldiers fighting for what they believed was their natural right to become national states. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of what was called Oriental Band, Oriental Province, La Cisplatina, Oriental State, and eventually in 1918 Oriental Republic of Uruguay, found themselves in the opposite predicament as they were compelled to forge nationhood out of an artificially created state. The Republica...