History: cannon 41  - SIGA nº 015495

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  This Spanish cannon, named Tiberius, was molded from copper of Peruvian origin. It is the brother of cannon 39, Advino, to which we have given the smell Invasion. At the end of the 18th century in Spain, it was common to give cannons classic or mythological names. Often the raw material for a cannon came from a country far from where the piece would be cast and also far from where it would be used.

 

  Tiberius was captured by the army of the United Kingdom of Portugal (Portugal, Brazil and Algarves) in the battle against General José Gervasio Artigas in Uruguay. Artigas, considered a Uruguayan national hero, was a politician and military man who resisted the Luso-Brazilian invasion and fought for his country's independence. That conflict began in 1816 and lasted until 1820, when Artigas went into exile in Paraguay and never left. Brazil, victorious, annexed the eastern part of Uruguay, naming it the province of Cisplatina. Today the  region — once mainly occupied by the indigenous Charrua ethnic group, which was considered extinct by 1832, following the Uruguayan independence conflicts — is Uruguayan territory.

 

  Persecution decimated many native peoples, forcing them to blend in and renounce their identity. More recently, according to the newspaper El Pais, the international recognition of indigenous peoples and the promotion of pride in belonging to these communities have caused many descendants to come forward. Today they demand state recognition and land demarcation, which may prove that Uruguay's reputation as the only country in Latin America without indigenous people is incorrect.

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Note: This artillery piece is sister of cannon 39 (smell Invasion), called Advino. It was common to name cannons with classic or mythological names in Spain at the end of the 18th century.