Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of
Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1724 by
Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the
platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at
Colonia del Sacramento. According to the census of 2011, Montevideo has a population of 1,319,108.
It has an area of 530 square kilometres and extends 20 kilometres from west to east. The southernmost cosmopolitan capital city in the Americas and third most southern in the world, it is situated in the southern coast of the country, on the northeastern bank of the
Río de la Plata — which is often referred to in English-speaking countries as the River Plate. The city was under brief
British rule in 1807 and was involved in the first major naval battle in the Second World War: the
Battle of the River Plate. It is also the place where the
Montevideo convention was signed, in 1933, by nineteen nations of the Americas. The city hosted all of the matches during the
first FIFA World Cup in 1930. Montevideo has a rich architectural and cultural heritage, the latter including
tango and
candombe. According to
Mercer Human Resource Consulting, in 2007 Montevideo provided the highest
quality of life in Latin America.