426 Usman Dan Fodio and resisted the Portuguese for four years until they were finally overcome By 1825 the Portuguese had withdrawn from Brazil, and Uruguay again assumed its independence and, with Argentine aid, obtained it after a war with Brazil formally ended by the Treaty of Montevideo in 1828 This became reality in 1830 when a republic was established Uruguay was aided by the turmoil existing in Brazil during the minority of Don Pedro before 1841 In addition, Brazil was struggling to overcome the secession attempt of Rio Grande Sol After 1830 Argentina, under Juan Manuel de Rosas, dictator of Buenos Aires, was the threat to Uruguay as it sought to unite all the Plata provinces under its leadership The country kept its integrity through the military and naval successes of Garibaldi at San Antonio and Cerro were successful in safeguarding the independence of Uruguay, ironically with some Brazilian aid in the 1840s From 1843 to 1851 allies of Rosas blockaded Montevideo, but by 1851 the siege had ended By that date, Argentina and Brazil accepted the independent existence of Uruguay as long as the other party did not control it Uruguay was the result of the balance of power between the two giants See also Brazil, independence to republic in; Latin America, economic and political liberalism in Further reading: Bushnell, David, and Neill Macaulay The Emergence of Latin America in the Nineteenth Century Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988; Hanson, S Utopian Uruguay Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1938; Hudson, W H The Purple Land London: Three Sires Press, 1917; Knobel, J Uruguay London: Macmillan Press, 1911; Langley, Lester D The Americas in the Age of Revolution, 1750– 1850 New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997 Norman C Rothman Usman Dan Fodio (1754–1817) West African reformer Usman Dan Fodio, also known by the Hausa honorific shehu (sheikh), was a West African scholar and religious reformer of the Fulani ethnic group who led a successful early 19th-century Islamic jihad in Hausaland, modern-day northern Nigeria The jihad led to the establishment of the Sokoto Caliphate, the most significant 19th-century independent African state, with regard to both size and impact on the local region’s history Usman Dan Fodio was born in 1754 at Maratta within the Hausa state of Gobir but spent his formative years in the town of Degel His father was a learned member of the Qadiriyya Sufi order and provided Usman and his brother Abdulahi with the highest Islamic education available to them In the traditional Islamic manner, he traveled throughout Hausaland and as far away as the Saharan city of Agadez, studying under various teachers At around age 20, he became an itinerant preacher and teacher while still completing his studies In Degel, he quickly gained a following of devoted disciples, which encouraged him to travel to other Hausa states, where he met with further success in attracting students Emboldened, he and his followers began calling on the nominal Muslim rulers in Hausaland to accept and practice orthodox Islam and remove non-Islamic customs and rituals from their courts Dan Fodio went further and called into question the local rulers’ taxation and enslavement of his Fulani brethren, as well as the arbitrary confiscation of peasant property The shehu’s growing following and the social and political arguments he raised put him at odds with much of the ruling class in Hausaland Thus, he was forced to flee Degel when the sultan of Gobir sent forces against him In 1804 the shehu and his followers regrouped He was named amir al-mumineen, or commander of the faithful, and announced a call for a jihad campaign against Gobir Years prior to this call, the shehu had had a series of visions in which he believed that the prophet Muhammad and Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, founder of the Qadiriyya order, instructed him to pick up the “Sword of Truth” in order for his followers to defend themselves from increasingly hostile rulers Filled with conviction and fervor, an army of inferiorly armed Fulani scholars, clansmen, and Hausa peasants set forth to destroy the larger, better-equipped army of the sultan of Gobir The shehu never led an army nor fought in a battle; his role was purely spiritual and consultative He left the military campaigning to his generals, including his brother Abdullahi and son Muhammadu Bello The shehu’s forces won a series of decisive battles and within four years had gained control of almost all of Hausaland and much of neighboring Bornu From this amalgamation of lands was created the Sokoto Caliphate In 1812 the shehu split rule of the Sokoto Caliphate between Abdullahi and Muhammadu Bello, and he withdrew into a scholarly and spiritual life He continued teaching and writing but remained distant from the political dealings within the caliphate