View source for Battle of Masoller

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{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict    = Battle of Masoller
| partof      = the [[Revolution of 1904]]
| image       = 
| caption     = 
| date        = September 1, 1904
| place       = [[Masoller]], [[Uruguay]]
| result      = [[Colorado Party (Uruguay)|Colorado]] victory
| combatant1  = [[Image:Flag of the National Party (Uruguay).svg|border|23px]] [[National Party (Uruguay)|Blancos]]
| combatant2  = [[Image:Flag of Colorado Party (Uruguay).svg|23px]] [[Colorado Party (Uruguay)|Colorados]]
| commander1  = [[Image:Flag of the National Party (Uruguay).svg|border|23px]] [[Aparicio Saravia]]{{DOW}}
| commander2  = [[Image:Flag of Colorado Party (Uruguay).svg|23px]] [[José Batlle y Ordóñez]]<br/>[[Image:Flag of Colorado Party (Uruguay).svg|23px]] [[Oscar Muñoz Caravia]]{{KIA}}
| strength1   = 
| strength2   = 
| casualties1 = 
| casualties2 = 
}}
{{History of Uruguay}}
The '''Battle of Masoller''', which occurred on September 1, 1904, was the final battle of the [[Aparicio Saravia|Aparicio Saravia revolt]], resulting in the victory of the [[Colorado Party (Uruguay)|Colorado]] forces.

==Location and historical background==
[[Masoller]] is a village in northern Uruguay, close to the border with [[Brazil]]. The proximity of the Brazilian border proved significant for the outcome of the battle, because the defeated [[National Party (Uruguay)|Blanco]] general, [[Aparicio Saravia]], retired injured from the battle and fled to Brazil. The victorious Colorado forces were reluctant to pursue the injured leader of the Blanco forces because they resolved to keep the conflict within Uruguay's borders and avoid an incident with the Brazilian Government. Saravia died of wounds in Brazil on September 10, 1904.

The Battle of Masoller also marked the political consolidation of the Presidency of the liberal [[José Batlle y Ordóñez]], and more broadly of the Colorado Party.

==Feature in work by Jorge Luis Borges==
This battle figures in ''La otra muerte'', a short story by [[Argentine]] writer [[Jorge Luis Borges]], in his collection ''[[The Aleph (short story collection)|El Aleph]]''. The story concerns a certain Pedro Damián, whose personal history initially appears to have been one of a coward who fled the cannon fire at the Battle of Masoller, to survive as a virtual hermit until his death nearly forty years later. During the course of the story, however, the narrator finds that this same history has somehow spontaneously converted into the tale of a hero who died at the head of the charge in the same Battle of Masoller in 1904: the underlying idea of Borges is that personal and historical memory is complex.

''La otra muerte'' addresses the relationship between the present and history and the question of how a single event can change, or be perceived to change, an infinite number of destinies, Characteristically, Borges chose for this story a military event ubiquitously interpreted as determining the course of twentieth-century Uruguay.<ref>Ariel Dorfman, "Borges and American Violence," in ''Some Write to the Future: Essays on Contemporary Latin American Fiction (orig. 1968)'' (Durham NC: Duke University Press, 1991), 25-40. {{ISBN|9780822312697}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Masoller#Uruguayan-Brazilian border dispute|Masoller dispute]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[[John Charles Chasteen]], [https://www.amazon.com/Heroes-Horseback-Gaucho-Caudillos-Dialogos/dp/0826315984 'Heroes on Horseback: A Life and Times of the Last Gaucho Caudillos'], [[University of New Mexico Press]], 1995

{{coord missing|Uruguay}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Masoller}}
[[Category:Conflicts in 1904]]
[[Category:Battles involving Uruguay]]
[[Category:1904 in Uruguay]]
[[Category:Rivera Department]]
[[Category:Colorado Party (Uruguay)]]
[[Category:National Party (Uruguay)]]
[[Category:Aparicio Saravia]]