Uruguay Trivia
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60 free Uruguay trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Uruguay trivia quiz covers the small country wedged between its two giant neighbours: its geography (the Río de la Plata, Cerro Catedral, the resort beaches of Punta del Este), its history (Artigas and the Thirty-Three Orientals, the Guerra Grande, the Graf Spee, the dictatorship and the return to democracy) and its culture, from mate and chivitos to candombe, tango and the writer Eduardo Galeano. Football gets its due, because Uruguay has by far the smallest population of any World Cup winner: the 1930 tournament it hosted and won, the Maracanazo of 1950, the Olympic golds of the 1920s, Forlán, Suárez and the Clásico. There are also questions on the 1972 Andes crash, the president who drove a 1987 Beetle, and the country that legalised cannabis before anyone else. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one. Every answer has been checked against a primary reference and each question carries its citation.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Why is Uruguay officially the 'Oriental Republic of Uruguay'?
It lies east of the Uruguay River
It lies east of the Uruguay River: in colonial times the land was simply the Banda Oriental, the 'eastern bank', and the republic kept the word.
Q 02Which two countries share a land border with Uruguay?
Argentina and Brazil
Argentina and Brazil are its only neighbours: Uruguay was created in 1828 as a buffer between the two after neither could win a war over it.
Q 03Which emblem fills the top corner of Uruguay's blue-and-white striped flag?
The Sun of May
The Sun of May, a golden sun with a human face, also shines from the flag across the Río de la Plata, because both countries grew out of the same United Provinces.
Q 04Which country is the only sovereign nation in South America with a smaller area than Uruguay?
Suriname
Suriname is the smallest; French Guiana is smaller than both, but it doesn't count because it is an overseas region of a European state, not a country.
Q 05Cerro Catedral, the highest point in famously flat Uruguay, rises to roughly what elevation?
514 m
514 m: Cerro Catedral, in the Sierra Carapé hills, is lower than New York's One World Trade Center, which reaches 541 m.
Q 06In December 2013 Uruguay became the first country in the world to fully legalise what?
Cannabis
Cannabis. The Senate passed the law 16 votes to 13, and the government argued that a legal, state-regulated market would take the trade away from drug cartels.
Q 07Which Uruguayan president (2010–2015) was nicknamed 'the world's poorest president'?
José Mujica
José Mujica gave away about 90% of his US$12,000 monthly salary and shunned the presidential residence, staying on his wife's ramshackle flower farm outside the capital.
Q 08What car did 'the world's poorest president' famously drive instead of an official limousine?
A 1987 Volkswagen Beetle
A 1987 Volkswagen Beetle was his only declared asset in 2010, valued at US$1,800; in 2014 he said an Arab sheikh had offered $1 million for it.
Q 09Which Marxist urban guerrilla group in 1960s-70s Uruguay counted a future president among its members?
Tupamaros
The Tupamaros began by robbing banks and handing out food to the poor, then turned to kidnappings; the army crushed them, and the future president spent over a decade in jail.
Q 10Which stadium was built for the 1930 World Cup?
Estadio Centenario
Estadio Centenario was finished late because heavy rain held up the builders, so the tournament's first matches had to be played at two smaller club grounds.
Q 11Who did Uruguay beat 4–2 in the first World Cup final?
Argentina
Argentina led 2–1 at half-time, but Uruguay scored three times after the break to win the first World Cup on home soil.
Q 12Uruguay's 2–1 win over the hosts in the deciding match of the 1950 World Cup is remembered by what name?
The Maracanazo
The Maracanazo, named for Rio's Maracanã stadium: the hosts needed only a draw and scored first, but Uruguay hit back twice to silence a vast home crowd.
Q 13What is the nickname of Uruguay's national football team?
La Celeste
La Celeste, 'the Sky Blue', dates from a 1910 win in a new shirt, chosen to honour a Montevideo club that had just beaten a top Buenos Aires side in those colours.
Q 21Which two Andes crash survivors trekked for ten days across the mountains to find help?
Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa
Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa set out with a third man, who turned back after three days so their food would last; the pair walked on until they met Chilean herdsmen across a river.
Q 22Which 2023 Spanish-language film retold the story of the Andes flight disaster?
Society of the Snow
Society of the Snow, directed by J. A. Bayona, filmed its mountain backdrops in the real Andean valley where the plane came down, while the cast shot in the snow of Spain's Sierra Nevada.
Q 23Which hero led Uruguay's 1811 revolt against Spanish rule and won at Las Piedras?
Q 14Uruguay has won two World Cups, yet its shirt carries four stars; what do the other two mark?
Olympic gold medals
Olympic gold medals: FIFA recognises the 1924 and 1928 Olympic tournaments, both won by Uruguay, as open world championships, so the shirt counts four world titles.
Q 15Which Uruguayan was awarded the Golden Ball as best player of the 2010 World Cup?
Diego Forlán
Diego Forlán scored five goals, level with the tournament's top scorers, and took the award even though Uruguay finished only fourth.
Q 16Which Italian defender did Luis Suárez bite at the 2014 World Cup?
Giorgio Chiellini
Giorgio Chiellini was bitten on the left shoulder; the referee missed it, but FIFA banned Suárez from all football for four months, his third punishment for biting an opponent.
Q 17Which country did Luis Suárez's deliberate goal-line handball knock out of the 2010 World Cup?
Ghana
Ghana won a penalty in the last seconds of extra time and Suárez was sent off, but Asamoah Gyan struck the crossbar and Uruguay won the shoot-out.
Q 18Which two Montevideo clubs contest the Uruguayan Clásico?
Nacional and Peñarol
Nacional and Peñarol shared every league title for more than four decades until Defensor broke their grip in 1976; each has also won three Intercontinental Cups.
Q 19The 1972 Andes crash of Flight 571 carried an amateur club team in which sport?
Rugby
Rugby. The Old Christians Club, an amateur side from Montevideo, had chartered the air force plane to fly to a match in Chile, taking family and friends along.
Q 20What struck the 1972 Andes crash wreck and killed eight more survivors?
An avalanche
An avalanche buried the fuselage as the survivors sheltered inside, more than a week after the official search for them had been called off.
José Gervasio Artigas
José Gervasio Artigas then became the champion of federalism against Buenos Aires, and at his peak ruled a league of provinces stretching across what are now two countries.
Q 24Uruguay's national hero, leader of the 1811 revolt, spent his last three decades exiled in which country?
Paraguay
Paraguay. After an invasion broke his hold on the region, he crossed the border in 1820, never to return; he died near Asunción in 1850, aged 86.
Q 25The band of exiles whose 1825 landing began Uruguay's final fight for independence is known by what name?
The Thirty-Three Orientals
The Thirty-Three Orientals crossed the river from exile in 1825 to free their homeland; the name stuck even though the surviving lists of members disagree on the true number.
Q 26Which outside power's diplomacy produced the 1828 treaty creating Uruguay as a buffer state?
Great Britain
Great Britain mediated because neither side could win the Cisplatine War and London wanted the Río de la Plata kept open to trade as an international waterway.
Q 27Uruguay's two 'Traditional Parties' are the Colorados and which other?
The Blancos
The Blancos took their name from the white badges one side wore in an 1836 civil-war battle, while their rivals, the Colorados, wore red.
Q 28Uruguay's early welfare state and democratic tradition led to it being nicknamed after which European country?
Switzerland
Switzerland. President José Batlle y Ordóñez proposed replacing the presidency with a council on the Swiss model, and a nine-member one ran Uruguay from 1952 to 1967.
Q 29Which German warship took refuge in Montevideo after fighting British cruisers in 1939?
Admiral Graf Spee
Admiral Graf Spee, damaged in the Battle of the River Plate, ran for neutral Montevideo, where her captain was allowed only a few days for repairs while enemy reinforcements gathered.
Q 30What became of the German warship that sheltered in Montevideo in 1939?
Its captain scuttled it in the estuary
Its captain scuttled it in the estuary, believing a superior British force was waiting outside; three days later he shot himself.