Born in Montevideo, he was the son of a former president and was widely praised for the introduction of his political system, Batllism, to South America and for his role in modernizing Uruguay through his creation of extensive welfare state reforms.

Batlle also "revitalized the Colorado party and strengthened its liberal tradition, giving way to ideas of general and universal interest, and favoring the right of the working class to organize and put forward just demands.

Montevideo's electric power plant was nationalized, a move Batlle justified in the context of his "interest in the widest diffusion and distribution of all classes of services that are presently considered necessary for the general welfare, comfort, and hygiene."

It will enter industry when competition is not practicable, when control by private interests vests in them authority inconsistent with the welfare of the State, when a fiscal monopoly may serve as a great source of income to meet urgent tax problems, when the continued export of national wealth is considered undesirable.

As noted by one study, however, "Hardly had the opportunity arrived when Batlle, who had started with Rufino T. Dominguez the organization of the first battalion of volunteers, abandoned the pen of the journalist, emigrated to Buenos Aires, and devoted himself exclusively to the work of a soldier, until the unfortunate issue of the struggle at Quebracho.

[17] As noted by one study, "Batlle was convinced that the Colorado Party "must recover its prestige" so that the country could enter an era that he characterized as "institutional truth, fruitful freedom, order and solid and enlightened progress."

[30] In 1904 Batlle's government forces successfully ended the intermittent Uruguayan Civil War which had persisted for many years, when the opposing National Party leader Aparicio Saravia was killed at the battle of Masoller.

As noted by a 1905 presidential message "In the past year, the National Charity Commission has had to attend, apart from the ordinary services entrusted to it by law, the numerous wounded and sick from the armed forces, and provide the mobilized corps and the organized expeditions with by the Central Aid Board, the healing elements and the necessary medicines.

The National Commission has also cooperated with its revenues to support the Dispensaries of the Anti-Tuberculosis League and some departmental hospitals, and has contributed, by dispensing prescriptions free of charge, to the action of Home Public Assistance and various philanthropic societies.

"[50] In a 1906 presidential message, other developments in public charity, hygiene and health were noted: "After having fulfilled the primary duty of rendering solicitous care to the sick wounded of the last conflict, the Government has devoted its attention to the improvement of this important branch, and hopes to obtain satisfactory results.

By continuing to apply the current international sanitary agreement, said Council planned to establish a disinfection center in the port, and by accepting said project, the Government offered to provide a credit of $32,000 to be repaid.

For the rest, the sanitary state of the Republic is excellent and the municipal authorities cooperate with the National Council of Hygiene to improve all this service and ensure that the ordinances are strictly applied and that a true zeal is shown in combating contagious diseases.

As noted by one study, the railroad "knew Batlle’s pro-labor sympathies, verified by Williman’s presence, and accepted most of the striker’s demands, It drew a line at recognizing the union, but promised to take back the strike leaders in due time-a remarkable concession.

These were "Reform of the Constitution; universal suffrage, that is, authorization to vote in favor of all citizens; election of the President of the Republic directly by the people; proportional representation of the parties; autonomous municipalities; the rights of assembly and association are not expressly enshrined in the Constitution and that gap must be filled; separation: of Church and State; easy naturalization of foreigners; decrease in consumption taxes, establishing instead a progressive tax; solution of problems related to capital and labor, within the limits of justice, law and freedom.

Apart from his reiterated advocacy of an eight-hour day, Batlle "took a stand for popular instead of legislative election of the national president; for proportional representation of parties in the congress; for assurance of such workers’ rights as those to life, health, and culture; for full protection of children, women, the ill, and the aged; for free and assisted immigration; for free public instruction in all its levels and obligatory education at the elementary level; for assistance to stock raising and agriculture and the stimulation of national industry; for the organization by the state of all services social interest."

"[75] A few days after Batlle assumed the presidency, Ramón V. Benzano (the newly appointed Mayor of Montevideo) "ordered the Department of Public Health to inspect all the tenements, most of which, according to a 1906 survey, lacked light and air and space, and close those that were not improved within a year.

[87] A bill that was converted into law and put into execution authorized an issue of Public Debt for the amount of $500,000 "for the purchase or expropriation of land that would be divided into farms and resold on the basis of combinations with the Mortgage Bank of Uruguay."

A presidential message from 1914, for instance, noted that "The function of assistance and protection of all individuals included in the law of 7 November 1910 has been carefully attended by the authorities who are in charge of fulfilling such a lofty social mission, dedicating their activities to the organization of services respective implanted in great part in the capital and that, gradually it is tried to extend to the departments of the interior.

The transfer of the Electricity Section to another more apparent location within the same Hospital, which contemplates the most rigorous demands of science and in which a very complete installation of apparatus has been made; the installation in a place near the aforementioned establishment, of the Urinary Tract Clinic, whose service is attended by a truly extraordinary number of patients; the replacement of the current poor lighting of the surgery rooms by a system adopted with great success in the United States and in some European countries, having empowered the General Directorate to acquire the necessary equipment, and others, are important improvements made in the said hospital.

The main point of the task of a diverse nature that has concerned the aforementioned Corporation has been that related to the construction of the buildings that will serve as the seat of the two most important dependencies of the benefactor Institution: the Educational Colony for Men and the Reformatory of girls.

"[106] The Council also studied and resolved "many points related to its mission, solving difficulties that have arisen in some cases not provided for by law, issuing consultations, regulating procedures, dealing with various projects of the Departmental Committees referring to campaign minors.

Among them we can mention: the approval of a Regulation that establishes the obligation of periodic visits by the Inspectors to the minors delivered in precarious custody and the creation of a system of checkbooks destined to record the way in which the givers fulfill their mission.

Also, "With the help of the publications, it has also been possible to bring new teachings to the campaign, using, instead of long-read magazines, bulletins of a few pages, with simple instructions and practices written in a style completely within the reach of our rural inhabitants.

In addition, the technical personnel of the Inspection have collaborated assiduously in the Magazine of the Ministry of Industries, as evidenced by the fact that more than twenty works have appeared in that publication, and the Zone Agronomic Inspectors publish teaching articles at least every fortnight."

This was offered as a way to prevent presidential dictatorship (in a nation where every person older than 13 had lived under a dictator) while also, as Batlle believed, as one study noted, assuring continuing reform "because the Colorado Party, with its ongoing action program, would control the Colegiado for some years, unlike the present arrangement in which every incoming president was free to reverse or ignore his predecessor’s policies."

These included "political rights and civil equality for women; the status of the public official; the Labor Code, with regulations on the work of women and minors; workers' insurance for disability; hygiene and safety in workshops; work accident insurance; measures for forced unemployment; conciliation and arbitration, as a solution to the strike; economical and hygienic rooms for urban and rural workers; improvement and development of assistance; vocational technical schools; construction of urban and rural schools, improvement of salaries and guarantees in the appointments and promotions of teaching personnel; compulsory physical education, free vocational education courses, popular libraries; reform of the tax system, deducting essential items; promotion of industries derived from the use of the country's raw material, promotion of public works and improvement of means of transportation.

[127] In his last annual message Batlle argued that: "It can be stated without hyperbole that our country has never enjoyed a prosperity superior to the present one or more complete civil and political liberty, from the time it was organized constitutionally.

Public works have received a considerable impulse; higher education is moving toward new and fruitful orientations which will widen our general culture and make our principle industries, ranching and agriculture, more scientific.

"[143] According to one source, Batlle was responsible "for directing the liberal, democratic-independence institutional reform of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, which placed her at the head of progressive and justice achievements; and gave him great fame in the American concert.

"[4] Another study has argued that "By the late 1960’s and early 1970s Colorado presidents such as Jorge Pacheco Areco and Juan Maria Bordaberry, while paying lip service to Batlle’s ideals, led right-wing administrations.”[144] A public park and a neighborhood in Montevideo are named after him.