History of Paraguay
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History of Paraguay |
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The history of Paraguay encompasses thousands of years of human habitation. Both agricultural and nomadic
In the early nineteenth century, Paraguay participated in the uprisings across the Spanish Empire against Spanish rule, and newly independent Paraguay came under the domination of
Military rule continued into the 20th century, which in the 1930s also saw Paraguay embroil itself in the
Colonial era
Native peoples
The homeland of the Guarani people was eastward from the Paraguay River, in the Misiones Province of Argentina and southern Brazil and as far east as the Atlantic coast near Rio de Janeiro. Their pre-Columbian population is estimated at between 300,000 and one million. With the arrival of Europeans, the population rapidly decreased due to epidemics of European diseases. The Guaraní were united only by language and cultural similarities. No political structure existed above the village level. The Guaraní were a semi-sedentary agricultural people.[2][3]
Although the Guaraní initially resisted Spanish incursions into their lands, two characteristics influenced their early cooperation with the Spanish and missionaries. First, the Guaraní were themselves warlike, but they were threatened by hostile tribes around them and by slave raiders. The Spanish, especially Christian missionaries, afforded a degree of security to the Guaraní. Secondly, the Guaraní had a custom of exchanging women among themselves and with outsiders to cement alliances. This facilitated a proliferation of sexual relations of Guaraní women with Spanish men who had an average of 10 concubines each. In Paraguay, the mestizo offspring of Spanish/Guaraní unions had the legal rights of Spaniards. Coupled with the lack of interest by Spain and Spanish entrepreneurs in Paraguay, which produced neither mineral wealth nor agricultural exports, Paraguay became a mestizo society by 1580. Unique to Latin American countries, an indigenous language, Guaraní, is an official language alongside Spanish. The Spanish and mestizos subjected the Guaraní population to the encomienda system of forced labor after 1556 and the reductions of Christian missionaries beginning in the 1580s.[4][5]
The
Early explorers and conquistadors
Much of the earliest written history of Paraguay comes from records of the Spanish colonization, beginning in 1516 with the
In 1524, Garcia joined a Guaraní invasion of the Inca Empire. Garcia's group discovered
Leaving a small force on the northern shore of the broad estuary, Cabot proceeded up the
Cabot returned to Spain in 1530 and told Emperor Charles V about his discoveries. Charles gave permission to Don Pedro de Mendoza to mount an expedition to the Plata basin. The emperor also named Mendoza governor of the Governorate of New Andalusia and granted him the right to name his successor. Mendoza proved to be utterly unsuitable as a leader, and his cruelty nearly undermined the expedition. Choosing what was possibly the worst site for the first Spanish settlement in South America, in February 1536 Mendoza built a fort at a place of poor anchorage on the southern side of the Plata estuary on an inhospitable dead-level plain. Dusty in the dry season, a bog in the rains, the place was inhabited by the fierce Querandí tribe, who resisted the Spaniards. Ignoring these conditions, the Spanish named the outpost Buenos Aires (Nuestra Señora del Buen Ayre).[9]
Meanwhile, Juan de Ayolas, who was Mendoza's second-in-command and who had been sent upstream to reconnoiter, returned with corn and news that Cabot's fort at Sancti Spiritu had been abandoned. Mendoza dispatched Ayolas to explore a possible route to Peru. Accompanied by Domingo Martínez de Irala, Ayolas again sailed upstream until he reached a small bay on the Río Paraguay, which he named Candelaria, the present-day Fuerte Olimpo. Appointing Irala his lieutenant, Ayolas ventured into the Chaco and was never seen again.[9]
After Mendoza unexpectedly returned to Spain, two other members of the expedition—
Within 20 years, the new town had a population of about 1,500. Transcontinental shipments of silver passed through Asunción en route from Peru to Europe. Asunción became the center of a Spanish province that encompassed a large portion of central South America—La Provincia Gigante de Indias. Asunción also was the base for colonization of this part of South America. Spaniards moved northwestward across the Chaco to found Santa Cruz in present-day Bolivia; eastward to occupy the rest of present-day Paraguay; and southward along the river to re-found Buenos Aires, which its inhabitants had abandoned in 1541 to move to Asunción.[9]
Young colony
Uncertainties over the departure of Pedro de Mendoza led Charles V to
Irala's rule set the pattern for Paraguay's internal affairs until Independence. In addition to the Spaniards, Asunción's population included immigrants, mostly men, from present-day France, Italy, Germany, England, and Portugal. This community of about 350 chose wives and
The peace that had prevailed under Irala ended in 1542 when Charles V appointed
A Guaraní woman from the early-colonial era, known as Juliana, is regarded as one of the most prominent female figures in the history of Paraguay.[12][13][14][15] She is famous for killing her Spaniard master or husband between 1539 and 1542 and inciting other Indigenous women to do the same.[16][17][18] Despite having confessed to the crime, Juliana was set free, although Cabeza de Vaca had her arrested and executed upon taking command of Asunción in 1542.[16][18][17]
Irala ruled without further interruption until his death in 1556. His governorship was one of the most humane in the Spanish
Irala eventually antagonized the native peoples. In the last years of his life he yielded to pressure from settlers and established the
Political instability began troubling the colony and revolts became commonplace. Given his limited resources and manpower, Irala could do little to check the raids of Portuguese marauders along his eastern borders. Irala left Paraguay prosperous for the Europeans and relatively at peace.[11]
Jesuit missions among the Guaraní
The Guaraní people of eastern Paraguay and neighboring Brazil and Argentina were in crisis in the early 17th century. Recurrent epidemics of European diseases had reduced their population by up 50 percent and the forced labor of the encomiendas by the Spanish and mestizo colonists had made virtual slaves of many. Franciscan missionaries began establishing missions called reductions in the 1580s.[19] The first Jesuits arrived in Asunción in 1588 and founded their first mission (or reduction) of San Ignacio Guazú in 1609. The objectives of the Jesuits were to make Christians of the Guaraní, impose European values and customs, and isolate and protect the Guaraní from European colonists and slavers.[19][20]
In addition to recurrent epidemics, the Guaraní were threatened by the slave-raiding
The missions are much-romanticized. "Proponents...highlight that the Jesuits protected the Indians from exploitation and preserved the Guaraní language and other aspects of indigenous culture."
The Comunero Revolt (1721–1735) was a serious protest by Spanish and mestizo Paraguayans against the Jesuit missions. The residents of Paraguay violently protested the pro-Jesuit government of Paraguay, Jesuit control of Guaraní labor, and what they regarded as unfair competition for the market for products such as yerba mate. Although the revolt ultimately failed and the missions remained intact, the Jesuits were expelled from institutions they had created in Asunción.[26] In 1756, the Guaraní protested the relocation of seven missions, losing a brief war with both the Spanish and Portuguese. The Jesuits were accused of inciting the Guaraní to rebel.[27] In 1767, Charles III of Spain expelled the Jesuits from the Americas. The expulsion was part of an effort in the Bourbon Reforms to assert more Spanish control over its American colonies.[28] In total, 78 Jesuits departed from the missions leaving behind 89,000 Guaraní in 30 missions. [29]
According to historian Sarreal, most Guaraní initially welcomed the expulsion of the Jesuits. Spanish authorities made promises to Guaraní leaders and gained their support. Within two years, however, the financial situation of the former missions was deteriorating and Guaraní began leaving the missions seeking both freedom and higher wages. A decree in 1800 freed the Guaraní still in the missions from their communal obligation to labor. By 1840, the former missions were in ruins. While some Guaraní were employed outside the missions, many families were impoverished. A growing number of mestizos occupied what had formerly been mission lands. in 1848, Paraguayan President
Colonial decline
The Comuneros revolt was symptomatic of the province's decline. Since the re-founding of Buenos Aires in 1580, the steady deterioration in the importance of Asunción contributed to growing political instability within the province. In 1617, the
The Viceroyalty of Peru and the Real Audiencia of Charcas had nominal authority over Paraguay, while Madrid largely neglected the colony. Madrid preferred to avoid the effort and expense of governing and defending a remote colony that had proved to have little value. The governors of Paraguay had no royal troops at their disposal and were instead dependent on a colonist militia . Paraguayans were forced into the colonial militia to serve extended tours of duty, contributing to a severe labor shortage. Paraguayans claimed that the 1537 cédula gave them the right to choose and depose their governors. The colony, and in particular the Asunción municipal council (cabildo), earned a reputation for being in continual revolt against the Crown.
As a result of its distance from the rest of the empire, Paraguay had little control over important decisions that affected its economy. Spain appropriated much of Paraguay's wealth through burdensome taxes and regulations.
Independence of 1811
The
Among the many
The porteños bungled their effort to extend control over Paraguay by choosing José Espínola y Peña as their spokesman in Asunción. Espínola was "perhaps the most hated Paraguayan of his era", in the words of historian John Hoyt Williams. Espínola's reception in Asunción was less than cordial, partly because he was closely linked to the ex-governor Lázaro de Rivera, who had arbitrarily executed hundreds of citizens until he was forced from office in 1805. Barely escaping arrest in Paraguay, Espínola fled back to Buenos Aires and lied about the extent of porteño popularity in Paraguay, causing the Buenos Aires Primera Junta to make a disastrous decision to launch the Paraguay campaign and send 1,100 troops under General Manuel Belgrano to subdue Asunción. Led by royalists, Paraguayan troops reinforced by local militias soundly thrashed the porteños at Battle of Paraguarí and Battle of Tacuarí. Officers from both sides openly fraternized during the campaign and from these contacts Paraguayans learned that Spanish dominance in South America was ending, and that they now held the real power.
The actions of the last Spanish governor Bernardo de Velasco only further agitated local politicians and military officers. Believing that Paraguayan officers posed a threat to his rule, Governor Velasco dispersed and disarmed local forces and sent most of the soldiers home without paying them for their eight months of service. Velasco previously had lost face when, believing that Belgrano had won at Paraguarí, he fled the battlefield and caused a panic in Asunción. The last straw were Velasco's negotiations with Brazilian Portuguese during which he asked for military and financial help. This move ignited a military uprising in Asunción on 14 May 1811 and formation of a power-sharing junta. On 17 May a public proclamation informed people that a ruling junta, consisting of Governor Velasco, Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia and Army captain Juan Valeriano de Zeballos, had been created.
Historical flags of Paraguay
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Provisional flag, May–June 1811[33]
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Provisional flag, 1812
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Provisional flag, 1812
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Flag from 1812 to 1826
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Flag from 1826 to 1842
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Flag from 1842 to 1954
Era of dictatorships (1814–1870)
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After the first revolutionary years, Congress in 1814 elected José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia to be the supreme dictator (Supremo) of Paraguay. Under dictatorships of Francia (1814–1840), Carlos Antonio López (1841–1862) and Francisco Solano López (1862–1870) Paraguay developed quite differently from other South American countries. They encouraged self-sufficient economic development, state ownership of most industries and imposed a high level of isolation from neighboring countries.[34] The regime of the López family was characterized by a harsh centralism in the production and distribution of goods. There was no distinction between the public and the private sphere, and the López family ruled the country as it would a large estate.[35]
Francia, 1814–40
Paraguay at independence was a relatively undeveloped country. Most residents of Asunción and virtually all rural inhabitants were illiterate. University education was limited to the few who could afford studies at the National University of Córdoba, in present-day Argentina. Very few people had any experience in government, finance, or diplomacy. The country was surrounded by hostile neighbors, from warlike Chaco tribes to the Argentine Confederation and Empire of Brazil. Strong measures were needed to save the country from disintegration. José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia served from 1811 until his death in 1840 and built a strong, prosperous, secure nation. Francia was popular with the lower classes of Creoles and native peoples. Despite popularity, Francia's dictatorship trampled on human rights, imposing a police state based on espionage, threats and force. Under Francia, Paraguay underwent a social upheaval that destroyed the old colonial elites. After the military uprising of 14–15 May 1811, which brought independence, Francia became a member of the ruling junta. Although the real power initially rested with the military, Francia attracted support from the nation's farmers. Francia built his power base on his organizational abilities and his forceful personality. By outwitting porteño diplomats in the negotiations that produced the Treaty of 11 October 1811, in which Argentina implicitly recognized Paraguayan independence in return for vague promises of a military alliance, Francia proved that he possessed skills crucial to the future of the country.
Francia consolidated his power by convincing Paraguayans that he was indispensable. By the end of 1811, dissatisfied with the political role that military officers were playing, he resigned from the junta. He told the visiting citizens that their revolution had been betrayed, that the change in government had only traded a Spanish-born elite for a criollo one, and that the junta was incompetent. The Portuguese were threatening to overrun the northern frontiers, and after realizing that Paraguay would not fulfill the 11 October treaty and join their federation, United Provinces of the Río de la Plata started a trade war by closing Río de la Plata to Paraguayan commerce, levying taxes and seizing ships. The porteño government also asked for Paraguayan military assistance in its First Banda Oriental campaign.
When Paraguayan junta learned that a porteño diplomat was coming to Asunción, it realized that it was not competent to negotiate and in November 1812, junta members invited Francia to take charge of foreign policy. The junta agreed to place half of the army and half of the available munitions under Francia's command. Francia now controlled the government. When the Argentine envoy, Nicolás de Herrera arrived in May 1813, he was told that all important decisions had to wait for the meeting of a Paraguayan Congress in late September. Under virtual house arrest, Herrera had little scope to build support for unification, even though he resorted to bribery.
The Second National Congress was held from 30 September until 12 October 1813. It was attended by 1100 delegates, chosen by
El Supremo Dictador
Francia detested the political culture of the old regime and considered himself a revolutionary. He admired and emulated the most radical elements of the
At the same time, a system of internal espionage destroyed
In 1820, four years after the Congress had named Francia dictator for life with the title Supremo Dictator Perpetuo de la Republica del Paraguay (Supreme Dictator in Perpetuity), Francia's security system uncovered and quickly crushed a plot by the élite to assassinate El Supremo. Francia arrested almost 200 prominent Paraguayans among whom were all the leading figures of the 1811 independence movement, and executed most of them. In 1821 Francia struck against the Spanish-born elite, summoning all of Paraguay's 300 or so peninsulares to Asunción's main square, where he accused them of treason, had them arrested, and held them in jail for 18 months. They were released only after agreeing to pay an enormous collective indemnity of 150,000 pesos (about 75 percent of the annual state budget), an amount so large that it broke their predominance in the Paraguayan economy.[38]
In order to destroy the colonial racial hierarchy which had discriminated against him because of his mixed blood, Francia forbade Europeans from marrying other Europeans, thus forcing the élite to choose spouses from the local population. He sealed Paraguay's borders to the outside world and executed anyone who attempted to leave. Foreigners who managed to enter Paraguay had to remain there in virtual arrest for years. Both of these decisions actually helped to solidify the Paraguayan identity. There no longer were separate racial identities; all inhabitants had to live within the borders of Paraguay and build a new society which has created the modern Paraguayan society in which Hispanic and Guaraní roots were equally strong.[39]
Paraguayan international trade stopped almost completely. The decline ruined exporters of
Targeting the Church
One of Francia's special targets was the Roman Catholic Church, which had provided an essential support to Spanish rule by spreading the doctrine of the "divine right of kings" and inculcating the native masses with a resigned fatalism about their social status and economic prospects. In 1824 Francia banned all religious orders, closed the only seminary, "secularized" monks and priests by forcing them to swear loyalty to the state, abolished the fuero eclesiástico (the privilege of clerical immunity from civil courts), confiscated Church property, and subordinated its finances to state control.
The common people benefited from the suppression of the traditional elites and from the expansion of the state. Francia took land from the elite and the church and leased it to the poor. About 875 families received homesteads from the lands of the former seminary. The various fines and confiscations levied on the elites helped to reduce taxes for everyone else. As a result, Francia's attacks on the elite and his state-socialist policies provoked little popular resistance. The state quickly became the nation's largest landowner, eventually operating forty-five animal-breeding farms. Run by army personnel, these farms were so successful that surplus animals were given away to the peasants.
Legacy
Francia left the state treasury with at least twice as much money in it as when he took office, including 36,500 pesos of his unspent salary, the equivalent of several years' salary.
Francia's greatest accomplishment, the preservation of Paraguayan independence, resulted directly from a
All of these political and economic developments put Paraguay on the path of independent nationhood, yet the country's undoubted progress during the years of the Franciata took place because of complete submission to Francia's will. El Supremo personally controlled every aspect of Paraguayan public life. No decision at the state level, no matter how small, could be made without his approval. All of Paraguay's accomplishments during this period, including its existence as a nation, were attributed almost entirely to Francia.
Carlos Antonio López, 1841–62
After Francia's death on 20 September 1840, a political confusion erupted, because El Supremo, now El Difunto (the Dead One), had left no successor. After a few days, a junta led by
Alonzo lacked authority to rule, and on 14 March 1841, the two-man consulate of early Independence era was recreated. Besides Alonzo now ruled Carlos Antonio López as co-consul. This Second Consulate lasted until 13 March 1844, when Congress named Lopez the President of the Republic, a post he held until his death in 1862.
While maintaining a strong political and economic grip on the country, and despite all his shortcomings, Lopez worked towards strengthening Paraguay's independence.
Although López's government was similar to Francia's system, his appearance, style, and policies were different. Francia had pictured himself as the first citizen of a revolutionary state, whereas López used the all-powerful state to enrich himself and his family. López was a
Despite his greed, Paraguay prospered under El Excelentísimo (the Most Excellent One), as López was known: the population increased from about 220,000 in 1840 to about 400,000 in 1860.
During his term of office, López improved national defense, abolished the remnants of the
When López took office, Asunción had only one primary school. During López's reign, more than 400 schools were built for 25,000 primary students, and the state re-instituted secondary education. López's educational development plans progressed with difficulty, because Francia had purged the country of the educated elite, which included teachers. López loosened restrictions on foreign relations, boosted exports, invited foreign physicians, engineers, and investors to settle in Paraguay, and paid for students to study abroad. In 1853 he sent his son Francisco Solano to Europe to buy guns. López was worried about the possibility of a war with Brazil or Argentina, so he created an army of 18,000 soldiers with a reserve of 46,000, at that time the largest army in South America.[40]
"As British and other foreign technicians poured into the country, they were set to work almost entirely on the creation of a
Slavery
Slavery had existed in Paraguay since early colonial days. Settlers had brought slaves to work as domestic servants, but were generally lenient about their bondage. Conditions worsened after 1700, however, with the importation of about 50,000 African slaves to be used as agricultural workers. Under Francia, the state acquired about 1,000 slaves when it confiscated property from the elite. López enacted the 1842 Law of the Free Womb, which ended the slave trade and guaranteed that the children of slaves would be free at age twenty-five. The new law served only to increase the slave population and depress slave prices as the slave birth rates soared.
Foreign relations
Despite being de facto independent since 1811 and having proclaimed a Republic in 1813, Paraguay formally declared independence only on 25 November 1842 and in 1844 adopted a new Constitution that replaced the Constitution of 1813.[40] Based on this, Paraguay started to gain official international recognition.
Foreign relations began to increase in importance under López, who retained Paraguay's traditional mistrust of the surrounding states, yet lacked Francia's diplomatic skills. Initially, López feared an attack by the Buenos Aires dictator Rosas. With Brazilian encouragement, López dropped Francia's policy of neutrality and began meddling in Argentine politics. Using the slogan "Independence or Death", López declared war against Rosas in 1845 to support what was ultimately an unsuccessful rebellion in the Argentine province of Corrientes. Although Britain and France prevented him from moving against Paraguay, Rosas established a trade embargo on Paraguayan goods.
After Rosas fell in 1852, López signed a treaty with Buenos Aires that recognized Paraguay's independence, although the porteños never ratified it. In the same year, López signed treaties of friendship, commerce, and navigation with France and the United States. On 1 October 1853, the US warship USS Water Witch arrived on a visit in Asunción.
Nonetheless, growing tensions with several countries, including the United States, characterized the second half of López's rule. In 1858 the United States sent a flotilla to Paraguayan waters in a successful action to claim compensation for an American sailor who had been killed three years earlier when USS Water Witch had entered Paraguayan waters despite prohibition from Lopez.[41]
López had recklessly dropped his policy of neutrality without determining where his allegiances lay. He allowed controversies and boundary disputes with Brazil and Argentina to smolder. The two regional giants had tolerated Paraguayan independence, partly because Paraguay served to check the expansionist tendencies of both opponents. Both were satisfied if the other could not dominate Paraguayan affairs. At the same time, a Paraguay that was antagonistic to both Brazil and Argentina would give these countries a reason for uniting.
Francisco Solano López, 1862–70
Francisco Solano López became the second and final ruler of the López dynasty. After his father's death the Paraguayan Congress elected him President on 16 October 1862. Solano López consolidated his power after his father's death in 1862 by silencing several hundred critics and would-be reformers through imprisonment.
The government continued to exert control on all exports. The export of yerba mate and valuable wood products maintained the balance of trade between Paraguay and the outside world.[42] The Paraguayan government was extremely protectionist, never accepted loans from abroad, and employed high tariffs against the importation of foreign products. This protectionism made the society self-sufficient. This also avoided the debt suffered by Argentina and Brazil.
Solano López had as a lover an Irish woman, Elisa Alicia Lynch. "La Lynch", as she became known in Paraguay, was a strong-willed, charming, witty, intelligent woman who became a person of enormous influence. Lynch's Parisian manners soon made her a trendsetter in the Paraguayan capital, and she made enemies as quickly as she made friends. Lynch bore Solano López five sons, although the two never married. She became the largest landowner in Paraguay after Solano López transferred most of Paraguay and portions of Brazil into her name during the war.
Observers sharply disagreed about Solano López. George Thompson, an English engineer who worked for the younger López, called him "a monster without parallel". Solano López's conduct laid him open to such charges: his miscalculations and ambitions plunged Paraguay into a war with Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. The war resulted in the deaths of half of Paraguay's population and almost erased the country from the map. During the war, Solano López ordered the executions of his own brothers and had his mother and sisters tortured when he suspected them of opposing him. Thousands of others, including Paraguay's bravest soldiers and generals, also went to their deaths before firing squads or were hacked to pieces on Solano López's orders. Others saw Solano López as a paranoid megalomaniac, a man who wanted to be the "Napoleon of South America".
However, sympathetic Paraguayan nationalists and foreign revisionist historians have portrayed Solano López as a patriot who resisted Argentine and Brazilian designs on Paraguay. They portrayed him as a tragic figure caught in a web of Argentine and Brazilian duplicity who mobilized the nation to repulse its enemies, holding them off heroically for five bloody, horror-filled years until Paraguay was finally overrun and prostrate. Since the 1930s, Paraguayans have regarded Solano López as the nation's foremost hero.[43]
Paraguayan War
Solano López accurately assessed the September 1864 Brazilian intervention in Uruguay as a threat not only to Uruguay but to Paraguay as well. He was also correct in his assumption that neither Brazil nor Argentina paid much attention to Paraguay's interests when formulating their policies. He was clear that preserving Uruguayan independence was crucial to Paraguay's future as a nation. Consistent with his plans to start a Paraguayan "third force" between Argentina and Brazil, Solano López committed the nation to Uruguay's aid.
In early 1864, López warned Brazil against intervening in Uruguay's internal conflict. Despite this, Brazil invaded Uruguay in October, 1864. On 12 November 1864, Lopez ordered the seizure of a Brazilian warship in Paraguayan territorial waters. López followed this with an invasion of the Mato Grosso province of Brazil, in March 1865, an action that proved to be one of Paraguay's few successes during the war.
When Argentina refused Solano López's request for permission for his army to cross Argentine territory to attack the Brazilian province of
This invasion set the stage for the May 1865 signing by Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay of the Treaty of the Triple Alliance. Under the treaty, these nations vowed to destroy Solano López's government.
Paraguay was not prepared for a big war. Its 30,000-man army was the most powerful in Latin America, but its strength was illusory because it lacked trained leadership, a reliable source of weapons and adequate reserves. Paraguay lacked the industrial base to replace weapons lost in battle, and the Argentine-Brazilian alliance prevented Solano López from receiving arms from abroad.
Paraguay's population was only about 450,000 in 1865, completely dwarfed by the Allied population of 11 million. Even after conscripting every able-bodied male, including children as young as ten, and forcing women to perform all nonmilitary labor, Solano López still could not field an army as large as those of his enemies.
Apart from some Paraguayan victories on the northern front, the war was a disaster. The core units of the Paraguayan army reached Corrientes in April 1865. By July, more than half of Paraguay's 30,000-man invasion force had been killed or captured along with the army's best small arms and artillery. By 1867, Paraguay had lost 60,000 men to casualties, disease, or capture, and another 60,000 soldiers – slaves and children – were called to duty.
After October 1865 López changed his war plans from offensive to defensive. On 22 September 1866, at the Battle of Curupayty, Paraguayans inflicted a great defeat on the Allied army and until November 1867 there was a relative lull in the fighting.
In February 1868 two Brazilian warships sailed up the River Paraguay and caused a panic in Asunción. On 24 February they entered the port of Asunción, shelled the city and left, without attempting to capture it. During this time López was not in Asunción and perceived all the defensive actions that were taken by his government, including his vice-president and brothers, as a giant conspiracy against his rule. In his base at San Fernando, López organized a wave of torture and executions against the supposed conspirators.[44] Many victims were lanced to death in order to save ammunition. The bodies were dumped in mass graves.
Solano López's hostility even extended to
By the end of 1868, the Paraguayan army had shrunk to a few thousand soldiers (many of them children and women) who exhibited suicidal bravery. Cavalry units operated on foot for lack of horses. Naval infantry battalions armed only with
1870 marked the lowest point in Paraguayan history. Hundreds of thousands of Paraguayans had died. Destitute and practically destroyed, Paraguay had to endure a lengthy occupation by foreign troops and cede large patches of territory to Brazil and Argentina.
Under occupation, 1870–76
The allied occupation of Asunción in 1869 put the victors in direct control of Paraguayan affairs. While Bolivia and Argentina pressed their claims to the
Brazil had borne the brunt of the fighting, with perhaps 150,000 dead and 65,000 wounded. It had spent US$200 million, and its troops formed the largest army of occupation in the country; as a result Brazil temporarily overshadowed Argentina in control of the country. Sharp disagreements between the two powers prolonged the Allied occupation until 1876.
Ruined by war, pestilence, famine, and unpaid foreign indemnities, Paraguay was on the verge of disintegration in 1870. Its fertile soil and the country's overall backwardness helped it survive. Paraguay's mostly rural populace continued to subsist as it had done for centuries, eking out a meager existence under difficult conditions.
Ownership of the Paraguayan economy quickly passed to foreign speculators and adventurers who rushed to take advantage of the rampant chaos and corruption. The Paraguayan economy, which until then was mostly state owned, was dismantled and privatized, and became dominated by Argentinian and European companies.
During the Presidency of Juan Bautista Gill (1874–77), after the Machaín-Irigoyen Treaty was signed, the occupying Brazilian troops finally left the country in mid-summer of 1876.
Legionnaires
The post-war political vacuum was initially dominated by survivors of the anti-López
The Legionnaires, however, had no more experience in the principles of republics than other Paraguayans. The 1870 constitution quickly became irrelevant. Politics degenerated into factionalism, and cronyism and intrigue prevailed. Presidents still acted like dictators, elections did not stay free, and the Legionnaires were out of power in less than a decade.
Free elections were a startling, and not altogether welcome, innovation for ordinary Paraguayans, who had always allied themselves with a patrón (benefactor) for security and protection. At the same time, Argentina and Brazil were not content to leave Paraguay with a truly free political system. Pro-Argentine militia chief Benigno Ferreira for a short time emerged as de facto dictator until his overthrow by Bernardino Caballero with Brazilian help in 1874. Ferreira later returned to lead the 1904 Liberal uprising, which ousted the Colorados. Ferreira then served as President between 1906 and 1908.
Provisional government, 1869–70
With Solano López on the run, the country lacked a government. Pedro II sent his Foreign minister José Paranhos to Asunción where he arrived on 20 February 1869, and began consultations with the local politicians. On 31 March a petition was signed by 335 leading citizens asking the Allies for a provisional government. This was followed by negotiations between the Allied countries who put aside some of more controversial points of the Treaty of the Triple Alliance and on 11 June an agreement was reached with Paraguayan opposition figures that a three-man provisional government would be established. On 22 July a National Assembly met in the National Theatre and elected a Junta Nacional of 21 men, which then selected a five-man committee to select three men for the provisional government. They selected Carlos Loizaga, Juan Francisco Decoud, and José Díaz de Bedoya. Decoud was unacceptable to Paranhos, who had him replaced with Cirilo Antonio Rivarola. The government was finally installed on 15 August, but was just a front for the continued Allied occupation.[44]
The provisional government consisted of:
- President of the Council, Colonel Carlos Loizaga.
- Secretary of the Interior, Cirilo Antonio Rivarola.
- Secretary of the Treasury, José Díaz de Bedoya.[46]
After the death of López, the provisional government issued a proclamation on 6 March 1870, in which it promised to support political liberties, to protect commerce and to promote immigration, but the Provisional government did not last. In May 1870 José Díaz de Bedoya resigned and on 31 August 1870, Carlos Loizaga also resigned. The remaining member Antonio Rivarola was then relieved of his duties by the National Assembly which established a provisional Presidency to which Facundo Machaín was elected. He assumed the post on 31 August 1870, but was overthrown the next day in a coup which restored Rivarola to power.
Post-war political conflicts
The politics of the first post-war decade were heavily influenced by deeply personal conflicts between López loyalists and their more liberal opponents, but just as important was the backing of various politicians by Argentina and Brazil. In the end the Brazilian-supported politicians won, and established the rule of the Colorado party.
After Cirilo Antonio Rivarola resigned from the presidency in December 1871, Salvador Jovellanos came to power, backed by General Benigno Ferreira. Jovellanos was an accidental president, and after facing repeated revolts form López loyalists in 1873 and 1874, first Ferreira and then Jovellanos fled into exile. General Bernardino Caballero was the power behind the throne during terms of President Juan Bautista Gill, who was assassinated in 1877, and his political mentor, President Cándido Bareiro, who died from stroke in 1880. At this point Caballero assumed the presidency and laid the foundations of the two-party system, remaining one of the most influential politicians until the 1904 Liberal revolution.
Liberals versus Colorados
The era of party politics in Paraguay was free to begin in earnest. Nonetheless, the evacuation of foreign forces did not mean the end of foreign influence. Both Brazil and Argentina remained deeply involved in Paraguay as a result of their connections with Paraguay's rival political forces. The political rivalry between future Liberals and Colorados started already in 1869 before the war was over, when the terms Azules (Blues) and Colorados (Reds) first appeared.
Factions
The remaining López loyalists gathered around Cándido Bareiro who, on 31 March 1869, founded the Republican Union Club which in early 1870 became the Club del Pueblo and after 17 February 1878, Club Libertad and who published their newspaper La Voz del Pueblo. The Bareiro faction was also known as lopiztas because of their loyalty to the memory of President López and it was opposed to the Decoud faction who had established their rival Club del Pueblo (after 23 March 1870, the Gran Club del Pueblo).
On 26 June 1869, the Decoud faction, centered around young liberals Facundo Machaín, José Segundo Decoud and the latter's father Juan Francisco, established their Club del Pueblo, and on 1 October 1869, they started publishing the newspaper La Regeneración. Their rivals, López loyalists, established Club Unión with Cayo Miltos as president. So the two currents that eventually led to the Liberal and Colorado Parties began.[44]
In the decade following the war, the principal political conflicts within Paraguay reflected the Liberal-Colorado split, with Legionnaires battling Lopiztas (ex-followers of Solano López) for power, while Brazil and Argentina maneuvered in the background. The Legionnaires saw the Lopiztas as reactionaries. The Lopiztas accused the Legionnaires of being traitors and foreign puppets. Many people constantly changed political sides. Political and financial opportunism characterized this era, not ideological purity.
The Liberal and Colorado Parties were officially established in 1887. Both parties had former López supporters and Paraguayan Legion veterans in their ranks. The Liberal party came to be divided among civicos (civics) and radicales (radicals) factions, while Colorados were split among caballeristas (supporters of president Bernardino Caballero) and egusquicistas (supporters of president Juan Bautista Egusquiza).[47]
The National Republican Association-Colorado Party (Asociación Nacional Republicana-Partido Colorado) dominated Paraguayan political life from the mid-1870s (despite still not existing formally then) until 1904, when Liberals overthrew it. The following ascent of Liberal Party marked the decline of Brazilian influence, which had supported the Colorados as the principal political force in Paraguay, and the rise of Argentine influence.
First Colorado era
In 1878, the international commission led by US President
Governments led by two former López-era officers Bernardino Caballero (1880–86) and Patricio Escobar (1886–90) started a more earnest national reconstruction. A general political amnesty was proclaimed and opposition allowed in Parliament. National University was founded in 1889. A census in 1886–87 showed a population of 329,645. To improve this, foreign immigration was encouraged.[47]
The Colorados dismantled Francia's unique system of state socialism. Desperate for cash because of heavy debts incurred in London in the early postwar period, the Colorados lacked a source of funds except through the sale of the state's vast holdings, which comprised more than 95% of Paraguay's total land. Caballero's government sold much of this land to foreigners in huge lots. While Colorado politicians raked in the profits and themselves became large landowners, peasant squatters who had farmed the land for generations were forced to vacate and, in many cases, to emigrate. By 1900, seventy-nine people owned half of the country's land.
Although the Liberals had advocated the same land-sale policy, the unpopularity of the sales and evidence of pervasive government corruption produced a tremendous outcry from the opposition. Liberals became bitter foes of selling land, especially after the 1887 elections, which were marked by State-sponsored violence against the opposition. Ex-Legionnaires, idealistic reformers, and former Lopiztas joined in July 1887, shortly after these elections, to form the Centro Democrático (Democratic Center),[48] a precursor of the Liberal party, demanding free elections, an end to land sales, civilian control over the military, and clean government. Caballero responded, along with his principal adviser, José Segundo Decoud, and Escobar, by forming the Colorado Party one month later, thus formalizing the two party system. Both parties had internal divisions and very little ideology separated them, allowing Colorado and Liberal members to change sides whenever it proved advantageous. While the Colorados reinforced their monopoly on power and spoils, Liberals called for reform.
Frustration provoked an aborted Liberal revolt in 1891 that produced changes in 1894, when war minister General Juan Bautista Egusquiza overthrew Caballero's chosen President, Juan Gualberto González. Egusquiza startled Colorado stalwarts by sharing power with the Liberals, a move that split both parties. Ex-Legionnaire Ferreira along with the cívico (civic) wing of the Liberals joined the government of Egusquiza, who left office in 1898 to allow a civilian, Emilio Aceval, to become President. Liberal radicales (radicals) who opposed compromising with their Colorado enemies boycotted the new arrangement. Caballero, also boycotting the alliance, plotted to overthrow civilian rule and succeeded when Colonel Juan Antonio Escurra seized power in 1902. This victory was Caballero's last, however. In 1904 the old nemesis of Caballero, General Benigno Ferreira, with the support of cívicos, radicales, and egusquistas, invaded from Argentina. After four months of fighting, Escurra signed the Pact of Pilcomayo aboard an Argentine gunboat on 12 December 1904, and handed power to the Liberals.
Liberal era, 1904–36
The Liberal Revolution of August 1904 began as a popular movement, but Liberal rule quickly degenerated into factional feuding, military coups, and civil wars. Political instability was extreme in the Liberal era, which saw twenty-one governments in thirty-six years. During the period 1904 to 1922, Paraguay had fifteen presidents.
Revolution of 1904
The 1904 Revolution was organized in Buenos Aires by Paraguayan exiles led by Manuel J. Duarte who was serving in the Argentine navy. The Rebels used the Paraguayan merchant ship Sajonia, whose captain was a Liberal supporter. On 4 August 1904 the rebels took control of the ship in the port of Buenos Aires. The ship later was boarded by Liberal soldiers who brought thousands of rifles, machine guns and small artillery guns on board.[49]
After learning about this ship, President Juan Antonio Escurra declared a state of siege on 8 August. The Paraguayan army at that time had some 1500 personnel and no real navy, so another merchant ship, Villa Rica, was used for military purposes and sent towards Sajonia. Both ships met on 11 August near town of Pilar and very quickly Villa Rica was sunk, killing 28 government sailors. The Rebels then left the ship and for the next five months continued a war with the government. The fighting ended on 12 December 1904, when in a deal negotiated by Brazilian diplomat Brasílio Itiberê da Cunha, the Pilcomayo Pact, Escurra resigned and a temporary President, Juan Bautista Gaona, from the Liberal party was sworn in on 19 December 1904. On 25 November 1906, the old Liberal hero, General Benigno Ferreira, was elected to the presidency.[50]
By 1908, the Liberal radicales had overthrown General Ferreira and the cívicos. The Liberals had disbanded Caballero's army when they came to power and organized a completely new one. Nevertheless, by 1910 army commander Colonel Albino Jara felt strong enough to stage a coup against President Manuel Gondra. Jara's coup backfired as it touched off an anarchic two-year period in which every major political group seized power at least once and led to the Civil War of 1912. The radicales again invaded from Argentina, and when the charismatic Eduardo Schaerer became president, Gondra returned as Minister of War to reorganize the army once more. Schaerer became the first president since Egusquiza to finish his four-year term.
The new political calm was shattered, however, when the radicales split into Schaerer and Gondra factions. Gondra won the Presidential election in 1920, but the schaereristas undermined his power and forced him to resign. A full-scale
Laissez-faire Liberal policies had permitted a handful of hacendados to exercise almost feudal control over the countryside, while peasants had no land and foreign interests manipulated Paraguay's economic fortunes. The Liberals, like the Colorados, were a deeply factionalized political oligarchy. Social conditions – always marginal in Paraguay – deteriorated during the
Chaco War
Paraguay's dispute with Bolivia over the Chaco, brewing for decades, finally derailed the Liberals. Wars and poor diplomacy had prevented the settling of boundaries between the two countries. Although Paraguay had held the Chaco, the country did little to develop the area. Aside from scattered
While Paraguayans were busy fighting among themselves during the 1920s, Bolivians established a series of forts in the Paraguayan Chaco. In addition, they bought armaments from Germany and hired German military officers to train and lead their forces. Frustration in Paraguay with Liberal inaction boiled over in 1928 when the Bolivian army established a fort on the Paraguay river called Fortín Vanguardia. In December of that year, Paraguayan major (later colonel) Rafael Franco led a surprise attack on the fort, and succeeded in destroying it. The routed Bolivians responded quickly by seizing two Paraguayan forts. Both sides mobilized but the Liberal government felt unprepared for war so it agreed to the humiliating condition of rebuilding Fortín Vanguardia for the Bolivians. The Liberal government also provoked criticism when it forced Franco, by then a national hero, to retire from the army.
As diplomats from Argentina, the United States, and the
When war finally broke out officially in July 1932, the Bolivians were confident of a rapid victory. Their country was richer and more populous than Paraguay, and their armed forces were larger, had a superior officer corps, and were well-trained and well-equipped. The highly motivated Paraguayans knew the geography of the Chaco better than the Bolivians and easily infiltrated Bolivian lines, surrounded outposts, and captured supplies. Long supply lines, poor roads, and weak logistics hindered the Bolivian campaign. The Paraguayans proved more united than the Bolivians, at least initially, as President Eusebio Ayala and Colonel (later Marshal) Estigarribia worked well together.
After the December 1933 Paraguayan victory at
Military dictatorships
February Revolution
The revolution of February 1936 overthrew Liberal Party politicians who had won the war. The soldiers, veterans, students, and others who revolted actually felt that victory had come despite the Liberal government. Promising a national and social revolution, they occupied Asunción and brought Colonel Rafael Franco to power.
During its 18 months of existence, the Franco government showed that it was serious about social justice by expropriating more than 200,000 hectares of land and distributing it to 10,000 peasant families. In addition, the new government guaranteed workers the
Perhaps the government's most lasting contribution[according to whom?] affected national consciousness. In a gesture calculated to rewrite history and erase seven decades of national shame, Franco declared Francisco Solano López a national hero "sin ejemplar" (without precedent) because he had stood up to foreign threats, and sent a team to Cerro Corá to find his unmarked grave. His remains, along with those of his father, were buried in the National Pantheon of the Heroes. A monument to him was erected on Asunción's highest hill.
Despite the popular enthusiasm that greeted the February Revolution, Franco's government lacked a clear program. When he published his distinctly
A new party of regime supporters, the Revolutionary National Union (Unión Nacional Revolucionaria), was founded in November 1936. Although the new party called for representative democracy, rights for peasants and workers, and socialization of key industries, it failed to broaden Franco's political base. In the end, Franco lost his popular support because he failed to keep his promises to the poor. He dared not expropriate the properties of foreign landowners, who were mostly Argentines. In addition, the Liberals, who still had influential support in the army, agitated constantly for Franco's overthrow. When Franco ordered Paraguayan troops to abandon the advanced positions in the Chaco that they had held since the 1935 truce, the army revolted in August 1937 and returned the Liberals to power.
The army, however, did not hold a unified opinion about the Febreristas. Several attempted coups served to remind President Félix Paiva (the former dean of law at the National University) that although the February Revolution was out of power, it was far from dead. People who suspected that the Liberals had learned nothing from their term out of office soon had proof: a peace treaty signed with Bolivia on 21 July 1938, fixed the final boundaries behind the Paraguayan battle lines.
Estigarribia
In 1939 the Liberal politicians, recognizing that they had to choose someone with national stature and popularity to be President if they wanted to keep power, picked General
Estigarribia faced sharp criticism from the conservative Catholic intellectuals and their newspaper El Tiempo as well as leftist febrerista student activists in the university. After anti-government demonstrations broke out in Asunción, the army suppressed them and arrested Catholic and febrerista leaders. This led to a withdrawal of Colorado support for Estigarribia, and an attempted coup on 14 February 1940 broke out in Campo Grande military base.[52]
On the same day Estigarribia proposed to establish a temporary dictatorship. This proposal split the Liberal party leadership, many of whom supported this idea, and on 18 February 1940 he established a temporary dictatorship, dismissing the 1870 Constitution and promising a new Constitution.
On 10 July the project of the new Constitution was published and on 4 August 1940, approved in the referendum. The new Constitution was based on the 1937 authoritarian Constitution of Brazil's Estado Novo and established a corporativist state. The Constitution of 1940 promised a "strong, but not despotic" President and a new state empowered to deal directly with social and economic problems. But by greatly expanding the power of the executive branch it served to legitimize open dictatorship. It greatly increased the powers of the Presidency, eliminated the vice-presidency, created a unicameral parliament, and increased the state's power over individual and property rights. It also gave the military the duty to protect the Constitution, thus giving it a role in politics.[52]
Morínigo, 1940–48
The era of the New Liberals, as Estigarribia's supporters were called, came to a sudden end on 7 September 1940, when the President and his wife died in an airplane crash. Hoping to maintain their control over government through a more submissive military man, the Old Liberal ministers and army leadership decided on the War Minister
The apparently genial Moríñigo quickly proved himself a shrewd politician, and Liberal ministers resigned on 30 September, when they realized that they could not impose their will on him. Having inherited Estigarribia's near-dictatorial powers provided by the new 1940 Constitution, Moríñigo quickly banned febreristas and Liberals and clamped down drastically on free speech and
A non-party dictator without a large body of supporters, Morínigo survived politically – despite many plots against him – because of his astute handling of an influential group of young military officers who held key positions of power.
The Allied victory in
The Colorados helped Moríñigo crush the insurgency, but the man who saved Moríñigo's government during crucial battles was the commander of the General Brúgez Artillery Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Alfredo Stroessner. When a revolt at the Asunción Navy Yard put a strategic working-class neighborhood in rebel hands, Stroessner's regiment quickly reduced this area to rubble. When rebel gunboats threatened to dash upriver from Argentina to bombard the capital into submission, Stroessner's forces battled furiously and destroyed them.
By the end of the rebellion in August 1948 the Colorado Party, which had been out of power since 1904, had almost total control in Paraguay. The fighting had simplified politics by eliminating all other parties and by reducing the size of the army. As 90% of the officer corps had joined the rebels, fewer individuals were now in a position to compete for power.
However, the Colorados were split into rival factions. The hardline guionistas, headed by the fiery left-leaning nationalist writer and publisher
With Moríñigo's backing, González used his Guión Rojo paramilitary to intimidate democráticos and gain his party's presidential nomination. He ran unopposed in the long-promised 1948 elections. Suspecting that Moríñigo would not relinquish power to González, a group of Colorado military officers, including Stroessner, removed Moríñigo from office on 3 June 1948. After a short Presidency, González joined Moríñigo in exile and Chaves assumed Presidency on 10 September 1949.
Moríñigo had maintained order by severely restricting individual liberties, but as a result, he created a political vacuum. When he tried to fill it with the Colorado Party, he split the party in two, and neither faction could establish itself in power without help from the military. The creation of
Political consequences
Within a couple of decades, Paraguayan politics had come to a full-circle. The Chaco War had sparked the February Revolution, which signaled the end of Liberal rule and ushered in a revived Paraguayan nationalism that revered the dictatorial past of the López era. The result was the Constitution of 1940, which returned near-dictatorial powers to the Presidency, that the Liberals had stripped away. When a brief flirtation with multi-party democracy led to the Civil war, the Colorado Party, loyal to the memory of López, was once again running Paraguay. Meanwhile, the influence of the armed forces in the domestic politics had increased dramatically as no Paraguayan government since the Chaco War held the power without its consent.
Stroessner dictatorship, 1954–89
As one of the few officers who had remained loyal to Moríñigo, Stroessner became a formidable player once he entered the higher echelons of the armed forces. On 4 May 1954, Alfredo Stroessner enacted a coup d'état against then-President Federico Chaves. Fierce resistance by police left almost fifty dead.
Brazil's financing of the US$19 billion
Beyond the financial support he received from the United States – which supported his anti-communist struggle –, Stroessner's dictatorship was characterized by corruption and the distribution of favors among what was known as "the trilogy": the government, the Colorado Party and the armed forces. Smuggling – geographically favoured by Paraguay's location between Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia – became one of the main sources of income, from alcohol and drugs to cars and exotic animals. Some estimate that the volume of smuggling was three times the official export figure, and Stroessner used some of that money, as well as slices of major infrastructure works and the delivery of land, to buy the loyalty of his officers, many of whom amassed huge fortunes and large estates.[54]
The concentration of wealth and land in the hands of a few made Paraguay the most unequal country on the planet. Humanitarian organizations such as Oxfam and Amnesty International have denounced that it continues to have one of the highest rates of land concentration in Latin America. According to Oxfam, 1.6% of the population owns 80% of the land. And, according to Oxfam, stronism is directly responsible: between 1954 and 1989 some 8 million hectares were distributed irregularly among friends of power, he says. That's a third of arable land.[54]
On 3 February 1989, Stroessner was overthrown in a
Modern Paraguay
The June 1992 constitution established a democratic system of government and dramatically improved protection of fundamental rights. In May 1993, Colorado Party candidate Juan Carlos Wasmosy was elected as Paraguay's first civilian president in almost 40 years in what international observers deemed fair and free elections.[citation needed] The newly elected majority-opposition Congress quickly demonstrated its independence from the executive by rescinding legislation passed by the previous Colorado-dominated Congress. With support from the United States, the Organization of American States, and other countries in the region, the Paraguayan people rejected an April 1996 attempt by then Army Chief General Lino Oviedo to oust President Wasmosy.[citation needed]
Oviedo became the Colorado candidate for president in the 1998 election, but when the
González Macchi offered cabinet positions in his government to senior representatives of all three political parties in an attempt to create a coalition government. While the Liberal Party pulled out of the government in February 2000, the Gonzalez Macchi government has achieved a consensus among the parties on many controversial issues, including economic reform.[citation needed] Liberal Julio César Franco won the August 2000 election to fill the vacant vice presidential position. In August 2001, the lower house of Congress considered but did not pass a motion to impeach González Macchi for alleged corruption and inefficient governance. In 2003, Nicanor Duarte was elected and sworn in as president.
On 1 August 2004 a
On 1 July 2005, the United States reportedly deployed troops and aircraft to the large military airfield of
For the 2008 general elections, the Colorado Party had as a candidate Minister of Education
As a result of the 2013 elections, Horacio Cartes was elected president, returning the Colorado Party to power.[61] Cartes wanted to amend the constitution to allow for presidential re-elections, but widespread protests and political opposition led him to abandon this goal and he agreed to not seek another term. In August 2018, Mario Abdo Benítez sworn in as his successor after winning 2018 presidential election.[62] The 2023 elections resulted in Santiago Peña, a right-wing candidate of the long-ruling Colorado Party, being elected as next president.[63] On 15 August 2023, Santiago Peña was sworn in as Paraguay's new president.[64]
See also
- History of the Americas
- History of Latin America
- History of South America
- List of presidents of Paraguay
- Politics of Paraguay
- Spanish colonization of the Americas
References
Notes
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- ^ Tuer, Dot (July 2013). "Tigers and Crosses: The Transcultural Dynamics of Spanish-Guaraní relations in the Rio de la Plata". Open Research. Thesis, University of Toronto. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
- JSTOR 230058872.
- ISBN 9781951519582. Originally published in 1954
- ISBN 9780521630764.
- ^ Steward, Julian H., ed. (1946), Handbook of South American Indians, Vol. 1, The Marginal Tribes, Smithsonian Institution, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., p. 215
- Project MUSE.
- ISBN 0860913988.
- ^ a b c d e f g Sacks, Richard S. "Early explorers and conquistadors".
- ^ Gott 1993, pp. ix, 16.
- ^ a b c d e Sacks, Richard S. "The young colony". In Hanratty & Meditz.
- ^ Colmán Gutiérrez, Andrés (4 March 2014). "50 mujeres que hicieron historia". Última Hora (in Spanish). Asunción. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
- ^ "Mujer paraguaya, valerosa desde siempre". La Nación (in Spanish). 24 February 2020. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
- ^ "Las mujeres que hicieron historia en Paraguay". ABC Color (in Spanish). 24 February 2018. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
- ^ "Homenaje a mujeres protagonistas de la historia paraguaya en Teatro Documental "Huellas de pétalo y metal"" (in Spanish). Municipalidad de Asunción. 15 November 2019. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2022.
- ^ a b Colmán Gutiérrez, Andrés (5 December 2020). "En busca de la India Juliana". Última Hora (in Spanish). Asunción. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
- ^ ISBN 978-987-691-787-2 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Schvartzman, Gabriela (19 September 2020). "Relatos sobre la India Juliana. Entre la construcción de la memoria y la ficción histórica". Periódico E'a (in Spanish). Asunción: Atycom. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
- ^ a b Hebblethwaite, Margaret (2010). Paraguay. Bradt Travel Guides. p. 103.
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- ISBN 0804736022.
- ^ Sarreal 2014, p. 6-7.
- ISBN 978-0671013202. Retrieved 22 April 2006.) the preceding paragraph is based on pages 249–50
Paraguay founded solely on their powers.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help - ^ Sarreal 2014, pp. 6–7.
- ^ Wilde, Guillermo (2015). "Imagining Guarinis and Jesuits". ReVista. XIV (3): 4–5. Retrieved 24 March 2022.[permanent dead link]
- . Retrieved 30 March 2022.
- ^ Ganson 2003, pp. 107–111.
- ISBN 9780199731985. Edited by Michael Meyer and William Beezley.
- ^ Sarreal 2014, p. 115.
- ^ Sarreal 2014, pp. 231–236.
- ^ Ganson 2003, pp. 153–160.
- ^ "Paraguariae Provinciae Soc. Jesu cum Adiacentibg. Novissima Descriptio" [A Current Description of the Province of the Society of Jesus in Paraguay with Neighboring Areas]. World Digital Library (in Latin). 1732.
- ^ "Las Banderas del Paraguay y su Historia: el Ministerio del Interior cuenta con una Galería". mdi.gov.py. Archived from the original on 7 October 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^ PJ O'Rourke, Give War a Chance, New York: Vintage Books, 1992. Page 47.
- ^ "Carlos Antonio López" Archived 16 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Library of Congress Country Studies, December 1988. URL accessed 2005-12-30.
- ^
"Letters on Paraguay". The British and Foreign Review or European Quarterly Journal. 7. London: Ridgway: 602. July–October 1838. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
Among the most remarkable of these few, if not the most remarkable, was the Dictator Francia, whom we might without any great violation of historical propriety call the Robespierre of Paraguay.
- ^
Crespo, Maria Victoria (2007). "The Concept and Politics of Tyranny and Dictatorship in the Spanish American Revolutions of 1810". In Palonen, Kari (ed.). Redescriptions: Yearbook of Political Thought and Conceptual History. Vol. 10. Berlin/Münster: LIT Verlag. p. 100. ISBN 9783825899264. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
Interpreted along the lines of an extreme Jacobinism, rather than as a tyrant, Francia emerges as a successful, tropical Robespierre.
- ^ Rengger, Johann Rudolph (1827). The Reign of Doctor Joseph Gaspard Roderick de Francia in Paraguay: Being an Account of Six Years' Residence in that Republic, from July, 1819--to May, 1825. T. Hurst, E. Chance. p. 45. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^ ISBN 9780691124254. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^ a b "Carlos Antonio López". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ISBN 9780817358235. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^ Stearns, Peter N. (ed.). Encyclopedia of World History (6th ed.). The Houghton Mifflin Company/Bartleby.com.
Page 630
- ^ Hanratty, D; Menditz, S (1988). "Paraguay - Francisco Solano Lopez". countrystudies.us. US Library of Congress Washington. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
- ^ ISBN 9781477306994. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
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- ^ matin, frederick (1870). The Statesman's Year Book. p. 546. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^ ISBN 9781317518259. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^ Doratioto, Francisco F. M. (1994). "A participação brasileira no golpe de Estado de 1894 no Paraguai: A Missão Cavalcanti". Textos de História. 2 (4): 151–152. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
- ^ "La Revolucion Paraguaya de 1904". histarmar.com.ar. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^ "6. Paraguay (1904-present)". uca.edu. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ISBN 9780820338989. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^ ISBN 9780521266529. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^ This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Richard S. Sacks. "The Stronato". In Hanratty, Dannin M. & Sandra W. Meditz. Paraguay: a country study. Library of Congress Federal Research Division (December 1988).
- ^ a b "Cómo el régimen de Alfredo Stroessner convirtió a Paraguay en uno de los países más desiguales del mundo". BBC News Mundo.
- ^ "At least 300 killed in explosions, fire at Paraguay supermarket - Paraguay | ReliefWeb". reliefweb.int. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
- ^ "U.S. Military Moves in Paraguay Rattle Regional Relations". International Relations Center. 14 December 2005. Archived from the original on 12 June 2007. Retrieved 1 April 2006.
- ^ a b US Marines put a foot in Paraguay Archived 27 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine, El Clarín, 9 September 2005 (in Spanish)
- ^ "World Aero Data: DR LUIS MARIA ARGANA INTL -- SGME". worldaerodata.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ La Nación (in Spanish). 22 June 2012. Archived from the originalon 19 January 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
- ^ "Paraguay President Fernando Lugo impeached by congress". BBC News. 23 June 2012.
- ^ Romero, Simon (22 April 2013). "Conservative Tobacco Magnate Wins Presidential Race in Paraguay". The New York Times.
- ^ "New Paraguayan President Abdo Benítez sworn in". BBC News. 15 August 2018.
- ^ "Amid protests, authorities uphold legitimacy of Paraguay election". www.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
- ^ Desantis, Daniela; Elliott, Lucinda; Elliott, Lucinda (16 August 2023). "Paraguay's President Pena sworn in, Taiwan VP in attendance". Reuters.
Further reading
- Dutra e Silva, Sandro. "Brazil-Paraguay Relations during the Stroessner Regime (1954-1989) (2006)
- Hanratty, Dannin M. & Sandra W. Meditz. Paraguay: a country study. Library of Congress Federal Research Division (December 1988).
- Lambert, Peter, and Andrew Nickson, eds. The Paraguay Reader: History, Culture, Politics (2012), excerpt
- Marcondes de Souza Neto, Danilo. Brazil-Paraguay Relations: The View from Brasília (2013)
- Nickson, R. Andrew. Historical dictionary of Paraguay (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).
- Nickson, R. Andrew. The Making of the Paraguayan Nation: A History of the River Plate Republics' Southern Cone Annexation (1995)
- Wrobel, Paulo. "Brazil-Paraguay Relations: From Dictatorship to Democracy (1996)
- Whigham, Thomas L. "The Struggle for the Paraguayan Chaco, 1880-1928: A Study of a Small War (2002)