Paraguay Research Notecards
soure 12: poor country
Until recently the economy was primarily rural and agricultural. The majority of the population, peasant farmers, produced subsistence crops as well as cash crops of cotton or tobacco. Approximately 40 percent of the population is still involved in agriculture, and the majority are small farmers who engage to some degree in subsistence production
source 12: poor country
Until the mid-1970s, the majority of residents lived in rural areas, nearly all in the central region surrounding Asunción. Most lived on farmsteads in small adobe houses with palm-thatched roofs, with their fields surrounding the house.
source 12: poor country
Wealth and income distribution are extremely unequal. A small elite owns most of the land and the commercial wealth and reaped most of the benefits of economic growth in recent decades. Recent surveys indicate that 20 percent of the population of the greater Asunción metropolitan area and 60 percent of the population in rural areas live in poverty. Indigenous peoples are the most impoverished.
source 1: effect three-underdeveloped country
Wealth and income distribution are extremely unequal. A small elite owns most of the land and the commercial wealth and reaped most of the benefits of economic growth in recent decades. Recent surveys indicate that 20 percent of the population of the greater Asunción metropolitan area and 60 percent of the population in rural areas live in poverty. Indigenous peoples are the most impoverished.
source 1: general background
. Paraguay is a land-locked nation of 157,047 square miles (406,752 square kilometers) in South America, surrounded by Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia. The inhospitable and semiarid Chaco forms the western part of the nation. Flat and infertile, much of it covered by scrub forests, the Chaco contains approximately 61 percent of the national land area but less than 3 percent of the population. In contrast, eastern Paraguay has rolling hills, richer soils, lush semitropical forests, and grassy savannas. The region so impressed early explorers that they called it a "second Eden."
source 1: revolution background
After Argentinians deposed the Spanish viceroy in 1810, they attempted to extend their control to include the territory of Paraguay. Paraguayans resisted and in 1811 defeated the Argentinian army at the battle of Paraguari. In May of that year, Paraguayans overthrew the last Spanish governor.
source 1: effect 2- war
After Francia's death in 1840, the presidency was assumed by Carlos Antonio López and then, in 1862, by López's son, Francisco Solano. In 1864, Francisco Solano López declared war on the powerful Triple Alliance of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.
source 11: dictatorial rulers
Alfredo Stroessner: During the quarter century that Stroessner was in power, he attempted to balance the interests of the working poor with those of large landowners and capitalists and made Paraguay a safe haven for Nazi war criminals escaping persecution. He trumpeted the stability of his regimé, which was guaranteed by spending roughly half of the national budget on the armed forces. All dissent against his rule was crushed, and Stroessner changed the Paraguayan Constitution twice to legitimize his eight consecutive presidential terms.
source 9: dictatorial rulers
Alfredo Stroessner: Gen. Alfredo Stroessner seized power in 1954. Stroessner successfully thwarted leftist attempts to have him overthrown during his early years of power. In 1958, a plebiscite elected him to a five-year term. Stroessner, who led his Colorado Party (Asociación Nacional Republicana-Partido Colorado—ARN-PC), was reelected in 1963, and in 1967, he made constitutional changes to allow continuance of his power. Although Paraguay grew prosperous under Stroessner's rule, his regime's iron rule and harsh suppression of the opposition fueled popular protests beginning in the late 1960s.
source 4: revolution background
Although Paraguay's Creole population initially supported continued Spanish control, actions by Governor Bernardo de Velasco and Buenos Aires to undermine Paraguayan autonomy encouraged the declaring of independence. After Buenos Aires deposed the Spanish viceroy on 25 May 1810 in the name of Spain's Ferdinand VII, it sought to extend its influence over the entire viceroyalty. Buenos Aires sent troops under General Manuel Belgrano to force Paraguayan compliance. Paraguayan victory and the recognition that Peninsular rule was ending led Velasco to request help from Portuguese Brazil. Once the foreign threats had united the Asunción cabildo, Captains Pedro Juan Caballero and Fulgencio Yegros ended Spanish authority.
source 9: dictatorial rulers
Although the nation declared itself a republic under the leadership of two consuls, dictators ruled Paraguay during its first 60 years of independence.
source 5: general background
Arriving in the region in the early sixteenth century, the Spanish founded Asunción in 1537. Over the next two centuries, the city served as the center of a colonial province for Spain. When the Jesuit missionaries arrived in the region, they operated out of the city as well. The Jesuits were expelled from Paraguay in 1767. Forty-four years later, in 1811, Spain lost its control over Paraguay when the Paraguayans fought for and eventually won their independence.
source 3: general background
As late as 1700 the population of the province of Paraguay was estimated at no more than 40,000; on the eve of independence in 1811 it was estimated to have risen to 97,460 on the basis of a census carried out in 1796. However, this figure did not include the native population. During the nationalist period, the population is estimated to have grown from around 250,000 in 1828 to 350,000 in 1857.
source 2: effect 1- dictatorial rulers:
As president, Rodriguez instituted political, legal, and economic reforms and initiated a rapprochement with the international community.
source 4: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
Carlos Antonio López (1844-1862): Although his vision for Paraguay was less egalitarian and more self-serving than Francia's, López accepted the Guaraní peasantry as the basis of the Paraguayan economy and society. When López died on 10 September 1862, he left Paraguay a wealthier, more productive country.
source 4: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
Carlos Antonio López (1844-1862): López continued Francia's foreign policy, but in domestic affairs he increased funding for education to promote economic development and encouraged foreign trade. After Juan Manuel de Rosas was expelled from Argentina in 1852, the Argentine Confederation recognized Paraguay's independence, upon which Paraguay signed commercial treaties with Great Britain, France, the United States, and Brazil.
source 13: dictatorial rulers
Carlos Antonio López: Carlos Antonio López. López loosened the ties of dictatorship only slightly, but reversed Francia's paranoid isolationism. He reestablished communications with the outside world and normalized relations with the papacy. López encouraged road and railway building, improved education somewhat, and became the largest landowner and the richest man in Paraguay.
source 9: dictatorial rulers
Carlos Antonio López: Francia was succeeded by his nephew, Carlos Antonio López, who ended the policy of isolationism and ruled until his death in 1962
source 14: war
Following a brief, successful struggle for independence in 1811, the Paraguayan military has consistently been utilized to guard the nation's borders from its much larger and often hostile neighbors, principally Brazil and Argentina. It has also been routinely used to help regimes stay in power. It performed with conspicuous bravery and skill in the War of the Triple Alliance against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, fighting for four years on its own soil against the invading tripartite armies and being virtually annihilated.
source 7: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
Francia, José Gaspar Rodríguez de (1766-1840): A dedicated nationalist, popular with the masses, Francia was a dictator whose paternalistic policies benefited a large majority of Paraguayans.
source 7: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
Francia, José Gaspar Rodríguez de (1766-1840): Francia destroyed the traditional power of the Spanish elite and the church, strengthened the military, and appealed to the peasants
source 7: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
Francia, José Gaspar Rodríguez de (1766-1840): José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia (b. 6 January 1766; d. 20 September 1840), dictator of Paraguay (1814-1840). One of three major nineteenth-century rulers of Paraguay, Francia was viewed by his elite contemporaries and traditional historians as a ruthless dictator who isolated Paraguay from outside contact and whose iron rule destroyed all who opposed him—foreigners, intellectuals, and the Paraguayan elite. Revisionist historians perceive him as an honest, populist ruler who promoted an autonomous, social revolution within Paraguay and encouraged the economic development of the country.
source 7: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
Francia, José Gaspar Rodríguez de (1766-1840): To maintain internal security, suppress banditry, protect against Indians, and define the nation's boundaries, Francia built border forts and established garrisons at the northern border with Brazil at the Apa River, in the south at Pilar on the Argentine border, and in the southeast, which expanded control over the Misiones region.
source 7: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
Francia, José Gaspar Rodríguez de (1766-1840): To promote the nation's self-sufficiency, Francia encouraged greater utilization of state lands through government enterprises and low rents for small farmers who produced food for local consumption. He promoted internal trade, controlled external commerce and immigration, increased industrial production in both the private and public sectors, improved communications and transportation, and reduced taxes. To limit government costs, he maintained only a small bureaucracy.
source 4: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
Francisco Solano López (1862-1870): The orderly government and successful economic development of Paraguay ended violently with the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870), which cost the nation lives, territory, and income. The death of General López on 1 March 1870 at Cerro Corá ended the war as well as the age in which Paraguay had shaped its own political and economic destiny.
source 13: dictatorial rulers
Francisco Solano López : Francisco Solano López provoked quarrels with Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, who allied and attacked Paraguay. The War of the Triple Alliance (1865-70), sometimes called the Paraguayan War, was the bloodiest in Latin American history. López, who fancied himself a Latin Napoleon, drafted virtually every male in Paraguay over the age of 12, with no upper age limit, and insisted that his troops never surrender. The war was a disaster for Paraguay, which lost two-thirds of all its adult males, including López himself. Paraguay's population fell from about 600,000 to about 250,000. The war also cost Paraguay 142,000 sq km (55,000 sq mi) of territory, its economic well-being, and its pride.
source 9: dictatorial rulers
Francisco Solano López: Power was picked up by his son, Francisco Solano López. In 1865, López led the nation into the ruinous War of the Triple Alliance against an alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. By 1870, Paraguay had been crushed in the conflict, which destroyed the nation's economy and wiped out most of its male population. Brazilian Army forces occupied the region until 1876.
source 2: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
Gen. Alfredo Stroessner took power in May 1954. Elected to complete the unexpired term of his predecessor, he was re-elected president seven times, ruling almost continuously under the state-of-siege provision of the constitution with support from the military and the Colorado Party. During Stroessner's 35-year reign, political freedoms were severely limited, and opponents of the regime were systematically harassed and persecuted in the name of national security and anticommunism
source 10: war
In May, Brazil and Argentina, joined by the Brazilian-subsidized government in Uruguay, formed the Triple Alliance, with Argentine president Bartolomé Mitre as its military commander in chief. The objective was to divide Paraguayan territory between Argentina and Brazil.
source 13: revolution background
In achieving independence, Paraguay first had to fight the forces of Argentina. Buenos Aires called on Paraguay in 1810 to follow its lead in a virtual declaration of independence. Paraguay declared independence from Spain but rejected the leadership of Buenos Aires. An Argentine expedition was decisively defeated, and Paraguay completed its move toward independence by deposing the last of its royal governors in 1811.
source 2: effect 2- war
In the 1930s and 1940s, Paraguayan politics were defined by the Chaco war against Bolivia, a civil war, dictatorships, and periods of extreme political instability
source 9: dictatorial rulers
José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia The first of those, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, seized power in 1814 and controlled the nation under strict autocratic rule until his death in 1840. Known as El Supremo, Francia led the new nation under a policy of isolationism, for fear that it might fall into the hands of the stronger Argentina
source 1: revolution background
José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia emerged as the leader of the new republic and was elected perpetual dictator by the Popular Congress in 1816. Popular, iron-fisted, and fiercely nationalistic, Francia implemented policies that benefitted ordinary residents while limiting or destroying the power of the Spanish and creole elites, the Catholic Church, the mercantile houses, and the landed estates.
source 13: dictatorial rulers
José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia: The first and most famous of the dictators was José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia (known as "El Supremo"), originally a member of the five-man junta elected in 1811 to govern the newly independent nation. He was granted full dictatorial powers for three years in 1814 and thereafter had the term extended for life. Francia attempted to cut Paraguay off from all contact with the outside world. Commerce was suspended, foreigners were expelled, relations with the papacy were broken off, and an anticlerical campaign was begun. All criticism was stifled, and a widespread spy network was developed. However, at the same time, Francia was honest and tireless in his devotion to his personal concept of the country's welfare. Francia governed until his death in 1840. Today, he is regarded as Paraguay's "founding father."
source 4: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
José Gaspar de Rodríguez de Francia (1814-1840): At his death in 1840, Paraguay possessed an independent national economy and a unified political system. Even though the country's military officers and civilians maneuvered for power after his death, the peaceful transfer of authority testified to the strength of Francia's administration.
source 4: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
José Gaspar de Rodríguez de Francia (1814-1840): Elected perpetual dictator by the Popular Congress in 1816, Francia, known as "El Supremo," became the most powerful and popular politician in Paraguay for the next twenty-four years. The populist government he created benefited the average Paraguayan while decreasing the power of the creoles and peninsulares through the control or destruction of elites associated with the Roman Catholic Church, the bureaucracy, the mercantile houses, and the landed estates.
source 12: poor country
Land distribution is among the most unequal in Latin America. According to the 1991 agricultural census, 77 percent of the agricultural land was owned by barely 1 percent of the population. At the other extreme, small farms of less than 49.4 acres (20 hectares), accounting for over 80 percent of all agricultural holdings, occupied only 6 percent of the agricultural land.
source 1: revolution background
Left to their own devices by the Spanish, the colonists had to defend themselves against those threats by raising citizen militias and arming themselves as best they could, and as a result the colony has been described as the most militarized in Latin America. The colony was so impoverished and isolated that visitors commented on the obsolescence of the colonists' arms.
source 6: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
López, Carlos Antonio (1792-1862): During his first term, López continued many of Francia's foreign and domestic policies. Paraguay, continuing its isolation from the countries along the Río de la Plata, regulated foreign commerce and migration. In his second and third terms, López sought to modernize Paraguay. The bureaucracy grew and taxes increased, but the budget was balanced. The government strengthened its army, developed a river navy, and improved internal transportation and communication
source 6: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
López, Carlos Antonio (1792-1862): Elite contemporaries and traditional historians have viewed him as a benevolent despot who discouraged opposition but was less ruthless, more self-interested, and more receptive to foreigners and the elite than was Francia. López's administration as having modernized Paraguay and developed commerce and foreign ties.
source 8: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
López, Francisco Solano (1826-1870): Francisco Solano López (b. 24 July 1826; d. 1 March 1870), president of Paraguay (1862-1870) and the third of its three major nineteenth-century post-Independence administrators. Paraguayans traditionally have viewed López as a national hero, whereas revisionists have judged him to be an ambitious nationalist who overestimated the economic significance and military strength of Paraguay and involved it in the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance.
source 8: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
López, Francisco Solano (1826-1870): When López sought to increase Paraguay's international role in the Río de la Plata area, he clashed with Argentina and Brazil. After leading the armed forces in the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) for more than five years, he was killed at the battle of Cerro Corá.
source 2: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
On February 3, 1989, Stroessner was overthrown in a military coup headed by Gen. Andres Rodriguez.
source 10: war
One out of two Paraguayans was killed in the war, and Paraguay lost vast amounts of territory to Argentina and Brazil. The Paraguayan War remains the bloodiest war in the history of Latin America.
source 2: revolution background
Paraguay declared its independence by overthrowing the local Spanish authorities in May 1811. The country's formative years saw three strong leaders who established the tradition of personal rule that lasted Page 1544 | Top of Articleuntil 1989: Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia, Carlos Antonio Lopez, and his son, Francisco Solano Lopez.
source 5: general background
Paraguay lies in the middle of the South American continent and is bounded by Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia. The country straddles the Paraguay River, an important route used for the extraction of raw materials by South America's Spanish colonial rulers, and the Paraguayan capital city of Asunción became an administrative center during the colonial era.
source 10: war
Paraguay retained its independence but suffered the loss of up to 20% of its population. The allies, especially Argentina, gained territory and prestige from the conflict.
source 9: general background
Since it achieved independence in 1811, Paraguay has been dominated by military regimes and autocratic rule. In 1993, the nation's first democratic president since independence was sworn into office.
source 12: dictatorial rulers
Stroessner: During the Stroessner dictatorship (1954-1989), large tracts of land were illegally transferred to Stroessner's relatives and cronies, and some peasant and indigenous communities were violently displaced as powerful military figures took over their lands.
source 13: dictatorial rulers
Stroessner: In May 1954, Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, used his cavalry to seize power. He had himself elected president as the candidate of the Colorado Party, and then was reelected in another single-slate election in 1958, although he did permit the Liberal Party to hold its first convention in many years. With help from the United States, he brought financial stability to an economy racked by runaway inflation, but he used terrorist methods in silencing all opposition.
source 13:dictatorial rulers
Stroessner: On 3 February 1989 Stroessner's 35-year dictatorship came to an end at the hand of Gen. Andrés Rodríguez, second in command of the Paraguayan military. Immediately after the coup, Rodríguez announced that elections would be held in May. With only three months to prepare, little opposition beyond Domingo Laíno was mounted, and Rodríguez won easily with 75.8% of the vote. There followed an immediate easing of restrictions on free speech and organization.
source 9: dictatorial rulers
Stroessner: Stroessner was reelected to his eighth term of office in 1988 but was ousted in a military coup the following year. The coup's leader, Gen. Andrés Rodríguez, pledged to renew democracy and worked toward legalizing political parties and ending censorship of the press.
source 12: dictatorial rulers
Stroessner: Under Stroessner, Paraguay was one of the most heavily militarized nations in the world, with an extremely high ratio of police and military personnel to civilian population. Military personnel enjoyed great benefits and power.
source 2: effect 1- dictatorial rulers
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.
source 10: war
The Paraguayan War is also known as the War of the Triple Alliance because Paraguay alone faced the combined forces of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. Precipitated by long-standing border disputes, the war featured the great tenacity of the Paraguayan forces who continued to fight on against overwhelming odds.
source 12:poor country
The War of the Triple Alliance left Paraguay a nation largely of small farmers engaged in the production of basic food crops for subsistence and local trade. Ethnically and culturally, the population was homogeneous, with the family serving as the basic socioeconomic unit.
source 1: effect 2-war
The War of the Triple Alliance left Paraguay a nation largely of small farmers engaged in the production of basic food crops for subsistence and local trade. Ethnically and culturally, the population was homogeneous, with the family serving as the basic socioeconomic unit.
source 1: general background
The capital, Asunción, lies on the Paraguay River at the point dividing eastern and western Paraguay. The city was founded in 1537 by Juan de Salazar y Espinoza, a Spanish explorer who led an expedition upriver from the fort at Buenos Aires.
source 4: effect 2- war
The duration and demands of the War of the Triple Alliance and the allied military occupation dismantled Paraguay's economy and political system. The reorientation of Paraguay began on 15 August 1869, when the allied powers established a provisional government in Asunción and required Paraguay to create a government that mirrored their own. With some differences, the Paraguayan Constitution of 1870 was modeled on the Argentine Constitution of 1853.
source 4: general background
The history of Paraguay in the nineteenth century can be divided into three periods: 1800-1811, the end of Spanish administration; 1812-1870, the era of independence and dictators; and 1871-1904, the creation of a postwar political and economic system.
source 1: general background
The indigenous population is composed of seventeen ethnic groups from five linguistic families. Most immigrants have blended into the national population, but several groups have maintained distinct identities and cultures.
source 2: effect 2- war
The younger Lopez waged a war against Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil (War of the Triple Alliance, 1864-70) in which Paraguay lost half its population; afterward, Brazilian troops occupied the country until 1874.
source 1:effect 2- war
This disastrous war resulted in the death of most Paraguayan men and many women and children and destroyed the nation's economy. It also ended Paraguay's brief period of self-determination and relatively egalitarian prosperity. Only the intervention of the U.S. president, Rutherford B. Hayes, in 1878 prevented Argentina from claiming a large part of western Paraguay.