Paraguay, country, South America: Independent Paraguay

Manuel Belgrano was unsuccessful in carrying the Argentinean revolution against Spain into Paraguay in 1810, but the next year the colonial officials there were quietly overthrown. In 1814 the first of the three great dictators who were to mold Paraguay came to power. He was José Gaspar Rodríguez Francia, the incorruptible, harsh, and autocratic dictator known as El Supremo, who kept Paraguay in the palm of his hand until his death in 1840. He was succeeded by another dictator, Carlos Antonio López, who held absolute power from 1844 to 1862. His son, Francisco Solano López, succeeded him and brought on disaster by involving Paraguay in war with Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay (1865–70; see Triple Alliance, War of the). The Paraguayans fought heroically and sustained the loss of more than half the population.

Recovery from the catastrophic war was slow, and the desperate state of the economy was matched by political confusion, as warring caudillos established short-lived dictatorships. Nevertheless, in the late 19th and early 20th cent. conditions improved. Trade increased as Paraguayan products found markets, immigration was encouraged, and farming and modest little industries prospered fitfully. The unsettled boundary with Bolivia, however, turned from an irritation into a threat, and in 1932 Paraguay plunged into another major war—the Chaco War (see under Gran Chaco), which lasted until 1935. From it the little country emerged victorious but exhausted.

The rapid succession of governments afterward was broken by the years when Higinio Morínigo was in power (1940–48). Signs of recovery from the Chaco War appeared in improvements in education, public health, and roads, but the oppressive dictatorship of Morínigo was challenged by numerous uprisings. He was overthrown in 1948, and the country was again subjected to a series of short-lived governments.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The Stroessner Regime and Its Aftermath
• Independent Paraguay
• Early History
• Government
• Economy
• People
• Land
• Bibliography

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