History of Paraguay

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Part of a series on the

History of Paraguay

 Timeline
 Indigenous peoples
 Spanish conquest
 Viceroyalty of Peru
 Jesuit reductions
 Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
 Independence of Paraguay
 Francia Era
 Paraguayan War
 Colorado Period
 Liberal Period
 Moríñigo Era
 1954 coup d'etat
 Dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner
 Operation Condor
 1989 coup d'etat
 1996 coup d'état attempt
 Marzo paraguayo
 2000 coup d'état attempt
 Modern Period

 Paraguay portal

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 t
 e

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Paraguay

Asunción, the capital of Paraguay.

Guaraní ceramics

The history of Paraguay begins with the interaction between the

early Spanish colonists and the indigenous people. The
agricultural Guaraní lived in eastern Paraguay and neighboring countries and
the nomadic Guaycuruan tribes lived in western Paraguay. The first Spanish
explorers reached Paraguay in 1524. As Paraguay lacked mineral wealth and
was isolated and land-locked, it was relatively unimportant to the Spanish. The
small number of Spanish men resident in Paraguay intermarried with native
women, resulting in a mestizo population. Most of the Guaraní (often called
"Indians" or "Indios" in older documents) adopted the Roman Catholic religion of
the Spaniards, but continued to speak the Guaraní language which along with
Spanish is spoken by most people in Paraguay. In the 17th and 18th century
the Jesuits established missions among the Guaraní which were
called reductions. The Jesuits succeeded in spreading Christianity and giving
the Guaraní some degree of protection from slave raiders and the labor
demands of the Spanish and mestizo population.
On 14/15 May 1811 Paraguay declared its independence from Spain. Since
independence, the country's history is mostly of authoritarian governments,
especially the utopian regime of José Gaspar Rodríguez (El Supremo) from
1814 to 1840 and the government of Francisco Solano López (1862-1870), who
presided over the near-destruction of the country in warfare against the
combined forces of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay from 1865 through 1870.
The Paraguayan War caused massive population losses in Paraguay, and
cessions of extensive territories to Argentina and Brazil. Post-war politics
became the alternate one-party rule of either the Colorado or the Liberal parties.
From 1870 to 1954, Paraguay was ruled by 44 different men, 24 of whom were
forced from office in military coups. Amidst authoritarian rule and political
turmoil, Paraguay went to war, and mostly prevailed, with Bolivia from 1932 to
1935 to contest sovereignty over the Gran Chaco region. The Chaco War was
the bloodiest war of the 20th century in Latin America, resulting in
approximately 30,000 Paraguayan and 65,000 Bolivian casualties.