How about a little history?

 

If someone asked you what war was the bloodiest ever fought in the Americas, what would you say?  The Revolutionary War?  The Civil War?  The war for the electoral votes of Florida?  Well, you’re thinking a little two narrowly.  Come south to Paraguay where most historians think the bloodiest war in the Americas was fought.  The War of the Triple Alliance.  Fought from 1864 to 1870 between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina.

 

The roots of the war go back to the struggles between Spain and Portugal over the boundaries between their empires in the Rio Plata region of South America, long before any of the modern day countries became independent. Then, as these countries did win their independence from the European powers in the early 1800’s, the boundary disputes continued.  Over the first half of the century, struggles between the former Portuguese colony of Brazil and the former Spanish colony of Argentina flared continually, with the small country of Uruguay stuck in the middle. 

 

Through all of this, Paraguay remained neutral, isolationist.  President Carlos Antonio López lead Paraguay through a period of growth during which Paraguay was able to become the most prosperous country in South America.  Paraguay boasted a massive telegraph system, an extensive public education system, the most modern train system in South America, a strong iron foundry industry and a huge shipyard.  In addition to their neutrality, much of this was accomplished through a very progressive immigration service that encourage technicians from other countries to immigrate to Paraguay! 

 

The bad side of all of this incredible prosperity was that Paraguay was rich.  Paraguay was starting to look like a nice country to attack!

 

In 1862 President López died and was replaced by his son, Solano López.  Solano López, in his quest for power, had closely aligned himself with the Partido Blanco (White Party) in Uruguay.  Then, in 1864, when Brasil attacked and occupied Uruguay, Paraguay’s neutrality came to an end.  Solano López stepped in to try to help Uruguay.  Next thing anyone knew, Brasil and the Brasilian occupied Uruguay along with the loosely defined Argentine Confederation were all allied together against Paraguay!  The War of the Triple Alliance had begun!

 

The battles see sawed back and forth, primarily on Paraguayan soil, for nearly seven years.  By the end, with the capitol city of Asunción occupied, massive deaths due to cholera as well as battle injuries and most of the Paraguayan army composed only of women and children, Solano López and his eldest son were killed in the battle at Cerro Corá and the war came to an end.

 

But the end came at an incredible price!  Of the 192,000 soldiers who had fought on the side of the Triple Alliance, 96,000 had died.  That's just about half of the soldiers on the winning side.  Dead! 

 

And if that’s not bad enough, listen to the statistics for Paraguay, where most of the fighting had taken place.  Of the 1,377,000 people who lived in Paraguay at the start of the war, only 226,000 remained.  About 16% of the population had survived.  Only 6000 men along with 220,000 women and children were left in Paraguay! 

 

If you’re looking for a wife, I guess that’s pretty good odds!  But not good for once prosperous country!  Following the war, the waves of technicians who had been immigrating to Paraguay were replaced with agricultural immigrants.  The new Paraguayan economy was built on agriculture.  The country was never able to regain its industrial base afer the war!  Never.  The political foundation of Paraguay was destroyed as well.  And it remains weak to this day in this 11 year old democracy!  And with that unbelievable ratio of men to women, a tradition of marital infidelity began.  There weren’t enough men to go around, therefore it became very acceptable to be unfaithful to your wife.  Almost patriotic to be unfaithful to your wife in an effort to rebuild the country’s population.  And to some extent, that continues today, pretty deeply ingrained in parts of this culture.

 

But on the lighter side, most Paraguayans think that the best US President ever was Rutherford B. Hayes.  Who?  Why?  Well, as the war ended, one boundary remained unresolved.  It was between Argentina and Paraguay in a region called the Chaco.  Both countries agreed to submit to arbitration to settle the boundary dispute.  In 1878, Rutherford B. Hayes ruled in favor of Paraguay.  He remains a hero in this country today, with an entire departmento (state) named after him, along with the capitol of that departmento, Villa Hayes.  Of course in Spanish that isn’t pronounced Hayes.  Its more like . . . . well, it’s definitely not Hayes!

 

Enjoy the winter!