History History

The Lágido and Pámpido were the first Amerindian groups to settle in present-day Paraguay 8,000 years ago. The Guaraníes, who have been present in the Amazon basin for 12,000 years, are thought to have arrived in the fifth century. At the arrival of the first Europeans, they were a group of semi-sedentary peoples, living from hunting, fishing, gathering, but also from the itinerant cultivation of manioc and corn.

This treaty divides the lands of the New World between Spain (Castile) and Portugal. The Portuguese lands lay to the east of a vertical line (passing through what is now São Paolo), the Spanish lands to the west.

The Portuguese Aleixo García will be the first conquistador to cross the region to the foothills of the Andes. He takes the Tapé Avirú, the path that leads to Yvy marãe'y, the "Land without Evil" of the Guaraníes, where there is a silver mountain called Potojchi (Potosi).

The Venetian navigator Sebastian Cabot goes up the rivers Paraná and Paraguay, up to near the current Asunción. Four years later, Hernando Pizarro discovered the riches of Peru. The conquest of the continent becomes urgent for Charles V.

Pedro de Mendoza is commissioned by the Crown of Castile to conquer the "Giant Province of the Indies". He founded the fort of Buen Ayre (Buenos Aires), then sent his companions Juan de Ayolas and Domingo Martínez de Irala to conquer the lands located north of the Río de la Plata. They went up the Río Paraguay and founded the fort of Candelaria (north of the current Fuerte Olimpo).

Juan de Salazar y Espinoza founded Asunción (Assumption) on August 15, 1537, in the territory of the Cario Indians (Guaranis). The Cario see these white bearded men arrive on big boats, as allies to fight the fearsome Guaycurú of the Chaco. They grant them the status of military chiefs and offer their wives. The region is thus nicknamed "Mohammed's Paradise", the Spaniards living in concubinage with real harems. A mestizo society is formed: Europeans learn the indigenous language and customs, the Guaranis discover new farming techniques. The mestizo children, the mancebos de la tierra ("young men of the land"), speak the Guarani of their mothers and the Spanish of their fathers.

Irala is appointed Governor of the province of Río de la Plata. He repatriates the 400 inhabitants of Buenos Aires to Asunción. In 1541, Asunción acquired a Cabildo and became the political and military centre of the province. It was from there that expeditions left to found the other cities of the region: Villarrica, Santa Fé, Santa Cruz and later the new Buenos Aires. Asunción was thus nicknamed the "Mother of Cities".

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, the new governor, tackles polygamy, looting of Indian villages and tax benefits for officers. The conquistadors see in him an austere man who is too respectful of the Indians. They captured him and sent him back to Spain, on a caravel called Comuneros ("of the people"). The message addressed to Charles V is clear: royal power cannot go beyond the will of the people!

Asunción has lost its importance since the discovery of the Sierra de la Plata in 1545 by Gonzalo Pizarro, who came from Lima. But the region has fertile land and an abundant Indian workforce. A system of pseudo-servitude, the encomienda, was set up. The encomendero is in charge of "civilizing" and evangelizing the Indians. Refusing forced labour, the Indians took up arms or fled. The Crown then called upon the Franciscans and Jesuits to regroup the Guaranis, in order to pacify and evangelize them.

This Spanish conquistador, governor of the province of Río de la Plata (1539-1542, 1544-1548 and 1549-1556), is considered the "Father of Paraguay" for having facilitated the emergence of a mestizo society. He himself will have many children from various Indian wives. One of them, Ruy Díaz de Guzmán, will be the author of the first history of Paraguay and the Río de la Plata, in prose form.

The first Franciscan missions are founded: Altos, Piribebuy, Tobatí, Atyrá, Caazapá... Brothers Alonso de San Buenaventura and Luis Bolaños will be the great figures of that time and will have a primordial role in the preservation of the Guaraní language.

Jesuit missions will prosper independently of the colonial administration for 160 years, attracting the covetousness of the encomenderos and slave hunters.

This significant event in Paraguayan history began as a revolt of the Creole encomenderos, following the handing over to Jesuit missionaries of a group of Indians they had captured in the Chaco. The lawyer José de Antequera was sent to the scene by the viceroy of Peru to investigate. Against all odds, Antequera sided with the encomenderos, and even took the governor's place. To contain the uprising, troops from Buenos Aires are sent to the scene, with the support of the Guaraní army of the Jesuit missions. The conflict will last 18 years. The defeat of the Comuneros marks the end of all political privileges granted to the Paraguayans.

The latter changes the borders between Spain and Portugal. Seven Jesuit missions are now in Portuguese territory. It is the beginning of a war between the Guaraníes of the missions who do not want to leave their lands, and the Spanish and Portuguese troops

In 1810, the Creoles of Buenos Aires took advantage of Napoleon's invasion of Spain to remove the viceroy in Buenos Aires. The junta's ambition was to administer the entire province of the Río de la Plata, including the Paraguayan territory. The Paraguayans, fearful of falling under the yoke of Buenos Aires, remained loyal to Spain and faced the army of General Manuel Belgrano. In Paraguarí, then in Tacuarý, the Paraguayans routed the Argentinian army. These victories are considered to be the first seeds of Paraguay's independence process, as the Spanish authorities fled as soon as the first fighting broke out, and only the Paraguayan Creoles defended their lands.

Faced with the weakness of the Spanish governor Bernardo de Velasco, a group of Paraguayan soldiers took power on the night of 14-15 May 1811. It is the "May Revolution". Pedro Juan Caballero, Fulgencio Yegros, Fernando de la Mora, Francisco Xavier Bogarín, and José Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia formed a junta to lead the country now liberated from Spain.

Francia is appointed "Supreme Dictator of the Republic" by Congress. During his regime, he established a secular, autocratic and repressive state. The borders were closed and the land was transformed into state farms (estancias de la patria), to produce meat, cereals, cotton... When the "Supreme" died in 1840, the country was stable, rich and powerful.

Born in Asunción, he studied theology and later became a lawyer. The only civilian in the independence junta, he knew how to temper the eagerness of the rebel officers. An admirer of Robespierre and Napoleon, he is a tyrannical and popular dictator. He manages to isolate the country from the internal wars that follow Argentina's independence, establishes compulsory primary school, fights against corruption and manages to ensure that a whole country can eat its fill. This solitary, austere, paranoid and cruel personality, but of absolute honesty, will be the central character in Augusto Roa Bastos' famous novel , I, the Supreme.

After the instability that followed Francia's death, her nephew Carlos Antonio López maintained an autocratic regime, although he opened his country to the outside world. He allowed the press, sent students to Europe and brought in foreign engineers to develop his country's infrastructure (railways, shipyards, steelworks, etc.).

After the death of Carlos Antonio López, his son Francisco succeeded him. He continued the work of modernizing the country (telegraph, construction of the presidential palace, the national theatre...) and reinforced an already powerful army.

He grew up in Asunción in an aristocratic family and joined the army at a very young age. Educated and polyglot, he travels all over Europe. During his studies in Saint-Cyr, he bought arms and ships for his country. He also meets a beautiful Irish woman, Elisa Alicia Lynch (Mrs. Lynch), whom he will take to Paraguay. They will have seven children (in addition to the three illegitimate children he will have with his first love, Juanita Pesoa). In 1862, he succeeds his father in power and launches into a senseless war that will destroy the country.

The Triple Alliance War.

After the Great War, Argentina and Brazil occupied the country until 1876. They shared 40% of Paraguayan territory. Only the dissensions between the former allies prevented the total disappearance of the country. The disoccupied Paraguay will sell off the State's property and land to finance reconstruction.

The Colorado Party, conservative and nationalist, and the Liberal Party, focused on free trade, were born. Throughout the following decades, the two formations would propose fairly similar programs, both of which were in the interests of the oligarchy.

The Chaco War against Bolivia will be the second most deadly conflict in Paraguay. Border boundaries in the Chaco Boreal have always been uncertain, generating temporary conflicts, but of little importance, given the inhospitable nature of the region. The rumour of oil in the Chaco rekindles tensions, fuelled by new actors: Standard Oil (a US company supporting Bolivia) and Royal Dutch Shell (an Anglo-Dutch company supporting Paraguay). The conflict will cause 100,000 deaths in 3 years. In the hostile environment of the Chaco, the opposing forts were attacked for their meagre water points. The recapture of Fortín Boquerón from the Bolivians in 1932 is celebrated every year on 29 September (public holiday). The "Thirst War" ended on July 12, 1935, but the border situation was not settled until 1938 (three quarters of the disputed territory was returned to Paraguay).

A progressive movement is taking power. The Fébreristes, led by Colonel Rafael Franco, intend to organize the country according to the socialist model.

Franco is overthrown by Felix Paiva, who is replaced by General José Felix Estigarribia, hero of the Chaco War, who establishes a new constitution.

Higinio Moríñigo, sets up a fascist-style dictatorship. Political parties are banned.

Rafael Franco unites the liberals and communists in a new revolutionary movement, supported by the navy and infantry. It is the Revolución de los pynandí ("Barefoot Revolution"). Concepción, the city where the revolution took shape, was bombed by the air force, which remained loyal to Moríñigo. The rebels are crushed within a few months. This civil war will cause thousands of deaths and many exiles between March and August.

Paraguay experienced several coups d'état and great political instability until 1954.

Coup d'état by General Alfredo Stroessner, who will remain in power for 35 years. Supported by the United States, he takes an active part in Operation Condor during the Cold War. Exchanges of information on "subversive" groups, disappearances and mass torture will mark this regime of terror. Repression is fierce against artists, intellectuals and peasants (the latter resist in the Ligas Agrarias Cristianas and the Movimiento 14 de Mayo). The "archives of terror", found in 1992 and exhibited in the Museo de la Memoria, will provide evidence of the cruelty of the dictatorship. To finance his regime, smuggling and trafficking of all kinds are encouraged. Corruption became institutionalized and coíma became the rule to obtain a permit, or false papers for his car stolen in Brazil. Stroessner and his relatives also became rich through the construction of the Itaipú and Yacyretá dams, and the sale of millions of hectares of national land to Brazilian companies.

Coup d'état of General Andrés Rodríguez, Stroessner's son-in-law and right-hand man. The dictator fled to Brazil, where he resided undisturbed until his death in 2006.

The new constitution limits presidential functions to a single term and recognizes Guarani as an official language alongside Spanish (Guarani was banned under Stroessner).

Juan Carlos Wasmosy is the first civilian president since 1954. He reforms the justice system and the army, and pursues a neo-liberal economic policy.

Attempted putsch against Wasmosy by General Lino Oviedo, who will be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Raúl Cubas, puppet president, grants amnesty to Oviedo against the opinion of the Supreme Court. Impeachment proceedings are launched against Cubas. At the same time, Luis María Argaña, the vice-president who was to take his place, was assassinated. Cubas and Oviedo are directly implicated. Thousands of people gathered in front of Congress to demonstrate their desire for justice and democracy. Oviedo's snipers fired on the crowd, killing eight people and wounding dozens. Cubas fled to Brazil, Oviedo to Argentina.

Luis González Macchi leads the country which is experiencing a serious economic and financial crisis. His government is particularly corrupt. It even turned out that the presidential BMW was a car stolen in Brazil, driving with false papers!

Attempted coup by General Oviedo's followers against Macchi.

The policy of the new president, Nicanor Duarte Frutos, is in line with the previous ones, with no real ambition to reduce social inequalities, but the economy is back on the road to growth.

Fire at the Ycuá Bolaños supermarket in Asunción on August ^1st. The worst civil disaster in the country's history, 369 dead and 500 burned.

This former bishop, from a family persecuted by the dictatorship, puts an end to 61 years of Colorado Party rule. At the head of a centre-left coalition, Lugo obtained important advances in health and education, and managed to renegotiate the Treaty of Itaipú with Lula's Brazil.

Lugo is removed from office by Parliament, following an alliance between the Colorado Party and the Liberal Party, led by the vice-president, Federico Franco. The pretext: a confrontation in Curuguaty between landless peasants and policemen, which resulted in 17 deaths. A political-agro-industrial conspiracy of the opposition to discredit Lugo's attempt at agrarian reform is said to be behind this sinister affair. Governments in the region and the European Union are calling the dismissal a "parliamentary coup". Paraguay is temporarily excluded from Mercosur and the Union of South American Nations. Franco takes over the interim presidency.

Horacio Cartes, the new president, is at the head of an empire (banking, exchange houses, football club, media, soft drinks, tobacco...) and has a sulphurous past, revealed by the WikiLeaks cables (bank swindles, money laundering, cigarette smuggling...). The "Paraguayan Berlusconi" is undertaking major infrastructure work to modernise the country, but its ultraliberal economic policy is generating the first general strike in 20 years. In order to run for re-election at the end of his term of office, he tries to have the constitution changed, but has to face massive protests, during which the Congress building is burned down.

Visit to Paraguay of Pope Francis, warmly welcomed by millions of faithful.

The colorado Mario Abdo Benítez, wins the 2018 elections against the liberal Efraín Alegre, representative of GANAR, a coalition of opposition parties. "Marito" will be elected despite the historical ties of his father (personal secretary of the dictator Alfredo Stroessner). He remains in the colorada line, with an agro-export policy and ultra-conservative positions on social issues.

In August, Mario Abdo escapes impeachment proceedings for high treason. An energy agreement had been secretly signed in May with Brazil on the pricing of hydroelectric power in Itaipú. The treaty is cancelled following the scandal. At the same time, Paraguay was hit by the worst fires in its history. The president falls to the bottom of his popularity.