The Rise and Fall of the Paraguayan Republic, 1800–1870
The Rise and Fall of the Paraguayan Republic, 1800–1870
Paraguay plays a very small role in the modern world, but for part of the nineteenth century it was a significant regional force. Between 1800 and 1865 it changed from an imperial backwater into a dynamic, dictator-led, financially sound nation. Then came the terrible War of the Triple Alliance, and by 1870 Paraguay had virtually been destroyed.
John Hoyt Williams re-creates the era’s people, places, and events in rich detail and a vigorous style, but this is much more than a mere narrative. His archival research in Paraguay and several other countries enables him to offer new facts and interpretations, correct a number of misapprehensions, and explode a few myths.
He also provides the clearest, most objective portraits available of the three extraordinary men who ruled Paraguay during this time: Dr. José Gaspar de Francia, “El Supremo”; Carlos Antonio López, “the Corpulent Despot”; and López’s flamboyant son Francisco Solano López. Discussions of social, economic, and cultural conditions round out a masterly account of a remarkable historical period.
- Preface
- Chapters
- 1. The “Provincia Gigante” in the Eighteenth Century
- 2. José Gaspar de Francia and the Paraguayan Revolution
- 3. Perpetual Means Forever: Francia and the Remodeling of Paraguayan Society
- 4. The Diplomacy of Isolation, 1820-1840
- 5. The Supreme Dictatorship, 1820-1840
- 6. The Old Order Changeth?
- 7. A New Paraguay is Stirring
- 8. The Economic Pulse Quickens
- 9. The Diplomacy of Frustration
- 10. Threat and Counter-Threat: The 1850s
- 11. Foreigners and the Modernization of Paraguay
- 12. “Francisco Solano’s Error: The War”
- 13. The Immolation of Paraguay
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
