.The Republic of Paraguay is located in the heart of South America. It is a landlocked country bordering Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina.

Don Augusto Roa Bastos, one of the most illustrious writers of Paraguay was synthesized with this curious phrase "an island surrounded by land".  By using this phrase, he was describing the social, political and economic situation.

Paraguay has a population of over 6 million people. The size of the country can be compared to the State of California (USA).

Although Paraguay has no direct access to the sea, it is watered in its entirety by large waterways such as rivers, lakes, and streams.  All of the previously listed sources of water are the major rivers of the “Cuenca del Plata”, which is also home to the Guarani Aquifer, considered one of the large reserves of freshwater on the planet.

The country is divided by the Paraguay River into two regions.  The Paraguay river is the third longest river in the Southern Hemisphere.

The vast territory of the Chaco or west of the country is a dry and sparsely populated area that comprises 60% of the national territory.  However, only 2% of the population lives in this region.

The East Zone by contrast consists of plains with abundant vegetation and wooded hills east of the Paraguay River. 24% of the population is concentrated in the capital city of Asuncion.

Sources: Peace Corps Paraguay, January 2006. www.turismo.com.py
Brief History of Paraguay

Source: Peace Corps Paraguay, January 2006. www.turismo.com.py

The Discovery
Before the discovery of America in 1492, the Spaniards disembarked and succeeded in taking over the country.  One of the fundamental expeditions lead to the development of our history, which at first led Don Pedro de Mendoza of Rio de la Plata.

The 2nd leader of the expedition, Juan de Ayolas, was sent by Mendoza examine the place. Ayolas sailed south and arrived at a small bay in the Paraguay River which he named Candelaria. This was one of the first missions to the land of the Guaraníes.

On August 15, 1537,  the Spanish Juan de Salazar y Espinosa founded the city of Nuestra Señora Santa María de la Asunción, whose name is because the day commemorates the landing of the "Assumption of Mary." Since then, and for over a century, Asuncion was the central civilization for “Rio de la Plata”.

They say that due to the overcrowding of women who lived in the Guarani land, the natives offered their sisters, daughters and widows to the Spanish settlers as a welcoming gesture. However, many historians do not approve this theory since they ensure that the indigenous defended their land with teeth and nails against the threat of the Spaniards; and were unwilling to surrender their land so easily.

After dispersing the remnants of the issuance of the first advance with Pedro de Mendoza, all of the troops of the conquest were found in Asuncion, upon the command of Domingo Martínez de Irala, who took over the colony from around to middle of 1538 and ruled for almost twenty years.

The Jesuits
At the beginning of the 17th Century, Spanish monarch Philip III gave the Jesuits permission to undertake the conversion of the Indigenous to Catholicism.

This religious congregation began distributing the Guarani Indigenous "reductions" (municipalities) to achieve its objective. The persevering missionary priest implemented a system that would last a century. In one of the greatest experiments in communal living in history, the Jesuits had organized about 100,000 in about thirty guaraníes reductions.

Unfortunately, these reductions were in the area of looting from the Bandeirantes –who originated from San Pablo and survived by capturing Indigenous and then selling them to Brazilian planters.

Having emptied the indigenous population in the areas near San Pablo, looters set out to find new slaves on their way and later founded the Jesuit reductions (present-day ruins). The Spanish authorities have decided not to defend these Jesuit places.

During the year of 1629, approximately 3,000 Paulistas destroyed the missions in their path by burning churches, killing the elderly and young children. These Barbarian maneuvers against the Jesuit reductions favored the looters who possessed thousands of Indigenous captives.

The reductions began to move to other places, but the strategy did not help.  The threat of Paulistanos ended only after 1639 when the Indigenous were able to arm themselves. The resounding victory over the Bandeirantes inaugurated the golden age of the Jesuits in Paraguay.

By 1700, the Society of Jesuits Mission was having about thirty reductions involving more than 100,000 Guaraníes (one of the indigenous group in South America) exporting commodities and a variety of products which include: cotton, leather, tobacco, and yerba mate (infusion similar to tea).

The reductions began to be a threat to the Spanish crown because of its progress and its autonomy.  As a result, el Rey Carlos III (King Charles III of Spain) drove the Jesuits out in 1767.

Much of what the Jesuits created had dissipated and the missions have lost their value as they were badly managed and were abandoned by the Guaranies. This ruined nearly 160 years of effort and evolution.

 

The first Government
After the expulsion of the Jesuits, wars and revolutions came that brought light, among other things, to the fact that they no longer needed to rely on the Spanish crown.

Thus, between the 14th and 15th of May, in 1811,  Paraguay declared its independence by the hand of a group of men among whom was Dr. José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, who would run the country from 1814 until 1840.

Known as "El Supremo", Francia was named Dictator by the General Congress in October 3, 1814. His government was marked by a tough political decision toward economy both at the national and international level. After his death in 1840, he was succeeded by Carlos Antonio López.

The new president implemented measures for enriching the country; he promoted education, built schools, and founded the first newspaper called The Independent Paraguayan "and built one of the first railway systems in South America.

He imposed an obligatory military service to form a well equipped and prepared force.  Even though he banned the selling of land to outsiders, he managed to end the period of isolation in which the country was in and caused it to begin the process of modernization.

Carlos Antonio López died in 1862 and was succeeded by his son Francisco Solano. The most significant event occurred during the administration was the Triple Alliance War, which marked the after and before in the History of Paraguay.

Source: ABC COlor - A local Newspaper