South American History

[Fljotsdale]

Nudge!

[Richard the Great]

Busy!

For what we have in books and records, Dom Pedro II was not directly aware that her daughter intended to free the slaves, but when he heard the news, it is said that he exclaimed "Grande povo! Grande povo!" ("What an excellent people!"). I don't think we can say it was a step too far too son, cause the monarchy was about to crumble under the pressure of Republicans anyway (like I said, it did fall a year later), and most probably the new Republican government would have abolished slavery too: the slave owners support for the republicans after passing the Lei Áurea was not enough for making them return to slavery after the Emperor was dethroned. Me thinks that it happened when it was due to happen, and Brazil can be proud that abolishing slavery didn't cost the country a long and expensive civil war, like that of the USA.

Now, to business: The Paraguayan War. Like I said earlier, something over which much crap has been said. If you intend to read more on the subject, it is my strong suggestion that you don't stick only to one source/book, but compare several sources and preferably by different authors of different nationalities, because this episode of history involved and affected several nations in varying degrees of severity, having effects that can be felt and seen even today in the minds of Paraguayans, Uruguayans, Argentinians and Brazilians. Let's stick to the actual facts and give the different interpretations later: Paraguay was one of the strongest, most developed countries in South America at the beginning of the second half of the XIX century. It had achieved its independence from Spain and Argentina in 1811-14 and, under the dictatorships of Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia (the infamous Dr. Francia, The Supreme) and Carlos Antonio López, the country had reached a stability and development comparable to those of some European countries, consolidated under López’s son, Francisco Solano López, with a professional army (trained by German officers), a fluvial navy, the first railroad in South America and major commercial interests in the region that clashed against those of Brazil and Argentina. Hostilities began when Brazil intervened in the internal affairs of Uruguay (remember that the country, the former Cisplatina province, had obtained its independence from Brazil 30 years earlier), desiring to overthrow the Blanco Party’s government and to implant a Colorado Party’s regime that would favor the interest of landlords and cattle breeders from the Brazilian southern provinces. Paraguay was in good terms with the Blanco Party, and it feared that a Colorado government would close his only way out to sea, the river Paraná. As a reprisal, Solano López sent his army to invade modern Mato Grosso do Sul in December 1864, before even declaring war on Brazil. Three months later, March 1865, he declared war on Argentina when President Bartolomé Mitre denied Paraguayan troops permission to cross his territory and kick the Brazilians out of Uruguay. If you see a map, you’d think that Solano López was crazy standing alone between and against two giants like Argentina and Brazil, plus little Uruguay, but remember that the Paraguayan industry was buoyant at that time and could therefore sustain the war expenses, and that its army was the best in the region, while no other neighboring country maintained professional forces on a regular basis. During most of 1865, Paraguay continued his exploits in Brazilian and Argentinian territory, capturing many cities and posts, including the very important Argentinian city of Corrientes; Brazil sent a column (2700 men) in April with the mission of recovering the cities of Coxim and Miranda, that arrived late in December (had to cross half the country) to the former, in September 1866 to the latter, and invaded Paraguayan territory in January 1867, being forced to retreat, chased by Paraguayan cavalry, in what came to be known as the Retirada da Laguna (Retreat from Lagoon): only 700 exhausted sick men returned. In May 1865 Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay signed the Treaty of the Triple Alliance, and briefly recaptured Corrientes before Solano López retook it again. In June, with the naval victory of Riachuelo, in the mouth of the Paraná, the Allies inflicted a heavy defeat on Paraguay, which then lost the ability to sustain operations in Argentinian soil. In August, Uruguayan President Venancio Flores destroyed a detachment of 5500 Paraguayans in the right margin of the river Uruguay, at the battle of Jataí, and at the end of the year, having recaptured Corrientes for good, the Allies defeated every Paraguayan force in their territories and began preparing the invasion of Paraguay. For two years, operations concentrated on the fortresses built by the Paraguayans to protect access into their country through the river Paraná, with occasional but tremendous battles, such as that of Tuiuti, the bloodiest battle in the history of Latin America (6000 Paraguayans dead and 7000 wounded and prisoners, 1000 Allies dead and 3000 wounded). The Allies forced and captured all fortresses one by one during those two years, suffering heavy losses; the great fortress of Humaitá finally fell in July 1868, but the road to Asunción was not clear yet, with the fortresses of Lomas Valentinas standing in the way. Solano López, with 18 000 men, trusted to stop the Allies at this strategic point, a line of strongholds, fortifications and trenches surrounded by marshes and the river Paraguay, but the great commander in chief of the Allies, the Duke of Caxias, conceived a strategy consisting in part of his troops carrying out diversions and decoys in front of the fortresses while thousands of workers, engineers and sappers paved an 11 kilometers road through boggy grounds in 23 days, which allowed 23 000 men to engage the Paraguayans from the rearguard, storm their fortifications and force Solano López to retreat. During December, in what came to be known as the Dezembrada, Caxias’ troops obtained a series of victories that decimated the already faltering Paraguayan army. On January 1, 1869, after some bombardments, Asunción fell in the Allies’ hands, and Solano López fled north with a handful of followers. The Duke of Caxias returned to Brasil, tired and sick (he was 65 at that time), and Dom Pedro II appointed his son-in-law, the Count d’Eu, as the head of the army that would hunt down the Paraguayan dictator. A provisional, puppet government was formed in Asunción that would have to deal with war compensations and the task of rebuilding a devastated nation. For over a year, the small Paraguayan army following Solano López managed to survive the hunt, until it was almost completely destroyed at the battle of Peribebuí. For the next and last great battle in August 1869, Acosta-Ñhu or Campo Grande (Great Field), all he managed to assemble were 500 veterans and 3500 old men and children ranging from 10 to 15 years old, against 20 000 Allies, Brazilians mostly. 2000 dead, 1300 prisoners for the Paraguayans, 100 dead, 500 wounded for the Allies. Much has been said about this battle, with some accounts representing a blood-thirsty Count d’Eu ordering to cut the throats of many prisoners and setting the field in fire while hundreds of wounded children laid in the ground (together with their mothers and sisters, who had entered the field hoping to rescue them); other accounts affirm that it was general Bernardino Caballero (who later became president of Paraguay) who ordered to set the dry grass in fire for the smoke to cover his retreat with a couple hundred of survivors. After this battle, Solano López, only followed by 300 men, continued fleeing north for months, until his persecutors caught up with him at Cerro Corá, March 1, 1870, and lanced and shot him dead, together with his son Panchito (Little Francisco). The head of the lance used by corporal Chico Diabo (Little Devil) against the Paraguayan dictator is in display today at the Historical National Museum in Rio de Janeiro. No official peace treaty was signed by all parts in the conflict together, but each country dealt with Paraguay separately, Argentina refusing to recognize its independence and wanting to obtain the Gran Chaco province, which today belongs to Bolivia, and Brazil desiring to incorporate some territories into its own. In the end, the three victors acquired important portions of Paraguay; it is said that Solano López cried before dying “¡Muero con mi Patria!” (“I die with my country!”), because he believed that Paraguay would cease to exist and would return to be an Argentinian province. It didn’t quite so, but Paraguay indeed suffered heavily, territorially speaking, after the war was over: it lost almost a third of its territory, it was occupied by Brazilian and Argentinian forces for 10 years, and the war compensations were only officially pardoned in 1943.

Now, some precisions on the story: over the years and even today, this is one of the most politicized events on South American history, and we cannot be absolutely sure of the motives and intentions of the main protagonists of the war almost 150 years later; heck, we don’t even know what caused it for sure. For years, it was studied simply as the results of the ambitions and aggressive expansionist politics of Solano López. In the 1960s, according to the ideological struggle between capitalism and socialism, colonialism and freedom movements, it was said that England had provoked everything, because it sensed that Paraguay was about to become a southern power that would threaten its predominance and commercial interests in the region (more or less like the Swiss bankers that financed the civil war in Lebanon in the 1970s so that Beirut wouldn’t become the new financial center of the Mediterranean basin), since the four countries emerged severely damaged and in dire need of loans, and guess who they borrowed from (Paraguay had to contract its first loan ever in history, one million pounds from the UK). This approach to the story held for years, thanks to a small book that actually resembled a pamphlet (among others), Genocídio americano: a guerra do Paraguai (American Genocide: The Paraguayan War), written by Juan José Chiavenatto almost a century later, drinking from A retirada da Laguna, by the Viscount of Taunay, who indeed participated in the war operations. Genocídio americano is in reality an apology on Paraguay and more concretely on Francisco Solano López, presenting him as a fair and just president, a martyr that fought against the evil empire of Brazil and its sidekicks Argentina and Uruguay. The book reeks of solipsism and partialness, abounds in graphic descriptions of the Allies skewering and murdering innocent Paraguayans, and it clearly denounces England’s role as the puppet master that didn’t hesitate in spending hundreds of thousands of Paraguayan lives and destroying a country in order to bring in a few million pounds more. This approach has now been substituted by a more balanced one which affirms that the war was an inevitable consequence of the development of the identity and sense of State of the four countries in war. This is but the educated theory, and most people still have an extremely manichean view of the events: the stories about the Conde d’Eu setting in fire a hospital full of sick Paraguayans after the battle of Peribebuí or about euphoric Brazilian troops killing everyone and destroying everything they could after Cerro Corá are widely held as irrefutable truth. Paraguay commemorates Children’s Day on August 16, anniversary of the battle of Acosta-Ñhu, and considers Solano López as a national hero, while the sinister role played by England is still thought to have been as described by Chiavenatto in his libel. Even the number of casualties is disputed: early XX century historians gave more than 300 000 dead for Paraguay, from a total population of nearly half a million (95% of the male population of the country was exterminated); contemporary studies give 75 000 – 100 000 dead. Brazil intervened with 160 000 men and lost 50 000, Argentina with 30 000 and had 18 000 dead, and finally Uruguay sent 5 600 men, losing 3000. These numbers include civil casualties: it is important to reckon that cholera was the main cause for such mortality rates, with a deficient intake of food and the terrible sanitary conditions of the camps, battlefields and occupied cities spreading epidemics and undermining the structure of societies in general. The only thing we can be sure about is that the war provoked a major shift in the balance of power in South America, and turned Paraguay into one of the most impoverished countries of the region, as it continues to be today, while heating up the debate about slavery in Brazil: many slaves fought under the promise of freedom after military service, but once the fighting was over they were reduced to their miserable condition once again. Dom Pedro II saw his popularity return to acceptable rates (the war expenses had turned the public opinion against him), but the phantom of republicanism, as we have seen, loomed on the horizon…

Your obedient servant:

Richard the Great