Why did Paraguay lose sixty percent of its population between 1864 and 1870?

The population collapse of Paraguay between 1864 and 1870 is a catastrophic but little known chapter of history. In just six years Paraguay’s population dropped from approximately four hundred and fifty thousand to approximately one hundred and fifty thousand. During these years Paraguay lost over ninety percent of its male population. A decline that by 1871 created a ratio of four women to every one man. At first glance the only reasonable explanations for this collapse are epidemics or mass migration. However the unfortunate reality is that these losses were caused by war. The War of the Triple Alliance, a seldom remembered yet horrific conflict, was the singular event that destroyed Paraguay’s population.

To understand the reasons why the War of the Triple Alliance was as horrific as it was one must understand Paraguay’s history. The indigenous Guaraní people resided in what is today Paraguay until Spanish missionaries arrived during the seventeenth century. Spanish rule ended in Paraguay and the rest of South America as a result of Napoleon Bonaparte’s conquest of the Spanish homeland in the early 1800s and the populist revolutionary José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia became dictator of the newly formed nation in 1812. Following the death of Francia in 1841, military leader Carlos Antonio Lopez became Paraguay’s President for life. President Lopez promoted industrialization in the arms manufacture and shipbuilding industries. President Lopez also built up his nation’s military to ward off the interventionist actions of the nation’s much larger neighbors Argentina and Brazil. When Carlos Antonio Lopez died in 1862 his son Francisco Solano took over as dictator.

Solano Lopez, who suffered from paranoia, quickly silenced all opposition within Paraguay through draconian punishments and extreme violence. Lopez, wanted to exploit the conflicts that embroiled his nation to initiate regional conquest. In 1864, Brazil helped overthrow Uruguay’s ruling Blancos Party, an ally of Paraguay, and install the Colardos party, an ally of Brazil and Argentina as Uruguay’s new rulers. Lopez retaliated by seizing Brazilian warships on the Parana River and invading Brazil’s Mato Grosso region. Soon after Paraguay launched an invasion of Uruguay across Argentinian territory. Consequently Argentinian President Bartolomé Mitre arranged an alliance between his nation, Emperor Pedro II’s Brazil, and the Colorados party’s Uruguay. This group, which became known as the Triple Alliance then declared war on Paraguay with the intent of exterminating the nation’s belligerent regime and pillaging its lands.

For the next six years the Triple Alliance attempted to realize their intentions by waging a vicious campaign against Paraguay. As this campaign began to erode Paraguay’s military strength Solano Lopez instituted universal male conscription, meaning that every male above the age of fifteen and younger than the age of sixty had to join the military. As the Paraguayan position deteriorated Lopez initiated mass executions of soldiers and civilians that were suspected of harboring plans of surrender. To make matters worse for the soldiers that remained loyal, necessary supplies such as food and clothing were hoarded by Lopez’s consort Eliza Lynch, who lived and spent lavishly throughout the war. The combination of these calamitous events within the Paraguayan army final led to its downfall in 1870 at the battle Cerro Corȧ. At this battle the Brazilian army soundly defeated the final remnants of the Paraguayan army and executed Solano Lopez. Subsequently the Triple Alliance’s forces ransacked and looted what few areas of Paraguay were not already in ruins. These Actions led to numerous massacres, mass famine, as well as the complete collapse of Paraguayan society.

Paraguay lost sixty percent of its population between 1864 and 1870 because of external and internal violence spawning from a total war with Argentine, Brazil, and Uruguay. Although the War of the Triple Alliance is a very dark chapter in human history, it is important that the atrocities it entailed are not forgotten.