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Paraguayan War

Deadliest inter-state war in Latin American history.

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Paraguayan War

Dennis G. Jarvis · CC BY-SA 2.0

From 1864 to 1870, Paraguay fought against Argentina, the Empire of Brazil, and Uruguay in a war that took place in South America.[1][2] This conflict ranks as the most lethal war between states in Latin America's past; Paraguay experienced extremely high losses, though exact figures remain contested.[2]

Map of the Paraguayan War 1864-1870
Map of the Paraguayan War 1864-1870. Image: Maximilian Dörrbecker ( Chumwa ), English translation provided by Metaknowledge · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Life and work

Historian Pelham Horton Box noted that Spain bequeathed frontier disputes with Portuguese Brazil to the new nations.[3] The war's origins are attributed to multiple factors, including Paraguayan president Francisco Solano López's policies and the Uruguayan War.[4] Paraguay began the conflict with over 60,000 trained men, 400 cannons, and a naval squadron of 23 steamboats.[5] The Paraguayan army was poorly equipped, with most infantry using inaccurate smooth-bore muskets and poor artillery.[6]

Church in the Paraguayan town of Pilar
Church in the Paraguayan town of Pilar. Image: Unknown (18??–18??) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay initially had smaller forces, but Brazil's navy comprised 45 ships with 239 cannons and about 4,000 crew.[5] Paraguay launched invasions of Mato Grosso in December 1864 and of Corrientes and Rio Grande do Sul in early 1865.[7][8] Boundary disagreements that arose from colonial-era uncertainties caused friction between the newly independent nations in the region.[9]

Paraguayan Soldier
Paraguayan Soldier. Image: Pedro C. J. Vera · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Italian band in Paraguayan War
Italian band in Paraguayan War. Image: Carlos César (attrib) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Countries Paraguayan War
Countries Paraguayan War. Image: Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

What the cited sources add

An Osprey Publishing book from 2015 details that the Paraguayan peacetime army had eight infantry battalions of 800 men each, mustering only 4,084 infantrymen.[10][11] The Osprey book also states that Paraguay relied on a militia of all able-bodied men, which increasingly included younger and older men as the war continued.[10][11]

2019-10-08 Paraguayan War Monument
2019-10-08 Paraguayan War Monument. Image: Dennis G. Jarvis · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Paraguayan War" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ( , , ); ( , , ) (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Paraguayan War" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Schenoni, "Bringing War Back In: Victory, Defeat, and the State in Nineteenth-Century Latin America", Cambridge University Press, 2024, p. 65; [Bethell, Leslie, The Paraguayan War, p.1] (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Paraguayan War" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Box 1967, p. 54 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Paraguayan War" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Miguel Angel Centeno, Blood and Debt: War and the Nation-State in Latin America, University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1957. p. 55. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Paraguayan War" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Scheina 2003, p. 313–314 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Paraguayan War" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Salles 2003, p. 18 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Paraguayan War" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hooker, T.D., 2008, The Paraguayan War, Nottingham: Foundry Books, (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Paraguayan War" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hooker, T.D., 2008, The Paraguayan War, Nottingham: Foundry Books,; Hooker, T.D., 2008, The Paraguayan War, Nottingham: Foundry Books, (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Paraguayan War" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: França, "Fronteiras Sul-americanas: História, formas e processos contemporâneos", Anuário Unbral das Fronteiras Brasileiras, 2016, p. 79–123 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Open Library record, ISBN 9781472807274 ("Armies of the War of the Triple Alliance 1864-70"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Paraguayan War" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Esposito, "Armies of the War of the Triple Alliance 1864-70: Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay & Argentina", Osprey Publishing Ltd, 2015, p. 58–63 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Paraguayan War (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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