December 13 - Paraguay Declares War on Brazil

This Day in History: 13 December 2019

 

13 December 1864

 

155 years ago, today, Paraguay officially declared war on Brazil, and attacked the next day, as part of the War of the Triple Alliance. This was the bloodiest conflict in Latin America history, which was fought between Paraguay, and the countries that were allied, being Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. The tensions before the war started were built due to how much Paraguay were involved in boundary and tariff disputes with Argentina and Brazil, who were its powerful neighbours. Uruguay had also struggled to achieve its independence from the same powers, especially Argentina. Brazil therefore helped Uruguay's Colorado Party win against their opponent, which the dictator of Paraguay, Francisco Solano Lopez, responded by thinking that regional power was threatened, and therefore declared war on Brazil. In retaliation, Argentina and its allies at the time, Brazil and Uruguay (which Colorado controlled) made up the Triple Alliance and declared war on Paraguay in May 1865.

 

At the beginning of the war, Paraguayan forces of a 50,000-men army, the strongest in Latin America at the time, advanced towards Brazil territories, but failed due to logistical problems and the build-up of the allied troop strength, which outnumbered the Paraguayan significantly. As well as this, many fierce battles were fought, but the most noteworthy was won by the Paraguayans in September 1866 and stopped any allied offensive attack for nearly a year. As Brazil continued to press on to advance into the Paraguay capital, Asuncion, they annihilated the Paraguayan army in December, causing Lopez to flee, and was killed on March 1, 1870 in guerrilla warfare.

 

Following this, the Paraguayan people fought to the point of dissolution, as they had been so committed to Lopez and his war effort. This war left Paraguay in despair, as its population had dropped by almost 300,000, and during the war, were facing malnutrition, disease, and the dictatorship of Lopez, who would torture and kill many. The Triple Alliance gained many Paraguayan territory, demanded a large sum of money, and occupied Paraguay until 1876.

 

Want to find out more about this Latin American war? Visithttps://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/War_of_the_Triple_Alliance for more details.