From the Jesuit state up to the Republic ...

Seventy years after this first meeting, Philipp II, the Spanish King, granted the Jesuit Order the permission to undertake the conversion of the Province del Guaira Indians, at that time practically an unknown region of the Guarani territory. In a short time, the Jesuits set up a great amount of agriculture establishments in which some 200.000 persons were working - the majority of them converted Indians that, up to that time, had led a nomadic life. This period had its influence on the Guaranies for approximately 150 years. At the same time, however, there existed Spanish colonists who exploited the Indians as workers without pay and treated them practically as slaves.

Indeed, the Jesuits carried out a determined fight against the enslavement of the Indians, but in 1767 the colonists finally were able to successfully impose their interests before the Crown and, by means of a decree of the Spanish King Charles III, the flourishing Jesuit state was dissolved in a sudden manner.

This was followed by a turbulent period marked by constant wars and revolutions. Under the charismatic leadership of Dictator Francia, Paraguay obtained its independence. His successor, President Carlos Antonio Lopez, created a reliable state system, having constructed around 400 schools, founded newspapers, encouraged the immigration of foreign technicians and set up a formidable army. At the time of his death in 1862, his son, Francisco Solano Lopez, assumed the leadership of the country.

Although the father had always advised the radical youth to resolve any conflict by political means or with the pen, in 1864 the young President launched Paraguay in war against the Triple Alliance which transformed itself in the most bloody conflict that took place, at any time, on American soil. What in the past had been a large army was reduced to 480 soldiers - the President, who was in command of the troops, was amongst those last to die in that war. Of the 1.377.000 inhabitants in Paraguay at the time, only 6.000 men and some 220.000 women and children survived. The most prosperous South American country had been destroyed during the government of Marshal Francisco Solano Lopez.