Editing History of Paraguay (section)

==Paraguayan War==
{{Main|Paraguayan War}}
[[File:Territorial disputes in the Platine region in 1864.svg|thumbnail|right|Territorial disputes between Paraguay and its neighbors, 1864]]
[[File:War of the Triple Alliance composite.jpg|right|thumb|Collage of images of the Paraguayan War]]
[[File:The War in Paraguay - Head-Quarters of President Lopez. - (From a Sketch by General M'Mahon).jpg|thumb|right|A half-naked Paraguayan soldier on sentry duty at Solano López's headquarters]]

Solano López accurately assessed the September 1864 [[Uruguayan War|Brazilian intervention in Uruguay]] as a threat not only to Uruguay but to Paraguay as well. He was also correct in his assumption that neither Brazil nor Argentina paid much attention to Paraguay's interests when formulating their policies. He was clear that preserving Uruguayan independence was crucial to Paraguay's future as a nation. Consistent with his plans to start a Paraguayan "third force" between Argentina and Brazil, Solano López committed the nation to Uruguay's aid.

In early 1864, López warned Brazil against intervening in Uruguay's internal conflict. Despite this, Brazil invaded Uruguay in October, 1864. On 12 November 1864, Lopez ordered the seizure of a Brazilian warship in Paraguayan territorial waters. López followed this with an invasion of the [[Mato Grosso]] province of Brazil, in March 1865, an action that proved to be one of Paraguay's few successes during the war.

When Argentina refused Solano López's request for permission for his army to cross Argentine territory to attack the Brazilian province of [[Río Grande do Sul]], Solano López had himself declared a Marshal, and started a war against Argentina.

This invasion set the stage for the May 1865 signing by Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay of the [[Treaty of the Triple Alliance]]. Under the treaty, these nations vowed to destroy Solano López's government.

Paraguay was not prepared for a big war. Its 30,000-man army was the most powerful in Latin America, but its strength was illusory because it lacked trained leadership, a reliable source of weapons and adequate reserves. Paraguay lacked the industrial base to replace weapons lost in battle, and the Argentine-Brazilian alliance prevented Solano López from receiving arms from abroad.

Paraguay's population was only about 450,000 in 1865, completely dwarfed by the Allied population of 11&nbsp;million. Even after conscripting every able-bodied male, including children as young as ten, and forcing women to perform all nonmilitary labor, Solano López still could not field an army as large as those of his enemies.

Apart from some Paraguayan victories on the northern front, the war was a disaster. The core units of the Paraguayan army reached [[Corrientes]] in April 1865. By July, more than half of Paraguay's 30,000-man invasion force had been killed or captured along with the army's best small arms and artillery. By 1867, Paraguay had lost 60,000 men to casualties, disease, or capture, and another 60,000 soldiers – slaves and children – were called to duty.

After October 1865 López changed his war plans from offensive to defensive. On 22 September 1866, at the [[Battle of Curupayty]], Paraguayans inflicted a great defeat on the Allied army and until November 1867 there was a relative lull in the fighting.

In February 1868 two Brazilian warships sailed up the River Paraguay and caused a panic in Asunción. On 24 February they entered the port of Asunción, shelled the city and left, without attempting to capture it. During this time López was not in Asunción and perceived all the defensive actions that were taken by his government, including his vice-president and brothers, as a giant conspiracy against his rule. In his base at San Fernando, López organized a wave of torture and executions against the supposed conspirators.<ref name="books.google.lv">{{cite book|title=Paraguay and the Triple Alliance: The Postwar Decade, 1869-1878|last1=Warren |first1= H.G.|last2=Warren |first2= K.F.|date=2014|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=9781477306994|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fa50BQAAQBAJ&pg=PT67|access-date=2017-01-07}}</ref> Many victims were [[lance]]d to death in order to save ammunition. The bodies were dumped in mass graves.

Solano López's hostility even extended to [[United States Ambassador to Paraguay]] [[Charles Ames Washburn]]. Only the timely arrival of the [[USS Wasp (1865)|United States gunboat ''Wasp'']] saved the diplomat from arrest.

By the end of 1868, the Paraguayan army had shrunk to a few thousand soldiers (many of them children and women) who exhibited suicidal bravery. Cavalry units operated on foot for lack of horses. Naval infantry battalions armed only with [[machete]]s attacked Brazilian [[ironclad]]s. "Conquer or die" became the order of the day.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Roett|first=Riordan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tq2bDwAAQBAJ&q=paraguay:+the+personalist+legacy|title=Paraguay: The Personalist Legacy|publisher=Routledge|year=2019|isbn=9780367282240|location=New York, NY}}</ref> During December, the Allies continued to destroy the remaining resistance and on 1 January 1869, they entered Asunción. Solano López held out in the northern jungles for another fourteen months until he finally died in battle.

1870 marked the lowest point in Paraguayan history. Hundreds of thousands of Paraguayans had died. Destitute and practically destroyed, Paraguay had to endure a lengthy occupation by foreign troops and cede large patches of territory to Brazil and Argentina.