Editing History of Paraguay (section)

===Colonial decline===
[[File:Carte du paraguay et del pays voisins Echelle 1756.jpg|thumbnail|right|Map of Paraguay and surrounding regions, 1756 CE]]
The Comuneros revolt was symptomatic of the province's decline. Since the re-founding of Buenos Aires in 1580, the steady deterioration in the importance of Asunción contributed to growing political instability within the province. In 1617, the [[Governorate of the Río de la Plata]] was divided into two smaller provinces: [[Governorate of Paraguay]], with Asunción as its capital, and Río de la Plata, with headquarters in Buenos Aires. With this decision, Asunción lost control of the Río de la Plata estuary and became dependent on Buenos Aires for maritime shipping. In 1776, the crown created the [[Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata]]; Paraguay, which had been subordinate to [[Lima]], now became a provincial outpost of Buenos Aires. Located at the periphery of the empire, Paraguay served as a buffer state. The Portuguese blocked Paraguayan territorial expansion in the north, native tribes blocked it – until their expulsion – in the south, and the Jesuits blocked it in the east.

The [[Viceroyalty of Peru]] and the [[Real Audiencia of Charcas]] had nominal authority over Paraguay, while Madrid largely neglected the colony. Madrid preferred to avoid the effort and expense of governing and defending a remote colony that had proved to have little value. The governors of Paraguay had no royal troops at their disposal and were instead dependent on a colonist [[militia]] . Paraguayans were forced into the colonial militia to serve extended tours of duty, contributing to a severe labor shortage. Paraguayans claimed that the 1537 ''cédula'' gave them the right to choose and depose their governors. The colony, and in particular the Asunción municipal council (''[[cabildo (council)|cabildo]]''), earned a reputation for being in continual revolt against the Crown.

As a result of its distance from the rest of the empire, Paraguay had little control over important decisions that affected its economy. Spain appropriated much of Paraguay's wealth through burdensome taxes and regulations. [[Yerba maté]], for instance, was practically priced out of the regional market. At the same time, Spain was using most of its wealth from the [[New World]] to import manufactured goods from the more industrialized countries of Europe, notably [[United Kingdom|Britain]]. Spanish merchants borrowed from British merchants to finance their purchases; merchants in Buenos Aires borrowed from Spain; those in Asunción borrowed from the ''[[porteño]]s'' (residents of Buenos Aires), and Paraguayan ''peones'' (landless peasants in debt to landlords) bought goods on credit. The result was dire poverty in Paraguay and an increasingly impoverished empire.