History of Paraguay

The history of Paraguay encompasses thousands of years of human habitation. Both agricultural and nomadic Guaycuruan lived in the region at the time of the Spanish Conquest. It became a relatively neglected part of the Spanish Empire due to its isolation and lack of mineral wealth, nonetheless a small group of Spanish settlers came to reside in the area, increasingly intermarrying with native women to produce a mestizo population. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Jesuit missionaries organized the natives into planned communities known as reducciones, and the experiment gained notable attention in Enlightenment Era Europe.

In the early nineteenth century, Paraguay participated in the uprisings across the Spanish Empire against Spanish rule, and newly independent Paraguay came under the domination of Jose Gaspar Rodriguez, who in his absolute rule almost entirely cut off the new nation from the world. After Dr. Francia's death in 1840, Paraguay eventually came under the rule of Francisco Solano Lopez in 1862, who proceeded to embroil the nation in wars against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay which culminated in a Paraguayan defeat with massive population and territorial losses.

Military rule continued into the 20th century, which in the 1930s also saw Paraguay embroil itself in the Chaco War with Bolivia, which ended in a Paraguayan victory. General Alfredo Stroessner came to power in 1954, and military rule continued until 1989 upon which the nation moved toward a multi party democracy with a new constitution adopted in 1992. Paraguay in the 21st century has largely avoided the political strife and strong-man rule that characterizes much of its history. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Paraguay a "hybrid regime" in 2022.^[1]

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