When it comes to the tragedy of the war, many people will think of the various battles of the Second World War for the first time. For example, the Battle of Stalingrad, known as the "bloodiest in history", had up to 2 million military casualties, and by the worst stage of the war, the soldiers survived for more than a day.
But what is less well known is that in South America in the 1860s, there was an even more tragic war. As a result of the war, the invaded countries lost nearly half of their territory, leaving few young adults left, and even the president died in the war.
In 1864, Paraguay in South America was a relatively prosperous country, but its geographical location was relatively poor — Brazil in the north and Argentina in the south, both of which were regional powers in the Americas. At that time, Argentina had been reluctant to recognize paraguay's independence, so it made a claim for territory. Paraguay, on the other hand, wants access to the sea. The contradictions between the two sides are constantly escalating and intensifying. Later, Argentina joined forces with Brazil and Uruguay to launch a war of aggression against Paraguay, which is also known as the "Triple Alliance War".
From 1864 to the end of 1870, the war was fought for a total of 6 years, the weak Paraguay poured all its strength into the war, the young and middle-aged people joined the war en masse, and at the end of the battle, even 8-year-old children carried guns to the battlefield, which showed the fierceness. According to statistics, during the entire war, paraguay's population plummeted by 60%, the population dropped from more than 500,000 to more than 200,000, and only 100,000 women and 80,000 children remained. There are only more than 20,000 adult men, most of whom are middle-aged and elderly. At the same time, Paraguay's territory has been decimated, at least more than 40 per cent. It is worth mentioning that the President of Paraguay was also killed in the war.
After the war, Paraguay abolished monogamy in order to quickly regain its national strength, and men could marry up to 4 wives. As a result of the serious imbalance between men and women, the marriage system collapsed, and the phenomenon of arbitrary marriage and illegitimate births in Paraguay began to spread.
After the Paraguayan War, the whole of South America was devastated: the modernization process was interrupted, the economy was regressed, the military industry was greatly reduced, the prosperity was gone, and the colonization of the Western powers was provided with a hotbed. And this war has become the longest and bloodiest war in South American history.
In later generations, South America has also completely faded out of the world stage, and to this day it has not stepped out of a world power.