Latin America refers to the vast area of the Americas south of the United States.
Countries located in these regions either have Spanish as their official language, as Mexico does, or Portuguese as their official language, as Brazil does.
Both languages belong to the Latin language family, hence the name "Latin America".
Although the Latin Americans had more or less different degrees of mixed blood, the dominant race there has always been white European, either father white or father white mother black, and there is rarely a case where indigenous Indians dominate.
But there is such a Latin American country, whose racial makeup is completely reversed. The patrilineal Indian ancestry of the country's residents is so great that passers-by with white faces are rarely seen on the streets.
The name of the country is Paraguay.
This happened not because the native Indians drove out the European colonists, but because Paraguay was simultaneously beaten by three other Latin American countries more than a hundred years ago.
In that war, ninety percent of the country's white males died in battle, directly beaten to the point of imbalance between men and women, and never recovered, which is why today's racial makeup.
During this war, then-Paraguayan President López was a controversial figure.
Some argue that he is responsible for the deaths of most people because of his ambitions that have drawn the country into the most brutal war in Latin American history.
Others believe that he was a national hero because he defended the interests of the country and persisted until he was killed.
So, what happened to this Paraguayan war that shocked the world? Why is there such a large population problem?
First, european apprentices
In May 1811, Paraguay declared its independence.
In this year, his neighbors should also be independent, the civil war of the civil war, the smoke is everywhere, and it is not peaceful at all.
Therefore, the Paraguayan leaders decided to impose a military dictatorship at home and use power politics to stabilize the order;
At that time, there were still few people in the high grass of Paraguay. A small population means that the planting and animal husbandry industries cannot be developed, and the country cannot be built without tax sources.
How can this be done?
The Paraguayan government decided to send some upper-class children to form a study tour to Europe to recruit immigrants, learn knowledge and introduce science and technology.
The prince of paraguay at the time, López the Younger, was one of them.
López spent more than two years in Europe, mainly in Paris.
At that time, Napoleon was the common idol of almost all European generals. When López visited the Military Academy saint Cyr, he had the privilege of meeting Napoleon's nephew, later The Second Emperor of France, Napoleon III.
López instructed napoleon III in class. The latter admired López's talent, and López also had great respect for the descendants of famous idols.
The two were like meeting a confidant, talking happily, and when they parted, they were awarded a medal of honor, which was praised as "the Crouching Dragon and Phoenix Chick of the New and Old Worlds".
History has also proved the "strength" of these two men.
Years later, Napoleon III was captured in the Franco-Prussian War, and López fled in the Paraguayan War, bringing the country and its people to the brink of destruction.
In 1853, the Crimean War broke out, and the Anglo-French army entered the war.
Near graduation, López was invited by the French army to go to the front line to investigate, and came to the scene just in time for the Anglo-Russian Black Sea War. He was shocked by the mutual bombardment of steam-armored warships.
Soon after, López received a letter from his father who was critically ill, thinking that it was time to return home and inherit the throne.
Before leaving, López signed a large number of orders for advanced weapons for the military, and hired French and Prussian instructors to return home to reform the army, so that the whole army could develop in the direction of modernization. Bring the fruits of the Industrial Revolution to the New World.
The arrival of this wave of equipment has allowed the small country of Paraguay to surpass the strength of Latin American countries and has the capital to be a regional bully.
This also laid the groundwork for Paraguay to provoke a war in South America.
Second, the despised Paraguay
At this time, on the other side of the Atlantic, Paraguay and several neighbors were in a heated fight.
After the Spanish Empire withdrew from Latin America, it left a lot of messes, the biggest problem of which was territorial division.
With the independence of Brazil and Argentina, the few uninhabited wastelands that were once on the national border can now be regarded as the territory of the Eight Classics, and the sovereignty is naturally incompatible with each other.
Argentina, in particular, often thrived on its own people, often sending cavalry to encroach on border territories.
López had intended to do the same when he succeeded to the throne in 1862, until an opportunity suddenly appeared and strengthened his determination to wage war against his neighbors– that is, the Uruguayan Red and White War.
In 1863, civil unrest broke out in the coastal country of Uruguay, and the two sides of the conflict were the White Party and the Red Party.
Paraguay intervened immediately, providing support to the White Party and publicly questioning Argentina's support for the Red Party, but Argentina denied it.
In 1864, Brazil clashed with the Uruguayan White Party, and Paraguay did not want Brazil to intervene, so it intervened, but Brazil refused.
Since Paraguay does not border Uruguay, Paraguay can only stare dryly when the white party, the spokesman for interests, is beaten.
In order to be able to clean up the Red Party, Paraguay approached the ostensibly neutral Argentina and asked for a loan from the country's province of Corrientes so that the Paraguayan army could go over to support the fallen White Party, but was unsurprisingly rejected.
Enraged, López allowed paraguayan troops to enter the province of Corrientes without authorization from Argentina.
Argentina immediately counterattacked and declared war on Paraguay on the grounds of aggression.
At this point, all four tables of mahjong were assembled.
The War of the Three or Four Kingdoms: The Sorrow of the Widows of Small Nations
In view of the common enemy, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay formed a military alliance and joined forces to besiege Paraguay.
At the beginning of the war, due to the lack of central authority of the Brazilian Empire and the internal factional struggle, it was slow to integrate the forces of the states, so that Paraguay, who had taken the lead, took advantage.
At that time, although the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso was in a hurry, the other states were surrounded and did not move.
Paraguay soon occupied a large area of the state of Mato Grosso with 4,000 troops.
At that time, the telegraph was not yet widespread, and transportation basically relied on walking, and communication basically relied on roaring.
The acting governor could only choose a good horse to set off overnight, and traveled a month to the imperial palace of the capital, two thousand kilometers away from Abbanan, to report to The Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II.
By the time the emperor dispatched his troops and coordinated his troops and supplies, more than half of the time had passed. Fast forward to December 1865, a total of 2,800 men of the Brazilian First Support Army had arrived at the front, preserving the city of Cuiaba, the capital of the state.
Although Paraguay has a fierce momentum and preemptively attacked the advantage, the depth of the Three-Power Alliance is deeper and the national strength is stronger, and Paraguay can not pick three in the end.
More importantly, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay were all coastal countries, with weapons and supplies coming from Britain, while Paraguay was only a blockade.
At this cost, the Triple Alliance ceded customs sovereignty, with the result that after the war, British goods squeezed the market of the three countries, and the Triple Alliance became a dumping ground for goods, allowing Britain to make a war fortune.
After a tug-of-war, the better-equipped Paraguayan army was no match for the larger Tri-Allied forces, and the Triple Alliance reversed the situation.
After three battles, Paraguay was basically exhausted.
In 1869, paraguayan capital Asunción was captured, but López did not commit suicide in the bunker and refused peace talks, claiming that Paraguay could only choose between victory or death.
Sadly, this led to a one-sided massacre, and the deaths of many more.
Thereafter, López declared that he had fallen into the grass and relied on guerrilla warfare to disrupt the Triple Army.
In order to eliminate López's mass base, the Trilateral Coalition slaughtered all paraguayan men who were taller than the wheels everywhere they went, leaving paraguay without available troops.
Unexpectedly, until this time, López was not willing to surrender.
After all, there are no adults and children, and López let the teenagers put fake beards to form a boy scout, filling the vacancy of the Barra Army.
Thus, the most brutal and terrible scene of the whole war was staged - the skinny, standing up and even only half a gun high Boy Scout, desperately repelled the enemy's infantry attack.
The battle lasted 8 hours and shed the last drop of Paraguayan blood. Since it was August 16, the Paraguayans designated it as Children's Day in honor of the sacrifice of the Boy Scouts.
On February 27, 1870, López was besieged at the Battle of Cerocola, and several of his sons were killed in the previous fighting, but he refused to surrender.
On 1 March, the Brazilians captured López.
The Tri-Power Coalition agreed that as long as López lived one day, the war would last a day. After discussion, they decided to put López to death.
But before Lopez died, he smiled and shouted, "I live and die with the motherland!" ”
The Brazilians rushed forward and hacked López to death, ending the protracted Paraguayan war.
Except for a mistress in exile in Europe, Lopez's whole family was basically killed in battle, which can also be regarded as a good story full of loyal martyrs.
To this day, the phrase "fight like López" is seen as a noble tribute to the military.
But the impact of the war on Paraguay can be described as "catastrophic".
In 1865, there were 520,000 people in Paraguay, and by the time the population was counted again in 1871, there were only 220,000 left— 100,000 women, 80,000 children, and only 30,000 adult men.
After the war, in order to regain national strength, paraguayans had to practice polygamy as a way to alleviate the population that had fallen to the bottom.
Paraguay has lost its sovereignty, territory, population and is left with dignity and honour. The former military power of Latin America has since collapsed and become a third-rate country, and it is estimated that it can only be seen on football news today.
Text/Ga baby
Resources:
1. "The Suicide of a Country: The Beginning and End of the Paraguayan War in the 19th Century", Xing Tianning
2. "The Worst President in History - Francisco Solano López", Wang Xiuying