War of the Triple Alliance (Paraguayan War)

by

Vitor Izeksohn

• LAST MODIFIED: 22 November 2024
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791279-0264

Introduction

In the last international war in the Rio de La Plata Basin (1864–1870), Paraguay opposed Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay––the Triple Alliance. Portuguese and Spanish colonists had clashed over commercial routes and territories in the watershed since the seventeenth century. After the Spanish empire broke up, however, inland regions struggled for autonomy against pressure to unify under Buenos Aires, the port city controlling international trade. Civil wars led to political fragmentation everywhere but in Paraguay, where a centralized government emerged after independence. The intermittent blockades of navigable rivers by Buenos Aires reinforced autocracy in the small republic and spurred a military build-up starting in 1844. By the 1860s, Argentinean unification had driven tensions even higher. A confrontation that would define borders and shape nation building in the region seemed imminent. Fluctuations in regional power distribution prompted Brazilians to intervene in Uruguay in August 1864, with the tacit support of Bartolomé Mitre’s Argentinean government. Mitre wanted to consolidate Argentina’s influence in Uruguay by defeating Uruguay’s ruling Blanco party. Paraguay’s dictator, Francisco Solano López (1827–1870) saw this as a threat to the region’s balance of power. Paraguayan forces confiscated the Brazilian merchant vessel Marquês de Olinda in the Paraguayan River in November 1864. Troops invaded the Brazilian province of Mato Grosso in December 1864, and the Argentinean province of Corrientes in April 1865. Less than a month later Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay formed the Triple Alliance. Paraguay redirected all of its national productivity and resources to support military mobilization in a desperate fight against the coalition. Solano López’s death on March 1, 1870, ended what had become a total war. Paraguay’s infrastructure was utterly destroyed and approximately 60 percent of its population was lost. Recovery took decades. Many books on the Paraguayan War have been published in Spanish or Portuguese.

General Overviews

Most classic works on the subject approach the conflict from a nationalistic military standpoint. A dichotomy of civilization versus barbarism is apparent in Kolinski 1965 and Phelps 1975. Historians in the allied countries blame Solano López’s egocentrism for the war. Paraguayans and revisionists generally connect the war to the territorial ambitions of Alliance leaders, or to British interest in expanding its influence in the Rio de La Plata region. For these reasons, classic and revisionist works will be analyzed in sections by country, except for Schneider 1871–1875, which provided an early account of the struggle. A wave of books published since the 1990s branched out to explore the war’s social ramifications, shedding light on its devastating human toll and focusing especially on civilian suffering, displaced populations, and long-term repercussions for the region’s social fabric. Williams 1979 analyzes the evolution of Paraguayan politics from independence to the war, while Doratioto 2002 provides the most accurate general approach to the war’s causes and consequences. Thomas Whigham’s two volumes (Whigham 2002 and Whigham 2017) are informative and well-researched. Leuchars 2002 provides an accurate introduction to the conflict. Heavily based on secondary sources, his book ascribes most responsibility for the war to the Paraguayan dictator, as does Seager 2007, which explores López’s behavior and blames the war on his recklessness. Among the questions debated is: Why did the population remain loyal to López when there was no prospect for victory?

• Doratioto, Francisco M. Maldita guerra: Nova história da Guerra do Paraguai. São Paulo, Brazil: Companhia das Letras, 2002.

  Well-written, exhaustively researched, and informative, Doratioto’s book synthesizes the main sources of information using new approaches in a discussion of the international system that existed in the Rio de La Plata basin and the alliances built between national states and oligarchic groups. The book’s first part draws a multifaceted portrait of the conflict’s causes that delves into the sociopolitical, economic, and diplomatic factors leading to the war. Despite his extremely detailed research, the author offers a narrative accessible to general readers and specialists.

• Kolinski, Charles. Independence or Death! The Story of the Paraguayan War. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1965.

  Based on secondary sources, this balanced narrative of the war centers on the roles played by each country’s major leaders. Detailed descriptions of battles display the advantages provided by the Alliance’s numerical and logistic superiority.

• Leuchars, Chris. To the Bitter End: Paraguay and the War of the Triple Alliance. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.

  This descriptive narrative of the battles undertaken during the campaign looks at Paraguayan and Allied decision-making processes.

• Phelps, Gilbert. Tragedy of Paraguay. New York: St. Martins Press, 1975.

  Based mainly on the memoirs of participants, and conceived as a drama in five acts (with an interlude and an epilogue), this review of the War of the Triple Alliance emphasizes the tragic nature of Paraguayan history.

• Schneider, Louis. Der Krieg der Triple-Allianz (Kaisertum Brasilien, Argentinische Konföderation und Republik Banda Oriental del Uruguay) gegen die Regierung der Republik Paraguay. 2 vols. Berlin: B. Behr/E. Bock, 1871–1875.

  Schneider, a private counselor to the German emperor and a correspondent for the New Prussian Gazette, wrote the first history of the war. The first Brazilian edition in 1876 contains notes from the Viscount of Rio Branco, a key figure in Brazilian foreign policy. The narrative is well documented and its maps are still useful in understanding the conflict.

• Seager, James Schofield. Francisco Solano López and the Ruination of Paraguay: Honor and Egocentrism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.

  DOI: 10.5771/9780742580565

  Centered on the Paraguayan dictator’s personality and his obsession for lust and glory, this book opens a window on the main issues involving the Paraguayan government and its people.

• Whigham, Thomas L. The Paraguayan War: Causes and Early Conduct. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002.

  Whigham discusses the Rio de La Plata situation before and immediately after the war’s outbreak. Laying out the causes and recounting in detail the early part of the conflict allows the author to examine the diplomatic road and political alignments taking place in the region.

• Whigham, Thomas L. The Road to Armageddon: Paraguay versus the Triple Alliance, 1866–70. Calgary, AB: University of Calgary Press, 2017.

  DOI: 10.1515/9781552388112

  Whigham concentrates on the period after the invasion of Paraguay in 1866. During the war’s most dramatic phase, the Allies struggled to destroy Solano López’s remaining battalions manned by a large number of children and the elderly. Here are particularly interesting descriptions of total war, Paraguay’s war efforts, Solano López’s repression of elites and foreigners, and the sacrifices made by civilians.

• Williams, John Hoyt. The Rise and Fall of the Paraguayan Republic, 1800–1870. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979.

  This first modern historiographic analysis of the War is a biographical investigation of what Hoyt terms, the “First Paraguayan Republic,” the period from independence in 1811 to 1870. He focuses on circumstances where autocracy and decision making created conditions that prevented peace.