The Modern Era'S Most Destructive War

THE MODERN ERA’S MOST DESTRUCTIVE WAR TOOK PLACE IN … PARAGUAY

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He signed the death warrants of his mother and sisters, but before Marshal-President Francisco Solano López could see the warrants carried out, Brazilian forces attacked his camp. Seriously wounded on February 28, 1870, the injured president was given a chance to surrender, but he refused, muttering the immortal words: “I die with my country.” One of the items recovered from his corpse was a ring engraved with the legend “Vencer o morir,” meaning “Win or die.”

That was to be the final act of the War of the Triple Alliance, aka the Paraguayan War, a grueling conflict spanning six years that killed — by bullets, disease and famine — 60 percent of the Paraguayan population, including more than 70 percent of the country’s adult men. Proportionally, it was the most destructive war of the modern era and had a profound regional impact; Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina have never been the same.

Brazil, a monarchy that favored a tiny elite, was far and away the most powerful nation in the region; Argentina was a de facto oligarchy with big landowners sharing power; and landlocked Paraguay, which had a history of isolationism, followed an openly dictatorial model. Wedged between Brazil and Argentina was tiny Uruguay, where power vacillated between two opposing factions. When Brazil threatened Uruguay with military intervention in 1864, López, the Paraguayan dictator, issued an ultimatum. Ignoring the pesky Paraguayan, Brazilian troops invaded Uruguay, and Paraguay retaliated by seizing a Brazilian warship in Paraguayan waters, thus sparking the war. Curiously, Paraguay invaded Brazil to the north (they could have gone the other way) while Brazil marched south, ensuring that their favored candidate, Venancio Flores, came to power in Uruguay.

In early 1865, says Thomas Whigham, a history professor at the University of Georgia, “Lopez had the silly idea of asking Argentina for permission to transit through their territory to intercept the Brazilian advance.” When Argentina refused, López declared war on them too and shortly thereafter the Triple Alliance — of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay — was signed in secret.

From there, war would play out in three distinct phases. The Paraguayan offensive kicked things off with several battles in both Brazil and Argentina, all of which resulted in Paraguayan defeats. The second phase, from 1866 to 1868, proved to be a conventional war of attrition within Paraguayan territory. Apart from one major Paraguayan victory at Curupayty, most battles were won by the Alliance, who, in spite of overwhelming superiority, never managed to land a decisive blow — owing to poor leadership and decision-making. The final phase? Nothing more than guerrilla warfare, which began when the Brazilians seized Asunción, Paraguay’s capital, and ended with Lopez’s death.

The fact that the war lasted so long and claimed so many lives can be pinned to the Paraguayans’ inability to see reality and accept defeat. Leaders like Comandante Robles preferred to rip their dressings from wounds and die as heroes than to give up the fight, according to Captain Richard Burton’s 1870 book, Letters From the Battle-fields of Paraguay. Paraguayan valor seemingly knew no bounds. Poorly armed, prepubescent Paraguayan boy soldiers were regularly slaughtered by adult Brazilian troops. The Brazilian soldiers loathed having to kill the youths, but their commanders knew that the only way to win the war was to destroy the Paraguayan army. “Theirs was a psychology of extremes,” says Whigham, “and they couldn’t stomach or even fathom any halfway choice or measure.”

It’s easy to assume that the war was caused by a megalomaniac’s foolhardy decisions. But there were bigger political factors at play. Argentina and Brazil were both vying for Great Power status, writes Pelham Horton Box in The Origins of the Paraguayan War, and Paraguay was merely “the detonating point of the explosion.” The main factors? Political differences between the three protagonists, the arbitrary nature of the borders at the time and a lack of sensible diplomacy on all sides.

Paraguay lost large swathes of territory to both Brazil and Argentina, but perhaps even more damaging was the mental scarring it caused, and still causes, to the national psyche. It also established the Brazilian military as a major opponent to Brazil’s monarchy, ultimately resulting in the overthrow of Pedro II in 1889. And in Argentina it put to bed the simmering conflict between Buenos Aires and the provinces, solidifying power in the capital once and for all.

“I see a lot of foolishness, fault, bravery and good spirit on all sides,” sighs Whigham. “It’s just a huge tragedy.”

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from the wiki

The Paraguayan War, also known as the War of the Triple Alliance and the Great War in Paraguay, was a South American war fought from 1864 to 1870 between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Argentina, the Empire of Brazil, and Uruguay. With an estimated 400,000 deaths, the war was the deadliest and bloodiest in Latin America’s history. It particularly devastated Paraguay, which suffered catastrophic losses in population – almost 70% of its adult male population died, according to some counts – and was forced to cede territory to Argentina and Brazil. According to some estimates, Paraguay’s pre-war population of 525,000 was reduced to 221,000, of which only 28,000 were men.

The war began in late 1864, as a result of a conflict between Paraguay and Brazil caused by the Uruguayan War. Argentina and Uruguay entered the war against Paraguay in 1865, and it then became known as the “War of the Triple Alliance”.

The war ended with the total defeat of Paraguay. After it lost in conventional warfare, Paraguay conducted a drawn-out guerrilla resistance, a disastrous strategy that resulted in the further destruction of the Paraguayan military and much of the civilian population through battle casualties, hunger and diseases. The guerrilla war lasted 14 months until President Francisco Solano López was killed in action by Brazilian forces in the Battle of Cerro Corá on March 1, 1870. Argentine and Brazilian troops occupied Paraguay until 1876. Estimates of total Paraguayan losses range from 21,000 to 200,000 people. It took decades for Paraguay to recover from the chaos and demographic losses.

Consequences of the war

Brazil

War helped the Brazilian Empire to reach its peak of political and military influence, becoming the Great Power of South America, and also helped to bring about the end of slavery in Brazil, moving the military into a key role in the public sphere.However, the war caused a ruinous increase of public debt, which took decades to pay off, severely limiting the country’s growth. The war debt, alongside a long-lasting social crisis after the conflict, are regarded as crucial factors for the fall of Empire and proclamation of the First Brazilian Republic.]

During the war the Brazilian army took complete control of Paraguayan territory and occupied the country for six years after 1870. In part this was to prevent the annexation of even more territory by Argentina, which had wanted to seize the entire Chaco region. During this time, Brazil and Argentina had strong tensions, with the threat of armed conflict between them.

During the wartime sacking of Asunción, Brazilian soldiers carried off war trophies. Among the spoils taken was a large calibre gun called Cristiano, named because it was cast from church bells of Asunción melted down for the war.

In Brazil the war exposed the fragility of the Empire, and dissociated the monarchy from the army. The Brazilian army became a new and influential force in national life. It developed as a strong national institution that, with the war, gained tradition and internal cohesion. The Army would take a significant role in the later development of the history of the country. The economic depression and the strengthening of the army later played a large role in the deposition of the emperor Pedro II and the republican proclamation in 1889. Marshall Deodoro da Fonseca became the first Brazilian president.

As in other countries, “wartime recruitment of slaves in the Americas rarely implied a complete rejection of slavery and usually acknowledged masters’ rights over their property.” Brazil compensated owners who freed slaves for the purpose of fighting in the war, on the condition that the freedmen immediately enlist. It also impressed slaves from owners when needing manpower, and paid compensation. In areas near the conflict, slaves took advantage of wartime conditions to escape, and some fugitive slaves volunteered for the army. Together these effects undermined the institution of slavery. But, the military also upheld owners’ property rights, as it returned at least 36 fugitive slaves to owners who could satisfy its requirement for legal proof. Significantly, slavery was not officially ended until the early 1880s.

Brazil spent close to 614 thousand réis (the Brazilian currency at the time), which were gained from the following sources:

réis, thousands source
49 Foreign loans
27 Domestic loans
102 Paper emission
171 Title emission
265 Taxes
Due to the war, Brazil ran a deficit between 1870 and 1880, which was finally paid off. At the time foreign loans were not significant sources of funds.[110]

Argentina

Following the war, Argentina faced many federalist revolts against the national government. Economically it benefited from having sold supplies to the Brazilian army, but the war overall decreased the national treasure. The national action contributed to the consolidation of the centralized government after revolutions were put down, and the growth in influence of Army leadership.

It has been argued the conflict played a key role in the consolidation of Argentina as a nation-state. That country became one of the wealthiest in the world, by the early 20th century. It was the last time that Brazil and Argentina openly took such an interventionist role in Uruguay’s internal politics.

Uruguay

Uruguay had lesser effects, although it suffered the deaths of nearly 5,000 soldiers. As the consequence of the war, the Colorados gained political control of Uruguay and despite some rebellions retained it until 1958.