The Paraguayan War
In the 1860s, Brazil overthrew the Uruguayan government and replaced it with a pro-Brazilian regime, claiming this was necessary to protect its many citizens living in Uruguay. In response, Paraguay marched on Uruguay, marching through Argentina despite being denied permission, to push Brazil out. This was the beginning of the Paraguayan War, or the War of the Triple Alliance, so called because of the alliance that formed between Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina following Paraguay’s offensive.
The forces of Paraguay, much smaller than the three countries it was fighting, managed to hold them off for two years. In 1868, Brazil was able to eliminate the Paraguayan army, killing, maiming or capturing more than 10 percent of the small country’s population. Yet guerilla Paraguayan forces continued to fight for another two years, as politicians in Brazil became increasingly frustrated at having to finance a war with aims that were unclear at best.
Despite eliminating the Paraguayan army and asserting its dominance in the region, Brazil gained little from the victory. As with other conflicts since independence, the war had been financed by the Bank of London; Brazil found itself more indebted to the British, more beholden to their trading and political interests, than ever. Pedro II suffered a worse blow than any other figure.
As these cartoons show, Paraguayan sources were taken by the large contingent of black soldiers in the Brazilian army, many of whom had been freed from slavery in exchange for fighting. The Paraguayan army saw their opponents as racially inferior, calling black soldiers “monkeys” and terming Pedro II “El Macacón” [the Great Ape]. In the war’s aftermath, soldiers who had fought alongside former slaves found it difficult to once again accept the institution of slavery. There was a larger population of freed blacks. These factors would come into play in the subsequent decades, in the final, gradual steps towards the total abolition of slavery.
Though technically a decisive victory for Brazil, the Paraguayan War was not enough to lift the country out of a long-term malaise and in fact hurt the country’s image, both internally and in Europe and the United States. Here, preparations are under way for the celebration of victory in 1870. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.