At this time, two years after Lopez Jr. came to power, in 1864, with the support of Argentina and Brazil, a coup took place in Uruguay. The leader of the Uruguayan Red Party, Venancio Flores, overthrew the Uruguayan White Party President Bernardo Bello, who was supported by Lopez Jr.
Then, Brazil began to intervene in the Uruguayan War and formed an alliance with Argentina. Lopez Jr. judged that Brazil would soon use the Uruguayan model on Paraguay to overthrow his rule, so he decided to take the initiative.
In November 1964, Lopez Jr. declared war on Brazil, and the Paraguayan War began. Soon, Argentina sided with Brazil and had friction with the Paraguayan army. Six months later, Paraguay once again officially declared war on Argentina.
At that time, Lopez Jr. probably did not expect that the Uruguayan civil war would eventually evolve into the largest armed conflict in South America. At that time, Paraguay was the leader in South America in terms of both economic and military strength. Under the strong military pressure of Lopez Jr., Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay secretly signed the Triple Alliance Treaty in Buenos Aires on May 1, 1965 to jointly oppose Paraguay and form the Triple Alliance Coalition.
Thus, the famous Paraguayan War broke out.
At the beginning, even facing the coalition forces of three countries, Lopez Jr. was not afraid. After all, Paraguay's military strength was stronger than that of the other three countries at that time, and the beginning of the war also proved this.
A series of victories at the beginning of the war made Lopez Jr. ignore the logistical requirements of modern warfare. Although Paraguay's military strength was almost unrivaled in South America, Paraguay's strategic depth was too small, and most importantly, the country's population was too small. The victory at the beginning of the war did not mean that Paraguay could win the war.
So, as time went on, the Paraguayan army, which had won victory after victory on the battlefield at the beginning, gradually tasted the bitterness of poor logistics. Then the war began to shift from the initial victory of the Paraguayan army to strategic defense. Finally in 1970, this war that lasted for seven years and involved more than 500,000 troops from all four parties ended with 300,000 Paraguayans killed, 100,000 Brazilians killed, and 30,000 Argentines killed. The coalition forces of the three countries captured Asuncion.
This war made all the efforts of the old President Lopez go to waste. Although the young Lopez still insisted on guerrilla warfare, the complete defeat of Paraguay was inevitable. At the same time as Paraguay's defeat, the country also lost 154,000 square kilometers of land and seaports.
A war that completely changed the future of Paraguay!
If Lopez Jr. did not have such great ambitions, then given the situation in Paraguay at that time, Paraguay might now be the most developed and richest country in all of South America. However, it was because of the ambition of a dictator that the country was unable to raise its head for the next 150 years and became one of the two poorest countries in South America.
And because it lost its access to the sea, the country was completely trapped in the tropical rainforest inland of South America. The residents here even turned the river beach into a beach. Isn't this a tragedy?
There is an old Chinese saying that goes: Those who forget war will be in danger, and those who love war will perish!
In fact, the war that took place in Paraguay 150 years ago, which should not have happened, is a true portrayal of "those who love war will perish."
At this moment, standing in Asuncion, the oldest city in South America, Yang Jing, who knew this history, was helpless.
That war completely disgraced this beautiful city, completely destroyed the country's development potential, and became the root cause of the country's poverty. Although all this had nothing to do with Yang Jing, now that he had come here and seen this city, Yang Jing, who was familiar with that period of history, could not help but feel sad.
However, Yang Jing and his companions will not stay in this city. After all, their purpose of coming here is not this city, but another small town called Ita.
Ita, a small city under the jurisdiction of Paraguay's Central Province, is only 35 kilometers away from Asuncion. Although this city is not big, it has a very long history, only two years later than Asuncion.
This small town, built in 1539, now has a population of more than 80,000. More than 60 years ago, Martin Baumann, who fled from Chascomus, Argentina to Paraguay, lived in seclusion here for four years before eventually dying of stomach cancer. He was eventually buried in a cemetery in Ita...
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