Importance of the War of the Triple Alliance

It was the most far-reaching armed conflict that involved neighboring and “sister” nations of South America: on the one hand, the allies Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and on the other, facing them, Paraguay. It included the period 1864-1870.

An emblematic war that changed the political, economic, demographic, and geographical map of the Southern Cone

None of the four countries would be the same after the five-year war.

Efforts were made to mask the motivation of confrontation for purposes such as national unification and territorial defense, however, adherents to the liberalism unitary, made up of the triad, actually sought what resulted: the destruction of the thriving development model that Paraguay demonstrated, with a leadership identified with the federal ideology and that until the moment the war broke out it was the object of praise and admiration by: its shipyards, factories, telegraph lines, its railway system, and by the monopoly of foreign trade of grass and tobacco.

For a large part of the Paraguayan population, the war confirmed the courage and patriotic commitment of those who fought on the front lines and generated a deep social change when women acquired a greater role in masculine tasks such as trade and even in the defense of their country.

The authorities who launched the war, including Paraguayan President Francisco Solano López, were targeted, and even today they are, of praise and harsh questioning, the latter grew after the catastrophic result obtained.

Benefits only for the victorious alliance

The victorious allies acceded to important benefits, Argentina and Brazil obtained the territories that they disputed before the war with Paraguay, while Uruguay, although it did not obtain territorial aggregates, achieved succulent economic returns in concept of trade and supply of the armies.

The Paraguayan defeat marked a schism in the country

The defeated Paraguay was left destroyed, population decimated, with a magnificent economic debt, and politically dependent on foreign interests.

Paraguay was the big loser in this war because it suffered a significant loss of human life, approximately 350,000 people, mostly men involved in the war. armed conflict, which caused its population to fall significantly, and on the other hand, it lost several thousand kilometers of territories that were annexed by Argentina and Brazil to their domains.

The devastating effects did not end there and moved to the political and economic spheres, generating in the first aspect strong ideological divisions among the inhabitants, and a interference of foreign interests and at the economic level the process of indebtedness of the state began, the loss of markets for the export of yerba mate, and the financial dominance foreign.

Images Fotolia – Yan4ik, Comugnero Silvana