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See also: born at Asuncion on the 4th of See also: November 1790, and was educated in the ecclesiastical seminary of that city
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He attracted the hostility of the dictator, Francia, and he was forced to keep in hiding for several years
.
He acquired, however, so unusual a knowledge of See also: law and governmental affairs 'that, on Francia's See also: death in 1840, he obtained an almost undisputed control of the Paraguayan See also: state, which he maintained uninterruptedly until his death on the loth of See also: September 1862
.
He was successively secretary of the ruling military See also: junta (1840-1841), one of the two consuls (1841—1844), and president with dictatorial See also: powers (1844—1862) by successive elections for ten and three years, and in 1857 again for ten years, with power to nominate his own successor
.
Though nominally a president acting under a republican constitution, he ruled despotically
.
His See also: government was in general directed with wise energy towards developing the material resources and strengthening the military power of the country
.
His jealousy of See also: foreign approach several times involved him in See also: diplomatic disputes with See also: Brazil, See also: England, and the See also: United States, which nearly resulted in war, but each See also: time he extricated himself by skilful evasions
.
His eldest son, FRANCISCO SOLANO See also: LOPEZ (1826-1870), was born near Asuncion on the 24th of See also: July 1826
.
When in his nineteenth See also: year he was made See also: commander-in-chief of the Paraguayan army, during the spasmodic hostilities then prevailing with the See also: Argentine Republic
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He was sent in 1853 as See also: minister to England, See also: France and See also: Italy, and spent a year and a See also: half in See also: Europe
.
He See also: purchased large quantities of arms and military supplies, together with several steamers, and organized a project for See also: building a railroad and establishing a French colony in See also: Paraguay
.
He also formed the acquaintance of Madame See also: Lynch, an Irish adventuress of many talents and popular qualities, who became his See also: mistress, and strongly influenced his later ambitious schemes
.
Returning to Paraguay, he became in 1855 minister of war, and on his See also: father's death in 1862 at once assumed the reins of government as See also: vice-president, in accordance with a See also: provision of his father's will, and called a congress by which he was chosen president for ten years
.
In 1864, in his self-styled capacity of " See also: protector of the equilibrium of the La See also: Plata," he demanded that Brazil should abandon her armed interference in a revolutionary struggle then in progress in Uruguay
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No See also: attention being paid to his demand, he seized a Brazilian See also: merchant steamer in the harbour of
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Asuncion, and threw into prison the Brazilian governor of the province of Matto Grosso who was on See also: board
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In the following See also: month (See also: December 1864) he despatched a force to invade Matto Grosso, which seized and sacked its capital See also: Cuyaba, and took possession of the province and its See also: diamond mines
.
Lopez next sought to send an army to the See also: relief of the Uruguayan president Aguirro against the revolutionary aspirant See also: Flores, who was supported by Brazilian troops
.
The refusal of the Argentine president, Mitre, to allow this force to See also: cross the intervening province of Corrientes, was seized upon by Lopez as an occasion for war with the Argentine Republic
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A congress, hastily summoned, and composed of his own nominees, bestowed upon Lopez the title of marshal, with extraordinary war powers, and on See also: April 13, 1865, he declared war, at the same time seizing two Argentine war-vessels in the See also: bay of Corrientes, and on the next See also: day occupied the See also: town of Corrientes, instituted a provisional government of his Argentine partisans, and summarily announced the annexation to Paraguay of the provinces of Corrientes and Entre Rios
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Meantime the party of Flores had been successful in Uruguay, and that state on April the 18th united with the Argentine Republic in a declaration of war on Paraguay
.
On the 1st of May Brazil joined these two states in a secret See also: alliance, which stipulated that they should unitedly prosecute the war " until the existing government of Paraguay should be overthrown,"
and " until no arms or elements of war should be See also: left to it." This agreement was literally carried out
.
The war which ensued, lasting until the 1st of April 1870, was carried on with See also: great stubbornness and with alternating fortunes, though with a steadily increasing See also: tide of disasters to Lopez (see PARAGUAY)
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In 1868, when the See also: allies were pressing him hard, his mind, naturally suspicious and revengeful, led him to conceive that a conspiracy had been formed against his See also: life in his own capital and by his chief adherents
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Thereupon several See also: hundred of the chief Paraguayan citizens were seized and executed by his See also: order, including his See also: brothers and brothers-in-law, See also: cabinet ministers, See also: judges, prefects, military See also: officers, bishops and priests, and nine-tenths of the See also: civil officers, together with more than two hundred foreigners, among them several members of the diplomatic legations
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Lopez was at last driven with a See also: mere handful of troops to the See also: northern frontier of Paraguay, where, on the 1st of April 187o, he was surprised by a Brazilian force and killed as he was endeavouring to escape by swimming the See also: river Aquidaban
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