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See also:CARLOS See also:ANTONIO See also:LOPEZ (1790-1862) , Paraguayan autocrat, was See also:born at See also:Asuncion on the 4th of See also:November 1790, and was educated in the ecclesiastical See also:seminary of that See also:city . He attracted the hostility of the See also:dictator, See also: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 See also: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 See also:president with dictatorial See also:powers (1844—1862) by successive elections for ten and three years, and in 1857 again for ten years, with See also:power to nominate his own successor . Though nominally a president acting under a republican constitution, he ruled despotically . His See also:government was in See also:general directed with See also:wise See also:energy towards developing the material resources and strengthening the military power of the See also:country . His See also: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 See also: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-See also:chief of the Paraguayan See also:army, during the spasmodic hostilities then prevailing with the See also:Argentine See also:Republic . 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 See also:French See also: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 See also:congress by which he was chosen president for ten years . In 1864, in his self-styled capacity of " See also:protector of the See also:equilibrium of the La See also:Plata," he demanded that Brazil should abandon her armed interference in a revolutionary struggle then in progress in See also:Uruguay . No See also:attention being paid to his demand, he seized a Brazilian See also:merchant steamer in the See also:harbour of . Asuncion, and threw into See also:prison the Brazilian See also:governor of the See also:province of Matto Grosso who was on See also:board . In the following See also:month (See also:December 1864) he despatched a force to invade Matto Grosso, which seized and sacked its See also:capital See also:Cuyaba, and took See also: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, See also:Mitre, to allow this force to See also:cross the intervening province of See also:Corrientes, was seized upon by Lopez as an occasion for war with the Argentine Republic . A congress, hastily summoned, and composed of his own nominees, bestowed upon Lopez the See also:title of See also: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 See also:annexation to Paraguay of the provinces of Corrientes and Entre Rios . Meantime the party of Flores had been successful in Uruguay, and that state on April the 18th united with the Argentine Republic in a See also:declaration of war on Paraguay . On the 1st of May Brazil joined these two states in a See also: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) . In 1868, when the See also:allies were pressing him hard, his mind, naturally suspicious and revengeful, led him to conceive that a See also:conspiracy had been formed against his See also:life in his own capital and by his chief adherents . 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 . 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 See also:escape by See also:swimming the See also:river Aquidaban . |
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