Harris Gaylord Warren focuses on a neglected epoch of Paraguayan history—the decade following the War of the Triple Alliance. The author deals at some length with the victors’ rivalries over prostrate Paraguay. Brazil, although not seeking to dominate every aspect of Paraguayan life, used its occupation forces to achieve its ends at decisive moments. Argentina, lacking Brazil’s military and diplomatic strength, had little success in countering Rio de Janeiro, especially through fostering revolts of dissident Paraguayans. However, this book is not a traditional diplomatic history. Diplomatic events, including Paraguay’s recovery of her independence, attract the author’s attention only as they illustrate his chief concern—the domestic development of Paraguay. Thus Argentine-Brazilian rivalries emerge as a factor severely handicapping Paraguayan economic recovery: “The welfare of the Paraguayans and the speedy recovery of Paraguay were of minor concern to the victors” (p. 65). And yet the point itself is hardly surprising. Could one really expect magnanimous conduct after such a bitter and bloody conflict?
Indeed Warren carefully refrains from placing all the blame on the two victors. The deplorable health and moral conditions, the economic disintegration, and the overall plight of a devastated country were problems Paraguayan political leadership did little to attack, a point Warren makes persuasively and unequivocally. The heritage of the past doomed the operation of the new democratic constitution, but not the politicians’ unrelenting intrigues (among themselves and with the victors), revolts, and even assassinations. At the same time the chief political figures indulged in corruption on a massive scale. Warren strives to find a few positive qualities in several of these figures, but his evidence points to the inescapable conclusion that these men placed personal advantage far above the welfare of the nation.
Consequently, the Paraguay of 1878 “appeared to be a cultural and economic wasteland . . .” (p. 282). Nonetheless, as Warren indicates, this decade laid the basis for far-reaching changes in the future, including the embryonic emergence of the Colorados and Liberals and the profound socioeconomic alterations that would follow the penetration of foreign economic forces.
Warren’s articles and one previous book have already made significant contributions to the study of Paraguayan history. The present volume, however, based as it is on solid archival research and judicious reflection, transcends his earlier works and is a seminal contribution to the field of Paraguayan history.
