The marshal Francisco Solano López (born with Asunción, the July 24th 1826 - died with Cerro Corá, on March 1st 1870) was president of the Republic of the Paraguay of 1862 with 1870.
He fulfills the roles of commander-in-chief of the Armed forces, chair and supreme leader of the Paraguayan nation during the Guerre of Triple Alliance. He succeeded his father Carlos Antonio López as president. This one had left with his/her son a prosperous country and an army excellently equipped and professional, well trained with the weapons and the tactics of war, which it had also contributed to reinforce.
Political career and soldier
Wire of the president Carlos Antonio López, it was named brigadier general at the 18 years age. It ordered the army which fought against the Argentinian Caudillo Juan Manuel of Rosas.
Between 1853 and 1865 he travelled on several occasions in Europe, where he studied and observed the military system Prussian. During its voyages, it bought weapons and ammunition for the Paraguayan armed forces and it obtained the ratification of commercial treaties with the France and the England. He attended the court of Napoleon III, where Irish Elisa Lynch was presented to him, which followed it to Asunción and managed to exert a great influence in the businesses of the state. When it was named at the post of minister of the War and the Navy, Solano made adopt in the Paraguayan armed forces the military system learned in Europe.
After the death of his/her father Carlos Antonio López, Solano joins together a congress especially convened to elect it president of the republic for one ten years duration. What it obtained the October 16th 1862.
The war of Triple Alliance
The only existing way for the sea from Paraguay was that of the Río of Plata. But this last was under foreign control. López, given to obtain an independent exit towards the Ocean, prepared an army of more or less eighty thousand men. Making use of the intervention of Brazil in the Uruguyan civil war, Solano ordered the capture of the ship Marquês of Olinda , which went up the Río Paraguay in direction Mato Grosso. This incident started a war between Paraguay and a group of country which was called the Triple Alliance, formed by the Brésil, the Uruguay and the Argentine.
At the beginning of the conflict López obtained significant military successes. But soon the war evolved/moved in an unfavourable way for Paraguay. Progressively of the failures and considering the length of the conflict which lasted for ever, an opposition to the war appeared in the population and within the Paraguayan government. Francisco Solano López consequently started to exert a cruel repression against its opponents. Thus in 1868, it showed several of its compatriots of treason and conspiracy, ordering to carry out them.
The general Correia da Câmara and his troops continued it until they find it wounded and insulated whereas it tried to cross Rio Aquidaban, after having lost the Bataille of Cerro Corá. According to the historical relations, even after being disarmed, López resisted. He was carried out close to Cerro Corá, on March 1st 1870. The war was finished and two thirds of the Paraguayans had been exterminated. On 220.000 survivors, there remained only 28.000 males (babies included/understood), which implied the destruction of 95% of them.