The history of Paraguay encompasses thousands of years of human habitation. Both agricultural and nomadic Guaycuruan lived in the region at the time of the Spanish Conquest. It became a relatively neglected part of the Spanish Empire due to its isolation and lack of mineral wealth, nonetheless a small group of Spanish settlers came to reside in the area, increasingly intermarrying with native women to produce a mestizo population. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Jesuit missionaries organized the natives into planned communities known as reducciones, and the experiment gained notable attention in Enlightenment Era Europe.
The Guarani are a group of culturally-related indigenous peoples of South America. They are distinguished from the related Tupi by their use of the Guarani language. The traditional range of the Guarani people is in what is now Paraguay between the Paraná River and lower Paraguay River, the Misiones Province of Argentina, southern Brazil once as far east as Rio de Janeiro, and parts of Uruguay and Bolivia.
The Bolivian gas conflict was a social confrontation in Bolivia reaching its peak in 2003, centering on the exploitation of the country's vast natural gas reserves. The expression can be extended to refer to the general conflict in Bolivia over the exploitation of gas resources, thus including the 2005 protests and the election of Evo Morales as president. Before these protests, Bolivia had seen a series of similar earlier protests during the Cochabamba protests of 2000, which were against the privatization of the municipal water supply.
The Jesuit missions among the Guaraní were a type of settlement for the Guaraní people in an area straddling the borders of present-day Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The missions were established by the Jesuit Order of the Catholic Church early in the 17th century and ended in the late 18th century after the expulsion of the Jesuit order from the Americas. The missions have been called an experiment in "socialist theocracy" or a rare example of "benign colonialism". Others have argued that "the Jesuits took away the Indians' freedom, forced them to radically change their lifestyle, physically abused them, and subjected them to disease".
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the largest city in Bolivia and the capital of the Santa Cruz department.
Santa Cruz is the largest of the nine constituent departments of Bolivia, occupying about one-third (33.74%) of the country's territory. With an area of 370,621 km2 (143,098 sq mi), it is slightly smaller than Japan or the US state of Montana. It is located in the eastern part of the country, sharing borders in the north and east with Brazil and with Paraguay in the south.
José María Linares Lizarazu was a Bolivian lawyer and politician who served as the 13th president of Bolivia from 1857 to 1861. Commencing his political career at a young age, he emerged as a fervent advocate of free trade, liberalism, the exploitation of silver mines, and the establishment of a monopoly on mercury to facilitate the latter objective.
El Fuerte de Samaipata or Fort Samaipata, also known simply as "El Fuerte", is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Florida Province, Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia. It is situated in the eastern foothills of the Bolivian Andes and is a popular tourist destination for Bolivians and foreigners alike. It is served by the nearby town of Samaipata. The archaeological site at El Fuerte is unique as it encompasses buildings of three different cultures: Chanè, Inca, and Spanish.
Brigadier General José María Paz y Haedo was an Argentine military figure, notable in the Argentine War of Independence and the Argentine Civil Wars.
The Guaraní language belongs to the Tupí-Guaraní branch of the Tupí linguistic family.
Aleixo Garcia, also known in Spanish as Alejo García, was a Portuguese explorer and conquistador in service to Spain. He was a castaway who lived in Brazil and explored Paraguay and Bolivia. On a raiding expedition with a Guaraní army, Garcia and a few colleagues were the first Europeans known to have come into contact with the Inca Empire.
Monteagudo is a small town in South Eastern Bolivia. Its name is dedicated to Bernardo de Monteagudo Cáceres (1789-1825) who took part in the Chuquisaca revolution of 25 May 1809.
Chané is the collective name for the southernmost Arawakan-speaking peoples. They lived in the plains of the northern Gran Chaco and in the foothills of the Andes in Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, and Argentina. The historical Chané are divided into two principal groups: the Chané proper who lived in eastern Bolivia, and the Guaná who lived in Paraguay and adjacent Brazil. Twenty-first century survivors of the Chané are the Izoceno people of Bolivia and 3,034 descendants reported in Argentina by the 2010 census. Survivors of the Guaná are the Tereno and the Kinikinao both of Mato Grosso do Sul province in Brazil.
Long before Spanish conquistadors discovered Paraguay for King Charles V in 1524, semi-nomadic Chaco Indian tribes populated Paraguay's rugged landscape. Although few relics or physical landmarks remain from these tribes, the fact that nearly 90 percent of Paraguayans still understand the indigenous Guarani language is testament to Paraguay's Indian lineage. The Spanish conquistadors arrived in 1524 and founded Asunción in 1537. Paraguay's colonial experience differed from that of neighboring countries, such as Bolivia and Argentina, because it did not have gold and other mineral deposits that the Spanish were searching for. Because of its lack of mineral wealth and its remoteness, Paraguay remained underpopulated and economically underdeveloped. Early governor Domingo Martínez de Irala took an Indian wife and a series of Indian concubines and encouraged other male settlers to do likewise. Intermarriage fused Indian culture with that of the Europeans, creating the mestizo class that dominates Paraguay today. From the beginning, however, Indians retained their Guaraní language, even as Spanish influence was accepted, and embraced, in other aspects of society.
Padilla is a small town in the Chuquisaca Department of Bolivia, located southeast by road from Tomina Province. It is the centre of the municipality of the same name. As of 2010, it had an estimated population of 3697, an increase on the 2001 census figure of 2714, and a decrease from ca. 1904 when its population was approximately 6,000.
Apiaguaiki Tumpa was a messianic leader of the Eastern Bolivian Guarani (Chiriguanos) people of Bolivia. He is regarded by many Guarani as a national hero, known for his struggle to defend his peoples' land and liberty from the encroaching Bolivian government, cattle ranchers, and missionaries. He was executed after his defeat and the failure of his revolt. His death is commemorated annually by many Guarani, and a Guaraní language university in the community of Kuruyuki, Bolivia is named after him.
Oroncota or Huruncuta was an Inca provincial center or capital on the border of Chuquisaca and Potosí Departments of Bolivia. Oroncota was captured by the Incas during the reign of Topa Inca Yupanqui (1471-1493) and served as a defensive outpost protecting the eastern frontiers of the Inca empire. The primary residents of the Oroncota area for more than 1,500 years have been the Yampara people. In the 16th century, during the last years of the Inca Empire and the early Spanish Empire, Oroncota and its region were under heavy attack by the Ava Guarani people (Chiriguanos) ethnic group who eventually gained control of the area.
The Ava Guaraní are an Indigenous peoples formerly known as Chiriguanos or Chiriguano Indians who speak the Ava Guarani and Eastern Bolivian Guaraní languages. Noted for their warlike character, the Chiriguanos retained their lands in the Andes foothills of southeastern Bolivia from the 16th to the 19th centuries by fending off, first, the Inca Empire, later, the Spanish Empire, and, still later, independent Bolivia. The Chiriguanos were finally subjugated in 1892.
The war against the Chiriguanos of 1892 is the name given to a series of armed confrontations during the presidency of Aniceto Arce, between the Bolivian State and a great Messianic Chiriguano movement led by its leader, Apiaguaiki Tumpa.
The Tarija War, also known as the War between Argentina and the Peru–Bolivian Confederation, was an armed conflict that occurred between 1837 and 1839. Because it happened while the Peru–Bolivian Confederation was engaged in a parallel war against the Republic of Chile during the so-called War of the Confederation, both conflicts are often confused. The Tarija War began on May 19, 1837, when Juan Manuel de Rosas, who was in charge of managing foreign relations for the Argentine Confederation and was governor of the Province of Buenos Aires, declared war directly on President Andres de Santa Cruz because of the Tarija Question and Confederation's support for the Unitarian Party.
Bolivia