Fort Borbon

Last updated

Fuerte Olimpo
Flag of Paraguay.svg
Flag
Coat of arms of Paraguay.svg
Coat of arms
Alto Paraguay py.jpg
Coordinates: 21°2′0″S57°54′0″W / 21.03333°S 57.90000°W / -21.03333; -57.90000 Coordinates: 21°2′0″S57°54′0″W / 21.03333°S 57.90000°W / -21.03333; -57.90000
Country Paraguay
Department Alto Paraguay
Founded September 25, 1792
Elevation 64 m (210 ft)
Population
  Total 4,498
Time zone -4 Gmt
Postal code9000

Fort Borbón is a fort located in the Paraguayan Chaco; it was established to provide protection from the natives and Portuguese. After the Portuguese were expelled by Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, it was changed to its present name Fort Olimpo.

Portugal Republic in Southwestern Europe

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country located mostly on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost sovereign state of mainland Europe. It is bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east by Spain. Its territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments.

José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia Supreme Dictator of Paraguay

José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco was a Paraguayan lawyer and politician, and the first dictator (1814–1840) of Paraguay following its independence from the Spanish Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. His official title was "Supreme and Perpetual Dictator of Paraguay", but he was popularly known as El Supremo.

Contents

History

Initially, Fort Borbón was established as a guard post by order of King Carlos IV of Spain with the purpose of withstanding attacks by the natives and the Portuguese on the lands under Spanish jurisdiction. On October 17, 1791, Viceroy of Río de la Plata ordered the creation of Fort Borbón.

Charles IV of Spain King of Spain

Charles IV was King of Spain from 14 December 1788, until his abdication on 19 March 1808.

Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata Viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire in America

The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata was the last to be organized and also the shortest-lived of the Viceroyalties of the Spanish Empire in America.

The governor of the province of Paraguay, Joaquín Alós y Brú, ordered the establishment of two forts in the north: Borbón and San Carlos del Apa to restrict the advance of the cavalry. To this effect he ordered the commander of Villa de Concepción to prepare food supplies and other elements for the troops who would march from Asunción to those places.

Asunción City & District in Capital District, Paraguay

Asunción is the capital and largest city of Paraguay. The city is located on the left bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the River Pilcomayo, on the South American continent. The Paraguay River and the Bay of Asunción in the northwest separate the city from the Occidental Region of Paraguay and Argentina in the south part of the city. The rest of the city is surrounded by the Central Department.

Fort Borbón was founded on September 25, 1792 by the King’s Chief of Dragoons (cavalry), José Antonio Zavala y Delgadillo, with José de Isasi as its first commander.

The Mbayá and Guaná natives inhabited the lands near the fort, and there was always distrust among them. The natives were encouraged by the Portuguese to steal and murder the people in the Spanish states. The stolen cattle were then sold to the Portuguese in exchange for weapons and liquor.

View of Fort Borbon. Fuerte Olympo (Rio Paraguay).jpg
View of Fort Borbon.

The Spanish tried to gain the friendship of the caciques (chiefs of the tribe) mbayás but they attacked Villa Real de Concepción in 1796, and because of it the military forces in the village massacred the families of the natives settled nearby, killing about 75 of them.

With the passing time, the interactions between the natives and the soldiers of Fort Borbón and Villa de Concepción became friendlier, and the authorities of Asunción signed temporary peace treaties with Chief Lorenzo.

Fort Borbon. Fuerte Olympo (carta).png
Fort Borbon.

In spite the temporarily friendly arrangements, the owners of state in Concepción continued to suffer because the siege of several Mbayá tribes kept the village in a state of constant danger.

Borbón was fortified. Once the news of the war in 1801 between Spain and Portugal became public, Governor Lázaro de Rivera proposed pointlessly to take the Portuguese fort of Coimbra and settle more to the north in the lands of the Spanish Crown.

Maintaining the 100 soldiers stationed in Borbón became more difficult as time passed, due to the long distance and the lack of communication.

The history of the fort records episodes of hunger, misery and abandon. Shipments of food from Concepción were irregular and insufficient.

There are records that troops from the fort participated in the 1810 fight against the invasion of general Belgrano. On that occasion, the fort was abandoned; the Mbayás took possession of it and later also the Brazilian forces of Coimbra. The Junta Superior Gubernativa (Superior Government Council), instituted by the revolutionaries in 1811 after the independence of the country, called Fernando de la Mora to recover the fort by force, which was not necessary because the Portuguese retreated and it was given back to the Paraguayans.

Manuel Belgrano Argentine politician and military leader

Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano y González, usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano, was an Argentine economist, lawyer, politician, and military leader. He took part in the Argentine Wars of Independence and created the Flag of Argentina. He is regarded as one of the main Libertadores of the country.

Fernando de la Mora (politician) Paraguayan politician

Fernando de la Mora was one of the founding fathers of Paraguay, and was one of early leaders of the country between 1811 and 1813, but soon lost his power and died imprisoned. The Paraguayan city Fernando de la Mora is named in his honor.

During the dictatorship of Rodríguez de Francia, around 1817, the fort was reinforced with a stone wall three kilometers long and new housing was built for the occupants.

Current times

Since 1823, was renamed as Fort Olimpo in demonstration of the breaking bonds with the Spanish Crown.

Nowadays, the remains of the impressive defensive wall can still be found, and from the top of it, it’s possible to have a strategic view of great of the Paraguay River.

With the new political distribution in 1992, the town of Fort Olimpo became the capital of the Alto Paraguay department and this, the place of the town council. It comprehends the districts of Puerto La Victoria (previously named Puerto Casado) and Mayor Pablo Lagerenza.

Related Research Articles

Concepción Department, Paraguay Department in Paraguay

Concepción is a department of Paraguay. The capital is the city of Concepción.

Presidente Hayes Department Department in Paraguay

Presidente Hayes is a department in Paraguay. The capital is the city of Villa Hayes. The department was named after U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes, who awarded the territory to Paraguay while arbitrating a boundary dispute between Paraguay and Argentina after the Paraguayan War.

Roque González y de Santa Cruz paraguayan missionary

Roque González de Santa Cruz, S.J., was a Jesuit priest who was the first missionary among the Guarani people in Paraguay. He is honored as a martyr and saint by the Catholic Church.

Fuerte Olimpo City in Alto Paraguay, Paraguay

Fuerte Olimpo is a city in Paraguay. It is the capital of the department of Alto Paraguay. Straddling the river Paraguay which forms the border with Brazil, Fuerte Olimpo is Paraguay's northernmost departmental capital, located over 830 km (515 mi) north of the capital Asunción. It was originally called Fuerte Borbón. The city is also known as “la puerta de entrada al Pantanal”, or entrance to the Pantanal region.

Pilar, Paraguay City in Ñeembucú, Paraguay

Pilar is the capital city of the Paraguayan department of Ñeembucú, located along the Paraguay River in the southwestern part of the country. Located about 358 km (222 mi) from Asunción, Pilar serves as an important center of commerce and government for the far southwestern region of the country.

Guaycuru peoples Generic term for several ethnic groups indigenous to the Gran Chaco region of South America

Guaycuru or Guaykuru is a generic term for several ethnic groups indigenous to the Gran Chaco region of South America, speaking related Guaicuruan languages. In the 16th century, the time of first contact with Spanish explorers and colonists, the Guaycuru people lived in the present-day countries of Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil.

Pedro Juan Caballero (politician) politician (1786-1821) and leading figure of Paraguayan independence

Pedro Juan Caballero was a leading figure of Paraguayan independence. He was born in Tobatí, a town located Cordillera Department of Paraguay which was then part of the Spanish Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. He was one of the major leaders of the Revolution of May 14, 1811, despite being six years younger than the leading figure of Independence period Fulgencio Yegros and 20 years younger than the future dictator of Paraguay José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia. In 1820 he was accused of being involved in the conspiracy against Francia, and committed suicide in his cell on July 13, 1821. The Paraguayan city of Pedro Juan Caballero is named after him.

The Mbayá or Mbyá are an ethnic group, commonly called "Indians", which formerly ranged on both sides of the Paraguay River, on the north and northwestern Paraguay frontier, eastern Bolivia, and in the adjacent province of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. They have also been called Caduveo. In the 16th century the Mbayá were called Guaycuru, a name later used generically for all the nomadic and semi-nomadic Indians of the Gran Chaco. The Kadiwéu people of Brazil are the surviving branch of the Mbayá.

Hernando Arias de Saavedra Spanish colonial governor

Hernando Arias de Saavedra, commonly known as Hernandarias, was a soldier and politician of criollo ancestry. He was the first person born in the Americas to become a governor of a European colony in the New World, serving two terms as governor of Governorate of the Río de la Plata, 1597–1599 and 1602–1609, and one of the Governorate of Paraguay 1615–1617.

Paraguay campaign

The Paraguay campaign (1810–11) was the attempt by a Buenos Aires-sponsored militia, commanded by Manuel Belgrano, to win the royalist Intendency of Paraguay for the cause of May Revolution. In Paraguay it is considered as their War of Independence. The first battles fought were the Battle of Campichuelo and Battle of Campo Maracana, in which Argentinians claimed victory. However, they were completely vanquished in the subsequent Battle of Paraguarí and Battle of Tacuarí. The campaign ended in a military failure and Paraguay broke its links with the Spanish crown just two months after Belgrano's withdrawal, starting its course towards full independence.

Museo Memoria de la Ciudad

The Museum of the Memory of the City is located in the Viola House, one of the nine buildings that make up the architectonic complex Manzana de la Rivera, in front the Government house, in Asunción, capital of Paraguay. This Museum was an idea of the architect Carlos Colombino, and was inaugurated on 14 August 1996. a journey through its different spaces will allow to make a reading of Asuncion's history, in its different phases of development. The objects that it treasures had been collected in the country, as well as in the cities of New York City, Madrid, París, Montevideo and Buenos Aires.

San Carlos, Paraguay City in Concepción, Paraguay

San Carlos del Apa is a city of Paraguay in the Concepción Department, and a historical site located between River Apa and Stream Blandengues.

History of yerba mate

The history of yerba mate, that stretches back to pre-Columbian Paraguay, is marked by a rapid expansion in harvest and consumption in the Spanish South American colonies but also by its difficult domestication process, which even if discovered in the mid 17th century had to be rediscovered later when production was industrialized around 1900.

Below is a timeline of the history of Paraguay:

Tevego Place in Concepción, Paraguay

Tevego was a settlement and eventual penal colony in Paraguay between 1813 and 1823. It was repopulated in 1843, but then abandoned during the Paraguayan War in the 1860s. It was also known as Tebego, Etevego, Estevegó, Villa del Divino Salvador , or San Salvador.

Payaguá

The Payaguá people, also called Evueví and Evebe, were a ethnic group of the Guaycuru peoples in the Northern Chaco of Paraguay. The Payaguá were a river tribe, living, hunting, fishing, and raiding on the Paraguay River. The name Payaguá was given to them by the Guaraní, their enemies whom they nearly constantly fought. It is possible that the name of the Paraguay River, and thus the country Paraguay itself, comes from this; the Guaraní told the Spanish that the river was the "Payaguá-ý", or "river of Payaguás." The name they called themselves was probably Evueví, "people of the river" or "water people." The Payaguá were also known to early Spanish explorers as "Agaces" and spelling variations of that name.

Independence of Paraguay

Independence of Paraguayde facto started on May 14 of 1811 after the Revolution of May 14 when a local ruling junta was created. In early 1811 Paraguayan forces had repeatedly defeated the Argentinian army which considered Paraguay to be a break-away province. On October 12, 1813 the Paraguayan Republic was proclaimed. Officially Independence was proclaimed only on November 25, 1842. Paraguayan independence was assured only after the Paraguayan War, when the Empire of Brazil resisted Argentine offers to divide and annex the country.

References