PARAGUAY 



5966 



PARAGUAY : THE LAND & THE PEOPLE 



F. A. Kirkpatrick, Author of South America and the War 



Further information will be found in the articles on the towns and 

 rivers of Paraguay. See also South America ; Jesuits 



Paraguay, or La Republica 

 del Paraguay, is a S. American 

 republic forming part of the Rio de 

 la Plata system. 

 It has no sea 

 coast, but pos- 

 sesses free access 

 to the Atlantic 

 by the open 

 waters of the 

 Rio de la Plata. 

 Paraguay arms Paraguay proper, 

 the main and 1 

 more settled part of the country, 

 forms an irregular rectangle, about 

 65,000 sq. m. in extent, bordered by 

 the river Parana and its great con- 

 fluent the Paraguay, which gives 

 its name to the republic. These 

 streams separate Paraguayan terri- 

 tory from Argentina on the W., S., 

 and S.W., and from Brazil on the E. 

 To the N. the river Apa forms 

 the Brazilian boundary. Besides 

 this clearly denned main territory, 

 the republic owns the vast region 

 of the N. Chaco, probably about 

 50,000 sq. m., separated from the 

 Argentine Chaco to the S.W. by 

 the river Pilcomayo, and from 

 Bolivia to the N.W. by an arbitrary 

 frontier line. The Paraguayan 

 Chaco is a region quite distinct 

 from Paraguay proper. It lies 

 mainly within the tropics, a 

 country of forest and swamp, with 

 intervening grassy savannas, of 

 winding rivers, affluents of the 

 Paraguay, which frequently shift 

 their course and overflow their 

 banks. Settlement by white men 

 is only beginning in the Chaco, and 

 scanty tribes of savage Indians 

 still inhabit the river banks. 



Paraguay is traversed in its 

 N. part by the Tropic of Capricorn. 

 Thus the climate is between 

 tropical and ^ 

 sub- tropical. 

 The summers 

 hot and 



are 



bring a plague 

 of insects, 

 especially near 

 the rivers; 

 the winters 

 are warm, but 

 temperate and 



Paraguay flag, 



red, white and 



blue 



agreeable. The 



rainy season is in summer. A great 

 part of the country is clothed with 

 magnificent forest yielding many 

 kinds of valuable and beautiful 

 timber, varied by abundance of 

 flowering shrubs. Ranges of hills, 

 seldom exceeding 1,500 ft. alt., rise 

 above grassy plateaux admirably 

 adapted for pasture. The rich soil 

 responds readily to cultivation and 

 can produce all tropical and sub- 



tropical fruits. The river Paraguay 

 provides a splendid natural water- 

 way from N. to S. Two of the most 

 valuable products grow wild in the 

 woods, namely, the hard wood 

 known as quebracho and the shrub 

 which yields yerba mate. 



The population is probably less 

 than a million. Asuncion, the 

 capital and chief port, situated on 

 the left bank of the Paraguay op- 

 posite the mouth of the Pilcomayo, 

 has about 120.000 inhabitants ; 

 Villa Rica about 30,000 ; Concep- 

 cion, a port on the Paraguay, about 

 15,000. The people are partly 

 Spanish, partly Indian (Guarani) 

 in origin, the latter greatly pre- 

 dominating. An aristocracy of 

 European or Europeanised origin 

 fills the chief official posts and the 

 ranks of the professions, and 

 speaks Spanish, the official language 

 of the republic. The peasantry and 

 working classes still speak their 

 native language, Guarani, which is 

 also generally understood and used 

 as a second language by all classes. 

 More perhaps than in any other 

 S. American republic the Indians 

 have been adopted into the social 

 scheme and have tranquilly accep- 

 ted this arrangement, of which the 

 foundations were laid by the 

 conquistadores of the 16th century. 

 The stormy history of the republic 

 and its peculiar social system have 

 precluded any marked literary 

 development. There is a prolific 

 newspaper press. 



System of Government 



The constitution of Paraguay is 

 of the usual S. American pattern. 

 The executive is in the hands of a 

 president, holding office for four 

 years and assisted by five ministers. 

 Half of the 20 senators and 40 

 deputies vacate their seats every 

 tw9 years. The republic is divided 

 into 93 departments, but their 

 local administration is largely con- 

 trolled by the central executive. 

 The difference between republican 

 theory and actual practice is per- 

 haps even greater than in the con- 

 tiguous republics. There is a small 

 standing army of about 2,000 men, 

 but in case of need the National 

 Guard is liable for service. The 

 R.C. Church is established, and all 

 religions are tolerated. Primary 

 education is nominally free and 

 compulsory, but is in fact much 

 neglected. There is better pro- 

 vision for higher education. The 

 legal monetary unit is a gold 

 dollar at five to the f, but the 

 actual currency is paper, which 

 varies much in value. In recent 



PARAGUAY 



years exchange has fluctuated 

 between 70 and 100 paper dollars 

 to the . 



The main channel of communica- 

 tion is the navigable system of the 

 Rio de la Plata, which places this 

 inland republic in contact with the 

 outer world. Large river steamers 

 and small sea-going ships penetrate 

 as far as Asuncion. Thence N. the 

 Paraguay is navigable by smaller 

 steamers throughout the limits of 

 the republic. The broken and 

 rapid stream of the Upper Parana, 

 above its junction with the 

 Paraguay, offers less easy and less 

 continuous navigation. The use of 

 small motor-boats is gradually 

 making available for transit the 

 rivers which flow between the 

 ridges of hills into the Paraguay. 

 In addition to water transport, 

 Asuncion now has direct rly. 

 communication with Buenos Aires. 

 In 1913 was completed the steam 

 train-ferry cro3sing the Alto 

 Parana from Encarnacion in Para- 

 guay to Posadas in Argentina, and 

 linking the Central Paraguay Rly. 

 with the Argentine North-Eastern. 

 There are some short internal rlys., 

 and a scheme for linking Asuncion 

 with the Brazilian rly. system. 

 Paraguay and Argentina 



Whether by river or rail, almost 

 the whole foreign trade passes 

 through Buenos Aires ; thus Para- 

 guay is in a sense a commercial 

 dependency of Argentina. Free 

 trade between these republics has 

 been proposed, but not yet 

 realized. Quebracho extract, used 

 in tanning, is a valuable product, 

 and still more so is the yerba mate, 

 which provides the popular bever- 

 age of Argentina, Uruguay, and 

 Chile. The pastoral industry has 

 made great advance in recent 

 years through the improvement 

 of breeds, and through the es- 

 tablishment of freezing plants. 

 The high prices of the Great War 

 gave an impetus to this movement, 

 but the country suffered much 

 from the succeeding economic 

 crisis. The chief exports are hides, 

 yerba mate, oranges, tobacco, 

 timber, meat, cattle, and quebracho 

 extract. Foreign war, civil strife, 

 political disturbances have re- 

 tarded progress ; so also have 

 scanty population, primitive 

 methods of life, scarcity of labour 

 and of machinery. 



HISTORY. The past history of 

 Paraguay comprises two distinct 

 stories, that of the early Spanish 

 settlement at Asuncion, and that 

 of the singularly interesting Jesuit 

 missions on the Alto Paranfi. It is 

 a fallacy to find the origin of the 

 republic in the missionary work of 

 the Jesuits. Those missions cer- 

 tainly facilitated the growth of 



