Francisco Solano Lopez (24 July 1827-1 March 1870) was President of Paraguay from 10 September 1862 to 1 March 1870, succeeding Carlos Antonio Lopez and preceding the triumvirate of Cirilo Antonio Rivarola, Jose Diaz de Bedoya, and Carlos Loizaga.
Biography[]
Francisco Solano Lopez was born in Asuncion, Paraguay in 1827, the son of President Carlos Antonio Lopez. His father commissioned him a brigadier-general at the age of 17, and he served as commander-in-chief of the Paraguayan forces stationed along the Argentine frontier during the Argentine Civil Wars. Solano Lopez also served as ambassador to Britain, France, and Sardinia from 1853 to 1855, and he used this position to import weapons and supplies to modernize the Paraguayan Army. Lopez developed a fascination with Napoleon Bonaparte and even equipped his army with uniforms modeled after the Grande Armee. He went on to become his father's Minister of War in 1855 and Vice President in 1862, and he became President on his father's death in 1862.
Lopez continued his predecessors' economic protectionism while breaking with his father's isolationism, seeking to transform Paraguay into a "third forces" in the region capable of taking on Brazil and Argentina for control of the Rio de la Plata. Lopez allied himself with the Uruguayan president Bernardo Berro and intervened in the Uruguayan Civil War in 1864, invading Brazil and Argentina at the same time and initiating the Paraguayan War. After Uruguay's Colorados overthrew Berro's Blancos, Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil formed a "Triple Alliance" against Lopez in May 1865. The ensuing war saw Paraguay's relatively small and poorly-equipped armies occupy Brazilian Mato Grosso and inflict a few defeats on the Alliance before Paraguay's Corrientes campaign ended in disaster and an Allied counterattack led to the fall of Asuncion. Lopez refused to step down in exchange for peace, instead taking to the countryside with a band of followers and executing any with defeatist sentiments, including two of his brothers and his brother-in-law. At the Battle of Cerro Cora, Lopez made his last stand, and he was shot dead by the Brazilian general Jose Antonio Correia da Camara while attempting to resist capture. Up to 70% of Paraguay's population and 90% of its males died from warfare or disease during the war.