The Road to Revolution!

In the last thirty years of colonial rule, the province of Paraguay made significant economic and cultural progress due to reforms from the Bourbon crown. Asuncion became the center of shipbuilding in the Rio de la Plata, a reduction in taxation and commercial restrictions, the establishment of tobacco crops and the thriving yerba mate industry boosted the economy. Paraguay also enjoyed competent governors and administrators who made substantial reforms in education of the population.

Despite the reforms and progress of Paraguay several factors were instrumental in priming the province for revolution. The reforms had created a small creole elite that was educated in the Enlightenment but deprived of important government positions. The long isolation and neglect of Paraguay by the Spanish crown had resulted in a spirit of localism. The taxation of Paraguayan goods for the benefit of the Spanish plus economic competition from the Jesuit Reductions in the 17th and 18th century had produced resentment which did not disappear. The lack of immigration in Paraguay plus the large number of Guaraní Indians had created a homogenous population. By the beginning of the nineteenth century Paraguay possessed many of the necessary qualities for nationhood.

Paraguay was also affected by the events in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century that accompanied the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. In 1806, the governor of Paraguay, Bernardo de Velasco, was ordered to send the Paraguayan militia to aid Rio de la Plata in defending against the British invasion. Paraguayan farmers were forced into the militia, forcing them to abandon their farms and families whether they joined the militia or evaded military service. The defense of Montevideo was mishandled by the Viceroy of Rio de la Plata and officers of the Paraguayan militia resentfully returned home. The officers carried with them copies of the British newspaper La Estrella del Sur that advocated the rebellion of the Spanish colonies. "The results of this expedition were bitterness in the militia and population of Paraguay, social and economic dislocation within the province, and a dread of future involvement in the Rio de la Plata...the events of the British invasion were remembered." (409)

In 1810, creoles of Buenos Aires revolted against the Spanish and desired for the rest of the provinces of the Rio de la Plata to do the same. When Paraguay resisted, a military expedition was ordered to deliver Paraguay from Spanish rule. Governor Velasco prepared Paraguay for a fight with the capital by urging Paraguayans to defend the rights of Fernando VII, assembling and increasing the militia, and secretly asking the Portuguese for aid. While no aid from the Portuguese arrived, the Paraguayan militia defeated the force from Rio de la Plata on January 19, 1811 and March 9, 1811.

The final event which led to the Paraguayan revolution of May 14, 1811 was the arrival of a Portuguese emissary to Asuncion. The Portuguese wanted to expand in the Rio de la Plata and therefore went to Asuncion to meet with Governor Velasco. The Paraguayan militia vehemently opposed Portuguese involvement and on May 14, 1811 Paraguayan militia officers seized the Cuartel General of Asuncion and forced Velasco to accede to their demands. Velasco was forced to terminate all negotiations with Portugal, deliver all arms in the city to insurgents, and accept two civilians to rule jointly with him. Paraguay was permanently freed from Spanish rule.


Cooney, Jerry W.. "Paraguayan Independence and Doctor Francia." The Americas 28, no. 4 (1972): 407-428.

Jesuit and Guarani Reaction to Treaty of Madrid

The Treaty of Madrid in 1750 that was signed by Spain and Portugal forced 29,000 Guarani and their Jesuit missionaries to move from their seven missions in the Rio de la Plata region to the Jesuit missions west of the Uruguay River. The seven Jesuit missions east of the Uruguay River had been turned over to Portugal in exchange for Portugal's withdrawal from Colonia de Sacramento. The Guarani were given the option to stay by the Spanish but their land would now belong to the Portuguese and they would be subjects of the Portuguese crown.

The Guarani's reaction to the Treaty of Madrid was at first, peaceful disbelief. They did not understand why the Spanish would give up their land to the Portuguese after they were the ones who worked the land and constructed the Spanish churches and towns for them. They could also not understand why the Spanish would bring them out of the forest, educate them, and then sacrifice them to the Portuguese, especially after the King of Spain promised them that he would look after their needs and always protect them.

In 1754, the Jesuits surrendered control of the missions to the Portuguese but the Guarani in the seven missions refused to relocate. This led to the Guarani War (or War of the Seven Reductions 1754-1756) between a combined Spanish-Portuguese army and the Guarani of the seven reductions. In 1756, after two years of skirmishes the Spanish and Portuguese led a force of 3,000 against the Guarani that resulted in the death of 1500+ Guarani and the occupation of the seven reductions by the Spanish and Portuguese.

Spain and Portugal eventually anulled the 1750 Treaty of Madrid in 1761 with the Treaty of El Pardo that allowed Spain to regain control of the seven reductions in the Rio de la Plata region.


Ganson,Barbara A. The Guarani Under Spanish Rule in the Rio de la Plata. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003.

A Brief Account of the Relationship between the Jesuits and Guaraní Indians.

From Chapter XIV, pages 341 and 342, of John Campbell’s Spanish Settlements in America:


"Thefe Indians are divided into forty-two parifhes, all on the banks of the river Paraguay and Parana, and none above thirty miles diftance from another. In each parifh there is a Jefuit, who is fupreme in all caufes, as well civil as ecclefiaftical, from whofe decifion there lies no appeal. By him their caciques or chief officers are nominated, as alfo all inferior ones; and even their military commanders receive their orders from him. Nothing can be better contrived than the regulations under which they live. Every family hath its proportion of land and labour. Induftry is common to all, yet wealth is attained by none; the product of their harveft is carried into the fociety’s magazines, whence the fathers difpenfe whatever to them appears neceffary to every family according to its degree. The furplus, which is very confiderable, faid to amount about 800,000 pounds Sterling, is fent to Cordova or Santa Fee, there being at each place a procurator-general, who takes care of what belongs to the fociety, and as occafion offers, tranfports their wealth into Europe."

This brief excerpt from John Campbell’s Spanish Settlements in America, illustrates the rigid structure in the Jesuit Reductions between the Guaraní Indians and the Jesuit priests. For example, “the Jesuit is supreme in all causes, as well as civil as ecclesiastical”… “from whose decision there lies no appeal.” (341) “Wealth is attained by none”… “the fathers dispense whatever to them appears necessary to every family according to its degree.” (342) The Jesuits were clearly in charge of everything that took place in the Reductions, they were the government, they were the church, they proportioned out the land and labor, and they dispensed the food to each family according to their specific needs. The sistema de castas in the Jesuit Reduction is much more socialistic because there is only a distinction between the Jesuit priests and the Guaraní Indians; there is no wealthy, middle class, or poor sections of society. The Jesuit priests did not allow any of the Indians to achieve any wealth or any particular Indian to gain power, the Jesuits appointed each cacique and military officer themselves rather than let them come to power through a hereditary system.

The result of the Jesuit Reductions in Paraguay is that we get to see a system much different here than has been seen in other Spanish colonies. The Jesuits were undoubtedly in charge of everything that took place in the society and took measures to prevent the emergence of a class system that was evident in other colonial societies in the Spanish empire.


Campbell, John. An account of the Spanish settlements in America. In four parts. ... To which is annexed, a succinct account of the climate, produce, trade,manufactures, &c. of Old Spain. Illustrated with a map of America. Edinburgh, 1762. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale Group.http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.fau.edu/servlet/ECCO.

The Mission

The Mission. A 1986 British film about the experiences of a Jesuit missionary in 18th century South America. Here is the link to view it on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvWaD-NErlY

Jesuit Reductions: Typical Layout and Map.

McNaspy, C.J.. "The Archaeology of the Paraguay Reductions (1609-1767)." World Archaeology: Archaeology and the Christian Church 18, no. 3 (1987): 398-410.

The Colonial Government of Paraguay.

The main form of government in colonial Paraguay that controlled the native Guaraní population was the reducciones system that was formed and controlled by the Spanish Jesuits in the 17th century. Paraguay and the Rio de la Plata region was not a priority of the Spanish crown in the conquering of the Americas because the region that consisted of colonial Paraguay had no gold and a very sparse population. Spanish colonists numbered only a few thousand by the beginning of the 17th century and were centered mainly around the colony of Asuncion. In 1604 the Jesuit province of Paraguay was formed of a vast region that included Chile (until 1625), Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and about one-third of Bolivia and Brazil.

The Jesuits organized and ruled their reducciones on the basis of a Papal Bull issued by Pope Paul III in 1620 which empowered them to write and enforce any statute or order deemed necessary for the welfare and security of the missions. The Jesuit reducciones were also granted independence by the Spanish Crown from the Inquisition which gave the Jesuit priests total control of the religious education and maintenance of the natives. The Guaraní natives, as a result of being ushered into the reducciones system, were also able to avoid the encomienda system that was still taking place in Paraguay.

The Jesuit system consisted of several individual reducciones spread across the vast region of the province of Paraguay (click map to view) and each one was under strict rule of the Jesuit fathers who controlled the economic, religious, and social life of the Guaraní natives. Each reducciones was administered by two Jesuit fathers, sometimes assisted by a co-adjutor (assistant), under the general authority of a Superior. One of the fathers was also the parish priest and the chief of the community, making the important decisions concerning work and the economy, law enforcement, and the teaching and training of children and adults. The most interesting fact of these reducciones was that the number of Jesuit fathers who comprised the government of a population that reached 140,000, in a territory larger than England, never reached more than 100.

The Spanish Crown supported and encouraged the reducciones system because they provided protection from the Portuguese moving southward from Sao Paulo, Brazil into Paraguay territory looking for slaves and gold. As a result of being formed into the Jesuit reducciones the Guaraní natives found protection from the Portuguese looking for slaves, the colonists exploitation in the encomienda system, and against fierce nomadic tribes in the Paraguay province.

Bacigalupo, Mario F. "Bernardo Ibáñez de Echavarri and the Image of the Jesuit Missions of Paraguay." The Americas 35, no. 4 (1979): 475-494.

Livi-Bacci, Massimo, and Ernesto J. Maeder. "The Missions of Paraguay: The Demography of an Experiment," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35, 2 (2004): 185-224.

The Religious Establishment in Paraguay.

The first missionary work in Paraguay began in 1580 by two Portuguese Jesuit priests, Thomas Fields and Manuel Ortega. Paraguay was a Spanish province that was scarcely settled in the beginning and the Portuguese were able to begin the first missionary work when the Spanish and Portuguese crowns were united under Phillip II. The two main centers for religious administration were Asuncion and Guayra. It was from these two centers in which Fields and Ortega combed the rivers and jungles of Paraguay to instruct groups of Guarani Indians.

At first, the Guarani were suspicious of the Jesuits and the emissaries they sent out ahead to seek out the caciques but, gradually, by means of small gifts and the "powerful force of the Truth," the Guarani were "moved to abandon their lairs and form towns." (pg 46) These towns were called aldeas which are the primitive precursors to the reducciones that were formed later in Paraguay. The main problem the two missionaries had to contend with was groups of Indians who returned to their primitive ways and habits in the the jungle. Because of the lack of manpower in Paraguay there were no priests able to keep constant contact with the aldeas already formed. By 1590, the crown sent more missionaries to Paraguay to combat this problem which allowed Fields and Ortega to form new aldeas and help return former aldeas to the Catholic doctrine.

In 1590 there was a smallpox epidemic throughout Paraguay which gave the Jesuit priests the oppurtunity to reinforce Catholic dogma concerning sin and retribution. They depicted "God as the Avenger, who punishes the sins by sending plagues upon the land." (pg 47) However, it was the selfless caring for the sick and dying that earned the Jesuit missionaries the affection of the Guarani.

In 1599, the Portuguese abandoned the territories of Paraguay because it was felt that they could not properly meet the needs of the various regions of Paraguay. In 1601, after a letter from Thomas Fields who wanted to salvage his work in Paraguay, Rome issued a decree formally establishing the territory of Paraguay giving jurisdiction to the Spanish Jesuits. By 1605 the Spanish had arrived to formally setup a new Jesuit province in Paraguay.

McGeagh, Robert. "Thomas Fields and the Precursors of the Guaraní Reducciones." Colonial Latin American Historical Review 2, no. 1 (1993): 35-55.