The Unlikely Protagonist - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 25

Paraguay was different from its surrounding states: its population was almost entirely
composed of Guaraní Indians, the national language was Guaraní, and its political and
relatively egalitarian economic institutions had been shaped by natives and the practices
of Jesuit missionaries who had yearned to create a Christian socialist utopia along the
lines of Tommaso Campanella's City of the Sun . 51 Some observers saw Paraguay as a
kind of early socialist state, later overlain by a caudillo dictatorship that, though corrupt,
provided many benefits for its citizens. The country was innovative: it built some of the
firstrailwaysinSouthAmerica,strungtelephonewires,andconstructedports. 52 Inaddi-
tion,ParaguaywasthefirstSouthAmericancountrytovaccinateforsmallpox,notrivial
thing when the population was mostly composed of highly susceptible indigenes. 53
The incredible Paraguayan resolve during the war is sometimes explained in terms of
racial characteristics: atavistic devotion toapathetic leader,apassive acceptance ofdes-
tiny,theresidueoftheocraticlife,andsoon. 54 WhathasfallenfromsightisthatGuaraní
throughout the continent had been objects of relentless enslavement by Brazilians for
hundreds of years. 55 Missions in South America reached their zenith in Paraguay, with
more than 150,000 Guaraní residing in them by the end of the eighteenth century. These
had been targets for slavers prior to the consolidation of the Paraguayan republic, and
many had in fact fled from Brazilian territories. Atlantic importation of slaves to Brazil
had ceased in 1850, and it is not unimaginable that the Guaraní population foresaw a
dreadful future in Brazilian shackles and, at least this time, had the weapons (and vac-
cinations) to resist.
The lethality of the war has been the subject of some controversy: did almost 70 per-
cent of the population die along with the caudillo López, 56 so that in the devastating
ironyofmilitaryhistorian,TassoFragoso,“itwasreallyhiscountrythatdiedforhim”? 57
While historical demographers have quibbled, the discovery of an 1870 census seems to
support the astronomical death toll. 58
The Brazilian military was profoundly affected by the war. First, the difficulty in mo-
bilizing recruits turned what had been seen as a quick operation (a “slam dunk”) into a
protracted ordeal that was made more awful because of difficult terrain, poor training,
worse logistics, tenuous transportation, desertions, and epidemics. Although the state
andsomeconventssentaboutfourthousandmanumitted slavesascannonfodderforthe
dreadful war, the bulk of the fighting men were the outcome of military dragnets, most
of whom were likewise men of color. 59 The problems of impressments created an im-
mense resentment against the Crown and exacerbated the racial and economic distance
between Brazil'smoreprosperousclasses gallivanting inRioandthosewhoactually de-
fended and died for the patria .
The military had viewed the comportment of Pedro II's court with unbridled scorn for
thecivilianmanagementofthewar,theshamelessprofiteering,andtheemperor'scaper-