Wat weten we in Nederland van Paraguay? Zo goed als niets, behalve wellicht dat het mèt Bolivia het enige Zuid-Amerikaanse land is dat niet aan zee ligt. Maar Paraguay heeft een bewogen geschiedenis.  Deze video toont hoe zuidelijk Zuid-Amerika de huidige grenzen kreeg.

The Paraguayan War, also known as the War of the Triple Alliance and the Great War in Paraguay, was a South American war fought from 1864 to 1870 between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Argentina, the Empire of Brazil, and Uruguay.With an estimated 400,000 deaths, the war was the deadliest and bloodiest in Latin America’s history.It particularly devastated Paraguay, which suffered catastrophic losses in population – almost 70% of its adult male population died, according to some counts – and was forced to cede territory to Argentina and Brazil.According to some estimates, Paraguay’s pre-war population of 525,000 was reduced to 221,000 of which only 28,000 were men.

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