Paraguay
POPULATION 5,884,491
ROMAN CATHOLIC 89.5 percent
PROTESTANT 6.0 percent
OTHER 2.0 percent
NONRELIGIOUS 2.5 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
The Republic of Paraguay, located in South America, is a landlocked country of 157,048 square miles (406,752 square kilometers). It is bordered by Bolivia to the north and northwest; Argentina to the south, southeast, and west; and Brazil to the northeast and east.
Spanish conquistador Juan de Salazar and his company of soldiers and colonists founded Fort Asunción in 1537 as part of a campaign to subdue and colonize an estimated 200,000 Amerindians, principally the Tupi-Guaraní. Within 20 years of its founding, Asunción boasted a Spanish population of 1,500, a Roman Catholic cathedral, a textile mill, and the beginning of the livestock industry. For more than two centuries Asunción was a principal center of Spanish influence in the Río de la Plata basin.
In 1811 Paraguay declared its independence from Spain and from the newly independent government in Buenos Aires. The country's first president, Dr. José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, established a dictatorship that lasted from 1811 to 1840. Catholicism was the only religion allowed, but the regime was anticlerical. Rodríguez de Francia's next two successors ruled as dictators, abusing their power and weakening the country.
This page contains 201 words.
Paraguay article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 2,708 words
(approx. 9 pages at 300 words per page).
Order our Paraguay Article
