Francisco Solano López | |
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Last picture of Francisco Solano López, c. 1870
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2nd President of Paraguay | |
In office 10 September 1862 – 1 March 1870 |
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Vice President | Domingo Francisco Sánchez |
Preceded by | Carlos Antonio López |
Succeeded by | Cirilo Antonio Rivarola |
Personal details | |
Born | 24 July 1827 Asunción, Paraguay |
Died | March 1, 1870 Cerro Corá, Paraguay |
(aged 42)
Political party | None |
Spouse(s) | Eliza Lynch |
Children | Juan Francisco Corina Adelaida Enrique Venancio Federico Morgan Lloyd Carlos Honorio Leopoldo |
Religion | Roman Catholic |
Awards | Mariscal de los Ejércitos del Paraguay Supremo Comandante de la Orden Nacional del Mérito (Paraguay) Commandeur of the Legion of Honour (France) Commendatore of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Kingdom of Italy) Comendador of the Order of Christ (Brazil) Cavalieri of the Supreme Order of Christ (Vatican) |
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Francisco Solano López (24 July 1827 – 1 March 1870) was President of Paraguay from 1862 until his death in 1870. He was the eldest son of Juana Pabla Carrillo and the president Carlos Antonio López, who had left his son a prosperous nation.
Francisco Solano López is one of the most controversial figures in Latin American history, particularly because of the Paraguayan War, known in the Plate Basin as "Guerra de la Triple Alianza". From one perspective, his ambitions were the main reason for the outbreak of the war while other arguments maintain he was a fierce champion of the independence of South American nations against foreign rule and interests. He resisted until the very end and was killed in action during the Battle of Cerro Corá, which marked the end of the war.
Solano López was born in Manorá, a barrio of Asunción in 1827. His father, Carlos Antonio Lopez, ascended to the Paraguayan Presidency in 1841 following the death of the nation's longtime dictator, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia. The elder Lopez would commission his son as a Brigadier General in the Paraguayan Army, at the age of 18, in 1844. During the spasmodic hostilities then prevailing within Argentina, Solano Lopez was appointed commander-in-chief of Paraguayan forces stationed along the Argentine frontier. He pursued his early military studies in Rio de Janeiro and Asunción (his teacher being General Hermenegildo de Albuquerque Porto Carrero) specializing in fortifications and artillery.