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The Paraguayan Revolution of 1904*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
The revolution of 1904 was the major political disturbance in Paraguay for thirty years after the revolt of 1873-1874 which succeeded in driving the Liberals from power. Although not formally organized as a political party until 1887, young Liberals succeeded in gaining a brief, precarious ascendancy in postwar Paraguay. They dominated the Constituent Assembly when it met in 1870 to draft a constitution. This assembly elected Juan Bautista Rivarola, the surviving member of the postwar Triumvirate, as provisional president. But the young Liberals distrusted Rivarola and the conservatives, whose acknowledged leader was Cándido Bareiro, a nephew of Francisco Solano López who had served the dictator as a diplomat in Europe. The Liberals executed the first postwar political coup in Paraguay when they succeeded in substituting Facundo Machaín in place of Rivarola for a few hours until Bareiro directed a conservative coup that restored Rivarola as President of Paraguay. Bareiro expected to be elected president in the 1870 elections but Rivarola's position as provisional president gave him the advantage and he won the election.
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1980
Footnotes
Research for this study was completed with support of a grant from the American Philosophical Society.
References
1 These and other details are developed more fully in the author’s Paraguay and the Triple Alliance: the Postwar Decade, 1869–1818. Latin American Monographs No. 44, Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1978. A recent summary is F. Arturo Bordón, Historia política del Paraguay. Tomo, I. Era constitucional 1869–1886. Asunción, 1976.Google Scholar
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5 Cecil Gosling to Lansdowne, Asunción, Nov. 26, 1902, Public Record Office, Foreign Office (London), 59/60. Hereafter cited as PRO FO.
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8 Ibid.
9 Cunha to Rio Branco, 2a Sec. No. 12, Asunción, Dec. 23, 1902, ibid.
10 Id. to id., 2a Sec. No. 10, Asunción, Dec. 1, 1902, ibid.; El País (Asunción, Dec. 15, 1902.
11 Cunha to Rio Branco, 2a Sec. No. 1 Res., Asunción, Jan. 10, 1903, MDBA-OR 201/2/7.
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31 The paper was printed in three columns on four pages. No. 5 is Oct. 8, 1904, and No. 6 followed on Oct. 19. Copies are in Waldemar C. de Korab to Loomis, Asunción, Dec. 4, 1904, DUSCA T 329/6.
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36 Haggard to Lansdowne, Paraguay No. 6 Conf., Buenos Aires, Aug. 12, 1904, PRO FO 59/62.
37 Gosling served continuously until June, 1903, when he went on leave and returned to his post early in January, 1904. He was made First Secretary in October, 1904, although the British had no legation in Asunción. Gosling to Salisbury, Asunción, Sept. 25, 1899, PRO/FO 59/57; Gosling to Lansdowne, Asunción, Oct. 12, 1902, PRO/FO 59/60; id. to id., Asunción, June 11, 1902, PRO/FO 59/61.
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