José Gaspar Rodríguez from France

José Gaspar García y Rodríguez de Francia Velasco y Yegros (Asunción, January 6, 1766-Asunción, September 20, 1840), also known as Doctor Francia or for the Paraguayans of his time as Karai Guasu (Great Lord in the Guaraní language), he was a Paraguayan lawyer and politician. He is considered the main ideologue and leader who carried out the process of independence of Paraguay from the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, the Kingdom of Portugal and the Spanish crown.

Pre-revolutionary era

In the year 1759, at the age of eleven, Joseph Engracia García Rodrigues de França arrived in Asunción as part of a group of settlers from Mariana, called by the governor of the province to plant, cultivate and install a twisted tobacco factory in Paraguay. In 1762 he married María Josefa Fabiana Velasco y Yegros, a native of Asunción (Government of Paraguay), sister of the former governor and captain general of the province Fulgencio Yegros y Ledesma. This marriage had five children, of which the third and first son was José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, who was named José after his father and Gaspar because he was born on Three Kings Day.

Studies

He completed his basic studies in Asunción, and then moved to the Royal University of Córdoba del Tucumán, from which he graduated in July 1785. There he studied Theology, obtaining the following degrees:

"The original and very complete title that I have in my power of Bachelor's Degrees Bachelor's Degrees Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy and Bachelor's Degrees Bachelor's Degrees Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy and Bachelor's Degrees Bachelor's Degrees Bachelor's Degrees Bachelor's Degrees Degree in Philosophy and Bachelor's.

José Gaspar France to Judge Castelví (8/3/1803) (Vázquez, 1975, p. 60, document 25)

It was also there where it was introduced into the prohibited readings of French philosophers and encyclopedists.

Candidate for deputy of the province before the Supreme Central Board

In January 1809, the Supreme Central Board determined that the councils, including the American ones, had to elect a deputy as a representative before said body. It was not only a way to legitimize itself, but the call introduced a novelty in the public political sphere by creating a "representative political space that did not exist before". Following the instructions of the Royal Order of January 22, 1809, the council of Asunción met on August 4, 1809 to elect a representative on the Supreme Central Board. The method was the following: the first-vote mayor, Don José de Astirraga, proposed a shortlist made up of Governor Velasco, the attorney general, Dr. Francia, and Lieutenant Colonel José Antonio Zavala. All the other capitulars supported this motion. Then, by lottery, Dr. Francia was chosen, who accepted the election and, if elected as deputy of the viceroyalty, moved to the Court to carry out the position. This electoral system shows the traditional vision of ancient representation where, starting from the motion of a shortlist made by a member of the council and accepted by the remaining eleven members of the body, it is determined, by chance, who will be the deputy who will represent to the province.

In the background that made him appear on the shortlist, the functions carried out by Dr. Francia up to that moment were detailed: professor of Latinism at the Royal Seminary College, regency of the vespers chair of theology, won in opposition to Francisco Javier Bogarin. As a consequence of his study of law, he demonstrated to the public and magistrates his ability and knowledge in different matters entrusted by the Forum as defender of Chaplaincies and Pious Works and Fiscal Promoter of the Royal Treasury (1807-1809). In 1808, due to his "reputation and good name", he was elected ordinary mayor of the first vote, as well as interim deputy of the Royal Consulate. "At present [1809]," the report said, "he serves as attorney general trustee." The function of an ordinary mayor of the first vote was to act as a judge of first instance, to carry the rod in public, a sign of the administration of justice, to preside over the Town Council and in religious services to sit next to the governor of the province. In This background did not include the writing of a memorandum addressed to the viceroy in 1804 about the "acts of vandalism" committed by José Espínola y Peña whose political impact was added to other causes that determined the replacement of Governor Lázaro de Ribera by Bernardo de Velasco.

Congress of July 24, 1810

On June 21, 1810, the Paraguayan colonel José de Espínola y Peña arrived in Asunción with his wife, María Mariló Pérez Salvado, sent by the Junta of Buenos Aires with documents addressed to Governor Velasco and the council of Asunción, in which explained the Board's intentions and requested membership. The other, not explicit, mission of Espínola y Peña was to replace the Spanish governor; But when the latter was discovered, he had to flee to Buenos Aires, escaping Velasco's order to send him under arrest to Concepción, north of Asunción.

Velasco urgently called a congress to discuss the policy that the province should adopt vis-à-vis the Junta of Buenos Aires. More than 200 people attended. On July 24, by acclamation, it was decided not to join the Buenos Aires Junta but to maintain good relations with it, to abide by the Regency Council of Spain and the Indies based in Cádiz and to form a War Junta to defend the province from possible attacks from outside.

The political position expressed by Dr. Francia in Congress was that the province of Paraguay should not obey the Spanish government or any other and his signature did not appear in the final act of the same:

"This assembly will not waste its time discussing whether the cowardly father or the nicknamed son is the king of Spain. Each of them has abdicated twice. Both have shown their weak spirit and their disloyal heart. Whether or not one of them is king of Spain, what does it matter to us? None of them is already king of Paraguay. Paraguay is not the heritage of Spain, nor the province of Buenos Aires. Paraguay is Independent and Republic. The only question to be discussed in this assembly and to be decided by a majority of votes is how we must defend and maintain our independence against Spain, against Lima, against Buenos Aires and against Brazil; how we must maintain internal peace; how we must foster the public prosperity and well-being of all the inhabitants of Paraguay. "

Speech attributed to Dr. France at the General Congress of July 24, 1810 according to the story of Fray Francisco Javier Bogarín. (Vittone, 1960, p. 13/14)

Consociate of the governor of the Province of Paraguay

The Junta of Buenos Aires did not willingly receive the provisions of the congress of July 24, 1810. Castelli and Moreno sent emissaries to Asunción to provoke an uprising against Velasco. Dr. Pedro Somellera took the lead and questioned, among others, Dr. Francia, but he excused himself by saying that he had to study the proposals beforehand and did everything possible not to be linked to the "Porteñistas." In September 1810, the conspiracy was discovered and several people involved were arrested. The plan included the beheading of the governor and those close to him. Velasco confined them to Fort Borbón, in the extreme north of the country. The Junta of Buenos Aires then decided to send a military expedition under the command of Manuel Belgrano, which caused the unity of the population of the province against the invading army.

After Belgrano was defeated in the battles of Paraguarí and Tacuarí, an unexpected event occurred. Manuel Atanasio Cabañas, in command of the provincial army, allowed the enemy, completely surrounded, to withdraw to the other side of the Paraná with weapons and supplies. This strange armistice with Belgrano was criticized by Dr. Francia. A friend of his, Antonio Recalde, proposed to the Cabildo that Cabañas should justify the reasons for such an attitude.

As Belgrano's forces continued to be a threat since they could receive reinforcements from Corrientes and Santa Fe, Cabañas, at the direction of Velasco, asked for help from Captain General Diego de Souza of San Pedro de Río Grande (today Río Grande del Sur, Brazil) without mentioning the armistice with Belgrano:

" [...] V.S. will remain aware of the battle that the King's troops have given to the insurgents in the fields of Paraguay and Tacuarí, and of the defeat that they are suffering in the rapid and violent escape that they carry to save the relics of their army. [...] I do not doubt that in his generosity I will find as many help I may need to give the last blow to the rebels."

Atanasio Cabañas trade to Colonel Francisco Xavier de Chagas (Rodríguez Alcalá de González Oddone 1996, p. 589)

Diego de Souza offered a force of ten thousand men "to help the legitimately constituted authorities [...] against the revolutionaries of Buenos Aires."

On April 14, 1811, the dragoon lieutenant José de Abreu arrived in Itapúa with the objective of agreeing with Velasco on the help that Souza offered. On May 9 he appeared in Asunción, being received by the Spaniards "like a gift from heaven." Assuming the imminent Portuguese invasion and the rumor that Velasco was aware of what the conspirators were up to, officers Pedro Juan Caballero and Ignacio Iturbe took the barracks on the night of May 14. The conduct of the coup, given the absence of Cabañas and Yegros, fell to Dr. Francia, according to several documents.

"Dr. José Gaspar France was told, who agreed to lead the company, instructed the plan to be executed."

Mariano Antonio Molas (Chaves, 1958, p. 98)

Velasco was forced by the insurgents to accept two fellow members in the government of the province: Dr. José Gaspar de Francia and Juan Valeriano de Zeballos, the latter a Spanish merchant who had held various positions in the colonial administration. This quasi-subrogation involved separating the "position" of governor, which Velasco maintained with the corresponding attributes, and the "command" which he shared in association with the other two partners.

On the side of May 17, 1811, authored by Dr. Francia, it was established:

• that the government and the armored commanders are not intended to hand over the province to Buenos Aires or subject it to foreign power;
• to recognize the "sovereign misfortune" Fernando VII;
• confederate with the city of Buenos Aires on the basis of equal rights;
• neighbors must continue their normal lives;
• no grievances on the part of the armoured troops shall be allowed;
• all neighbours, militias, etc. shall deliver weapons, gunpowder and ammunition;
• It is forbidden to extract from this city (Asunción) and from the province all types of weapons.

To demonstrate to the Board of Buenos Aires the goodwill of the new government, it was decided to withdraw the troops that in April, and preventively, had occupied currents.

During the brief Government of Velasco and his conscious, France led the country Janeiro and Captain General Diego de Souza and his envoy Abreu, face -to -face witness to the government. In a note that Abreu should carry, the offer of military aid was thanked and it was assured that the province would maintain good relations with Buenos Aires without " subjugating one to another ".

On June 1, invitations were sent to certain recipients to attend the assembly to be held on June 17. These notifications were endorsed by the two conscious without the signing of the Velasco.

"The consortiums of the Government have the honour to quote you for the General Board to be held in this Capital on 17 of the current for the establishment of the Government and to establish the relations of this Province with those of Buenos Aires and other of the continent. Assumption, June 1, 1811. José Gaspar de France, Juan Valeriano de Zeballos"

(Vázquez, 1975, p. 75, document 44)} and (Bareiro, 2009, p. 40, document 61)

On June 9, 1811, Governor Bernardo de Velasco was suspended and arrested along with the majority of the members of the council. The government was practically in charge of Dr. Francia. The side where this news was communicated was signed exclusively by the rebellious officers although, according to historian Julio César Chaves, due to the "wording and style, they prove to be from France."

Member of the Board and deputy of the Province

Expulsion of Velasco's advisor

Before the meeting of Congress from June 17 to 20, 1811, Dr. Francia neutralized the actions of Dr. Pedro Somellera, advisor to the Velasco government and an active and important figure who fought in favor of the union with Buenos Aires. To do this, he had to exert strong pressure on the military so that they imprisoned him along with his brother. Thus began the consolidation of the role of the "lawyer" as the engine of politics in his capacity as a man of letters, intelligence, knowledge and talent. It is no coincidence that both the contemporaries of the events and the first historiographic essays defined the constitution of the Paraguayan State as a "war of secretaries".

Congress of June 1811

The assembly opened with a speech by the two members where they presented the agenda: establish the new form of government, establish relations with the Junta of Buenos Aires and other provinces, and decide the fate of former governor Velasco and others members of the council who had been suspended from their duties.

It was established that the order of voting would be from back to front, that is, from the least important citizens to the most important, a rule that France had tried to implement unsuccessfully in the Cabildo, in 1808. An ally of France, Mariano Antonio Molas, took the floor first. His motion was:

• Privar a Velasco of all command and constitute in its place a board of five members whose president and commander general of the weapons would be Lieutenant Colonel Fulgencio Yegros accompanied by four vowels: José Gaspar of France, Captain Pedro Juan Caballero, presbyter Dr. Francisco Javier (or Xavier) Bogarín and Fernando de la Mora.
• Privar de sus oficios a todos los miembros del Cabildo y que en lo futuro solo los "patricios" [sic] puedancup cargo en la provincia de la Junta naming "now" the members of the new Cabildo in replacement of the cesantees.
• To prohibit European Spaniards from carrying out administrative charges in the province by having to provide for births in it or of "Americans" who adhere to the case.
• Establishing the relationship with Buenos Aires not only in a plane of friendship and good harmony but joining it to found a society based on principles of justice, equity and equality.
• Establish that until the meeting of the General Congress in Buenos Aires, the province of Paraguay "will govern itself" without the Buenos Aires Board being able to exercise jurisdiction over the "form of government, regime, administration or any other cause corresponding to this same province"
• Suspend the collection of sisa and arbitrio on the yerba mate and the tobacco slope in Buenos Aires.
• Send a MP with a vote to the General Congress to meet in Buenos Aires. To that end, the Congress divided its sovereignty into two acts: on the one hand it resumed the choice that for the office already owned by Dr. France, and on the other, enabled it "from now" to exercise it. In the face of the decisions that could be taken at the General Congress, he also divided into two his sovereignty: on the one hand the representation of the deputy was "mandato imperative", that is, he must obey precise instructions, and on the other hand, the decisions taken at the Congress were subject to the ratification of Paraguay "in full and general board of its inhabitants and inhabitants".
• To suspend, until the decision of the General Congress next to meet, the recognition of the Courts, the Regency Council and all other "representation of the supreme or superior authority of the Nation in the province of Paraguay.

This motion was approved by a large majority [88% of those present].

The first measure of the new Board was the sending of the note of July 20, 1811 to the Board of Buenos Aires, whose authorship belonged to Dr. France. In it the idea of the Confederation was expressed. Bartolomé Miter, confusing the terms, commented: " this was the first time that the word federation " resonated in Argentina.

First political crisis

A few days later there was the first retirement of Dr. France from the Board before the interference of the military sector in political leadership. There were gray areas where the power of the Board, the Cabildo and the military overlap. Some members of the Board, collectively or individually requested their return. The exchanged letters demonstrated the relationships of kinship and friendship that existed with France. On September 2, 1811, the commander of the barracks, Sergeant Major Antonio Tomás Yegros, brother of the president of the Board, Fulgencio Yegros, asked the Cabildo to immediate Removal of the vocal Bogarín and the meeting of a Congress to appoint another vowel if Dr. France did not return to the Board. The Cabildo asked the Board for his opinion on the subject and by note he asked France to return to France. In the response that France sent the next day he expressed his opposition A " this threatening and decretory tone " that the military had done to the Cabildo " which are neither the people nor the province ". After defining the function of the military and the danger of their lack of subordination and loyalty, he asked himself: " What would be of the Board and the Province, if at every moment the official officers of the weapons would have to make the government tremble to obtain with threats the claims of its arbitration? ". The Board decided to suspend the vocal Bogarín and After a series of negotiations with the military, mediated by the Cabildo, Dr. France returned to the Board. The arrival of the important Belgrano-Echevarría mission that sent the Board of Buenos Aires was influenced in this rapid agreement. The government of France had to fight against an august lawyer better known as Agusto Gup de Prima. He was a man of short stature and brown, and had difficulty breathing because he had a lot of mucus.

The Treatments with Belgrano fell to Dr. France and they culminated, after long negotiations, in the treaty of October 12, 1811. This treaty ratified the grade of July 20, 1811 sent by the Board of Asunción and Its acceptance by the Board of Buenos Aires of August 28 of the same year. This response was the condition imposed by the Board of Asunción so that the Belgrano-Echevarría mission was not retained in Corrientes. A novelty in the treaty was the ratification that what would be agreed in the General Congress would be a referendum of a Paraguayan Congress. Dr. France was appointed as a deputy to attend that congress that was never held.

Second political crisis

In December 1811, a new political crisis broke out of characteristics similar to that which had motivated the first retirement of Dr. France. Again certain members of the military sector, with the complicity or complacency of members of the Board violated the power of it. France retired from the Board and proposed that a new congress be held because with its resignation there were two vowels that were missing. In a note of December 16, 1811, adopting this time a hard line, the remaining three members, relying on military power, rejected their reasons:

"No adhesion of this Government to certain arbitrarinesses that by nothing characterised and sealed with the public spirit, has graduated them purely personal, has discovered and has seen that You are nothing less trying to separate your interests from those of the Homeland under the spicy and decanted title of love to this [...] You will understand that from this moment you are made especially responsible for all the damages that follow and to be abolished to that, has been made of other arbitrary innovations

Superior Governmental Board to the vocal France (Vázquez, 1975, p. 81 document 54)

Despite the threat, two days later, France in turn rejected these accusations and offered to leave office and resign. The crisis continued to deepen when the members of the Cabildo, in a note addressed to France on December 24, regretted the departure from it in such difficult times. But it was in the letter of December 31, 1811 addressed to Yegros, Caballero and Mora where the Cabildo established its position, warning:

"[...] that missing the two wise men referred to as vocals [France and Bogarín] [...] and that are those who supplant with their science the insufficiency of others, cannot give record to public businesses and with the success and security corresponding to a new government"

El Cabildo a la Junta Superior Gubernativa (Vázquez, 1975, p. 82, document 56)

The Cabildo additionally tried to prevent the diminished Board from trying to appoint replacements by itself without calling an ad-hoc congress as France requested. Although the Board rejected this note, it did not make any changes, it left France's resignation and Bogarín's separation on hold so as not to call a new congress. To cover the functions, he appointed Gregorio Tadeo de la Cerda, a friend of De la Mora, as advisor. Of Córdoba origin, he had a lot of administrative experience to which he added his opportunism and lack of principles. Due to the lack of capacity of the three members of the Board, he practically exercised the government during the absence of Dr. Francia.

Between December 1811 and November 1812, from his home in Ibiray, on the outskirts of Asunción, Dr. Francia continued to exert his influence through the Cabildo and, above all, began a long process of building a new force policy made up of farmers and landowners from the countryside, the only one capable of resisting the sector of the military, large landowners and merchants who dominated in Asunción.

The policy of la Mora and de la Cerda was to seek an agreement between the merchants of Paraguay and Buenos Aires to maintain exports and imports, also mitigating the pressure against the Spanish group in the province. All merchants, whether they were or not Spaniards, supported de la Mora because they feared reprisals from the Creoles. In mid-1812 Mora managed to increase his ties with that sector by marrying the granddaughter of José Coene, the richest landowner and merchant in the province.

Inside, security conditions deteriorated. Armed deserters from Artigas' army entered the Province through Misiones, causing all kinds of disorders in the southern districts bordering the Paraná River. The measures adopted were insufficient. The junta discredited itself by not being able to control security inside: "Yegros' incompetence was perceived, Caballero was barely his shadow." A historian pointed out that one of the reasons was that Fulgencio Yegros had received gifts from one of the authors of these riots and ignored his actions. The de la Mora member was weak to contain Yegros' actions.

When the year of the revolution was over, there was the first sign that something was not going well in the government. On May 15, 1812, in a personal note, Antonio Tomas Yegros, on behalf of "all the officers" [of the barracks] and the Board asked him to return to his position. Without haste, after seven days of delay, Francia responded that he was willing to discuss his reinstatement and added: "Tell the officers that at all times and in any situation, no matter how unfortunate it may be, I will accompany them as the safest friend." Only in November 1812, Yegros and Caballero, under pressure from all sides and with an international situation in permanent deterioration due to pressure from Buenos Aires for Paraguay to send a deputy to the Congress of the year XIII, asked him to return to the Board. On November 16, 1812, France signed an agreement with Yegros y Caballero and resumed his functions on the Board. A second battalion was created, equivalent in strength to the first, under the command of the vocal dean Dr. Francia. In this way, Francia managed to balance the power of the military and from then on the leadership of the Junta remained practically in his hands.

The member Fernando de la Mora was suspended on June 4, 1813 and in mid-September of the same year he was definitively expelled from the Board. Days later, his influential friend Gregorio de la Cerda had to leave the country accused of being an informant for the Buenos Aires Triumvirate.

Creation of the Consulate

In May 1813, the General Constituent Assembly meeting in Buenos Aires sent deputy Nicolás Herrera to Asunción, with the mission of inviting that province to send a representative to it and join the United Provinces. The envoy was preceded by unfavorable events: the improper retention by Buenos Aires of Paraguayan products for 53,000 pesos and the new sanctions policy that doubled the tax on "foreign tobaccos". On the initiative of France, the Board responded that a general Congress had been summoned, and that it would be the one that would decide on the matter.

The Higher Government Board proposed a radical expansion in the political participation of citizens, who would no longer be only "neighbors" or "the main and healthy part" of society, but would extend to all those who could be elected "in popular and free elections (...) in each of said places, by all or most of its respective inhabitants, in proportion to their respective populations. The immediate consequence of this revolutionary act was:

• The transfer of the political weight, almost exclusive, that Asunción had all the interior of the Province;
• The emergence of other social and economic interests that are now represented by the new deputies who arrive at the congress with individual voice and vote and not with corporate representation.

This modification was the one that reflected shortly afterwards the slow disappearance of the term "Province" and the birth of the new expression "Republic of Paraguay".

The Congress met on September 30, 1813 and its first measure was to reject the note that Nicolás Herrera sent inviting him to present his mission before the assembly. Added to the previous actions of the Buenos Aires government was this claim by his delegate, which led to the resolution, by acclamation, not to send deputies to the assembly of the United Provinces.

Twelve days later, France presented a Government Regulation to Congress, which was approved on the same day. Through it, a "Consulate" was established, a collegiate government formed by two officials called "consuls" that they would last one year in office and would take turns presiding over it every four months..

Dr. Francia and Colonel Fulgencio Yegros were elected and began their administration on October 12, 1813.

That same day, Herrera informed his government that Congress had established a "Republican Consular Government" based on "17 chapters" and demonstrated its "absolute independence" expression that was then equivalent to the current "independence" and not a simple "independence" which today would be called "autonomy". A month later, on November 10, in a personal letter to his friend Friar Cayetano Rodríguez he conveyed his position, which he possibly shared with the government and supporters: "the most indecent Paraguay has declared itself a Free Republic and has appointed two consultations [...] I believe that the time will come when we turn part of our forces against them to make them our settlers. Now there is no way, we are pressed for resources and people.

Consul of the Republic of Paraguay

From the beginning the consulate government rested in Dr. France:

• For the preponderance in the management time as it occupied two of the three shifts. Yegros occupied a single period between February and June 1814.
• For the additional charge given to him by the Cabildo who made France the office of counsel in the contentious "that more of the respective in common [who could have the two consuls] is in his [exclusive] position." In this way the function of director or adviser, without being explicit by Congress, fell in France.
• The above justified the salary of Dr. France to be higher than that of Yegros by 17%. France renounced this difference, although it clarified that the same was due to the "greater weight";
• By the election of Sebastián Martínez Sanz, as "Secretary of State and Waste" to the detriment of a postulant chosen by Yegros. Although the elected secretary was a trusting man of France, the consuls preferred to call him a Secretary of House or General Governance diminishing its importance, especially France.

"[...] the Paraguayan Consulate before being a simple step on France's path to the absolute government was, more precisely, its beginning" (White, 1984, p. 61)

Among the first measures was the installation of new military garrisons on the borders in charge of officers loyal to Pedro Juan Caballero and Fulgencio Yegros who were thus removed from Asunción.

Another important measure was to reduce the social, political and economic importance of the "Spanish Europeans". The attempt to expel 100 to 200 members of that group to Corrientes failed due to the Buenos Aires government's fear of forced immigration of enemies. In January 1814, a census was carried out and orders were issued prohibiting them from meeting or demonstrating against the government. Finally, by consular resolution of March 1, 1814, it was prohibited: marriage with "white Americans" even in case of statutory rape; who act as godfathers or witnesses at Paraguayan weddings; and they were only authorized to marry Indian women from the towns.

In January 1814, José Gervasio Artigas wrote to Vicente Antonio Matiauda, lieutenant of Fulgencio Yegros and his successor in the Misiones delegation. He invited him to join forces against the Buenos Aires troops commanded by Bernardo Pérez Planes and influence Yegros, to whom he had sent a formal note, for an alliance against Buenos Aires. Matiauda's enthusiasm was great, since he believed that he could incorporate an area into Paraguay that would allow it to improve trade and communications. But that area was highly conflictive, because the interests of Paraguay, the government of Buenos Aires, the Portuguese and Artigas overlapped. Following the directives of Dr. Francia, the consuls decided to adopt a policy of non-intervention, and this was communicated to the governor of Corrientes on March 13, 1814. Released from his position by the government, Matiauda ended up joining Artigas' forces..

The director of the government of Buenos Aires, Gervasio Antonio de Posadas declared Artigas "infamous, deprived of his jobs, outside the Law and enemy of the Homeland" and by decree of February 11, 1814 he put a price on his head and promised to shoot those who helped him within 24 hours. Seven days later he wrote to the Paraguayan government:

"I have received several intercepted letters to Artigas, in which, inducing the entire campaign to a general uprising against the besieging army [of Montevideo] and this capital [Buenos Aires], it is boldly worth the name of Your Excellency to give sedition an aspect of security and importance. He proclaims to all Orientals that his destructive projects are openly protected by the Republic of Paraguay, thereby compromising the respects of the authority of Your Excellency."

Gervasio Antonio de Posadas al Consulate del Paraguay (Ribeiro, 2003, p. 69)

In 1815, director Juan Martín de Pueyrredón asked France for four thousand recruits for his army against Artigas and the possible invasion of Pablo Morillo, what the Paraguayan accepted in return that Buenos Aires paid the mobilization of men, what That was rejected.

Supreme Dictator of the Republic

In his last period as a consul, Dr. France prepared with time the assembly that he had to renew the consuls. He made appointments of administrative officials in the campaign and officers in the Army addicted to the revolution. He also undertook a propaganda campaign in favor of the need to concentrate power in a single person, a phenomenon that also occurred in other parts of Spanish America in the revolutionary period and that Francisco de Miranda had already suggested in 1801. The opposition more Fuerte concentrated on the " Porteñistas ", supporters of the Union with Buenos Aires, in Army sectors whose leaders were Pedro Juan Caballero, Juan Manuel Gamarra and the former edecan of Velasco, the Spanish officer José Teodoro Cruz Fernández, who tried to add their ranks to Consul Fulgencio Yegros. This, however, not only declined the offer but also accepted France's suggestion to order the expulsion of several of them from Asunción towards their residences in the campaign and also prohibit them from returning without authorization, what was done by decree seven days before of the assembly meeting. At the beginning of October 1814, Asunción was filled with hundreds of peasants, small landowners, administrators, political leaders who in their capacity as deputies came from the entire interior to attend the assembly. Among them began to circulate an " instruction " and an " Congress Plan ", both of anonymous author although it is suspected that they were written by France.

Congress began its deliberations on October 4, 1814, with the presence of about 1100 emissaries from the most remote corners of Paraguay. He was elected president of the same, by acclamation, Dr. France. In his opening speech he advised the adoption of a unipersonal government. Mouciones like this were presented:

“[...] Mr. Don José Gaspar of France is to be appointed as the sole Supreme Ruler [...] The europeism tolerated so far in the ecclesiastics and secularists must be destroyed at the root [...] None that in any way has harmed the freedom of the homeland will get employment of any kind and state [...] The ecclesiastical state will be precisely fixed and modified to the system of freedom of the homeland [...] and will not be able to preach, confess, obtain or govern or minister a priest [...] It should be observed in all its parts the social covenant of meeting and other stipulated between this Republic and the United Provinces, in the month of October 1811 [...] and keep its deputies in the Constituent Sovereign Assembly, for matters to be offered to deal with the United Provinces, with absolute independence of that Sovereign [...] The number of thousand suffrants should be reduced to that of one or two of the most illustrated and patriotic of each Paris [...] Every undecided European from the beginning of our glorious revolution must be civilly dead [...] Much less will be able to bring currency from citizens or military, as they are doing, and observe the nuptial prohibition and other speculations that against the European Spaniards have decreed the consuls lords on March 1st last.”

Motion of a deputy at the Congress of October 1814 (Vázquez, 1975, p. 104-105 document 87)

After debates among those who wanted to continue with the consulate and those who proposed the unique government and, within these, those who proposed to Fulgencio Yegros and those who supported France, were agreed for a large majority of peasant votes The latter with the title of Supreme Dictator of the Republic, for a period of five years. Just as the legal figure of the Consulate had been taken from ancient Rome, the same was done with the figure of the dictator. Other resolutions were: that the congresses had to meet annually in the month of May; that in the future the number of deputies would be 253 members and that the new ruler had to appoint the members of the Supreme Court of Justice exerting such functions as interim.

On October 12, 1814, the new dictator sent circular to the delegates of the interior peoples in which he said:

"[...] I am saddened to consider the grave weight that has been placed on my shoulders precisely in such difficult times; the only thing I find capable of mitigating my care is the memory that all good and true patriots, in whose number I have the satisfaction of having your mercy, will help me carry such a huge burden."

Office of the Supreme Dictator to Delegates (12/10/1814) (Vázquez, 1975, p. 108, document 91)

Since colonial times, Paraguay's main and most lucrative export item was yerba mate. Paraguay's essentially agricultural economy tended towards monoculture to the detriment of other agricultural activities whose products, less profitable than yerba mate, decreased in volume, being compensated by a growing import of them. This economic weakness showed its strategic importance from the blockade imposed by Buenos Aires to subdue the rebellious province of Paraguay. To begin to reverse this non-cyclical situation, Dr. Francia's government took a series of economic measures. He imposed a system of control of foreign trade: he increased import tariffs as a protectionist measure, which encouraged the national production of foods that were previously imported and increased the existing artisanal activity with the appearance of new artisans: blacksmiths, weavers, gunsmiths, bricklayers, silversmiths and goldsmiths. A state monopoly was created on the export of wood and other goods. On November 13, 1814, the sale of metallic currency (or other forms) was prohibited to prevent capital flight with the exception of weapons purchases made by the government. The foreign merchant had to return carrying fruits from the country in quotas that were authorized by the State.

The control of the opponents of the revolutionary model was maintained, especially those who were in favor of the union with the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata.

At the end of the 18th century, Félix de Azara commented, in relation to the church of Paraguay, the following:

"[...] I don't think it is fair that this contribution [ten] is used to keep in the ostentation, opulence and gift to the ecclesiastics [...]. If the sums which the same ecclesiasticals of the faithful receive from other thousand paths are more visibly known the need to contain their wealth that draws them out of their judgment and base, which is poverty and humility; whose fatal results will be seen someday; for wealth gives them a lot of credit in the vulgo and makes them less religious, that it will be that there will never be trouble that they do not take the most. Thus the main care of the State must be to monitor the conduct of these people who are so much more considered here as the vulgo is less instructed. "

(Azara, 1904, p. 437-438)

In this sense, benefits that the people had to pay were eliminated, and parish priests began to depend on a salary as public employees. It secularized the assets of the Catholic Church, which changed the situation of the peasants who worked on those lands, who went from tenants of the Church to free owners. From then on, many assets that the owners gave in wills to the church passed to be transferred to the State:

"Be known as me, Don Francisco Suma, natural of the island [...], in the Kingdom of Naples [...] I read in favor of the main Treasury of the State half such my goods, or its product [...] I declare to be my will that the other half of such goods or their products are invested and distributed [...] in the poor of this city"

Francisco Suma before the scribe of the Cabildo, 11/1/1816. (Vázquez, 1975, p. 131, document 122)

In 1815, due to the looting of Artigas' troops in the Misiones, Dr. Francia ordered that the army move the residents and objects of the Jesuit churches to the right bank of the Paraná. In this way the niches, images and relics of Santa Ana, Corpus, San Ignacio Miní and Candelaria remained within Paraguay and were saved. Fearful that Artigas would invade it, France mobilized 4,000 militiamen in July of that year and even considered invading Corrientes. but the east, threatened by the foreseeable Portuguese-Brazilian invasion, abandoned that idea in February 1816 and France demobilized the army..

Another important step in the transformation of the Church to the ideals of the revolution was to cut the relations of subordination and dependence with ecclesiastical officials from abroad, that is, from Buenos Aires and Rome. To this end, by a Supreme Order of July 2, 1815, Dr. Francia stated:

"Requiring the present circumstances and the very state of the Republic that the religious communities existing in the territory of the Republic are exempt from any interference, or exercise of jurisdiction of the prelates or foreign authorities of other countries; I forbid and if necessary exempt and annul any use of authority or supremacy of the aforementioned authorities, judges or prelates residing in other provinces, or governments, on the convents of regulars of this Republic, In this virtue the expressed religious communities are free and absolved of all obedience and entirely independent [...]. Therefore they will govern in the future [...] under the direction and authority of the Most High Bishop of this Diocese in the spiritual as in all the temporal and economic aspects.”

Self Supreme of France July 2, 1815, A.N.A Colecc. Solano López (Báez, 1985, p. 89)

The bishop of Asunción was Pedro Ignacio García Panés, who due to his state of health had to delegate a large part of his functions to Roque Antonio Céspedes Xeria whom he appointed as provisor and vicar general. Years later, given Panés' deterioration, Dr. Francia "surrogated" (sic) in this one what in his supreme order of July 2, 1815 he had attributed to that one. This gave rise to the common, and erroneous, version that Dr. Francia had put him on "replacement" from Panés.

The city of Asunción

"it was not and could not be called such with property, having been before more than an extravagant disorder set and added of houses arbitrarily and to fantasy without any arrangement or order, thus forming hollows, swamps, narrow and tortuous alleys that were sometimes confused and were going to stop one."

(Viola, 1984, p. 61/62)

Dr. France proceeded to the urbanization with the layout of aligned streets, construction of boundary walls and soil leveling to avoid the damage produced by the rowers. The State compensated, as recorded in several documents, the owners of the houses that had to be destroyed or of the lands that had to be occupied for the layout of the streets with the exception of the very wealthy. The construction of the capitular or council house also began for which the Government awarded a brick oven and donated a boat to accelerate the construction. Also allowed the lobbyists to collect one " moderate contribution " To the merchants of Asunción to finish the work.

Perpetual dictator

On May 30, 1816, in accordance with the provisions of the annual call of a Congress with 250 deputies, the Fourth Paraguayan Congress met. Although the period of five years provided for in the Law of Creation of the Temporary Dictatorship had not been fulfilled, in its first and only session it was decided, by acclamation, the establishment of Dr. France as perpetual dictator of the Republic with a significant clarification, " with the quality of being without specimen ", that is, unique, so that it will never be repeated again. It was agreed to set a salary of $ 7000 annually because Dr. France rejected the salary of 12,000 annually that were going to grant him. It was also decided that Congress would meet every time the dictator required. Since then no Congress met again in Dr. France's life.

Many public documents of the more than two decades in which Dr. France ruled were lost, partly because of the humid and hot weather, due to the lack of care against insects and rodents and, above all, by the transfer and looting occurred during the Triple Alliance War. In spite of everything, many that constitute first -hand sources and that have served or are pending revision to analyze their government.

Public Administration

Dr. France continued the purification of the public administration that he had started as consul. He maintained the three objectives: eliminating the foreign element, eliminating the colonial corruption and obtaining the loyalty of each soldier, teacher or public employee who had to be consubstantiated with the revolution.

"Feature of a class society, the oligarchy [Spanish and Creole] had traditionally maintained the monopoly of education and administrative experience [...] Consequently, as in all radical social revolutions, by removing the elites from their traditional positions, Paraguay faced a chronic shortage of trained and competent staff."

(White, 1984, p. 110)

This can be seen in the documents where Dr. Francia communicates with his delegates where he, with great teaching ability, instructs them on issues of administration, military affairs, ways of writing reports, national and international politics, trade and a wide variety of other topics.

An example of how the administration worked can be seen in the following file: Sergeant Simeón Osorio, who serves in distant Tevegó, receives a letter from his mother asking for financial help. Simeón responds that he requests in Asunción the payment of six months of the salaries owed to him. On December 5, 1815, knowing that the commander of Tevegó, Lieutenant Estigarribia, was in Asunción, her mother filed an application through José Mateo Tellez who delivered it to the government secretary Francisco Díaz Moreno. He forwards the request to Lieutenant Estigarribia who the same day responds in writing that what the mother says "is true and that I know." The next day the file arrives on the desk of Dr. Francia who, in his own handwriting, asks the Minister of Finance Francisco Díaz de Bedoya for his opinion. Four days later, on December 11, 1815, the minister returned the file to Dr. Francia confirming that Sergeant Osorio was indeed owed ten months of his salaries. That same day, Dr. Francia transfers the file to the Treasury and in his own hand orders: "Deliver to the supplicant the six months of salary she requests." Hours later, the mother collects the amount owed as stated in the corresponding receipt. (A.N.A., New Binding Section, volume 2009).

This inconsequential file not only allows us to see the administrative functioning, the speed of the procedures, the capacity of Dr. Francia and the economic problems (salary arrears) at the beginning of his government, but also, thanks to the punctilious and unknown bureaucrat who also filed Osorio's letter to his mother in the file, this will serve, more than a century and a half later, for the linguistic study of the evolution of Paraguayan Spanish in the century XIX.

Many officials continued in office in subsequent governments. The most notable case was that of Domingo Francisco Sánchez, young clerk of Policarpo Patiño, secretary of government of Dr. Francia in 1826, and who ended up as vice president of the Republic in the government of Francisco Solano López, dying with him in the last battle. in Cerro Corá, on March 1, 1870.

Education

Public primary education became mandatory and free and was extended to all levels of society. Local municipalities were in charge of paying teachers and local judges to build new schools. According to Rengger, by the mid-1820s, not only were almost all Paraguayans literate but there were several private seminaries in Asunción. The French naturalist Grandsire who was in Itapúa in 1825 also observed "that almost all the inhabitants know how to read and write." The Royal Seminary College of San Carlos, where Doctor Francia had taught Latin and theology, entered into frank decline due to lack of suitable teachers and students. The lack of ordination of priests also had an influence due to the retirement due to illness of Bishop Panés. The College was closed by decree of March 23, 1823. The lands of the school were divided up benefiting 876 families. In 1834, the State paid uniform salaries to 140 rural teachers who taught 5,000 students. In addition to salaries, he provided the teachers with clothing and livestock. The Congress gathered in 1841, after the death of Dr. Francia, in compliance with his last will, gave as a donation the sum of 12,000 pesos to the Seminary College of San Carlos from the salaries that the State owed to the Supreme Dictator..

The first Public Library of Paraguay was created during the government of Dr. Francia. It contained about 5,000 copies coming from inheritances in favor of the state, as was the case of the Cabañas books, or from confiscations from the enlightened class of Asunción. A document dated January 3, 1838 mentions the delivery of 43 glasses of the State deposits for the windows of the Library. It is assumed that Dr. Francia's important library also swelled the National Library since it does not appear in the distribution of its assets. The fate of many of these books, after the War of the Triple Alliance, is another example of the looting that the Paraguayan State suffered. In a letter of gratitude from Mariano A. Pelliza, Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, for the gift sent to him by Martin Merou, Argentine ambassador in Asunción, he says:

"[...] I have the precious book that has sent me with an autograph of his former owner, Dr. France. Independent of the authentic signature, has the enunciated book the historical merit of its contents [... ]

Mariano A. Fights Martin Merou, 4/6/1887 (Vázquez, 1975, p. 398 document 451)

Vázquez adds in his comment to this document: "Whoever wants to leaf through these books from ancient Paraguay [referring to those in the National Library] will today have to travel a lot and live wandering through the civilized capitals of America and Europe.. 4;

Church

Regarding the Church, the priests had to swear fidelity to the Republic. No processions were allowed except those set in the calendar. Many of the religious ceremonies not established in it were actually pagan festivals, as was the case with the wakes of children or the festival of San Baltazar in which liquor and games of chance abounded. The Royal Standard Walk was also eliminated. This important and expensive public-religious ceremony, of very high symbolism, had the function of reinforcing the image of the monarch and the religious preaching by which everyone had to swear vassalage to God and the King. It was accompanied by a mass in the cathedral, an offering of liquor in the Town Hall to the most important neighbors, bullfights, a game of rings, comedies, a sarao in the government house, etc. These expenses were borne by the Cabildo.

The government was established as the highest authority of the church and the only one capable of appointing ecclesial ministers following the royal patronage that existed in colonial times. According to Irala Burgos, he did it with "a strictness that the most severe Bourbons or Habsburgs would have envied. Likewise, pastoral and encyclical offices had to be previously approved by the government. He ordered the papal emblems to be erased from the frontispieces of the churches, which were replaced by the coat of arms of the Republic.

Army

Although Spanish policy at the end of the XVIII century was to reinforce the local militias of the colonies due to the difficulties in the sending armies from the peninsula, the invasion of Belgrano showed the poverty of the army of the Province of Paraguay, especially in terms of weapons. Only 10% of the mobilized soldiers had rifles, the rest were armed with spears, sabers, machetes and clubs.

The invasion of Belgrano and the events of May 1811 created a new political power: the "officers of the Barracks". In the Bando of May 17, 1811 it was clarified that no grievances would be allowed to the neighbors by the "quartered troops". Subsequently, the two resignations of Dr. Francia as a member of the Board revealed the collusion of this new power factor with members of the Board against the civil sector. Dr. Francia's first task, given the danger it posed to the government, was to dismantle the power of these "prevailed officers of arms" as he openly expressed it in his note to the Cabildo of September 3, 1811. He carried out this slow and cautious task during the last period of the Board and in his two periods as consul.

Only as Dictator, France was able to dedicate all its efforts to what was one of its central objectives: providing the Republic with a military force subject to the power of the institutions and the Revolution and that was capable of dissuading the permanent desire of the rulers of Buenos Aires (Pueyrredón, Dorrego) to correct Belgrano's failed attempt. The federal leaders later added to this danger: Artigas, Ramírez and even Quiroga, always in need of men and economic resources to confront Buenos Aires or confront each other. On the other hand, there was Brazil that did not stop putting pressure on the northern border, supporting the raids of the Mbaya rangers without losing its interest in the Missions on the southern border. From the west, behind the Chaco desert, General Bolívar, instigated by his well-paid agent in the Río de la Plata, Dean Gregorio Funes, also attempted, at one point, to invade Paraguay under the pretext of " rescue" to his friend Amadeo Bonpland.

This new regular army was made up of young people not linked to powerful families and who were loyal to the Revolution. As much weaponry as possible was purchased to circumvent the blockade imposed from abroad, especially by Buenos Aires, paying extra prices, preventing the entry of defective weapons and tempting arms dealers with permission to withdraw cash or any products they wanted. There are innumerable documents that mention purchases of used weapons, many for repair, sometimes one by one, made to individuals or the payment to carpenters from different towns for the construction of carriages for the cannons. New defensive positions were also created, such as the colony of Tevegó to the north or the fortress of San José in front of Itapúa and the advanced position of Tranquera de Loreto located in the narrowest area between the Iberá lagoon and the Paraná river at the height of the waterfall. of Apipé, or the existing ones were improved.

"The rhythm of the work intensified in 1837 and everything ended [...] in the last months of 1838 [...] [The fortress of San José or Trinchera of the Paraguayans, today Posadas] had an exterior wall entirely of stone, of almost four rods [3.30 meters] of height and two [1.67 meters] of thickness with almond profile and roof of towers with fire mouths beating all the corners of the horizon [...] this wall, with a deep back parallel [.] it plucked [to the border] of the Paranátado.

(Vázquez, 1975, p. 48)

There is no reliable data on the power of the army, although some documents mention plans to mobilize 3,000 or more men. According to the historian White, this was one of Dr. Francia's secrets that, added to public exaggeration, was used to deter invasion attempts by neighboring countries that were unaware of the importance of the forces they would have to face.

All the effort deployed to purchase weapons and equipment, recruit soldiers, build hospitals, barracks and forts, and supplies was done without increasing taxes. On one occasion the "so-called Europeans" an extraordinary contribution but exempting them from the public works tax.

"The government has decided to pass to the other band a Body of three thousand men, or more if it is necessary, in effect of franquearing the navigation and debating the commercial traffic of the obstacles, piracy and barbaric exactions, with which the peoples of the Costas have prevented their course [Corrientes, Santa Fe, La Bajada, Buenos Aires]

Supreme Self on Contributions of "European Calls" to the Army of the Republic (20/1/1823) in (Chaves, 1958, p. 288 note 2)

The formation of the army also generated new jobs in sewing workshops, saddlery, gun shops, carpentry shops and blacksmith shops. The same thing happened with the construction of gunboats and ships. Doctor Francia was aware that to carry out this great task a bureaucratic structure was needed like the one he detailed to the Minister of Finance in his note of January 30, 1822. However, he personally took charge of everything supported by expert craftsmen.. In 1827 the Paraguayan dictator had 5,000 soldiers and 40,000 militiamen. In mid-1832 there was an important purchase of 1,000 rifles and an equivalent number of sabers. As a consequence of the interruption of trade in the missionary corridor throughout the year 1833 due to the Corrientes, in December of that year, the Paraguayan army He occupied Candelaria and gave protection to foreign merchants who used that route. Despite the widespread alarm about this Paraguayan military operation, in response to which Buenos Aires put a naval squadron on alert to confront the "fabulous Paraguayan army", nothing happened and the people of Corrientes abandoned the area during the rest of the government of the Doctor France.

Economy

The colonial economic structure that the Revolution inherited consisted of a long chain where each link appropriated, according to its dominant position, a part of the value of the production that was generated in the Province of Paraguay. This chain started in Spain, passing through Buenos Aires, which was also a lender to the merchants of Asunción, who in turn received the merchandise on credit from the collectors in the interior of the province. These collectors, for their part, in addition to setting the price of what they bought, provided food, tools and clothing to the laborers and small producers at an exorbitant price. Already the Spanish governor Agustín Fernando de Pinedo in his report to the King on January 29, 1777 [Dr. Francia was 11 years old at the time] observed that: "these wretches cannot pay even half (I would rather say the third part).) of what they are committed to. This same chain was repeated with imported merchandise.

[...] in all that rural population, patricia, white, aware of its roots, was at the same time the most miserable and dispossessed of America, at such extremes, that at their very sight were appalled to tears and moved bishops and governors [...] With Dr. France will cease to see in Paraguay forever the nakedness that for so long scandalized Bishops and Governors.

(Vázquez, 1998, p. 47-50)

With the Revolution, the Creole elite saw the opportunity to access political power and by that means add to their benefits the part of the link held by the Spanish merchants of Asunción. They also assumed that, through negotiations and alliances, they could share with Buenos Aires a part of the link that Spain once took over.

In a different vein, Dr. Francia's economic-political model consisted of:

• in decreasing or eliminating the appropriation of the internal links of Paraguay (Spanish merchants, acopiadores, big dodados and the local Church as owner, financier and charger of tithes and other benefits) by transferring them to the primary producers by transferring or leasing at low prices of the lands expropriated to those sectors, the elimination of real privileges, the state monopoly of foreign trade and
• in configuring the State as a great competitor in the market, both in the purchase and in the sale, using the Estancias de la Patria and the Almacenes of the State for that purpose, intervening also in the demand for labour, in the fixing of wages, leasing fees, prices of the means of production, etc. The State owned 50 per cent of the Eastern region of Paraguay. On April 28, 1824, the lobby, by government instruction, set a list of maximum prices for consumer goods: meat, corn, cassava in their different classifications, and salt. The objective was to avoid excessive fluctuations in "times of lack".

These measures produced an important redistribution of wealth towards small and medium-sized farmers and artisans who also benefited from a radical and progressive reduction in the tax burden. Thus, an increasingly economically stronger and autonomous State was formed that prevented wealth from accumulating in a minority sector or from fleeing from the country due to weak negotiators, ideologically and economically dependent on foreign power centers or not associated with the Revolution..

The decrease in activity in the port of Asunción, and its replacement by the border ports of Pilar and Itapúa, decentralized foreign trade and improved the internal and external control linked to that activity. The cost of freight from producers to those ports was nationalized, incorporated into export prices or eliminated from import prices. An example of state negotiation appears in the communication from Dr. Francia to his delegate from Pilar:

"The prices that [the] trader says to have cost his effects, are manifestly assumed [...] the proposal that you will do is that without having to pay rights some of Introduction or of Alcabala of its effects, nor those of Extraction of the Treasury, nor of Ramo de Guerra, nor of Anclaje and put it also to the yerba in that Villa [Pilar] where you will also receive what is bought, [...]

France to the delegate of Pilar (4/10/1825) in (Bareiro, 2009, p. 1132, vol.2, document 1350)

Therefore, the government not only knew the international prices and the various costs that affected the result but, on that basis, it could establish equivalence prices between domestic and imported products. Finally, by calculating the profit that the merchant would obtain for the entire operation, the government freed itself from negotiating the partial results by product, among which, it should be noted, included the purchase of 60 rifles for the cavalry.

"In not setting trade in fixed values or prices, but in the use or value of imports in relation to the amount of work required to produce the export item, Paraguay acquired its imports into barter because of its exports without incurring a deficit in its trade balance. Nor did European countries open a market where their products could be sold without limit. It is only within this context that Paraguay "closed" to international trade. While the idea of Paraguayan autarchy is historically incorrect, the control of the national economy by the state put defensive fences on the corrosive influences of capitalist economies."

(Areces, 2007, p. 48)

Ponchos and blankets for horses were manufactured, which were not previously made in the country, in addition to uniforms and clothing, cigars, honey, raw hides, tanned leather, etc. Medicinal drugs were produced with herbs. In agriculture, new crops such as wheat and cotton were introduced, making their production mandatory. Rice, corn, and legumes were also cultivated, attributing to each owner a specific species in a certain area. In this way many imports were replaced.

Livestock farming was promoted through the State estates or "Estancias de la Patria". Such was the success that horses were exported to Entre Ríos, when historically they were imported from that province. The abundance of livestock was such that animals were sacrificed due to lack of pasture or the surplus was given to the poor.

Separate line were the fines and confiscations of the Spaniards who contributed large income. The right to vacant successions of foreigners was also strict. Voluntary legacies by citizens abounded:

"The legacies by a testamentary or verbal clause in favor of the State were one of the most characteristic and touching features of the remarkable time that the dictator France faced. Paraguayans of all kind and condition, and often the most humble, willing to die [...] appointed a present that after death was to be given [..] with these simple but sublime words: "for the Father"

(Vázquez, 1975, p. 297, commentary to document 324)

On October 15, 1838, the government demanded a contribution from 7 foreign merchants who had set up shop without permission by setting up "shops and grocery stores" accumulating metal despite its extraction being prohibited. The amounts of the contributions were calculated on the "gauged" invoices. for each of them and in different percentages, which proves a case-by-case analysis.

The government controlled the administration of every penny that entered the public treasury. Dr. Francia set an example by paying out of his own pocket, like any ordinary citizen, for everything he consumed. He rigorously signed the receipt when collecting his salary, which was always late, according to the Asunción archives.

Domestic policy

No person could leave or enter the country without special permission from the government. Foreigners who entered Paraguay fleeing slave exploitation or the civil wars that devastated neighboring countries were interned far from the borders and in areas that the government wanted to populate. As was the case in other countries, it was necessary to have an authorization to transit within the country, with this the movement of criminals, vagrants and deserters was controlled. Control was greater in the border area due to the presence of smugglers.

The commercial blockade imposed on Paraguay also affected the newspapers that came from Buenos Aires. Dr. Francia ordered the merchants to bring certain publications to find out what was happening outside. For the same reason, correspondence with the outside world was completely cut off.

Conspiracy of the year 1820

The enemies of Dr. France's political-economic model remained in the shade for many years. From before and during the October 1814 congress there were groups that conspired against him. Artigas had tried to connect with them in 1815. Various fines were applied in 1817 to people who did not respect the authority of the government. An economic fact increased the discontent of the minority group of merchants, large landowners and collectors, both Spanish and Creoles: the drastic decrease in international trade due to the blockade imposed from abroad by the policy of non -intervention and defense of the sovereignty of Dr. France. If we took the Paraguayan exports of the year 1816 as a base index = 100, that of 1818 was 75, the 1819 was 49 and that of the year 1820 was only 17. This meant for that powerful economic class, not only the Loss of enormous income but the increase in the maintenance costs of the products not sold and increasing losses due to their deterioration.

The government was no stranger to these dissatisfaction. In January 1820, the powerful military-active and excoinsul Fulgencio Yegros was called to reside in Asunción because of the frequent meetings he did in his stay. On March 28, 1820, several people who left a meeting where the final details to kill Dr. France and members of the Government were arrested on the Good Friday of March 31, 1820. He quickly arrested about thirty involved among which the most prominent was Fulgencio Yegros. Research on the scope of the conspiracy continued in the following months by increasing the number of suspects to more than 170. Pedro Juan Caballero was arrested eight months after Yegros. In a process that was carried out to a man Tomás Verges where he was imposed a fine

"[...] it is found that Captain Pedro Juan Caballero was gathering an exorbitant amount of yerba mate [1338 thirds], together with this Mr.Verges because [they believed] France "that my end was already here, that would happen from one moment to another", that is, that they had the certainty that the conspiracy would succeed."

ANA file, vol. 813, sect. Properties and Testaments in (Viola, 1984, p. 15 and 29)

The lack of popular participation in the conspiracy allowed the government to quickly abort the coup d'état without bloodshed, sending the suspects to prison and confiscating their assets.

Contemporarily with these events, there was the presence, on the southern border, of Francisco Ramírez, former lieutenant of Artigas, who considered himself a man called to achieve great destinies. Ramírez's relationship with the Paraguayan government during the year 1820 developed on three levels: 1) he sent notes, from government to government, to Dr. Francia inviting him to join the Treaty of Pilar; He requested the extradition of Artigas and proposed eliminating the trade blockade; 2) Simultaneously he made contact with the forces opposing Dr. Francia that were operating within the country through his delegate Ramón Cáceres; 3) Without hiding his intention, he formed a military force in Corrientes to invade Paraguay. This lack of secrecy caused General López Jordán to warn him "to reserve yourself from some subjects who are at your side and [to] publish your private decisions.

Doctor Francia did not answer any of those notes and arrested Ramírez's envoys; He increased investigations into the possible connection between Ramírez and the conspirators and prepared military forces to stop the invasion. In this context, at the end of 1820, trade through the Paraná was restarted but it lasted 60 days because Ramírez cut it off unexpectedly in March 1821:

"The minor vessels of Paraguay as small canoes and chalanas, let them go back; but the major vessels should all come down. All those who return from Buenos Aires or from another point for Paraguay should no longer pass to Paraguay"

Francisco Ramírez to the commander of Corrientes Evaristo Carriego in (Vásquez, 1930, p. 125)

In May 1821, under the protection of Ramírez, Bonpland settled in Santa Ana, in an area under Paraguayan jurisdiction. At the beginning of June 1821, a Paraguayan detachment stopped Juan Alfano when he was crossing the Paraná with a letter to the Entre Ríos commander Ramón Cáceres stating that not only were there still conspirators at large in Paraguay but that the Spanish were also ready to help them. the insurrection. Doctor Francia gathered the Spaniards in the square, imprisoned the most important ones and demanded that they pay a contribution of 150,000 pesos to finance a military expedition to the south.

According to Wisner, on July 3, 1821, a letter from Cáceres to Pedro Juan Caballero was intercepted in which he asked him to inform Yegros that he would soon help them. This caused Dr. Francia to make the decision to shoot the main perpetrators starting on July 17. Fulgencio Yegros was among the first. Pedro Juan Caballero preferred to commit suicide. Francia possibly did not know that seven days earlier, on July 10, 1821, in Córdoba, Francisco Ramírez had died from a gunshot and that his head had ended up placed in a cage.

Foreign policy

At the date of Dr. Francia's death, in September 1840, Paraguay was the only one of the former Spanish colonies in continental America that had not formally proclaimed its independence. However, its political, cultural and economic independence was an indubitable fact.

Request for asylum by José Gervasio Artigas

The relations between José Gervasio Artigas and Dr. Francia, whose ideas coincided on many points, were always strained due to the latter's intransigent attitude in relation to the policy of non-intervention in conflicts that occurred beyond the borders of Paraguay. On January 16, 1814, at the time of the consulate, instigated by Artigas, the Matiauda-Pérez Planes incident had occurred [See "Consul of the Republic of Paraguay" ut supra] which caused the consuls Yegros and Francia to have to give explanations and assurances to the governor of Corrientes. At the beginning of 1815, Artigas sent a letter to Cabañas through Francisco Antonio Aldao, a Paraguayan merchant he met in Santa Fe. In that letter he proposed to invade Paraguay, "search for the head." of France with the support of the men that Cabañas and Yegros could provide, who would later govern Paraguay. Pedro Juan Caballero was also mentioned. On April 21, 1815, Artigas changed his strategy and wrote to Dr. Francia requesting that Paraguay ally itself "in an exact combination with him to give America an example of moderation." Obviously Artigas' envoy did not manage to reach Asunción nor was the letter answered. Artigas reacted as usual: he blocked the Paraná River, prohibiting all trade, occupied Candelaria and seized a shipment brought by the English merchant Robertson bound for Paraguay.

"Although you already prevent the absolute prohibition of the introduction of cattle to Paraguay [from Corrientes] [...] In the same way, I warn you that I have been offered by the Commander-General of Missions, the introduction of livestock was prohibited, which with remarkable detriment passed to Paraguay. You should not ignore that Misiones is a friendly province [...] there is no reason for her to be forbidden the introduction of cattle [...] in this way we will keep the balance so precious between sister provinces and the necessary scrupulosity with which they have renounced our fraternity [ Paraguay]"

Artigas to the governor of Corrientes, September 12, 1815 in (Ribeiro, 2003, p. 88)

Doctor Francia took various defensive measures preparing for an invasion. However, nothing happened and in February 1816 Artigas withdrew his forces upon receiving certain news that the Portuguese invasion was already underway towards Montevideo. In July 1817 Artigas again insisted on an agreement. After the defeats suffered in the Portuguese-Brazilian war that culminated in Tacuarembó on January 22, 1820, added to the defection of his lieutenants and the defeats against Ramírez in the months of June and July, Artigas crossed the Paraná on January 5. September 1820 requesting political asylum from the Paraguayan government. He was then 56 years old.

The moment could not have been more inopportune and dangerous for Artigas. All the friends he had in Paraguay, with the exception of Cabañas, were imprisoned as a result of the plot to kill the Dictator discovered six months earlier. Investigations into its scope were in full development. However, France granted him asylum. Artigas was transferred to Asunción with an escort of 20 hussars and an officer, where they arrived at night. Staying in the Convent of La Merced, he was assisted daily with money and a visit from the prior and an assistant from Dr. Francia who made sure that he did not lack anything. He was then interned in Curuguaty, 80 leagues (400 km) from Asunción, to the northeast, where he was also assigned a house. Previously, he was given custom-made clothes, cutlery, knives, shoes, boots and other items. In the annual budgets of the State, in the heading "General Expenses" for years the "pension" that was assigned for his support.

In 1822, Dr. Francia became aware of the letter that Artigas had sent to Cabañas in 1815. He did nothing, he kept it until Cabañas' death in 1833 and then used it as justification for the expropriation of his property. In the background, Artigas is mentioned as "evil leader of bandits and disturber of public tranquility". Six years later he did the same when Cabañas' wife died, accusing her of being aware of her husband's conspiracies in 1815 and frightening him by denouncing hers as a "huge crime." In both cases Artigas was not disturbed in his retirement and continued his life as a small agricultural producer until the death of Dr. Francia. That day an emissary left for Curuguaty with the following order:

"[...] put the person of the bandit José Artigas in secure prisons to another provision of this interim government and will notice without delay that he has signed with witnesses"

Order of the Representatives of the Republic to Commander Gauto in (Ribeiro, 2003, p. 393 note 223)

Dr. France never received Artigas personally.

Detention and hospitalization of Amadeo Bonpland

See also: Amadeo Bonpland

While Humboldt and Darwin were confidently received in Venezuela and Buenos Aires respectively, the same did not happen with Bonpland in Paraguay.

" For Dr. France, Bonpland's confinement in the border area was due to strategic reasons and invasive plans of midwives, porters and French. To this it was added that the wise had raised a plane of the region [...] For this reason, the supreme distrust of the French travelers, whom he considers to be imperialist spies." (Gómez, 2009, p. 129)

Invited by the Buenos Aires government, Bonpland arrived in Buenos Aires on February 1, 1817 and the French consul Antoine Leloir incorporated him into the Dominique Roguin, Pedro Saguier and Juan Esteban Ricardo Grandsir group to stop the growing British commercial influence. At the end of 1819, Dr. France allowed Saguier to reach Asunción believing that he could recognize the independence of Paraguay by the French government and thus ensure free transit through the Paraná River, one of its fundamental objectives to break The isolation imposed by Buenos Aires. But Saguier lacked all representativeness. Among his belongings was a letter that Grandsir had sent him on September 18, 1818 and arrived at the hands of France:

"It is not positively a simple trade operation that you should think to do but a large operation [...] What of the riches of products Paraguay must offer! [...] Having set foot in Paraguay, English trade will receive a terrible blow."

Grandsir a Saguier en (Chaves, 1958, p. 315, note 8)

Bonpland learned about yerba mate on Martín García Island and the great economic advantages of its exploitation. On October 1, 1820, in the Sumac 'La Bombardera', Bonpland and his partners Roguin and Filisbert Vaulquin left for Corrientes. In May 1821, with the support of Ramírez, they continued the journey to Caatí under the protection of a recommendation from the "Captain" Nicolás Aripí, indigenous leader of the rest of Artigas' troops who roamed the missionary area armed with the intention of taking over it and renting it to whoever wanted to exploit it. Bonpland settled in the town of Santa Ana where he began activities as a merchant and doctor according to letters sent to the governors of Entre Ríos and Corrientes. Doctor Francia, aware of Bonpland's relations with Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Aripí and Ramírez, in addition to the installation without permission of a herbal exploitation in Paraguayan territory and the mapping of the borders, prepared a careful military operation to capture Aripí, his men and Bonpland. On December 8, 1821, the Paraguayan army occupied Santa Ana. Aripí managed to escape but most of his men, some women and Amadeo Bonpland fell. He was interrogated in Itapúa and on January 3, 1822 he was interned in a place called 'Cerrito', located between Santa Rosa and Santa María, a former Jesuit reduction, one of the most beautiful and fertile places in Paraguay.

The arrest and internment of Bonpland in Paraguay had great international impact. On October 22, 1823, Bolívar sent a letter to Dr. Francia claiming for his "friend." In it he openly threatened that "he would be able to march to Paraguay just to free the best of men and the most famous of travelers." It is unknown if the letter reached its recipient. What is known is that France did not answer it. Two years later, Bolívar asked his agent in Buenos Aires, Dean Funes, if the Buenos Aires authorities would allow his army to invade Paraguay through the Bermejo and then join it to the Confederation. The Buenos Aires government twice opposed these insinuations. In 1826, from Colombia, Francisco de Paula Santander also did not find a valid argument that justified such an invasion. Finally the project was forgotten. The list of those who requested or attempted to offer their services to free Bonpland was long. Grandsir arrived in Itapúa on August 17, 1824 carrying notes from the Institute of France but could not convince the government of his intentions. He was expelled on the 13th of the following month. Grandsir realized that Bonpland's arrest was linked to the relationship that Dr. Francia wanted to officially establish with the French government, which he communicated to his superiors. Brazil's Correa da Cámara made another attempt. From La Paz, General Sucre, at the request of Bonpland's wife, sent a mission that reached Fort Olimpo on May 21, 1828, in the extreme north of the country, but it was also unsuccessful.

After almost 8 years of living in Paraguay as another citizen, having freely developed agricultural, livestock, commercial, doctor and apothecary activities, on May 10, 1829, surprisingly, Dr. Francia ordered the delegate of Missions that Bonpland had to leave the country. He could liquidate all his possessions in time and take whatever he wanted except for the Paraguayan citizens who worked for him (he had 45 employees). After 21 months of that order, on February 8, 1831, Bonpland crossed the Paraná River from Itapúa and left Paraguay. Already inside the province of Corrientes, some horses were stolen: "as you can see that we are no longer in Paraguay" he noted in his diary. Years later, Dr. Francia wanted to know if he still resided in San Borja to ask for some remedies.

Relations with Brazil

Dr. Francia maintained the policy of non-intervention initiated at the beginning of the Revolution to keep the Republic free from the consequences of the civil wars that devastated the Río de la Plata and the wars between the new countries.

According to the notes of Dean Gregorio Funes to Simón Bolívar, both believed that the government of Paraguay would modify its policy by supporting Brazil in the war that the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata were carrying out to free the Eastern Province of the Brazilian occupation. None of this happened. Even the diplomatic agent sent by the Empire of Brazil, in 1828, was expelled.

It always maintained conflicts with Brazil, because they, violating the northern area of the territory claimed by the Paraguayan state, committed cattle rustling by supporting the Mbayá indigenous people for such a task. At that time, the border claims to Brazil were the limits of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata: to the northeast the Igurey River (now called Ivinhema), to the north the Corrientes or Mbotetey River (now called Miranda by the Brazilians). and, in the Chaco region, the Yaurú River.

Relations with the Río de la Plata

The policy of non-intervention with neighboring countries kept Paraguay at peace with its neighbors.

In 1829, a shipment of weapons destined for Paraguay was seized, on its trip along the Paraná River, by the Santa Fe government. Dr. Francia, faced with this act of piracy and the importance that the weapons had for Paraguay, ordered, in retaliation and to pressure the government of Santa Fe, the imprisonment of all Santa Fe residents in Asunción until the shipment was released. These prisoners were released from prison after the death of the Dictator in 1840, at which time they learned of the cause of their imprisonment.

His system of government attracted the sympathy of Juan Manuel de Rosas, governor of the province of Buenos Aires and virtual supreme ruler of the Argentine Confederation. When the successors of Dr. Francia, the consuls Carlos Antonio López and Mariano Roque Alonso, celebrated a commercial and provisional boundary treaty with the province of Corrientes, opposed to Rosas, he was deeply offended by what he considered a change in traditional Paraguayan policy, and began to harass the government and challenge its independence. At the same time, he ordered the publication, in the American Archive of Buenos Aires (number 29), praise for Dr. Francia and criticism of the hostile policy of the Paraguayan consuls towards the government of the Confederation.

Death

In mid-July 1840, at the age of 74, Dr. Francia fell ill due to a downpour that surprised him on his classic daily ride. Without listening to the advice of his doctor, Dr. Estigarribia, a few days later she returned to his duties. During the month of August and the first half of September he continued to attend to state affairs, although with less activity. His health began to seriously deteriorate on September 16. On the 17th, Estigarribia informed him of the seriousness of his condition and asked him to name a successor: Dr. Francia rejected that idea. He limited himself to indicating that his Ibiray estate, inherited from his mother, should be given to his daughter Ubalda García and María Roque Cañete (a resident of the Trinidad and Francia neighborhood) and that the salaries owed to him for years should be distributed between the soldiers who guarded the borders. His agony began on the night of the 19th. He died on Sunday, September 20, 1840, at 1:30 p.m.

Once his remains were buried with an important ceremony, three novenas were celebrated during October 1840 and finally on the 20th, one month after his death, the funeral services were held. From those moments there remain in the National Archive of Asunción many receipts for payments for dried fruits that were served to the attendees (ANA, vol. 1903, Sect. Nueva Encuadernación). In the Book of Burials of the Cathedral of Asunción (1832-1854), on folio 117, in the center and occupying the entire page as an exclusive annotation, it appears: "On September twenty-second, 1840 I buried in the Presbytery of the Church of the Incarnation, the corpse of the Supreme Dictator José Gaspar of France with sixty-six poses, vigil and body mass present, which I certify. José Casimiro Ramírez".

The monument indicating the location of his grave was removed. There is no agreement on the final destination of his remains, but it is rumored that in 1870, Carlos Loizaga, and other enemies of Dr. Francia, desecrated his grave and they threw Dr.'s remains into the Paraguay River.^{[citation required]}

Legacy

The legacy of France to its successors was that of a politically and economically independent country, but one that could hardly evolve towards a democracy as it was understood in Latin America in the century XIX, where only a small elite could vote, or economic integration with the outside world under the rules of the prevailing neocolonial economic liberalism. For this reason Carlos Antonio López, who can be considered his legitimate successor politically, will maintain Dr. Francia's model without essential modifications.

The historical importance of Dr. José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia was reactivated after his inclusion as the main character of the novel Yo el Supremo, by the Paraguayan writer Augusto Roa Bastos, Cervantes Prize, 1989. Referring to his government and what was happening outside the country, the character asks:

"What are my sins? What my fault? My clandestine defamators from the inside and outside accuse me of turning the Nation into a kennel of hydrophobia. I was slandered that I had slain, hung, shot the main figures of the country. Is that true, prospective? [...] How many justices have occurred, Patiño, under my Kingdom of Terror? Following the Great Conjure of the Year 20, 68 conspirators of Excellence were taken to the foot of the Orange. How long did the process of those infamous traitors to the Homeland last? Everything you need not to do foolish and crazy. [...] Less than a hundred adjustments in more than a quarter of a century, among thieves, common criminals and traitors to the homeland, is that an atrocity? What could you tell me, by comparison, of the vandalization of bandits that make tremble with their infernal horseback all the American land? Get out of here, all rags and mansave. When they have finished with the inermous populations, one another [...] Arranging distinctions and limits, I would tell you that you've been used to living and killing headless. Total, what do they need, what do they want, if their horses think for them."

(Roa Bastos, 1974, p. 354)

To have a comparison frame, Lázaro de Rivera (1796-1805), the Spanish governor of the province of Paraguay before Velasco, " he executed 260 people as part of the routine maintenance of the traditional class society of Paraguay " In ten years of government.

Historiography

"Then will come what will write more bulky pasquins. They will be called History Books, novels, relationships of imaginary facts adobated to the taste of the moment or its interests. Prophets of the past will tell in them their invented patrañas, the story of what has not happened. What would not be altogether bad if your imagination was passably good. Historians and novelists will bind their embryos and sell them at very good price. They are not interested in counting the facts, but counting that they count.".

From the novel I the Supreme (Roa Bastos, 1974, p. 38)

The Paraguayan historian Blas Garay wrote at the end of the 19th century century:

" So many anathemas have been accumulating in the course of time [...] that they no longer govern with him [Dr. France] the rules of criticism: all the bad that we reject him we believe on foot together; the good [...] has to go well documented so that we do not deny him without examination".

(Garay, 1897, p. 174)

As the historiographic works on Dr. Francia were increasingly based on primary documentation located in the different archives of Asunción, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo and Spain and critical readings of secondary sources were carried out, His government acquired a new dimension. The biological, psychological and even meteorological explanations of many of his political actions tended to disappear, which were replaced by the revolutionary rationality of his actions in accordance with the time and the particular circumstances and the resistance of powerful and persistent enemies, both external and internal. Many statements, almost axiomatic, could not be supported when contrasted with existing documentation. Thus the policy attributed to Dr. Francia of "isolate" to the country or seek "autarky" They turned out to be inconsistent with the analysis of the commercial blockade imposed on Paraguay to undermine its independence.

The publications contemporary to the government of Dr. Francia, especially those of Rengger-Longchamps, and those of the Robertson brothers, have ceased to be naively used as primary sources. These subjective comments, influenced by European readers' taste for Gothic novels, generated the "black legend" of Doctor Francia as a monster, which influenced even a poet like Neruda or a scientist like Darwin, who was not even in Paraguay.

"For John and William Robertson, Dr. France is a character of the popular English Gothic. [...] [where] terror is the main engine of fiction and most of the attraction of readers. The Charters of Paraguay They recreate an atmosphere of mystery in the darkness of the buildings, streets and minds of their characters. [...] the doctor France of Kingdom of Terror It's a monster comparable to that of Mary Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein. [Shelley's novel was published in 1818].

(Gómez, 2009, p. 137)

equal hermeneutical criteria has been applied to propaganda against Dr. France generated mainly in Buenos Aires, in charge of the governments of the day, of the powerful " clans " family members, political exiles and newspapers.

"If the Dictator France deserves some forgiveness, it is for the vigilance with which he has enclosed the Protector Don José Artigas [...] humanity would gain much, if any exterminating angel purged the earth, freeing it from these two monsters."

Newspaper "The Tribune" (15/10/1826) in (White, 1984, p. 6)

These criticisms, which seemed to be directed against the person of Dr. Francia, did not cease with his death but persisted with equal virulence against Carlos Antonio López and his son Francisco, which demonstrated that they were based on particular political-economic interests.

" It is understandable, since France attacked the interests of the national and international elites, the same class that has written the history of Paraguay, that he has traditionally been considered the prototype of the despotic tyrant.

(White, 1984, p. 4)

After the Triple Alliance War, on May 14 and 15, 1870, for the first time in 59 years, the Revolution of May 1811 was not commemorated in Asunción. Ten days later, as if that silence was not enough, the provisional government of Paraguay signed a decree by which it was established that on May 25, the date of Argentine independence, was a holiday in Paraguay in memory of " so great and happy event ". The best tribute to Dr. France's independence policy appeared in the recitals of the decree denigrated his person:

"That only the criminal and selfish interests of the Dictator France and its successors deprived the Paraguayan people of participation in such a great struggle that resulted in the emancipation and independence of the American colony"

Decree of the Provisory Government of the Republic of Paraguay, 24/5/1870, signed by Cirilo Antonio Rivarola, Carlos Loizaga and Fernando Iturburu, in (Vázquez, 1975, p. 395/396, doc. 447)

Only in the year 1900, in response to the request for a demonstration, President Emilio Aceval declared May 14 and 15 a holiday again. 30 years had passed.

Cited bibliography

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3. Báez, Cecilio (1985). I'm rehearsing about Dr. France and Dictatorship in South America. Controlled by Raul Amaral. Asunción (Paraguay): Cromos SRL/Mediterranean.
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