Carlos Antonio López

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For other people also named Antonio Lopez, see Antonio Lopez (disambiguation).
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is López and the second or maternal family name is Ynsfrán.
Carlos Antonio López
Carlos Antonio López.jpg
1st President of Paraguay
In office
March 13, 1844 – September 10, 1862
Vice PresidentMariano González (1845–1846)
Francisco Solano López (1862)
Preceded byhimself as Consul
Succeeded byFrancisco Solano López
Consul of Paraguay
In office
March 12, 1841 – March 13, 1844
Preceded byMariano Roque Alonso
Succeeded byhimself as President
Personal details
BornNovember 4, 1792
Asunción, Paraguay (Then part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata)
DiedSeptember 10, 1862(1862-09-10) (aged 69)
Asunción, Paraguay
Political partyNone
Spouse(s)Juana Pabla Carrillo
ChildrenFrancisco
Venancio
Benigno
Rafaela
Inocencia

Carlos Antonio López Ynsfrán (November 4, 1792 – September 10, 1862) served as leader of Paraguay from 1841 to 1862.

Early life[]

López was born at Manorá (Asunción) on November 4, 1792, and was educated in the ecclesiastical seminary of that city. He attracted the hostility of the dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, his reputed uncle,[1] which caused him to go into hiding for several years.[2]

Political career[]

Carlos Antonio López and his wife, Juana Pabla Carrillo.

He served briefly as secretary of the military junta that ruled the country from 1840 to 1841, after the death of Francia. In 1841, Congress chose him as the country's first consul, equivalent to that of president, ruling alongside Mariano Roque Alonso. In 1844, he exiled Roque and assumed dictatorial powers. A few months later, Congress adopted a new constitution, which changed the head of state's title from consul to president and elected him to the new post for a 10-year term. The constitution vested López with powers almost as sweeping "El Supremo" had held for most of his 26-year rule, effectively codifying the dictatorial powers he had seized just months earlier. The document included no guarantees of civil rights; indeed, the word "liberty" was not even mentioned in the text.

He was re-elected for a three-year term in 1854, re-elected in successive elections for ten and three years, and in 1857 again for ten years, with the power to nominate his own successor.[2]

His government was directed towards developing Paraguay's primary resource extraction and strengthening Paraguay's armed forces. He contracted numerous foreign technicians, most of which were English, and built up the formidable Fortress of Humaitá.[3][4]

His approach to foreign affairs several times involved him in diplomatic disputes with the Empire of Brazil, the United States, and the British Empire, which nearly resulted in war.[2] His government was somewhat more tolerant of opposition than Francia's had been. He released all political prisoners soon after he took full power and also took measures to abolish slavery.[5]

His eldest son, Francisco Solano López (1827–1870), succeeded him as president after his death. A barrio of Asuncion is named after him.

Sources on his life are scarce. For a brief modern biography see Bealer, Lewis W. "Carlos Antonio Lopez, Organizer and Dictator of the Paraguayan Republic" (Chapter Eleven, pages 136-153) in South American Dictators During the First Century of Independence, edited by A. Curtis Wilgus (George Washington University Press, 1937; reissued by Russell & Russell Inc., 1963). Bealer cites Captain Richard F. Burton's Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay (London, 1870) as his primary source of factual information, though for those who read Spanish, he cites in the positive Andres Gelly's El Paraguay (Paris, 1926), who was Lopez's minister at Rio de Janeiro, as a good source for information "on developments to 1848". Bealer claims Washburn's History of Paraguay (2 vols., Boston, 1871) is "woefully unreliable and biased except where direct quotation is made".

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Bannon, John Francis; Dunne, Peter Masten (1950). Latin America, an Historical Survey. Science and culture texts (2 ed.). Bruce Publishing Company. p. 587. Retrieved 2016-02-25. [...] a wealthy creole landowner and reputed nephew of Francia, [...] Carlos Antonio Lopez.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Chisholm 1911.
  3. ^ Plá.
  4. ^ Williams.
  5. ^ Compare: Cooney, Jerry W. (1997). "Paraguay". In Rodriguez, Junius P. (ed.). The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery. 2. ABC-CLIO. p. 492. ISBN 9780874368857. Retrieved 2016-02-25. The rise to power of Carlo Antonio López after Francia's death in 1840 brought a cautious, gradualist approach to the abolition of Paraguayan slavery. The government decreed a Law of Free Womb in 1842, which freed children born to slaves.

Sources[]

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Lopez, Carlos Antonio". Encyclopædia Britannica. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 990.
  • Plá, Josefina (1976). The British in Paraguay 1850–1870. The Richmond Publishing Co in association with St Antony's College, Oxford.
  • Williams, John Hoyt (1977). "Foreign Tecnicos and the Modernization of Paraguay". Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs (Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miam): pp. 233–257. JSTOR 174705
Political offices
Preceded by
Mariano Roque Alonso 		Consul of Paraguay
1841–1844 		Succeeded by
himself as President
Preceded by
himself as Consul 		President of Paraguay
1844–1862 		Succeeded by
Francisco Solano López
Retrieved from ""