It would be nice if you get Fulgencio Yegros, Fernando de la Mora, or any other Paraguayan Prócer as first president
And there was no USA nor Monroe Doctrine that could save Argentina, I see and it make sense. In fact, turbulent times are always good for getting butterflies hit quickly around the area.
It all make sense, you just need the names for the most important people: politicians, generals and commanders, and so on.
Alright, here's a complete history:
In 1811, Paraguay declares independence. General Juan Romulo Echevarria, experienced fighting the Spanish in Peru and having studied in France, after driving out Spanish garrisons from Asuncion, becomes the first Consul of the Republic of Paraguay.
Echevarria works to establish democratic traditions in Paraguay, abolishing slavery and declaring all peoples equal before the law. The 1812 Constitution is modeled after the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The country is organized into unitary departments like France, with a senate ruling in Asuncion whose powers are checked by the judiciary and the constitution itself. The Consul is elected by popular vote from the Senate to a five year term as head of state.
This system works for Echevarria's rule, as he is popular and wields great influence. However, discontent brews against his centralist outlook among the common people and against his egalitarianism from the nobles. When he runs for a second term as Consul in 1816, he is assassinated and civil war ensues between various senator-generals, nobles, ethnicities, and peasant movements. Several unstable nobility-led and liberalist-led governments are set up and deposed in Asuncion over several years.
In 1822, the country is again united under the Army of the Conception led by General Desiderio Cruz de Vizcaya. The army is a collection of peasant farmer volunteers, city dwellers and other common peoples. In 1823, a new constitution is adopted which was inspired by the 1821 Constitution of Mexico. The French style department system was scrapped in favour of a system of federated states, the head of state became a President, and the legislature was divided into a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies.
Meanwhile in Rio de la Plata, the civil wars which plagued the United Provinces of South America last longer. Royalists and Republicans, as well as separatist movements fight one another for two decades without a clear winner, and the country is a failed state.
Finally, in 1831, a centralist general named Cassio Diaz de Santiago gains enough power and influence to align the Rio de la Plata province around his government in Buenos Aires. He rules as a dictator, believing that the people can only ever be ruled by dictators, and adopts a ruthlessly unitary system, military state, and protectionist economy centred on Buenos Aires called the Directorate of Platinia.
He clings to power for years, dragging the country into the ground fighting royalists and independence movements. In 1836 his army invades Paraguay, but badly led and with poor morale, it is pushed back disastrously after attempting to besiege Asuncion. In 1838, the British and French invade Platinia to collect the massive debts incured by Santiago's mismanagement and his wars. They occupy Buenos Aires, and soon Santiago's government collapses and he is killed by mutinous soldiers.
The royalists, aided by the British and French, then set up a government in Buenos Aires called the Empire of Platinia, led by a regency council which elects Prince Louis of the House of Orleans (ruling house of France at the time) as Luis I of Platinia.
In Paraguay, the Federal Republic managed to gain a great deal of stability and prosperity. It participated in the invasion of Argentina along with the British and French and gained territory, drawing a new southern border along the Bermejo.
Attracting foreign investors and being in control of its important waterways increased the wealth of the nation. It invested significantly in its army and riverine navy.
In the 1840s, German, Italian, Spanish, Irish, Scottish, Polish, and Greek immigrants began settling along the Colorado, Negro, Chubut, and Deseado rivers. Platinia being in no position to control them, and lacking any other central authority, they established the Republic of Patagonia in 1859.
In 1866, Brazil invaded Uruguay due to internal political happenings in that country, and in response Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru declared war. Platinia and Chile (citing as casus belli the Bolivian nationalization of Chilean mining companies) joined on the side of Brazil, and Patagonia declared war on Platinia.
The alliance was victorious due to the difficult terrain of Paraguay, the well trained Paraguayan soldiers, and Paraguay's riverine navy which routinely denied crossings to Brazilian soldiers, who were plagued by disease and guerilla warfare to be run down in battle by Paraguayan cavalry. Bolivia's army defeated Chile's in Antofagasta and the Chilean navy was defeated by the navies of Bolivia and Peru. Bolivia participated in the Brazilian war in Mato Grosso, while Uruguay put up a tenacious resistance and Patagonia prevented much Platinian progress elsewhere. Towards the end of the war, Brazil collapsed into civil war as the Republic of Rio Grande do Sul seceded.
Today, Paraguay is a prosperous nation of 16 states and a federal district.
The colours of the flag represent (from the bottom up) religion, liberty, and independence. The values on which the federation was founded. Another interpretation is that it represents the sun, the rivers, and the land.
