AHC: Longer "Golden Age" in Paraguay

Okay, so this is going to have a lot of add-ons regarding bonus points here. With a POD no earlier than 1789, make it so that Paraguay (or some Paraguay-like entity centered roughly around Asuncion, due to the POD) remains one of the most developed countries in South America.

Bonus points if:
1) The POD is after Paraguayan independence
2) You manage to wank Paraguay (tricky, and hence why it's a secondary goal. The primary goal is development like that which occurred under Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia, not territorial enlargement.)
3) You manage it with the same people in power as OTL (especially Solano Lopez, that'd be an interesting challenge).
4) You manage to make Paraguay democratic by, let's say, 1850 at the latest.
5) You manage to make Paraguay a country with decent civil and political rights (again by 1850, but the country doesn't have to fulfill number 4- at least in terms of being democratic in the modern sense of the term.)
6) You recommend a good timeline with some similarities to this scenario.

Obviously you don't have to fulfill all the bonuses, as some seem like they very well may be contradictory (though I congratulate you if you can). Just take some (or all, or none) and run with them.
 
Last edited:
It was doing relatively well economically in the early 19th century from a comparative point of view, and that's what I'm talking about. It doesn't have to be "developed" per se, just more developed (or at the very least on par with) other powers in the region of the era, and stay that way for as long as possible.

I realize I probably didn't use exactly the right terminology, but when I mention Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia and his policies, it should be obvious what I'm getting at. Paraguay doesn't have to be an economic powerhouse in this ATL (though again, that would be a nice plus) it just has to be doing markedly better than its counterpart in OTL.
 
And, while Paraguay may never have been specifically categorized as "developed" it was clear that his policies had the process of development in mind. This should probably be distinguished from it actually being a "developed" nation, but again, that's not quite what I meant when I said that, for which I apologize.

Actually, I take that back. Paraguay was furthest along (insofar as there's a "furthest along" to get to, I don't want to get called out for over-reliance on modernization theory) of almost all the former Spanish colonies in the early 1800s because it mostly avoided the centralist-federal squabbles. That of course excludes Brazil (yes, I know it was a Portuguese colony, just making clear that I'm specifying former Spanish colonies here) and maybe a few others like Chile, but I said "among the most developed," which does not necessarily imply developed, just that, you know, it was actually able to do something besides getting swallowed up by civil wars, so yeah, of course it did relatively well comparatively.
 
Last edited:
It was doing relatively well economically in the early 19th century from a comparative point of view, and that's what I'm talking about. It doesn't have to be "developed" per se, just more developed (or at the very least on par with) other powers in the region of the era, and stay that way for as long as possible.

I realize I probably didn't use exactly the right terminology, but when I mention Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia and his policies, it should be obvious what I'm getting at. Paraguay doesn't have to be an economic powerhouse in this ATL (though again, that would be a nice plus) it just has to be doing markedly better than its counterpart in OTL.
Aha, I thought you were referring to outdated Brazilian and Paraguayan historiography which put down Lopez's Paraguay as an autonomous and self-sufficient industrial powerhouse which was mercilessly destroyed by British minions in South America because of market share and to set an example.
 
OK, that makes sense. Sorry for getting snippy. My interpretation of events was that Paraguay was indeed insular, but that it still was doing relatively better than most of the new countries in former Spanish America. It was woefully behind in some ways, notably militarily.

If the boundary disputes that, in part, led to the War of the Triple Alliance can be solved peacefully by the younger Lopez or somebody else (maybe Francia appoints a successor?)it probably has a chance to be, even if slowly losing more ground to Argentina or Brazil (they simply had more land and more diverse climates and resources which naturally fueled their rise), at least a landlocked country that would do surprisingly well. I'm not talking about mass industry and steampunk Paraguay (though maybe I'll make a TL of that in the ASB forum if I can think of a good storyline- or even a bad one lol) just a Paraguay that doesn't get pummeled, or does get pummeled but manages to bounce back easily.
 
Top