Easy Tycoon

Chapter 878 The Roots of Poverty

The Boeing 737 roared and landed safely from the Silvio Pettirossi International Airport in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay.This airport, also called Asuncion International Airport, is one of the only two international airports in Paraguay and the largest airport in Paraguay.

Asunción is the capital of Paraguay, its largest city and one of the oldest cities in South America.

When the Spaniards arrived here on August 1537, 8, it coincided with the Catholic Assumption of the Virgin Mary.In Spanish, Asuncion is pronounced "Asuncion", so Asuncion became the name of the city.

In other words, the city has a history of more than 480 years!

However, although this city has a long history, it is really not very developed.Paraguay itself is one of the poorest countries in South America. As the only two landlocked countries in South America, Paraguay, like its neighbor Bolivia, is a country that is poor and unnecessary.

This country with a population of only 700 million people has a total annual GDP of less than 300 billion US dollars.However, Tianqu City, Yang Jing's hometown, has a population of 580 million and a total annual GDP of 470 billion US dollars!
In other words, the annual GDP of a fourth-tier city in China is 1.5 times that of Paraguay!
The poverty of Paraguay can be imagined.

In fact, there are not many major cities in Paraguay. Apart from Asunción, which has a population of more than 50, Oriente, located on the banks of the Paraná River, is the second largest city in Paraguay. The combined population accounts for one-eighth of the entire population of Paraguay!

As the capital of Paraguay, this city on the east bank of the Paraguay River does not have any high-rise buildings. The only few buildings are only about [-] stories high.
However, it is said that Asunción's river beaches are still very beautiful.Perhaps because Paraguay is an inland country, the residents here yearn for the beach very much, so they built a large number of beaches on the beach of the Paraguay River to imitate the beaches on the sea.

This matter, if you want to talk about it, it's really a bit sad, but there's no way, I really can't help it, if you want to blame it, you can blame Quaresma
In fact, Paraguay used to have access to the sea. From 19 to 1810 in the early 1825th century, the independent movement in Latin America forced Spain to give up its colonial rule over most Latin American countries.Paraguay, a Spanish colony, also declared independence in June 1811.

After becoming independent, Paraguay still had access to the sea on the west coast of the Atlantic Ocean, and at that time Paraguay also had a very outstanding president, Carlos Antonio Lopez.

The president replaced the dictatorship of the great dictator Francia in 1944 and became the new president of Paraguay.

During his tenure as president, Lopez vigorously carried out reforms. He sent his son Lopez Jr. as a representative mission to the United Kingdom, France, Italy and other countries, and vigorously recruited immigrants, and invited European technicians to inspect the military and purchase weapons.Under the painstaking efforts of President Lopez, the once barren Paraguay rose rapidly. He encouraged foreign trade and introduced a large amount of foreign capital; he invited engineers from the United Kingdom and Austria to help build railways, shipyards, and steel plants; he hired European and American doctors and engineers. personnel, opened factories and schools; in 1850, the National Grand Theater was also completed, and a Europeanized Paraguay appeared in Latin America as a powerful country.

But when Paraguay was booming, President Lopez died of illness, but before he died of illness, he did a thing that made him the only one in his life to become a stain. He put his son Francisco Solano Lopez was listed as the "statutory" successor, and the result was that Lopez Jr. became the new President of Paraguay.

In fact, President Lopez Jr. is also a very courageous person, but because this guy represented his father on missions to various European countries in the early days and gained more knowledge, his ambitions began to grow.

President Lopez Jr. had studied military affairs in Europe before, learned about new developments in military technology, and understood the importance of army building. He admired Napoleon Bonaparte, and he also highly respected the then French emperor Napoleon III.In Paris, Lopez met Elisa Lynch, a high-class courtesan Irish woman, who became Lopez's mistress.And when Lopez returned home, he brought back a large amount of weapons and military supplies, and brought Lynch back home. Lynch later had a strong influence on Lopez's ambitious plan.

Because of the diligence of the old President Lopez, when President Lopez Jr. took over, Paraguay had become the only country in South America without foreign debts. The strong economic strength made President López Jr.'s ambition even more inflated.

After President Lopez Jr. came to power, he began to vigorously expand his armaments. After he took office, he reorganized the 7000-strong army he inherited, and at the same time implemented a plan for rapid military expansion.

Because of his admiration for Napoleon, he asked his army to equip his army with Napoleon's uniform.Two years later, the total number of the Paraguayan army reached 3, and the army alone reached 5000, enough to confront Brazil and Argentina.

At this time, the Paraguayan army included 30 infantry battalions, 23 cavalry regiments and 4 artillery regiments.

In addition, Lopez Jr. also attached great importance to the construction of the navy, requiring domestic shipbuilding companies to build world-class steamships for use as warships, update naval equipment, and enhance naval power.This has greatly increased Paraguay's naval strength, with 1 sailor battalion and 1 artillery battalion, and the fleet uses steam ships.

And at this time, two years after Lopez Jr. came to power, in 1864, with the support of Argentina and Brazil, a coup took place in Uruguay. The leader of the Uruguayan Red Party, Venancio Flores, overthrew the President Bernardo Bello of Uruguay's White Party supported by Lopez.

Next, Brazil entered into the Uruguayan War and allied itself with Argentina.Judging that Brazil will soon concoct the Uruguayan model against Paraguay and overthrow his rule, Lopez Jr. decided to strike first.

In November 1964, Lopez Jr. declared war on Brazil, and the Paraguay War began.Soon, Argentina sided with Brazil and clashed with the Paraguayan army. Six months later, Paraguay officially declared war on Argentina again.

At that time, Lopez Jr. probably did not expect that a Uruguayan civil war would eventually evolve into the largest armed conflict on the South American continent.At that time, Paraguay was the most powerful in South America in terms of economic power and military power. Under the strong military oppression of Lopez Jr., Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay secretly held a war in Buenos Aires on May 1965, 5. Signed the Triple Alliance Treaty against Paraguay and formed the Triple Alliance.

Thus, the famous Paraguay War broke out.

At the beginning, even in the face of the Allied Forces of the Three Nations, Lopez Jr. was not afraid. After all, Paraguay's military strength was stronger than that of the other three countries at that time, and the beginning of the war also proved this.

A series of victories at the beginning of the war made Lopez Jr. ignore the logistical requirements of modern warfare. Although Paraguay’s military power has almost no rivals in South America, Paraguay’s strategic depth is too small. The most important thing is that the country’s population is too small. .The victory at the beginning of the war does not mean that Paraguay will win the war.

Therefore, as time progressed, the Paraguayan army, which was victorious on the battlefield at the beginning, gradually tasted the pain of insufficient logistics. Then the war began to shift from the early victory of the Paraguayan army to strategic defense. Finally, in 1970, The war lasted for seven years, and the four parties participated in a war with more than 50 troops. It ended with the death of 30 in Paraguay, 10 in Brazil, and 3 in Argentina.

This war turned all the previous efforts of the old President Lopez into nothing. Although Lopez Jr. still insisted on fighting guerrillas, the complete failure of Paraguay was inevitable.While Paraguay failed, the country also lost 15.4 square kilometers of land and access to the sea.

A war that completely changed the future of Paraguay!
If Lopez Jr. hadn't had such big ambitions, then based on the situation in Paraguay at the time, Paraguay might now be the most developed and richest country in South America, but it was because of the ambition of a dictator that a country in the future It has been unable to raise its head for 150 years and has become one of the two poorest countries in South America.

And because of the loss of the sea, the country was completely trapped in the tropical rainforest in the interior of South America.The residents here have even turned the river beach into a beach. What is it if it is not a tragedy?
There is an old Chinese proverb that goes well - if you forget the battle, you will be in danger, and if you are warlike, you will perish!

In fact, the war that should not have happened in Paraguay 150 years ago is a true portrayal of "warrior must die".

At this time, standing in Asunción, the city with the longest history in South America, Yang Jing, who knew this period of history, was helpless.

That war completely humiliated this beautiful city, completely ruined the development potential of this country, and became the root cause of poverty in this country.Although all this has nothing to do with Yang Jing, but now that he has come here and seen this city, Yang Jing, who is familiar with that period of history, can't help but feel embarrassed.

However, Yang Jing and the others will not stay in this city. After all, their purpose of coming here is not this city, but another small city called Ita.

Ita, a small city under the jurisdiction of the Central Province of Paraguay, is only 35 kilometers away from Asunción.Although this city may not look small, it has a very long history, only two years later than Suncion.

This small city, built in 1539, now has a population of more than 8. More than 60 years ago, Martin Bauman, who fled from Chascomus, Argentina to Paraguay again, died here after living in seclusion for four years. Stomach cancer, and the guy ended up buried in a cemetery in Ita
(End of this chapter)