PARAGUAY was one of the foremost countries in Latin America to accomplish freedom. Its history from the time when the Spanish arrived in 1537 suggests images of marvelous sacrifice and distress in the midst of lush vegetation.

Due to its small population and poverty, nevertheless, its weight amongst the nations of the contemporary world is small. At the era of the Spanish capture in the middle of 1500s, Paraguay was the second largest in the Spanish authority in the South America later than Peru. But its superiority as a colony did not last long because it produces gold or silver. Ultimately, however, lack in the country of precious minerals proved a blessing, allowing Paraguay break away from the dreadfulness of slavery to overcome in the mines of Mexico and Peru. The Spanish settlement and conquest proceeded in Paraguay more human than the rest of Spanish America.

Country's basic individuality was determined during the first decades of European domination and has intensified the Republic of Paraguay after liberty in 1811. The country has a social structure largely egalitarian. Its population is relatively homogeneous mestizo Spanish culture and religion but speaks the indigenous language, Guarani, at home. It also has a tradition of authoritarian governments and a consequent lack of democratic institutions.

Partly because of its isolation, Paraguay never had a big European population. The first colonial governor urged the Spanish to take Indian wives to help which take your mind back to Spain, to resolve the problem of shortage of European ladies, and to promote nonviolent relations involving the small, exposed, European colony and its neighbors are many Indians. Neither the Spanish nor Indian needed any insistence, however, as mixed unions dominated from the beginning. First dictator of Paraguay, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, and a criollo who suspected his own Creole upper class, strengthened this pattern of marry Indians. France forced the elite to marry Indian women; their lands confiscated, and broke their power.