According to EXISTINGCOUNTRIES, the first period in the history of Paraguay from the organization of the colony by Martínez de Irala (see above: Explorations) until 1617 is closely linked with the history of today’s Argentina with which it constituted a single, enormous colony, governed by a single adelantado first, and then, from 1591, by a single governor: even if, after the reconstruction of Buenos Aires in 1580, by Juan de Garay, and the transfer of the governor’s residence to the latter city, it was true and Paraguay himself, for seven years, from 1584 to 1591, a substitute for the adelantado of Buenos Aires, in the person of Alonso de Vera, grandson of the adelantado Juan Torres de Vera. Only on November 16, 1617 did a subdivision of the enormous territory come about. The Río de la Plata separated from Paraguay with the cities of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Corrientes, Concepción del Bermejo, and the centers of Asunción, Ciudad Real, Villarrica, Jerez were given to Paraguay, with the name of Guayra. The first governor of this new Paraguay, which depended on the viceroy of Peru, was Manuel Frias, appointed on April 22, 1618.
During these years, the creation of the famous Jesuit missions began (see paraguay, missions of).
In the century XVIII the most important events were constituted by the struggles between the “comuneros” and the viceroys of Peru (Paraguay was still part of the viceroyalty of Peru): between 1731 and 1735 the revolt, suppressed in 1735, cost Asunción the loss of the privilege, which he had enjoyed until then, to appoint himself the governor. Then, when the viceroyalty of Río de la Plata was constituted in 1776, with its center in Buenos Aires, Paraguay became, in 1782, an “stewardship”. From 1803 onwards, the thirty “poblaciones” of the ex-Jesuit missions (the Jesuits had been expelled in 1769, with the 1767 decree of Charles III, King of Spain) constituted a separate Intendency.
In 1806 Bernardo de Velasco was appointed governor of the region whose first actions were to go to the rescue of Buenos Aires, threatened by the English, as well as to cooperate strongly in the triumph of Liniers. During this time, the insurrectional movement in the Rio-Plateau countries against Spain began. On May 25, 1810, the independence of Buenos Aires was proclaimed, whose supreme junta claims to have and to exercise jurisdiction over Paraguay. Faced with this move by the revolutionary authorities of Buenos Aires, Velasco gathers, on July 24, 1810, an assembly of notables which undertakes: to recognize the regency council that was seated in Spain, to live in fraternal agreement with the junta of Buenos Aires, without recognizing, however, any superiority; to organize a war junta to defend the country and an army of five or six thousand men to oppose that of Portugal which threatened the Paraguayan borders of the Río Uruguay. But as the tendency, led by José Gaspar Rodríguez of France, towards a Paraguayan national government, independent from that of Buenos Aires, was increasingly strengthened, the task that belonged to Paraguay was above all that of defending its independence and autonomy threatened by authoritarian propaganda of Buenos Aires. The consequence of this state of affairs was the invasion of Paraguay by the Argentine army commanded by Manuel Belgrano in September 1810; after several fights this Argentine column was defeated on January 20, 1811 and Manuel Belgrano was forced to retire, after a second defeat. This resistance opposed by the Paraguayans to the Argentine forces was caused and enlivened not by the feeling of subjection to Spain, but by not wanting Paraguay to fall into the power of Argentina. On May 14, 1811, the Paraguayans who wanted the republican regime, with complete independence from Spain, commanded by Pedro Juan Caballero, surprised the headquarters and, relying on the people, who fully joined the revolutionary movement, forced the government to accept, on May 15, the conditions set by the revolutionaries; these can be summarized in the obligation, made to the governor, to recognize a government committee which he himself presides over. After many intrigues, Bernardo da Velasco was dismissed, and the general council met for the first time on May 18. This congress, who modified the form of government, immediately sanctioned the good neighborhood policy with Buenos Aires, whose government hastened to recognize, in the broadest terms, the autonomy of the province of Paraguay (treaty of 12 October 1811). On 1 October 1813 the second General Congress met, made up of a thousand deputies elected by popular suffrage. The resolutions which this second Congress reached were: ratification of the country’s independence; adoption of the name “Republic of Paraguay”; drafting of a government regulation and transfer of executive power to two consuls. On 12 October, José Gaspar Rodríguez Francia and Fulgencio Yegros were appointed to this very high office, which was affected by Roman influence.
