Paraguay facing the political “World System” created by the Congress of Vienna (1811-1847)

Uwe Christian Plachetkaa, Lucy Arrayab1

DRAFT VERSION#2,

Summary

The congress of Vienna has the reputation of having producedthe so-called Congress system within the internationalrelations among the European polities, however it hadinternational dimensions as well. This “Congress system” couldhave had boundaries that can be drawn on the maps of ahistorical atlas. Therefore a modern version of the WorldSystem approach is paradigmatically adapted to that issue.People living beyond these boundaries were somehow consideredas outcasts, such as Paraguay, which developed her nationalismeven before the US revolution of independence. The focus of thepresent paper lies with the interpretation of the termsovereignty especially those of citizens and nation states inthe context of the abolition of slave trafficking by theCongress of Vienna and the consequences for Paraguay as anation-state. The concept of sovereignty allows a less romanticinterpretation of this miracle than the explanations derivedfrom the philanthropy in Great Britain and the deeds ofWilberforce, which should be considered as tales for thechimney corner. Anyway, the congress system didn’t accept themodern concept of sovereignty at all, which caused severalproblems with the legacy of medieval law even after the end ofthe Congress system in Europe and in South America, eventuallya new approach is searched for, in order to a new approach forexplaining Paraguay’s Armageddon, the war of the TripleAlliance (1864-70).

Resumen

1 The present paper is the previous version of a paper submitted to theZeitschrift für Weltgeschichte, reportedly peer-reviewed and accepted. The affiliation of the authors are (a) University of Life science Vienna – Risk Research, (b) Historiadora, Abogada internaciónalista y politóloga Universidad Católica Santo Domingo (UCSD), Dominican Republic – Santo Domingo

1

El congreso de Viena tiene la reputación de haber producido elllamado sistema de los Congresos políticos dentro de lasrelaciones internacionales entre las unidades políticaseuropeas, sin embargo, tenía dimensiones internacionales. Este"sistema Congreso" podría haber tenido límites que se puedenextraer en los mapas de un atlas histórico. Las personas queviven más allá de estos límites fueron considerados de algunamanera como parias, como China que fue victimo de la guerra delOpio y el caso mas complejo de Paraguay, que ya desarolló sunacionalismo, años antes de la revolución de la independenciade los Estados Unidos. El enfoque del mismo artículo es lainterpretación de la soberanidad de las ciudadanos y estadosnaciónales frente a la cuestión de la abolición de laesclavitud por el congreso de Viena que permite una explicaciónmenos romántico que la interpretación a través de lafilantropía de Wilberforce y permite tambien el reconocimientode las problemas del mismo sistema del congresos por sureconocimiento parcial del concepto moderno de la soberanidad.El pobre Paraguay fue posiblemente considerado como un paísubicado detrás de la linea de la llamada civilización.

Advertencia general: Nadie de los autores del mismo artículo esnativohablantes del inglés. Por eso los lectoresnativohablantes estan invitados a prestar su empatíaintercultural porque cualquier revisión y perfección de laidioma usada en el presente artículo quedando conveniente a lasnormas lingüisticas de discursos académicos signífica gastosenormes especialmente a los países del Europa oriental.

Table of content

Summary......................................................1Resumen......................................................1Introduction.................................................3Basic traits of the “Viennese system”.......................3Some remarks on World System research beyond the strands of Wallerstein.................................................4Paraguay’s place as autochthonous South American nation statewithin the post-Napoleonic world............................6

Material and Methodology.....................................9Results.....................................................10Interpretation: The broad perspective of macro-history.....11

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The principles of the Congress System and Britain’s clandestine opposition.....................................12Paraguay: A nation before the congress system..............16Henry Kissinger’s lessons learned from the Congress System.........................................................17Hypothesis to explain Paraguayan nationalism.............18

Searching for the roots of the nation of Paraguay..........19Discussion: The Congress of Vienna and its World System.....20Conclusion..................................................22

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Introduction

The year of 1809 was the year to start formal international

relations between the Empire of Russia and the USA. Afterwards

Tsar Alexander I. offered the USA to join the Holy Alliance

provided that the USA don’t object any re-conquest of the

former Spanish colonies in America south of the Rio Bravo del

Norte. Due to frictions concerning fur trade in Oregon and an

expansion of the Russian trade monopoly in Alaska the US

president Monroe issued the so-called Monroe doctrine insisting

that the USA will resist any interventions of the Old World

powers in the Americas2. The remarkable idea of the Tsar to get

the USA the ideological seedbed of the French revolution

integrated into the Holy Alliance indicate some frictions

within the system. Small, landlocked Paraguay was already a

nation-state.

Basic traits of the “Viennese system”

The Viennese system as a result of the Congress of Vienna and

the congresses following up is interpreted here as a system of

collective security by means of conferences to search political

consent among the great powers in Europe. It is supposed that

it should not only reconstruct the political landscape of

Europe after the Napoleonic wars but was also likely to put an

end to the perennial struggles and wars over the European2 Gottfried-Karl KINDERMANN: Der Aufstieg Ostasiens in der Weltpolitik

1840–2000. Stuttgart 2001, pp.53-54 (Dates at which web documents are checked are given by the Continental European format (day, month, year).

4

balance of power during the 18th century. The patterns of

international order were changed:

(1) With the 30 year’s war in Europe (1618-1648) the so-

called Medieval universalism was replaced by the so-called

Westphalian states and their international relations,

which are the modern sovereign states at their infancy.

The prominent historical figures of this period were

Richelieu, William of Orange and Pitt.

(2) As a response to the Napoleonic wars, the Viennese

System developed the so-called “Concert of Europe” but

only within Europe, the oversea territories were not that

subject to this system which was based on principles of

interaction and mutual acceptance as players on the

European and Global chess board. The chief principles were

that of legitimacy and balance of power. In brief, the

system didn’t want to repress revolutionists and liberals

only, as liberal historians say, it want to replace war by

diplomacy which becomes visible due to the pending war

risk between Spain and Portugal concerning the question of

supremacy over Montevideo in the River Plate region, an

issue that preceded the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle

(Aachen) in 1818. Evidences for this pending war were

found in the archive of the Habsburg Empire, the Haus-Hof-

und Staatsarchiv (HHSTA in Vienna).

(3) The open question was the integration of the USA in

such a System, as the USA were the result of a revolution

similar to the French Revolution but without

totalitarianism (Rousseau’s volontée generale). Whereas the

powers were keen to suppress some national uprisings until

5

the Greek revolution and the Monroe doctrine of the USA

since the so-called Quadruple alliance it became clear

that Great Britain was heading towards a gradual exit, as

Great Britain didn’t join the Holy Alliance. It seems as

if the gradient of socioeconomic development stretching

from the Western edge of Europe (Great Britain) to the

Eastern End of Europe (Russia) was steep enough that

Britain would have possibly acted against her own national

interests when supporting the politics of the Holy

Alliance.

(4) This system was somehow challenged by the politics of

Napoleon III of France and especially Germany’s Otto von

Bismarck both representing what is now seen as a policy of

“revisionist powers”. Especially Bismarck was seen as a

revolutionary according to the school of political

sciences represented by Henry A. Kissinger due to

Bismarck’s commitment to national interests.

The question is therefore: Was the congress system a kind of

“international World Order” in Europe and hence a code of

conduct within a specific level of interaction of a World

System?

Some remarks on World System research beyond the strands of Wallerstein

In terms of World System research the question arose whether

the system of the Congress of Vienna was just a level of

interaction of a World System. The World System approach beyond

the strands of Immanuel Wallerstein has been developed within

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Journal for World System Research (JWSR), eventually culminating with

the „cliodynamic turn“3:

At least World Systems are networks operating on the

following levels (i-iv): (i) the level of information exchange,

such as the present social networks such as Facebook, (ii) the

level of Political and Military Interaction, (iii) prestige

good exchange and (iv) Bulk good exchange4. Empires are World

Systems brought under a central authority’s aegis. Their

toolbox of power strategies oscillate between hegemonic power

and direct territorial control5: Brian S. Bauer, Alan Covey

and their approach to Inca archaeology make the gradient of

imperial power palpable in terms of the Empire’s regional

agency. The evidences for doing so are remains of ceramics as

if they were the specific business cards of each of groups in

presence there along a transect drawn around the hub of the

imperial network system, so that the distribution ratio of

imperial ceramics to local ceramics give proxy data for the

gradient of imperial agency6. To historians matter the remains

of political communication, which are stored in archives as

reminders of the system of political communication. In both

cases the agency of polities is depending on their specific

economic power7. 3 Peter TURCHIN: Arise Cliodynamics in: Nature 454 (3 July 2008),pp.34-

354 Peter TURCHIN, Thomas D. HALL: Spatial Synchronity among and within

World Systems: Insights from Theoretical Ecology in JWSR 9(1) (2003), pp. 37-64

5 Terence N. D’ALTROY: The Incas, Malden, Oxford, Victoria 2002, pp.6-9,Darrel LA LONE: Rise, Fall and Semipheripheral Development in the Andean World System” in JWSR 6(1) (2000), pp.67-98

6 Z.B. Alan R. COVEY, Brian S. BAUER et.al.: Regional Perspectives on Wari state influence in Cusco, Peru in: Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 32 (2013), pp.538-552

7 Paul KENNEDY: Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, New York 1987

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Münkler defines Empires by criteria such as the

„Augusteian threshold“ derived from the Roman Empire as a

blueprint for the evolution of Empires, and the frontier.

People living beyond the frontier were considered as

“barbarians” that means “uncivilized” people whose ways of life

don’t match the patterns of civilization, however it’s the

Empire to define what a civilized way of life has to be. To

address people living beyond the frontier the Empire needs an

imperial mission statement, addressed also to the imperial subjects

or citizens. Hegemonic powers don’t need an ideology, Empires

cannot do without8. Hence Empires are required to replace hard

power by soft power or at least add soft power such as a hegemonic

ideology or leadership or “cultural standards” (Leitkultur in

German). Since people beyond the frontier are ideologically

defined as „barbarians“ soft power, such as the missions of the

Jesuits in Paraguay (the so-called Jesuit state) were to

accomplish a mission of getting them “civilized” at the

frontier of the Spanish Empire.

Münkler, whose role model of Empires is the Roman Empire,

replaced the usual master narrative of „rise and fall“of

Empires9 by the cycle of political hegemony in a Non-Gramscian

sense, similar to the hegemonic cycles within World Systems10.

Empires may match political and military interactions with

trade networks. Such Empires can integrate cores of preceding

8 Herwig MÜNKLER: Imperien. Die Logik der Weltherrschaft vom alten Rom bis zu den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, Berlin 22008,pp.132-33

9 For instance: Joseph TAINTER: The collapse of complex societies, Cambridge 1988

10 TURCHIN, HALL: Synchonity (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source notfound)

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Empires viz. World Systems11. The European Empires of the 19th

century had been nation-states with colonies; however the

European Union (EU) emerged out of the smouldering ashes of the

imperialistic nations having eliminated each other during the

two World Wars. Therefore the EU doesn’t match Münkler’s

patterns but was the result of the implosion of the ancient

system within Europe based on the balance of power among

rivalling polities being cores of their specific sea-borne

“Empires” with the exception of the powers of Eastern Europe

especially Russia and her vast land-based Empire. The

evolutionary pathway of the European Union may be compared by

means of system theory with that of the Inca Empire if, and

only if, marginal documents and proxy data from paleo-ecology

and climatology are taken into account. Doing so, the

skyrocketing rise of Inca power can be explained by their

competence of restoration ecology to mitigate the impacts of

the Medieval Climatic Anomaly12 in the Andean highlands13.

Anyway, both are in need of a credible imperial mission statement

at the beginning of their career in time, not in the phase of

consolidation.

The common hypothesis concerning the congress of Vienna

and its legacy is that the Congress system developed due to the

congress of Vienna was a political communication system for

11 Greg WOLOF: World System analysis and the Roman Empire in: Journal of Roman archaeology 3 (1990), pp.44-58, and Thomas D. HALL, Nick P. KARDULIAS, Christopher CHASE-DUNN: World-System Analysis and Archaeology: Continuing the Dialogue in: Journal of Archaeological Research 19 (2011), pp. 233-279

12 To South-East Asia the MCA meant a bontiful time as to Europe: VictorLIEBERMANN: Strange Parallels. Bd 1, Cambridge, New York et. al 2003,pp.109-111

13 Uwe C. PLACHETKA: Die Inka, das Imperium, das aus der Kälte kam, Frankfurt am Main, New York 2011

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peace keeping. To check this hypothesis the frontier of this

system has to be plotted both in space and time and wars at

these frontiers are to be analysed in the context of that

frontier. The Opium wars against China (1839-42 und 1856-60)

are interpreted by political scientists as violent actions to

compel China’s adoptingthe Viennese system what implied the

residents of foreign ambassadors in Beijing close to the so-

called Forbidden City, the sacred space of the Emperor’s

palace14. The real issue had been Chinese restrictions on

British opium trafficking. Other significant conflicts at the

frontier of the Congress system were the Crimean war and

Paraguay’s Great War or the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-

1870) against the First Republic of Paraguay.

Paraguay’s place as autochthonous South American nation state within the post-Napoleonic world

It was just Austria, a key power of the then fading away Holy

Alliance to recognize Paraguay’s sovereignty in 1847. Austria

was the first European power to do so. The political reports of

the Austrian embassy in Rio de Janeiro had been already revised

for an investigation on Paraguay which was, according to the

state of the art at the end of the 20th century, considered as

a bi-cultural country15. Once the longitudinal history of

Paraguay is put under the spectrometer of the principles of the

Congress of Vienna, the respective “Fraunhofer lines” reveal

new evidences.

14 KINDERMANN: Aufstieg (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not found) S.29-39

15 Uwe C. PLACHETKA: Paraguay im Lichte des normativen und interaktiven Multikulturalismus in: Wiener ethnohistorische Blätter 44 (1999), pp.3-

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The political developments culminating with the Congress

of Vienna had started with Napoleon’s retreat from Russia – the

Moscow debacle16, going along with the process of Latin

American emancipation: In the year of 1808 Napoleon made his

brother Joseph King of Spain by which the Spanish war of

independence started (1808-1813). By the year of 1809 Napoleon

expected the USA to propel the independence of Latin America17.

The next year, 1810 was the year of the Junta of Buenos

Aires to govern the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata. The

response to this step was Paraguay’s independence in 1810-11.

Dr. Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia and his associate Fulgencio

Yegros proposed Paraguay’s autonomy and hence independence. In

1812 the war between Great Britain and the USA demonstrated the

impossibility of any British re-conquest of the USA, whereas

the Venezuelan army of freedom fighters were defeated by Spain.

Meanwhile the first treaty of peace of Paris paved the

avenue to the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15 while the Spanish

King Fernando VII promoted the Reconquista of “New Granada” on

the South American continent. In 1816 the congress of Tucumán

had political negotiations between the Junta of Buenos Aires

and the representatives of the remote and rural provinces of

the viceroyalty of La Plata, searching a way to implement a

constitutional monarchy, including Bolivia and Paraguay. Both

of these countries rejected such ideas. Belgrano had the idea

to restore the Inca monarchy due to the principle of

legitimacy, stipulated by the Congress of Vienna. This idea was

4916 Reinhard STAUBER: Der Wiener Kongress, Wien, Köln, Weimar 2014,pp.19-

3417 Herbert KLEINLERCHER: Monarchieprojekte und Monarchien in der neuen

Welt, Dissertation University of Vienna 2008,S.57-64

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rejected, but republican systems that did work were not

available18. Spain did attempt to get back her colonies but

since the congress of Aix la Chapelle (Aachen) in the year of

1818 such ideas found Great Britain’s profound opposition19.

Great Britain stipulated terms on which she would be ready for

negotiating between Spain and the American “rebels”. These

terms included full citizenship for the Spanish-Americans, free

trade and the abolition of slavery, in brief words these claims

meant the end of the status of Spanish-America as a colony. The

unclear status of the junta of Buenos Aires produced several

quarrels in the aftermath20. The government of Buenos Aires

claimed suzerainty of the republiquetas of the erstwhile

viceroyalty of La Plata. To secure her governance and what the

government in Buenos Aires called civilization European

immigration should became fostered and promoted, that just is

biopolitics, a fuzzy term which will be explained in the

context of the abolition of slavery by the Congress of Vienna.

One may conclude that biopolitics in that case is a euphemism

for racism, as a matter of fact it became a chief momentum of

the history of Argentine.

18 Ibid. S.89-9119 Heinz DIETERICH: Produktionsverhältnisse in Lateinamerika, Gießen

21981,pp.217-22620 Mark JARRETT: The Congress of Vienna and its Legacy, London; New York

2014, pp.197-8, see the archive of the Austrian Empire in Vienna (Haus Hof und Staatsarchiv, HHST), system in German: Staatskanzlei, political reports (Gesandtschaftsberichte) Spain, Box 148 [185], Folder 9 (1817-18), #21 and, concerning the tensions between Britain and Russia caused by the issue of South America: Manfred KOSSOK: Im Schatten der Heiligen Allianz. Deutschland und Lateinamerika 1815-30, Berlin 1964, pp.48-137

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Consequently these aspects are not just a side note of history

but a core note according to the seminal work by Darcy

Ribeiro21.

The issue of slavery requires a biopolitical approach in

the sense of Michel Foucault and some disciples of him22,

derived from conceptions such as exteriority and sovereignty.

Argentine’s nationalist philosopher, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento

promoted the idea of European immigration to Argentine as a

vehicle towards what he considered as civilization in the 19th

century rejecting both the Spanish and autochthonous American

legacy as „Barbary“23, a provocation to Paraguay: Gaspar

Rodriguez de Francia (r. 1814-40) got a popular, extra-

parliamentary mandate by people’s congresses among Guarani-

speaking peasants and other representatives of the “clasas

populares” in Yaguaron declaring a „revolución popular“ to

take power as a dictator. His successor Carlos Antonio López

(r.1844-62) and Francisco Solano López (r.1862-70) were somehow

autocrats until Paraguay was ruined in the war of the Triple-

Allianza (Argentine, Brazil and Uruguay (1864-1870) losing the

lives of 2/3 of her pre-war population24. This just was

21 Darcy RIBEIRO: Las Americas y la civilización (Biblioteca Ayacucho 180) Caracas-Venezuela 1992, German translation of the Brazilian editionin 1977 by Manfed Wöhlke: Amerika und die Zivilisation, suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1985, pp. 546-576, see also: Tullio HALPERIN DONGHI: Historia contemporanea de America Latina, Madrid 131990,pp.18-394

22 Achille MBEMBE: Necropolitics German edition „Nekropolitik“ in: Andreas Folkes; Thomas Lembke (Ed.) Biopolitik, Frankfurt am Main 2014, pp.228-276

23 Verónica OELSNER: Die europäische Einwanderung in Argentinien 1810-1914. Politikkonzepte, staatliche Förderung und Auswirkungen auf die argentinische Arbeitswelt, URL:http://www.europa.clio-online.de/site/lang__de/ItemID__254/mid__12214/40208774/Default.aspx (retrieved 20.3.2015)

24 Thomas L. WHIGHAM, Barbara POTTHAST : The Paraguayan Rosetta Stone. New Insights into the demographics of the Paraguayan war 1864-70 in Latin

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genocide; therefore the reasons for that war are far from being

clear25. Paraguay as a role model for autonomous development

was an idea stemming from dependency theory and was rejected at

least in Germany during the 1980ies26; however the question of

Paraguay’s sovereignty was related to foreign politics of

Austria, but ignored by the disciples of dependency theory.

The Austrian documents on the independence of Paraguay may

allow a bio-political interpretation27.

Material and MethodologyThe reviewed documents concerning the Austrian recognition of

Paraguay’s sovereignty in the year of 1847 are situated in the

archive of the Austrian Empire. The German terms are: Haus- Hof-

und Staatsarchiv, Staatskanzlei Brasilien, (St.K.) Karton 28 und 29, (=Box 28

and 29) and in the political archive, in German Politisches Archiv

(P.A.) Liasse XXXVI: Brasilien, Kartons (=Boxes) Nr. 8-10. The

key documents are in folders with headers such as Varia de Brésil

or Affairs de la Plata. These documents may have been beyond the

„comprehension scope“ of the Austrian politicians during those

times. The political communication was cited according to the

original file numbers and by the system Caj(ón), Leg(ajo); the

American Research Review 34 (1) (1999), pp. 174-18625 The state of the art among German historians is given here: Ralph

ROTTE: Paraguays „Guerra Grande“ gegen die Triple-Allianz 1864-1870: Diskussionspapier, Aachen 2009 online: http://www.ipw.rwth-aachen.de/pub/paper/paper_33.pdf (Retrieved at 21.3.2015)

26 Jürgen SCHNEIDER: Wirtschaft und Außenhandel in den ersten fünfzig Jahren nach der Unabhängigkeit in: Titus Heydenreich et.al.(Ed.): Lateinamerika Studien 14: Paraguay, München 1984,S.131-146 see also David LANDES: The wealth and poverty of Nations, German edition used here: Wohlstand und Armut der Nationen (transl. Enderwitz, Noll, Schubert) München 1999,pp.341-4

27 Concerning “Biopower” in German: WIKIPEDIA http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bio-Macht (checked at 21.March 2015)

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term legajo refers to those folders28. After my field trip to

Asunción and Eastern Paraguay in the course of a field trip

there29. The findings had been elaborated between the year of

1998 and 2000 at Berlin. Preliminary results of the research

were published in the former series of the journal Américas of

the Vienna association for Continental America and the

Carribeans (“Konak-Wien”)30. In the course of a later project

Samaipata as a part of the Inca limes against the eastern part

of the Guaranis could be visited in 200631, as the Guarani

tried to invade the Inca Empire there32. This way a

longitudinal history of Paraguay and the entire region was

reconstructed to indicate the issues of conflict between

Paraguay and the ruling World System.

ResultsThe Paraguayan president Carlos Antonio López mentions in his

letter of thanks to the Austrian emperor Ferdinand that he is

grateful that His Apostolic Majesty (i.e. Ferdinand) endorses

the Paraguayan revolución popular“33, what he didn’t mention to

Metternich. This throws new light on Emperor Ferdinand who was

called “benign” in the Austrian historiography to indicate that

28 Uwe C. PLACHETKA: Die Kulturgruppenexogamie in Mythos und Praxis, Dissertation, Wien 1998, S. 260-68 und ders.: Paraguay (see Footnote Nr.Error: Reference source not found), pp.28-30

29 Uwe C. PLACHETKA: Multikulturalismus und Kannibalismus am Beispiel der Tupí-Guarani, in: Mitteilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft Wien 127 (1997), pp.111-119

30 Uwe C. PLACHETKA: Comuneros zur revolución popular in Américas 15 (2000), pp.59-69

31 PLACHETKA: Inka (see Footnote Nr.Error: Reference source not found) pp.167-8

32 Martii PÄRSINEN, Ari SIIRIÄNEN: Andes Orientales y Amazonas Occidental, La Paz 2003, pp.213-38

33 LOPEZ an Ferdinand, St.K. Brasilien, Caj. 28, leg. 3 „Varia de Brasil“

15

he was mad. Therefore his policy is in need of a profound

revision.

Argentine’s note of protest sent in 1849 was just the

tabloid of the newspaper British Packet and Argentine News declared as

Argentine’s official note of protest against Austria’s official

acknowledgement of Paraguay’s sovereignty34. The Austrian

ambassador to the imperial court of Brazil, Sonnleithner

considered that as a note privée, that means informal

information35. Anyway, the British paper accuses Austria to

export the revolution of 1848 to South America. If Austria and

Brazil give guarantees to the borders of Paraguay, Great

Britain guarantees the borders of Argentine. Lopez’s response

was a political Aide Memoire, that Paraguay’s sovereignty36 is

derived from a people’s sovereignty. Paraguay as a nation state

was hence the result of the „revolución popular“– exactly what

White reportedly failed to identify in his famous book37. This

means that the origins of Paraguay’s nationalism are to be

traced. For doing so the Berlin Compendium38, a work written

for the Jesuit historian Charlevoix is a key source: The revolt

of the comuneros in Paraguay (1721-35) now known as the second

revolt of the comuneros (the first was against the rule of

Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca as gouvernor of Paraguay (r. 1540-

34 BRITISH PACKET AND ARGENTINE NEWS Nr. 1209, 27. Oktober 1849, in Sonnleithner, Rapport 46/ 17.Dez. 1849, P.A. Caj. 8, folio193v

35 PLACHETKA: Kulturgruppenexogamie (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not found) S.263

36 Bernardino BAEZ: A republica de Paraguay e o governador de Buenos Ayres, Rosas a discusão... Rio de Janeiro 1849, pp.31-33 sent to Vienna as attachment of political reports

37 Richard Allan WHITE: La primera revolución popular en América, Asunción 21989

38 PRUSSIAN ROYAL LIBRARY =PREUSSISCHE STAATSBIBLIOTHEK, Manuscripts, Codex Phillips 1947

16

1544) to be discussed later) turned into a revolution in 1730

due to the actions of Fernando Mompo y Zayas (mentioned as

Mompox or Mompo) who showed up in Paraguay while the dethroned

governor Antequera was in prison in Lima: With Mompo the idea

of people’s sovereignty spread like wildfire among colleges of

law.

After the defeat of the comuneros nationalist feelings

among the people of Paraguay may have been predominant. Felix

de Azara who started scientific expeditions in this region in

1781 noted the total ignorance of the Paraguayans concerning

the caste system imposed by the „Sanción pragmática“ issued by

the Spanish King Carlos III of Bourbon in order to prohibit

non-equal or heterogeneous marriages. „Racial“ hierarchies were

portrayed in a series of „casta pictures“ (cuadros de las castas) to

identify the category of a person due to her or his parents39.

Francias’ law to enforce heterogeneous marriages and to

prohibit „racial incest“ is to be interpreted in the context of

external political pressure against Paraguay to give up her

sovereignty, the historian Somellera and Pedro de Angelis were

involved in such actions40 during the first years of Paraguay’s

independence.

In terms of international relations which didn’t really

matter to Francia, Carlos Antonio López was following Brazil

and therefore the powers of the Holy Alliance which was quite39 Richard KONETZKE (Hg): Colección de obras y documentos inéditos para la

historia de la formación social de Hispanoamerica 1493-1810 Vol. 3, Madrid 1962 pp.438-442; referred to by PLACHETKA: Kulturgruppenexogamie (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not found) p.250. On the castesystem ibid. pp. 219-20

40 Notes are provided by Wisner v. Morgenstern and Rennger’s Essai Historique, whereas Sommelera und Washburn are not trustworthy concerning that issue (Plachetka: Comuneros, see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not found pp. 80-107).

17

rotten in those days; however due to slavery Brazil has always

had quarrels with Great Britain. Austria condemned slavery as

well, but could not proceed an overt anti-slavery policy (the

respective political reports are marked as reserved, that means

declared as off records).

The causes concerning the outbreak of the war of the Triple

Alliance started by Francisco Solano López (1864-70) were not

passed to Austria, but it was Francisco Solano López himself to

argue that any shift in the balance of power in the mouth of

the River plate is a casus bellum41.

Interpretation: The broad perspective of macro-history

The Congress of Vienna achieved a de-globalization of

international relations to maintain peace in Europe42, which

means the core of the forthcoming World System of 19th

century’s the imperial age. Great Britain want to keep the

continent quiet, however the principle of the balance of power

predates the congress of Vienna43, who developed rules of

political communication including the recognition of new

polities as sovereign states. Some authors of the World System

approach44 underestimate the tremendous impact of the Congress

of Vienna45, whereas the calamities caused by 20 century

nationalism apologize the anti-nationalist attitudes of the41 Diego ABENTE: The war of the Triple Alliance: Three Explanatory Models

in: Latin American Research Review 22 (2) (1987), pp.47-6942 STAUBER: Kongress (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not found)

pp.247-5. 43 Arno STROHMEYER: Theorie der Interaktion. Das europäische Gleichgewicht

der Kräfte in der Frühen Neuzeit; Wien, Köln, Weimar 199444 Peter FELDBAUER, Bernd HAUSBERGER, Jean-Paul LEHNERS: Globalgeschichte in:

Bernd Hausberger, Jean Paul Lehners (Hg) Globalgeschichte: Die Welt im 18. Jahrhundert, Wien 2011,pp.7-11

18

statesmen at the congress46. Paraguay was an exception due to

the mestizos (mancebos de la tierra) as that kind of population

that made Paraguay a nation47, so that the Argentine

philosopher Juan Bautista Alberdi48 recognized the

totalitarianism of Argentine’s liberalism focusing on European

immigrants as sole agents to spread was then considered as

development towards civilization and, in the case of Argentine,

modern statehood49.

The principles of the Congress System and Britain’s clandestine

opposition

Britain’s opposition against the Congress system became evident

in the context of the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle 1818 due to

the fact that the Latin American revolutionaries should not

have been punished and Spain was somehow not allowed any

attempt to re-conquest her former colonies even before the USA

issued her objectives by the Monroe Declaration. Anyway, since

when Britain did oppose?

45 For instance: Michael MANN (ed): Globalgeschichte: Die Welt im 19. Jahrhundert, Wien 2009

46 Niall FERGUSON: War of the World. German edition used here: Krieg der Welt. Was ging schief im 20. Jahrhundert? (transl. Klaus-Dieter Schmidt und Klaus Binder), Berlin 2014, pp.30-52

47 For instance: Branislava SUSNIK: Una visión socio-antropological del Paraguay del Siglo XVIII, Asunción 1991, dies. Una visión socio-antropological del Paraguay del Siglo XIX, Primera parte, Asunción 1992,the Spaniards depended on the Guaranies (Plachetka, see Footnote Nr.Error: Reference source not found).

48 http://www.argentina-rree.com/6/6-037.htm und http://www.elhistoriador.com.ar/articulos/organizacion_nacional/guerra_de_la_triple_alianza.php (retrieved:18.Mai 2015)

49 Concerning the Agency of World Systems viz. Empires see the context of Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not found et. seq.

19

During the sixth coalition war the Frankfurt proposals

offered Napoleon Bonaparte to stay emperor of France within her

natural borders. This idea was not acceptable to Great Britain

so that in a hitherto unparalleled action Castlereagh travelled

to the allied headquarter then in Switzerland to maintain

Britain’s influence on the coalition50. But Napoleon was

declined to accept such ideas, his stubbornness led to his

abdication at the first peace of Paris (May 30th, 1814). Some

Russian generals were reluctant to continue their march against

Napoleon’s heartland to keep Napoleon as a power outweighing

Britain which was then already undergoing the Industrial

Revolution, however these ideas are in need of verification.

Anyway, in Paris Castlereagh promoted the idea of a general

congress on the new political order of Europe to be held in

Vienna. Tsar Alexander, the King of Prussia, Wilhelm III and

the Austrian chancellor Metternich elaborated the agenda of the

congress in London51.

Napoleon’s escape from Elba and his last 100 days as

Emperor ended with his final defeat at Waterloo (1815), anyway

his last hurrah was a shock to the princes and dukes: They lent

their ears to some mystics and religious propaganda, gave up

the ideas of enlightenment and founded the so-called Holy

Alliance52, which is not identical with the system of the

congress of Vienna. The Viennese congress shaped the system of

international relations and politics which stayed valid until

1914. Britain was somehow part of it in spite of the “scramble

50 JARRETT Kongress (see Footnote Nr. 19). pp.48-5251 STAUBER: Kongress (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not

found) p.4252 JARRETT: Congress, (see Footnote Nr. 19) p.173

20

for Africa” and the “Great Game” in Central Asia. Until 1914 no

conflict on the periphery should affect the international

relations in Europe. Due to the complexity of that processes

the Austrian historian Stauber explains the key terms:

restoration, legitimacy53, the principle of monarchs and

intervention54. Restoration meant to get those monarchs on

their thrones, who were dethroned by Napoleon. Legitimacy meant

the opposite of the principle of revolution, it conserved some

political standards of the ancient regime but not a wholesale

roll back to the ancien régime. Defending the state of affairs ars

gratia artis did not start before 1819 whereas the patterns of

political communication during the congress seem to have

matched the patterns of „communicative rationality55.

Anyway, since Great Britain underwent the industrial

revolution and was the only great power to do so during those

days, it had to response to challenges that cannot be met by

principles of traditional legitimacy56. The principle of

sovereignty concerns issues of international law and can cause

conflicts with the principle of intervention.

53 This led to the idea to restore the Inca monarchy in South America’s cono sur. (KLEINLERCHER: Monarchieprojekte, (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not found) p. 95

54 STAUBER, Kongress (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not found)pp.11-18

55 JARRETT: Congress, (see Footnote Nr. 19) p.15456 STAUBER: Kongress (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not

found) p.14

21

The abolition of slave trafficking at the Congress of

Vienna in terms of bio-politics

The congress of Vienna prohibited slave-trafficking but the

related document is explicit: The German version says

„trafficking negroes“; in German: „Negerhandel“57: This means

that a black person (Negro) is per se a slave and therefore it

is correct to prohibit the usage of this term. In contrast to

some historians that search either moral moments for the

abolition of slave-trade (which is not the abolition of slavery

per se) or economic reasons, the new theory of bio-politics is

employed here to find an explanation, based on Mbembe’s

critique of the Black Reason58: The Black person was considered

as exterior59, which means a person without sovereignty or

dominion over her or his own life. The term exteriority had its

heydays with the philosopher Enrique Dussel, but Mbembe uses

this term in a different way: The black slaves were exterior to

the “web of civilized life”, therefore the juridical status of

a black person as slave is that of an object (in Latin: res,

57 UNITED NATIONS (Ed.): The declaration of the powers to abolish slave trafficking „Die Declaration der Mächte über die Abschaffung des Negerhandels“ (8. Februar 1815) in: Wiener Kongreßakte, # 15, online: http://www.staatsvertraege.de/Frieden1814-15/wka1815-i.htm (retrieved 10.1.2015)

58 Achille MBEMBE: Critique de la raison nègre (2013) German ed. Kritik der Schwarzen Vernunft, (trsl. Michael Bischoff), Frankfurt am Main 2014

59 Fictional ontology concerning the Amerindians has already challenged by Bartolome de las Casas during the controversy of Valladolid in 1550,however Black Persons did not benefit from this political change: Tzvetan TODOROV: The conquest of America, the question of the other, English version:, online: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/theory2012/JbmTh1NJHfE (retrieved 14.July 2015) German edition used here: Die Eroberung Amerikas. Das Problem des Anderen (transl. Wilhelm Böhringer), Frankfurtam Main 1985,pp.177-239,

22

not persona). Therefore the sovereignty of a “negro”, whom the

Congress of Vienna refused to consider as being a slave per

se,60 was with the slave-owner and not with the state. This

misplaced sovereignty is inconsistent with the so-called

monarchy principle, which refers in fact to the sovereign, who

is the citizen in a republic, so that Alexis de Tocqueville was

the first to highlight the conflict of a slave-holding

republic: No black person immigrated to the USA, they were

deported to the USA61. Exactly this issue is a key issue in the

approach by Micael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s book Empire

concerning the imperial dimension of the US constitution.

Slavery enforced the founding fathers of the USA to „quantify

races“62. This cynicism stems from the concept of the sovereign

citizens assuring their agency by social networks. Therefore

Tocqueville’s version of the democracy in the USA is feasible

on the frontier only, which hence must be empty – therefore the

manifest destiny meant a death sentence to the Amerindians. The

second aspect of people’s sovereignty is the US attitude

towards weapons as promoted by the National Rifle Association. The

British model has the queen as sovereign; however she cannot do

anything without the consent of the parliament. British

subjects defined themselves as free born English persons, who

had asserted their rights to be granted by the kings in a long

lasting and even violent process. This had to do with weapons

but those of the Hundred Year’s war (1335-1453, in fact 11860 UNITED NATIONS: Declaration, (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source

not found)61 The Democracy in America cf. MBEMBE: Kritik, (see Footnote Nr. Error:

Reference source not found) S.16062 Michael HARDT, Antonio NEGRI: Empire. (Cambridge, Mass. 2000) German

edition used here: Empire. Die neue Weltordnung, (trsl. Thomas Atzert, Andreas Wirthenson), Frankfurt/ Main 2003, S.183

23

years), where the British knights were lost without their

commons with the AK-47 of those times, the longbow. The

“English” victories of Crécy (1346), Poitiers (1356) and,

dramatized by Shakespeare, Agincourt (1415) had been the acid

test for the importance of the commons. The 100 year’s war led

to the emergence of English nationalism63, the separation of

England and France by cutting feudal ties concerning Aquitaine,

and the nationalism of France, represented by Joan of Arc.

Before the war, the people of Aquitaine could address the King

of France as the suzerain of the King of England – which meant

that the King of England was not a sovereign. In the case of

the 100 years’ war nationalism produced sovereignty.

This biopolitical interpretation can explain a paradox

risen by the Historian Dieter Langewiesche at his keynote

speech at the congress: The Congress of Vienna and its global

dimensions64 in Vienna 2014: The problem was that the congress

system did with monarchies and republics as members65: The

sovereign must be identifiable. This kind of sovereignty was

addressed by the principle of monarchism66; however the

sovereign had to be acknowledged in terms of international law.

Such decisions were left to the great powers, Great Britain,

France, Russia, Prussia and Austria.

The principle of legitimacy has limitations due to the

transfer of rights of sovereignty to the suzerain and this is

63 Barbara TUCHMAN: A distant mirror. The calamitous 14th century, New York 1987, John R. MORTIMER: Tactics, Strategy and Battlefield Formation during the Hundred Year’s war: The role of the long-bow in the “infantryrevolution” MA Thesis, University of Pennsylvania 2013

64 http://www.konak-wien.org/wienerkongress.htm (retrieved 14.3.2015)65 I was honored by the task of translating Langewiesche’s keynote into

Spanish. 66 To Metternich America was a republican peril.

24

the problem of the ill-fated La Plata confederation: The

Suzerain is a polity that adopts rights of sovereignty of

another polity. Suzerainty caused eventually the Neuenburg

scandal, analysed by Karl Marx under the title „The divine

right of the Hohenzollern dynasty“: The congress of Vienna

transformed the republic of Neuenburg from an ally of

Switzerland to a canton of Switzerland, Neuchâtel. The Prussian

King was still the suzerain who became literarily fired by the

people there due to republican principles. Prussia launched the

coup d’état of 1856, which was put an end to by the Swiss

army67. On the political stage this caused a diplomatic crisis

which motivated Marx to analyse the problem68:

Europe, just now, is interested in only one great question—that ofNeuenburg. That is to say, if we are to credit the Prussiannewspapers. The principality of Neuenburg, even if we include thecounty of Valangin, covers the modest area of about 220 squaremiles, but the royal philosophers of Berlin maintain that notquantity but quality is the determining factor in the greatnessand smallness of things, which stamps them as sublime orridiculous.The Neuenburg question, to them, embodies the eternal disputebetween Revolution and Divine Right, and this antagonism isinfluenced by geographical dimensions as little as the law ofgravitation by the difference between the sun and a tennis-ball.

Let us see of what the Divine Right consists to which theHohenzollern dynasty lays claim. It is based, in the case beforeus, on a London protocol under date of May 24, 1852, in which theplenipotentiaries of France, Great Britain and Russia "recognizethe rights over the principality of Neuenburg and the county ofValangin belonging to the King of Prussia according to thestipulations of Articles 22 and 76 of the Vienna agreement, andwhich from 1815 to 1848 existed simultaneously with those rightswhich are allowed to Switzerland by Article 73 of the sameagreement. By this "diplomatic intervention" the divine right ofthe kings of Prussia is determined within the limits of the Vienna

67 Stefan KELLER: „Preußen gegen die Schweiz“ Neue Züricher Zeitung online: http://www.zeit.de/2011/18/Neuenburg (retrieved 14.3.2015).

68 Karl MARX: The Divine Right of the Hohenzollern (1856) english: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1856/12/13.htm retrieved 14. June 2015, German original: Das göttliche Recht der Hohenzollern, online: http://www.mlwerke.de/me/me12/me12_095.htm (ret. 14. March 2015)

25

treaty. This treaty, however, refers back to the claims whichPrussia acquired in 1707 (…)69.

Marx makes clear to what the principle of monarchy refers to,

an opponent to the right of revolution, however the entire

issue is not such a ridicule as Marx said, it reminds on the

Hundred year’s war and hence the problem of modern, republican

sovereignty.

Paraguay: A nation before the congress system

The origins of the Paraguayan nationalism70 were supposed to

have been identified by Günter Kahle71 in the beginnings of the

Spanish invasion there, where the Spaniards had a lot of

indigenous girlfriends. Kahle refers to the works by Elman and

Helen Service72 about the era in the 16th century known as

Mohammed’s paradise73. In Paraguay this was known as Spanish-

Guarani alliance74. The associated theory to find the roots of

Paraguayan nationalism therein was fiercely rejected after the

end of the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1912-2006)75.

Stroessner presented himself as a disciple of Carlos Antonio

69 MARX ibid.70 Concerning the domestic view on Paraguayan nationalism: Michael K.

HUNER: Sacred Cause, Divine Republic. Dissertation University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 2011

71 Günter KAHLE: Grundlagen und Anfänge des paraguayischen Nationalbewusstseins, publ. Dissertation, Köln 1962

72 Elman and Helen SERVICE: Tobatí – Paraguayan Town, Chicago 195473 Z.B. Barbara POTTHARST: Paradies Mohammeds’ oder Land der Frauen? Zur

Rolle von Frau und Familie in Paraguay im 19. Jahrhundert. Köln et al. 1994

74 A critical review: Bartomeú MELIÀ: El Guarani conquistado y reducido. Ensayos de Etnohistoria, Asunción 1986, passim

75 Banislava SUSNIK, Miguel CHASE SARDI: Los Indios del Paraguay, Madrid 1995, passim

26

López76, a cruel irony, therefore the samples Service refers to

should be revised77, however, due to Paraguay’s losses during

the Triple-Alliance war (2/3 of her pre-war population) any

conclusions from the ruins of Paraguay known as 2nd republic to

the 1st republic are a problematic issue. Therefore the

definition of nationalism and how to identify nationalism by

historians is imperative.

German nationalism emerged in the course of resistance

against Napoleon and later against the order of the Holy

Alliance. The so-called Burschenschaften (organizations of male

students having their specific rituals) realized German

nationalism. After the assassination of Kotzebuhe the Carlsbad

decrees intensified surveillance and repression, not welcomed

by the British parliament. Metternich interpreted civil protest

and discontent no matter what kind of as an attack on the

international order of peace. He wanted to fight

revolutionaries to avoid great wars. This ideology found its

re-enactment in Viêt Nam, whose sovereignty was considered as a

quantitée neglegiable, eventually it was toasted with Napalm.

The independence of Greece and the congress of Verona signalled

the end of the original congress system.

Henry Kissinger’s lessons learned from the Congress System

76 Eduardo GALEANO: Las Venas abiertas de América Latina, German edition used here: Die offenen Adern Lateinamerikas (transl. Halpern, de Ruiz), Wuppertal 131988,S.221-224

77 James Eston HAY: Tobati: Tradition and Change in a Paraguayan town, Dissertation University of Florida 1993

27

Henry Kissinger was the most prominent disciple of the

Congress’ legacy78. His way of realism in politics – against

all odds – can be explained by the situation of the USA since

1965 and the following years when the USA were at the nadir of

their geopolitical influence and power, going to lose the

Vietnam War. Anyway for the affected this is no excuse. The war

against Viêt Nams is a role model for criminalizing of domestic

conflicts by the hegemony of the logics of the international

relations, i.e. the global chess board similar to the protocol

of the congress of Troppau when the entire congress system had

already been ossifying, which is a process requiring special

attention.

The most relevant parts of Hobsbawms’ seminal work Nations

and Nationalism, based upon Benedict Anderson and Ernest

Gellner are empirically based on the last decennia of the

Hapsburg Empire around 190079, which may have less relevance to

the period around 1800. Hobsbawm identifies nationalism as

ideology of the petty bourgeoisie. This theory is now endorsed

by the nationalistic yellow press in multinational Vienna;

young Adolf Hitler moulded his ideology out of80.

Viêt Nam has a long history and hence another kind of

nationalism. Ho Chi Minh wrote Viet Nâm’s declaration of

78 JARRETT: Congress (see Footnote Nr. 19), S.211-379 see also: Henry KISSINGER: Diplomacy, New York 1994, online edition identified after having submitted the refined German version: https://politicainternacionalcontemporanea.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/05-henry_kissinger-diplomacy.pdf (retrieved August 25th, 2015).

79 Eric J. HOBSBAWM: Nation and Nationalism, edition used here: Nationen und Nationalismus. Mythos und Realität seit 1780, (transl. Udo Rennert) Frankfurt,New York 1991

80 Brigitte HAMANN: Hitler’s Vienna. A Dictator’s Apprenticeship, original version in German used here: Wien. Lehrjahre eines Diktators, München et.al. 1996

28

independence in 1945, derived from the declaration of

independence of the USA and the declaration of the universal

human rights issued by the French revolution in 1791 her, to

insist that the French colonial regime failed to obey these

rules which are valid for all human beings that includes

Vietnamese people81. After World War II France refused Viet

Nam’s independence, responded by Viet Nâm’s war of

independence. Ho’s strategy was based upon a united people,

whereas the USA helped the government in Sài Gòn which didn’t

have the expected impact on the people living there. The USA

tried nation building there, as if they would dare to teach

civilization to Chinese people. Eventually the US involvement

culminated with massacres such as My Lai and the civil uprising

viz the so-called revolution of 1968 in the USA and France82.

Kissinger altered this geopolitical situation of the

USA83. His triangle-diplomacy based upon the gap between Moscow

and Beijing having emerged due to their conflict over the

leadership of the Socialist World allowed to find a way out of

the Vietnam trap. This fault line had been hitherto ignored by

the US state department or at least not adequately interpreted.

Kissinger could do that by his knowledge of the rationale of

the Congress of Vienna so that China’s Mao Zedong enabled a81 Ho CHI MINH: Declaration of Independence, Democratic Republic of

Vietnam, Hanoi 2. Sept. 1945 online: http://www.unc.edu/courses/2009fall/hist/140/006/Documents/VietnameseDocs.pdf (retrieved 14.March.2015)

82 Marc FREY: Geschichte des Vietnamkriegs, München 92010: The so-called revolution of 1968 was expected to have already broken out in 1965 due to the “second revolution of intellectuality”, the first was the so-called Axis time of Pythagoras, Confucius and Buddah, to the supposed structural factors see: Andrey Korotayev: “A compact macromodel of WorldSystem Evolution in: JWSR Vol.11 (1) / 2005, pp.79-93

83 Henry KISSINGER: A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the problems of Peace 1812-1822, London 1957

29

coordination of the interests of the People’s Republic of China

and the USA84.

Hypothesis to explain Paraguayan nationalism

Paraguayan nationalism has been used to be explained by either

the „Spanish-Guaraní alliance“ or the impact of the Jesuit

missions there, the so-called Jesuit state. 16th century

Paraguay, which was a province of the Viceroyalty of Peru then,

was facing completely different problems.

The governor Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca became dethroned

and arrested by Irala and his comuneros which was now the first

Comunero revolt there. The documents of the trial against

Cabeza de Vaca85 don’t even mention the fact that each of

Spanish settlers there had a lot of indigenous girlfriends. Due

to Paraguay’s situation as a province of Peru86, Gregorio de

Acosta reported the problems especially with the indigenous

resistance there since 1560 to the Viceroy Francisco de

Toledo87, who conquered the last Inca state, that of

Vilcabamba. The absence of aristocrats in charge of government

in Paraguay was held responsible for those problems. Although84 Henry KISSINGER: On China, German edition used here: China. Zwischen

Tradition und Herausforderung (transl. Dierlam et.al.) München 2012, S.249-418

85 PLACHETKA: Paraguay (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not found) pp.16-21

86 Therefore the documents on Paraguay are listed in a historian’s guidebook to Peru: Ruben VARGAS UGARTE: Historia del Peru – curso universitario – Fuentes, Lima 21945

87 Gregorio de ACOSTA “Relación del Gregorio de Acosta sobre el gobiernode las provincias del Paraguay” In: Torres de Mendoza et.al. (Ed.) Colección de los documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista .... etc. Bd 10 Madrid 1868, Reprint: Nendeln, Liechtenstein 1969, pp.525-563

30

the so-called “Spanish-Guaraní alliance” eventually failed so

that the Jesuits were called in by Hernan Arias de Saveedra to

stop the marginalization of the Guaraní indigenous people88,

the resistance of the indigenous people reported by Acosta can

be paralleled to some chapters of the 17th century chronicler

Ruy Diaz de Guzman89. In brief words, the people of Paraguay

had to defend their home rule since 1560 as the Spanish crown

used such problems as a pretext to get the Spanish settlers

under their control.

Searching for the roots of the nation of Paraguay

With the end of the Spanish colonial rule, South America was a

post-imperial space. The “Augusteian threshold” of the Spanish

Empire was achieved with the repression of the rev olt of

comuneros in Spain and in America, where Carlos V issued the

Leyes Nuevas. Gonzalo Pizarro, the younger brother of Francisco

Pizarro started an uprising against these laws in Peru, Pedro

de la Gasca defeated him at the battle of von Xaquixaguana

(April 9th, 1548). Gonzalo Pizarro justified his revolution by

the fact that the Spanish bureaucrats can easily issue laws to

protect the First Americans, he and his men had to live on the

return investment, that means return on conquest90. Pedro de la

88 Louis NECKER: Indiéns Guaranís et Chamanes Franciscaines, Dissertation, Geneve 1975, re-issued in Paraguay : Louis Necker : IndiosGuaranies and Chamanes Franciscanos, Asunción del Paraguay 1990 based onthen recently published documents from the Manuscritos da Colecão de Angelís

89 Rui DIAZ DE GUZMAN: La Argentina [1612] (crónicas de América 23) Madrid1986

90 Fernandez de NAVARRETE et.al. (Ed.): Colección de los documentos inéditos para la historia de España, Madrid 1842-95, 112 Vols, here: Vol. 49, p. 127

31

Gasca prohibited the Spaniards in Paraguay to contact the

regions of Peru. The official Spanish historiography on Peru

from Inca Rule to the early colonial rule started after the

defeat of Gonzalo Pizarro to portray the Universalist ideology

of the Spanish empire.

The „universal state“ is known in China by the concept of

tianxia, allowing little traditions or local traditions within

the umbrella of the imperial cultural tradition or master-

narrative. The encomienda meant autonomy in terms of feudalism,

that kind was Paraguay’s autonomy during the 16th century. It

was kept on the indigenous people’s expenses who were allies of

the Spaniards91. The Jesuit mission was intended to empower the

Gurani people but the Jesuit separated their mission from the

Paraguayan society and that triggered the second comuneros

revolution and thereby the Paraguayan nationalism as

articulated in political terms: Paraguay was situated at the

frontier, to the free parts of South America and afterwards to

the Portuguese possessions of Brazil and the Portuguese

frontier persons, the Bandeirantes.

In the last decennia before Paraguay’s independence the

question whether the population of Paraguay was Spanish,

Mestizo or Guarani was a bio-political issue, that means a

„ethno-fied“ social class system92, however the Guarani under

Jesuit stewardship were skilled craftsmen. Due to the permanent91 Helwig SCHMIDT-GLINTZNER: China: Vielvölkerreich und Einheitsstaat,

München 1997,pp.16-17. To 16th century Spain limitations on the encomienda meant to prevent an independent class of encomenderos preventing any legal interference of the Spanish government in their domestic affairs that means their doing with the First Americans on their domains.

92 Ignacio TELESCA: Paraguay al fines de la colonía: ¿mestizo, español o indígena? In: Jahrbuch für Geschichte Lateinamerikas 46, Köln, Weimar, Wien 2009, 261-288

32

conflicts within the ill-fated La Plata confederation the

Guarani population of the Jesuit mission area migrated to the

banda oriental, which is now Uruguay93 as the sea offered

commercial opportunities. Argentine’s option to favourite

European immigrants was therefore a sheer bio-political issue:

Alberdi condemned the war of the Triple-Alliance against

Paraguay as the war of the threefold infamy (guerra de la triple

infamia)94. Great Britain signed an agreement on an inferior

political level with Argentine95, however Alberti’s comments

portrayed the situation as if Sarmiento’s Definition of

“barbarism“ had been the dominant ideology.

These issues are not consistent with sober studies96,

however these studies don’t take into account the view of the

people of those times: Politicians of Prussia, especially

conservatives endorsed Paraguay’s revolutionary project97. This

marks the boundary between the influence of the Holy Alliance

and the influence of the USA and Great Britain: The principle

of the balance of power was a principle of the Congress of

Vienna98: Francisco Solano López’s referred to this principle

in order to prevent Uruguay’s degradation to a dependency99 but

93 Ernesto J. A. MAEDER: Misiones del Paraguay. Conflico y dislución de la Sociedad Guaraní. Madrid 1992

94 Juan Bautista ALBERDI: La Guerra del Paraguay, Buenos Aires 1988 zit.n. Juan Bautista Alberdi y su oposición a la guerra de Paraguay in: Historia General de las relaciónes exteriores de Argentina, online: http://www.argentina-rree.com/6/6-037.htm (Retrieved at 18. März 2015)

95 http://www.lagazeta.com.ar/guerradelparaguay.htm#20 (Stand 18. März 2015)

96 ABENTE: War (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not found) and Kenneth M. FERRIS: The War of the Triple Alliance, MA Thesis military arts and science, Forth Leavenworth, Kansas 2009

97 Heinz Joachim DOMNIK: Der Krieg der Triple-Allianz in der deutschen Historiographie und Publizistik, Wien, Köln, Weimar 1990

98 FERRIS: War (see Footnote Nr.Error: Reference source not found) p.199 Ibid. S.17-20

33

he was situated beyond the frontier – considered as a

barbarian.

Discussion: The Congress of Vienna and its

World SystemThe problems of a political communication systems are risks,

listed explicitly in the items (1-4):

1. The principle of legitimacy meant the protection or even

production of a failed state, due to the anachronistic issue

of suzerainty.

2. The chaos should be relieved by bio-politics, which seemed

to have worked in Argentine or the so-called United

Provinces of La Plata but produced a fault-line conflict100

due to the frontier of Britain’s informal Empire.

3. The so-called principle of monarchy refers to the issue of

sovereignty, Francia should be considered as a popular

leader101, not as a dictator.

4. The gradient of the Empire: The north of South America was

situated close to the commercial life-line of the World

System, the Sea Highways102 whereas the Cono Sur was a remote

area due to the beginning of regular circumnavigation of

Cape Hoorn, so that the commercial circuit of overland

transport from Lima via the Lake Titicaca, Tucumán to

Buenos Aires was declining. Paraguay was situated in the

backyard of this commercial system.

100 Samuel P. HUNTINGTON: „The Clash of Civilizatons?“ Foreign Affairs 72(3),pp.22-49, elaborated and critizised in: PLACHETKA: Paraguay (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not found), pp.3-6 und ibid. pp.34-36

101 Landes calls Francia’s populism as „affirmative actions“ LANDES: wealth… (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not found) pp.341

102 Maps: LANDES ibid. pp.102-110

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The European system of the “Holy Alliance” went asunder due to

the so-called Oriental question concerning the Ottoman Empire

and its presumed instability, and the Crimean war103 (1853-56),

while the reports of the Austrian ambassadors from Rio are

characterized by a growing irrelevance since 1850.

There had been no legitimate interests concerning

Argentine’s security to cause any conflict with Paraguay,

whereas Brazil had to navigate through the Paraguayan

territories on the Rio Paraguay to reach the Brazilian province

of Matto Grosso. Anyway, the over-statement of the so-called

Spanish-Guarani alliance by the Stroessner administration was

perhaps propaganda: Stroessner sent the battalion „Mariscal

Solano López“ as an ally of the US Johnson administration to

join the intervention in Santo Domingo in 1965104: The Viet Nam

issue went from bad to worse in the aftermath so that the US

administration was confronted with severe domestic and foreign

opposition. Darcy Ribeiro’s approach was somehow an

intellectual response to such actions.

This leads to the introductory questions, which are now

answered in a preliminary way.

Conclusion

Table 1 Parallels between core and periphery developments

103 Henry KISSINGER: Diplomacy German edition used here: Die Vernunft der Nationen. Über das Wesen der Außenpolitik (transl. Matthias Vogl), Berlin 1994, p.94; Orlando FIGES: Crimea. The Last Crusade, London 2019, German tradition: Krimkrieg (trad. Bernd Rullkötter) Krimkrieg, Berlin: Berlin Verlag, 2014 pp. 11-20

104 Lucy ARRAYA: Relaciones Diplomáticas Paraguay- República Dominicana-Paraguay, Asunción de Paraguay 1999, S.157-182, the US-invention with Paraguay in Santo Domingo is highlighted by GALEANO: venas (see Footnote Nr. Error: Reference source not found) p.222

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Core PeripheryWith the 30 year’s warin Europe (1618-1648)the so-called Medievaluniversalism wasreplaced by the so-called Westphalianstate, which is themodern sovereign state.The prominenthistorical figures ofthis period wereRichelieu, William ofOrange and Pitt.

With the conquest of Vilcabamba and theSystem established by Francisco de Toledo inthe Viceroyalty of Peru the hithertopredominant policy to turn the conquest ofthe Inca into an integration (as if the IncaEmpire should join the Spanish Empire similarto a modern European state’s joining theEuropean Union) came to an end105. The policyof Bartolomé de las Casas was erased byFrancisco de Toledo, based on an enigmaticdocument to support ideological arguments,the Parecer del Anónimo de Yucay, written inthe year of the naval battle of Lepanto106

against the Ottoman Empire. As a response to the Napoleonic wars, the Viennese System developed the so-called“Concert of Europe” butonly within Europe.

Spain kept Cuba and the Philippines as colonywhile Britain declared that Portugal andhence Brazil were allies of Britain then107.Any war between Spain and Portugal concerningthe Montevideo issue shall not be fought inEurope. The Montevideo crisis preceded thecongress of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in 1818.

The open question was the integration of the USA in such a system.

Eventually there was no way to get the USAintegrated nor to keep Britain integratedwhile Spain was somehow considered as afailed state after having lost the utmost ofher colonies with several domestic

105 John HEMMING: The conquest of the Incas, London 1970 several re-issues; in detail: R. Alan Covey, Christina M. Elson: Ethnicity, Demography, andEstate Management in Sixteenth-Century Yucay in: Ethnohistory 54(2) / 2007, pp. 303-335

106 This document is a complex issue, see recently: Ignacia CÓRTEZ ROJAS: Bartolomé de las Casas y el Parecer del Yucay. El manifesto anonímo de los encomenderos frente a la política humanista de la Corona española del siglo XVI, Universidad Ricardo Palma, Lima – Peru 2011, en academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/5545285/Bartolom%C3%A9_de_Las_Casas_y_el_Parecer_de_Yucay._El_manifiesto_an%C3%B3nimo_de_los_encomenderos_frente_a_la_pol%C3%ADtica_humanista_de_la_corona_espa%C3%B1ola_del_siglo_XVI (retrievedAugust 25th 2015)

107 This discussion is archived in the HHSTA, Staatskanzlei, political reports (Gesandtschaftsberichte) Spain, Box (Cajón) 148 [185], Folder (=Legajo) 9 (1817-18), passim

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rebellions, which are out of scope here.The nationalistic challenge couldn’t be responded by the Holy Alliance since the Greek revolution of independence, as Great Britain did not accept these principles anymore.

The protocol of the congress of Troppaustipulated that countries that changed theirgovernments by revolution are ipso factoexcluded from the international system unlessthey get established and want to obey therules of international relations. Greece gotindependent by the London Protocol, in thecase of Paraguay Brazil organized a directcommunication between Emperor Ferdinand IIand president López to negotiate terms.

The challenges to the system by the politics of Napoleon III of France and especially Germany’s Otto von Bismarck led to an system overstretch

The chief challenge in the Western Hemispherewas the US-American Civil War (1861-1865)which led to an implosion of US hegemonyconcerning Mexico and the Caribbean GreatBritain was engaged in the Southern parts ofSouth America but hold the colony of what isnow Belize and Guyana along with otherCaribbean islands. Therefore some adventures(Maximilian II of Mexico on behalf ofNapoleon III) and the Triple Alliance war isconsidered to have been given way to108,however the relations between Paraguay andthe USA before need a revision109.

The above listed preliminary parallels between core

developments and developments on the periphery (Table 1) should

give an idea of circumscribing conditions the developments on

the periphery were submitted to, so that the 16th century

autonomy of Paraguay had nothing to do with the emergence of

the Paraguayan nationalism as a political ideology. Therefore

the conclusions are to be drawn by the longitudinal history of

Paraguay and that of the system of the Congress of Vienna

itemized as follows (1-8):

108 Ferries (see note Error: Reference source not found)109 Frank O. MORA, Jerry Wilson COONEY: Paraguay and the United States:

Distant Allies Athens, Georgia 2007, in need to a close revision due to the Washburn affair.

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1. Paraguay’s emergence as a political nation happenedalready during the Comuneros Revolt.

2. Austria’s acknowledging Paraguay’s independence may haveto do with the clandestine frictions between Great Britainand the conservative powers so that Paraguay whose mentorwas Brazil, was both: a revolutionary state and an ally.Both wanted to secure political stability, their motivesto do so were completely different, anyway that didn’tmatter as long as they come to terms among each other.

3. The special relationship between Paraguay and Uruguay needan explanation, anyway no demographic analysis of Uruguaybetween 1811 and 1865 was available.

4. Due to the gradual exit of Great Britain from the CongressSystem Paraguay was beyond the frontier of the Britishinformal Empire.

5. Argentine’s ideology of “poblar es gobernar” and theopposition between civilization and “Barbary” (DomingoFaustino Sarmiento) may have to do with its membership tothe British informal Empire.

6. The modernization process of Paraguay with the governmentof Carlos Antonio López made Paraguay depending onnavigation via the River Plate. Paraguayan vessels hadfrequently been intercepted by forces from Buenos Aires tocompel Paraguay’s joining what should be considered as thecontested Empire of Buenos Aires.

7. The system of the Holy Alliance was in the full process ofgetting ossified since the protocol of the congress ofTroppau and later the Congress of Laibach (Ljubljana)concerning the Greek war of independence, which in factmet the geopolitical interest of Russia. In the Levant,Russia’s policy had nothing to do with the principles ofthe Congress System whose process of ossification turnedit into a Para-imperial structure.

8. As a consequence, the negotiated acknowledgement ofParaguay’s independence possibly had to do with thepolitical consequences of the Greek independence (1821-30)displaying the contradictions between the principles ofthe Holy Alliance and the balance of power in terms of

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geopolitics as Mehmet Ali’s invasion in the Peloponnesuswould have made him ruler of Egypt and Greece, which meanscontrol over the Eastern Mediterranean basin. Britain wasnot willing to accept such a constellation. Brazil’smentoring Paraguay may have had to do with a buffer stateagainst what should become Argentine and possibly with thecruel fact, that Brazil was still a slave-holding countrythen, which lead to quarrels with Great Britain.

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