Esposito, Gabriele/Rava, Guiseppe (Illustr.) The Paraguayan War 1864-70

This highly illustrated study examines, in detail, the brutal Paraguayan War of 1864--70, one of the largest and bloodiest conflicts in South American history. The Paraguayan War, also known as the War of the Triple Alliance, was the largest and most important military conflict in the history of South America, after the Wars of Independence, and its only true "continental" war. It involved four countries and lasted for more than five years, during which Paraguay fought alone against a powerful alliance formed by Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. This conflict was remarkable in its huge scale and its terrible cost in lives, with the catastrophic human price paid by Paraguay amounting to more than 300,000 men, a loss of some 70 percent of the country's total population. The war was a real revolution for the armies of South America, and the first truly modern conflict of the continent. When the war began in 1864, the armies were small, poorly trained, and badly equipped semi-professional forces. However, by the time the war ended, most of them had adopted percussion rifles employing the Minié system and new weapons like breech-loading rifles and Gatling machine guns were being tested for the first time on the continent. This title covers the whole span of the war, from when the early days the conflict primarily involved small columns of a few thousand men seeking each other out in rugged and sparsely inhabited territory, through to the later Napoleonic-style positional battles fought at points of strategic importance. It also explores the unique challenges presented by the humid, subtropical climate, including the devastating impact of disease on the troops.

This conflict was remarkable in its territorial scale and its terrible cost in human lives. The price paid by Paraguay in human lives was over 300,000, a loss of around 70 per cent of the country's total population. The war was a true revolution for the armies of South America and the continent's first truly modern conflict. When the war began in 1864, the armies were small, poorly trained and consisted of semi-professional forces. By the end of the war, however, most of them had percussion rifles that fired Minié balls, and for the first time on the continent new weapons such as breech-loading rifles and Gatling machine guns were being trialled. This title covers the entire period of the war, from the early stages, when small armies of just a few thousand men tried to outflank each other in sparsely populated and rugged terrain, to the later engagements and Napoleonic-style battles, when much larger formations fought fiercely for strategically important points. It also examines the unique challenges of the humid subtropical climate, including the devastating effects of disease on troops.