Paraguay in the 1860s had fought a war that ended in total defeat and occupation. So for a while, the national lion as seen on todays stamp was badly wounded. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The question might be what does a national coat of arms mean anymore after a war where half the country died. The lion lifts it’s right paw ready to strike for peace and justice. The country is broke and in debt and resorting to selling off large pieces of land in the much shrunken country. Perhaps the coat of arms is supposed to give hope that Paraguay will again rise. This was true in that the people overthrew this government the next year after this stamp.
Todays stamp is issue O51, a 3 Centavo Official stamp issued by the Republic of Paraguay in 1903. There were many variations of this stamp over many years. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents used. In this case the overprint does not add much value to the stamp. The version without the official overprint is worth 30 cents. Official means the stamp was intended for government use.
In 1863. Paraguay President Lopez was nervous that Brazil was intervening in the internal workings of Uruguay. He believed that after Uruguay, Brazil would turn their military attentions to Paraguay. This was not an unreasonable deduction. Lopez than attacked neighboring Brazil crossing successfully the border. When Argentina refused to allow Lopez to attack Brazil through Argentina, he declared war on Argentina. Paraguay had a fairly large army but now Lopez’s Paraguay with a population of 450,000 faced an allied force of over 11 million. Brazil’s army was small but it’s National Guard was huge. By 1870 Paraguay was conquered and divided up with the small remainder occupied by Brazil. President Lopez fell in the last battle.
Paraguayan politics became a rivalry between left wingers with behind the scenes support of Argentina and right wingers with behind the scenes support from Brazil. Since Brazil had done most of the fighting they were most dominant in the occupation. It was also their party the Colorado party, that held power. Both sides relied on veterans from the Lopez era.
What the Colorado party did not have the power to do was quickly turn things around. Some land was reclaimed from Bolivia thanks to an international conference chaired by former American President Rutherford Hayes. Still the government had to sell off large blocks of land to keep the revenue coming in. There was really not much choice in the matter but it ending up concentrating land ownership in just a few hands. Some of whom of course were high government officials, which decreased the legitimacy of the government. Liberals in 1904 sailed from Argentina up river to Paraguay, and Paraguay with no navy and only a tiny army was unable to stop them. The negotiation to end the rule of President Escurra, the last Colorado party President was handled between Brazil and Argentina.
Well my drink is empty and I am left to ponder what should happen when a country is destroyed and is not humanly possible to put thing right except over long periods of time. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.