Paraguay is in no sense prepared for…
1864 CE to 1875 CE
In terms of size, Solano López's thirty thousand-man army is the most powerful in Latin America, but the army's strength is illusory because it lacks trained leadership, a reliable source of weapons and matériel, and adequate reserves.
Since the days of El Supremo, the officer corps have been neglected for political reasons.
The army suffers from a critical shortage of key personnel, and many of its fighting units are undermanned.
Paraguay lacks the industrial base to replace weapons lost in battle, and the Argentine-Brazilian alliance prevents Solano López from receiving arms from abroad.
Paraguay's population is only about four hundred and fifty thousand in 1865—a figure lower than the number of people in the Brazilian National Guard—and amounts to less than one-twentieth of the combined allied population of one point one million.
Even after conscripting for the front every able-bodied man including children as young as ten—and forcing women to perform all nonmilitary labor, Solano López still cannot field an army as large as those of his rivals.
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South America
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