Francisco Solano López Carrillo (24 July 1826– 1 March 1870) was a Paraguayan military officer, politician and statesman who served as President of Paraguay between 1862 and 1870, of which he served mostly during the Paraguayan War (1864–1870). He succeeded his father Carlos Antonio López as the second president of Paraguay. Solano López is the only Paraguayan ruler to have been killed in action. He is one of only two Paraguayans to have received the rank of Marshal, along with José Félix Estigarribia.
At a very young age he served in the Paraguayan Army fighting against Juan Manuel de Rosas in the sporadic hostilities sustained by Paraguay and Argentina during the Platine Wars. After the downfall of Rosas, he became Ambassador of Paraguay, as Minister Plenipotentiary, in several European countries from 1853 to 1855. At his return in Asunción, he was appointed Vice-President of the Supreme Government of his father Carlos, and then assumed the presidency when his father died.
He is one of the most controversial figures in South American history, particularly because of the Paraguayan War, known in the Plate Basin as "the War of the Triple Alliance" ().
From one perspective, his ambitions were the main reason for the outbreak of the war while other arguments maintain he was a fierce champion of the independence of South American nations against foreign rule and interests. He fought until the very end and was killed in action during the Battle of Cerro Corá, which marked the end of the war.
Life and career
Life before the war
Solano López was born in Manorá, a barrio of Asunción in 1827. His father, Carlos Antonio López, ascended to the Paraguayan Presidency in 1841 following the death of the nation's longtime dictator, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia. The elder López would commission his son as a brigadier general in the Paraguayan Army, at the age of 17, in 1844. During the Argentine Civil Wars, Solano López was appointed commander-in-chief of Paraguayan forces stationed along the Argentine frontier. He pursued his early military studies in Rio de Janeiro and Asunción, specializing in fortifications and artillery.
Solano López was dispatched to Europe in 1853 as minister plenipotentiary to Britain, France, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. López went on to spend over a year and a half in Europe, most of it in Paris. He also traveled to Russia, where he served as a foreign military observer during the Crimean War. He purchased large quantities of arms and military supplies, together with several steamers, on behalf of the Paraguayan military. He also modernized the Paraguayan Army with the novelties he acquired in Europe, adopting the French Code and the Prussian System of military organization (receiving some praise for this innovation many years later). His diplomatic work also included organizing a project to build a new railroad and efforts to establish a French émigré colony in Paraguay. He installed the first electric telegraph in South America. López also became a great admirer of the French Second Empire and developed a fascination with Napoleon Bonaparte. López later equipped his army with uniforms designed to match those of the Grande Armée and it was said that he also ordered for himself an exact replica of Napoleon's crown, yet this remains unproven.
It was also during his time in France that Solano López met a Parisian courtesan, the Irish-born Eliza Lynch, and brought her with him back to Paraguay. There she was his concubine and de facto first lady till his death.
Solano López returned from Europe in 1855 and his father appointed him Minister of War. He was elevated to the office of Vice President of Paraguay in 1857.
In November 1859, López was on board the Paraguayan steamer Tacuari, which was captured by Royal Navy ships attempting to pressure his father into releasing a British citizen from prison. The British consul who ordered the action was Sir William Dougal Christie, who had replaced by Edward Thornton, who adopted a far less aggressive tone compared to Christie.
With his father's death in 1862, López convened the Congress of Paraguay, and was unanimously proclaimed President of Paraguay for a term of ten years.