José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia
José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco , also known as Doctor Francia or to Paraguayans of his time as Karai Guasu, was a lawyer, politician, statesman and the first dictator of Paraguay following its 1811 independence from the Spanish Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. His official title was "Supreme and Perpetual Dictator of Paraguay", but he was popularly known as El Supremo.
He was the political leader of the faction that advocated for the full independence of Paraguay from the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and from the Empire of Brazil. Under his dictatorship, he isolated Paraguay from the external world.
Early life and education
Francia was born in Yaguarón, in the modern-day department of Paraguarí. Francia's father was a tobacco planter from São Paulo, and his mother was a Paraguayan descended from Spanish colonists. He was christened Joseph Gaspar de Franza y Velasco but later used the more popular name Rodríguez, and changed Franza to the more Spanish Francia. Although his father was simply García Rodríguez Francia, the dictator inserted the article de to style himself "Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco".He began his studies at the monastery school of San Francisco in Asunción, originally in training for the Catholic priesthood, but never became a priest. On 13 April 1785, he earned a degrees in theology and philosophy from the National University of Córdoba in what would soon become Argentina. During his studies, he was influenced by the ideas from the Age of Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and he was an avid reader of Voltaire, Rousseau, and the Encyclopédistes.
Despite rumors that his father was a mulatto, Francia was awarded a position in the department of theology at the Royal Seminary of San Carlos in Asunción in 1790. His radical views made his position as a teacher there untenable, and he soon gave up theology to study law. Eventually, he became a lawyer and learned five languages: Guarani, Spanish, French, Latin, and some English. Francia was disgusted by the Spanish colonial casta system, and he defended the less fortunate against the affluent. His interest in astronomy and his knowledge of the French language and other subjects considered arcane in Asunción caused some Paraguayans to regard him as a wizard who could predict the future.
Political career
He demonstrated an early interest in politics. He became a member of the provincial cabildo in 1807, fiscal officer in 1808 and attained the position of head of the cabildo of Asunción — the highest position to which he could aspire as a criollo — by August 1809. Other significant members included Fulgencio Yegros; Pedro Juan Caballero; Manuel Atanasio Cabañas; and the last colonial governor, Bernardo de Velasco.After the May Revolution in Buenos Aires, Governor Velasco convened the Congress of the province on 24 July 1810. Francia shocked the other members by saying that which king they had was irrelevant. When Paraguay's independence was declared on 15 May 1811, he was appointed secretary of the three-man ruling junta and included in the five-man governing junta by Congress meeting on 17 June 1811. On 1 August, he resigned because of the army's dominance over Congress. He retired to the countryside, where he spread rumors that the country was going to be betrayed by the incompetent government. He was one of the few men in the country with any significant education and soon became the country's de facto leader. Only one other Paraguayan had a doctorate: Juan Bogarín, one of the five junta members.
From his retirement in his modest chacra near Asunción, he told ordinary citizens that their revolution had been betrayed, the change in government had only traded a Spanish-born elite for a criollo one, and the government was incompetent and mismanaged. He returned to the junta in October after Bogarín was removed and resigned again on 15 December. He did not return until 16 November 1812, and then only when he was in charge of foreign policy and half of the army.
Paraguayans often referred to him simply as "Dr. Francia" or Karai Guasu. A few Indians believed that he had supernatural powers: when some saw him measuring the stars with his theodolite, they thought he was talking to demons.
On 1 October 1813, Congress named Francia and Fulgencio Yegros as alternate consuls for a year. Francia was given an initial term of four months. Francia's initial term was followed by a four-month term for Yegros, which was then followed by a second four-month term for Francia. Each consul controlled half of the army. On 12 October 1813, Paraguay declared independence from the Spanish Empire.
Marriage law
In March 1814, Francia imposed a law that no Spaniard may intermarry with another Spaniard, and that they may only marry mestizos, Amerindians, or Africans. This was done to eliminate any socioeconomic disparities along racial lines, and also to end the predominantly criollo and peninsulare influence in Paraguay. De Francia himself was not a mestizo, but feared that racial disparities would create tensions that could threaten his absolute rule.Dictator
On 1 October 1814, Congress named him as sole consul, with absolute powers for three years. He consolidated his power to such an extent that on 1 June 1816, another Congress voted him absolute control over the country for life. For the next 24 years, he ran the country with the aid of only three other people. According to the historian Richard Alan White, the congresses were actually very progressive for the era; all men over 23 could vote for them. From 1817, he appointed cabildo members, but in 1825, he decided to end the cabildo.Policies
One Latin American scholar, Antonio de la Cova, summarised Francia's rule as follows:
"... we find a strange mixture of capacity and caprice, of far-sighted wisdom and reckless infatuation, strenuous endeavours after a high ideal and flagrant violations of the simplest principles of justice. He cut off Paraguay from the rest of the world by stopping foreign commerce, but carefully fostered its internal industries and agriculture under his personal supervision. Dr. Francia disposed to be hospitable to strangers from other lands, and kept them prisoners for years; lived a life of republican simplicity, and severely punished the slightest want of respect. As time went on he appears to have grown more arbitrary and despotic. Deeply imbued with the principles of the French Revolution, he was a stern antagonist of the church. He abolished the Inquisition, suppressed the college of theology, did away with the tithes, and inflicted endless indignities on the priests. He kept the aristocracy in subjection and discouraged marriage both by precept and example, leaving behind him several illegitimate children. For the extravagances of his later years the plea of insanity has been put forward."
Francia aimed to found a society on the principles of Rousseau's Social Contract and was also inspired by Robespierre and Napoleon. To create such a utopia, he imposed a ruthless isolation upon Paraguay, interdicting all external trade, and he fostered national industries.
Francia in some ways resembles the caudillos of the post-colonial era, but he deviated from the elitist tendencies of most of his contemporaries. Instead, he attempted to reorganize Paraguay in accordance with the wishes of the lower classes and other marginalized groups. He greatly limited the power of the Church and the landed elites in favor of giving peasants a way to make a living on state-run estancias. He is criticized by some scholars for being entirely against the Church, he wanted only to diminish the institution's all-encompassing political control. He actually built new churches and supported religious festivals using state funds. Francia's government also took over services usually under church supervision, such as orphanages, hospitals, and homeless shelters, to manage them more efficiently. Francia and his policies were in fact very well received by the majority of Paraguayans, excluding the small ruling classes, and his neutrality in foreign affairs kept peace in a period of turmoil.
Francia's authoritarian regime built the foundations of a strong and dirigiste state in order to undertake the economic modernization of the country.
Appointed Supremo Dictador in 1813, Francia centralized power through strict authoritarian measures, imprisoning opponents, confiscating property, and building a substantial army and bureaucracy. He also implemented taxation via public land leases and established widespread administrative control across the territory, strengthening borders and public services. By 1840, these measures had made Paraguay one of the most organized states in the region, laying the foundations for the reforms of his successors
Paraguay thus instituted rigorous protectionism at a time when most other countries were adopting the free-trade system promoted by the United Kingdom while entrusting their national bourgeoisie with the task of piloting wealth creation. This model, continued after Francia's death by his successors Carlos Antonio López and Francisco Solano López, made Paraguay one of the most modern and socially advanced countries in Latin America: the redistribution of wealth was so great that many foreign travelers reported that the country had no begging, hunger or conflict. The agrarian reform allowed for a fairly equitable distribution of land. Asunción was one of the first capitals on the continent to inaugurate a railroad network. The country had a growing industry and a merchant fleet made up of ships built in national shipyards, had a trade surplus and was debt-free.