Paraguay is formally the Republic of Paraguay, a nation in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the eastern and also northeast, and also Bolivia to the northwest. It has a population of 7 million, virtually 3 million of whom reside in the resources and also largest city of Asunción, and also its surrounding metro.

Although among just two landlocked nations in South America (Bolivia is the various other), Paraguay has ports on the Paraguay and also Paraná rivers that provide exit to the Atlantic Ocean, through the Paraná-Paraguay River.

Spanish conquistadores gotten here in 1524, and in 1537 developed the city of Asunción, the first funding of the Governorate of the Río de la Plata. During the 17th century, Paraguay was the facility of Jesuit missions, where the native Guaraní people were transformed to Christianity as well as presented to European society.

After the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish regions in 1767, Paraguay significantly became an outer colony, with couple of metropolitan centers as well as settlers. Following independence from Spain in the very early 19th century, Paraguay was ruled by a series of authoritarian governments defined by nationalist, isolationist and protectionist plans.

This duration ended with the devastating Paraguayan War (1864– 70), throughout which the country shed half its prewar populace and also around 25– 33% of its territory to the Three-way Partnership of Argentina, Brazil as well as Uruguay. In the 20th century, Paraguay faced another significant international dispute– the Chaco War (1932– 35) versus Bolivia– in which it prevailed.

After that, the nation came under a sequence of armed forces totalitarians, finishing in the 35-year program of Alfredo Stroessner, which lasted till his overthrow in 1989 by an interior military coup. This marked the beginning of Paraguay’s democratic period, which continues to now.

Paraguay is a developing country. It is an establishing member of Mercosur, the United Nations, the Company of American States, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Lima Team. Furthermore, the city of Luque, in municipal Asuncion, is the seat of the South American Football Confederation.

Most of Paraguay’s seven million people are mestizo, as well as Guarani society remains commonly influential; greater than 90% of the populace talk different languages of the Guarani language alongside Spanish. Regardless of a background of destitution and also political repression, in a 2017 Favorable Experience Index based on global polling information, Paraguay rated as the “globe’s happiest place”.