Paraguay

The battle of Cerro Corá was fought on 1 March 1870 on a hill-surrounded valley of the same name, in the north-east of Paraguay. This was the... last battle in the Paraguayan War. Estimatives claim that Francisco Solano López's personal guard had from 100 to 250 soldiers. The Brazilian troops were composed of a battalion of about 4,000 men. At the margin of the Aquidaban-Nigui stream Solano Lopez's troops were surrounded and defeated. Lopez was surprised by Brazilian troops and killed by Brazilian Imperial Army Grenadier Corporal José Francisco Lacerda, better known as Chico Diabo, as he attempted to swim to safety across the Aquidaban River.
more

The Paraguayan War , also known as War of the Triple Alliance , was a military conflict in South America fought from 1864 to 1870 between Paraguay... and the Triple Alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. It caused more deaths proportionally than any other war in modern history, and particularly devastated Paraguay, killing most of its male population. Several theories exist regarding the origins of the war. The traditional view emphasizes the aggressive policy of Paraguayan president Francisco Solano López towards Platine matters. Conversely, the Paraguayan traditional view and Argentine revisionism since the 1860s give a preponderant role to the interests of the British Empire. The war began in late 1864 with combat operations between Brazil and Paraguay; from 1865 onwards, one can properly refer to the "War of the Triple Alliance".
more

The Battle of Acosta Ñu or Campo Grande was a battle during the Paraguayan War, where, on August 16, 1869, 20,000 men of the Triple Alliance... fought Paraguayan forces made up of 6,000 soldiers, many of them children. In the middle of 1869, the Paraguayan Army was on the run and Asunción was under allied occupation. Francisco Solano López, the Paraguayan president, refused to surrender and fled, vowing to keep fighting to the end. The Brazilian commander Duque de Caxias suggested that the war was militarily over, but Dom Pedro II, the Brazilian Emperor, refused to stop the campaign until López surrendered. Caxias resigned due to illness and was replaced by the Emperor's son-in-law, Luís Filipe Gastão de Orléans, Count d'Eu. Under the new command, the Brazilian Army continued the campaign in Paraguay until finally killing López in 1870. With most adult Paraguayan males already killed or captured, López started to use children and elderly in the Army to keep the fight against the Alliance. Some children fought with fake beards to conceal their age.
more

On the morning of December 6, 1868, Marshal of the Brazilian Army, Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Marquis of Caxias, moved with 13,000 men in two... columns to take Villeta, a Paraguayan city, as a plan to make further attacks on the Paraguayan Army rear. Nevertheless, Paraguayan president and commander-in-chief of the army Francisco Solano López was aware of the landing the Allies had made in the rear of his army. Taking advantage of the Allies' slow march, he sent Colonel Bernardino Caballero to stop the enemy at a narrow passage over a stream called Ytororó. Caballero deployed his troops so that Caxias would have to cross the only passage at disposal under heavy fire. On each side of the crossing, he located four guns. Another battery of four guns was put on the top of a nearby low-lying hill. The battle started by late morning and was characterized by attacks and counterattacks for control of the bridge. By 1 pm, after a fierce fight, the bridge was taken and the Allies could advance towards Villeta.
more

The United Nations Stabilisation Mission In Haiti , also known as MINUSTAH, an acronym of the French translation, is a United Nations peacekeeping... mission in Haiti that has been in operation since 2004. The mission's military component is led by the Brazilian Army and the force commander is Brazilian. MINUSTAH's mandate was recently extended by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1944 past its October 15, 2010 deadline amid fears of instability. The mission's current mandate runs through October 15th, 2012 with the intention of further renewal. The force is composed of 8,940 military personnel and 3,711 police, supported by an international civilian personnel, a local civilian staff and United Nations Volunteers. Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the United Nations reported that the headquarters of the mission in Port-au-Prince had collapsed and that the mission's chief, Hédi Annabi of Tunisia, his deputy Luiz Carlos da Costa of Brazil, and the acting police commissioner, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Doug Coates of Canada, were confirmed dead.
more

The Union of South American Nations - UZAN, Portuguese: União de Nações Sul-Americanas - UNASUL, Spanish: Unión de Naciones... Suramericanas - UNASUR is an intergovernmental union integrating two existing customs unions: Mercosul and the Andean Community of Nations , as part of a continuing process of South American integration. It is modeled on the European Union. The UNASUR Constitutive Treaty was signed on May 23, 2008, at the Third Summit of Heads of State, held in Brasília, Brazil. According to the Constitutive Treaty, the Union's headquarters will be located in Quito, Ecuador. The South American Parliament will be located in Cochabamba, Bolivia, while the headquarters of its bank, the Bank of the South are located in Caracas, Venezuela. The combined population of the 12-member Union as at 1 July 2010 was estimated at 396,391,032. On 4 May 2010, at an extraordinary heads of state summit held in Campana, 75 km north of Buenos Aires, former Argentine President Néstor Kirchner was unanimously elected the first Secretary-General of UNASUR for a two-year term.
more

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programs. The World Bank's official... goal is the reduction of poverty. According to the World Bank's Articles of Agreement all of its decisions must be guided by a commitment to promote foreign investment, international trade and facilitate capital investment. The World Bank differs from the World Bank Group, in that the World Bank comprises only two institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association , whereas the former incorporates these two in addition to three more: International Finance Corporation , Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency , and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes . The World Bank is one of five institutions created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. The International Monetary Fund, a related institution, is the second. Delegates from many countries attended the Bretton Woods Conference.
more

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but... representing 44 nations. Founded in 1943, it became part of the United Nations in 1945, was especially active in 1945 and 1946, and largely shut down operations in 1947. Its purpose was to "plan, co-ordinate, administer or arrange for the administration of measures for the relief of victims of war in any area under the control of any of the United Nations through the provision of food, fuel, clothing, shelter and other basic necessities, medical and other essential services". Its staff of civil servants included 12,000 people, with headquarters in New York. Funding came from many nations, and totaled $3.7 billion, of which the United States contributed $2.7 billion; Britain $625 million and Canada $139 million. UNRRA cooperated closely with dozens of volunteer charitable organizations, who sent hundreds of their own agencies to work alongside UNRRA.
more

Argentina /ˌɑrdʒənˈtiːnə/, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, the continent's... second largest by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth-largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations. Argentina's continental area is between the Andes mountain range in the west and the Atlantic Ocean in the east. It borders Paraguay and Bolivia to the north, Brazil and Uruguay to the northeast, and Chile to the west and south. Argentine claims over Antarctica, as well as overlapping claims made by Chile and the United Kingdom, are suspended by the Antarctic Treaty of 1961. Argentina also claims the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which are administered by the United Kingdom as British Overseas Territories. A recognised middle power, Argentina is Latin America's third-largest economy, with a "very high" rating on the Human development index.
more

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil to the north... and east, Paraguay and Argentina to the south, Chile to the southwest, and Peru to the west. Prior to European colonization, the Andean region of Bolivia was a part of the Inca Empire – the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century. During most of the Spanish colonial period, this territory was called Upper Peru and was under the administration of the Viceroyalty of Peru, which included most of Spain's South American colonies. After declaring independence in 1809, 16 years of war followed before the establishment of the Republic, named for Simón Bolívar, on 6 August 1825. Bolivia has struggled through periods of political instability, dictatorships and economic woes. Bolivia is a democratic republic that is divided into nine departments.
more