Paraguay

Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country located in the central region of South America. It borders Bolivia to the northwest and north, Brazil to the northeast and east, and Argentina to the southeast, south, and west. Paraguay has access to the Atlantic Ocean via the Paraná–Paraguay Waterway, a system of navigable channels shared by five countries. The country is governed as a unitarypresidential republic composed of a capital district and seventeen departments. Its capital and largest city is Asunción. It dates its independence from Spain to 1811.

The indigenous Guaraní had been living in eastern Paraguay for at least a millennium before the arrival of Spanishconquistadores in 1524. The city of Asunción was founded in 1537 as the first capital of the Governorate of the Río de la Plata within the Spanish Empire. During the 17th century, Paraguay was the center of Jesuit missions, where the natives were converted to Christianity and introduced to European culture. After the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish territories in 1767, Paraguay increasingly became a peripheral colony.

Following independence from Spain in the early 19th century, Paraguay was ruled by a series of authoritarian governments. This period ended with the disastrous Triple Alliance War (1864–1870), during which the country lost half its prewar population and around 25–33% of its territory. Paraguay prevailed in another major conflict in the twentieth century, the Chaco War with Bolivia (1932-1935). It subsequently came under a succession of military dictators, culminating in the 35-year regime of Alfredo Stroessner. He was overthrown in 1989 by an internal military coup, marking the beginning of Paraguay's current democratic era.

Paraguay is a developing country, ranking 99th in the Human Development Index, with the seventh highest GDP (PPP) per capita in South America. As of 2024, it had one of the fastest growing economies in the Western Hemisphere, driven by beef and soybean exports, manufacturing, and construction. Paraguay is one of the world's leading exporters of hydroelectricity; the Itaipu Dam on the Paraná River border with Brazil is the third largest hydroelectric dam in the world in terms of produced energy. Paraguay is a founding member of Mercosur, the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the Lima Group. Additionally, the city of Luque, in metropolitan Asunción, is the seat of the South American Football Confederation. Ciudad del Este is Paraguay's second largest city and hosts many of the countries consulates-general.

The majority of Paraguay's 6 million people are mestizo, and Guarani culture remains widely influential; more than 90% of the population speak various dialects of the Guarani language alongside Spanish, the highest rate of fluency in an indigenous language in Latin America. In a 2014 Positive Experience Index based on global polling data, Paraguay ranked as the "world's happiest place", and in 2024, placed 24th in the progress rankings of the World Happiness Report.