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FRANCIA, JOSE GASPAR RODRIGUEZ (c. 17...

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 933 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FRANCIA, JOSE GASPAR See also:RODRIGUEZ (c. 1757-1840) , See also:dictator of See also:Paraguay, was See also:born probably about 1757. According to one See also:account he was of See also:French descent; but the truth seems to be that his See also:father, See also:Garcia Rodriguez Francia, was a native of S. Paulo in See also:Brazil, and came to Paraguay to take See also:charge of a See also:plantation of See also:black See also:tobacco for the See also:government. He studied See also:theology at the See also:college of See also:Cordova de See also:Tucuman, and is said to have been for some See also:time a See also:professor in that See also:faculty; but he afterwards turned his See also:attention to the See also:law, and practised in See also:Asuncion. Having attained a high reputation at once for ability and integrity, he was selected for various important offices. On the See also:declaration of Paraguayan See also:independence in 1811, he was appointed secretary to the See also:national See also:junta, and exercised an See also:influence on affairs greatly out of proportion to his nominal position. When the See also:congress or junta of 1813 changed the constitution and established a duumvirate, Dr Francia and the Gaucho See also:general Yegres were elected to the See also:office. In 1814 he secured his own See also:election as dictator for three years, and at the end of that See also:period he obtained the dictatorship for See also:life. In the accounts which have been published of his ad-ministration we find a See also:strange mixture of capacity and caprice, of far-sighted See also:wisdom and reckless infatuation, strenuous endeavours after a high ideal and flagrant violations of the simplest principles of See also:justice. He put a stop to the See also:foreign See also:commerce of the See also:country, but carefully fostered its See also:internal See also:industries; Was disposed to be hospitable to strangers from other lands, and kept them prisoners for years; lived a life of republican simplicity, and punished with Dionysian severity 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 See also:

church. He abolished the See also:Inquisition, suppressed the college of theology, did away with the See also:tithes, and inflicted endless •indignities on the priests. He discouraged See also:marriage both by See also:precept and example, and See also:left behind him several illegitimate See also:children. For the extravagances of his later years the plea of See also:insanity has been put forward. On the 20th of See also:September 184o he was seized with a See also:fit and died. The first and fullest account of Dr Francia was given to the See also:world by two Swiss surgeons, Rengger and See also:Longchamp, whom he had detained from 1819 to 1825—Essai historique sur la revolution de Paraguay et la gouvernement dictatorial du docteur Francia (See also:Paris, 1827). Their See also:work was almost immediately translated into See also:English under the See also:title of The Reign of See also:Doctor See also:Joseph G. R. De Francia in Paraguay (1827). About eleven years after there appeared at See also:London Letters on Paraguay, by J. P. and W. P.

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Robertson, two See also:young Scotsmen whose hopes of commercial success had been rudely destroyed by the dictator s Interference. The account which they gave of his See also:character and government was of the most unfavourable description, and they rehearsed and emphasized their accusations in Francia's Reign of Terror (1839) and Letters on See also:South See also:America (3 vols., 1843). From the very pages of his detractors See also:Thomas See also:Carlyle succeeded in extracting materials for a brilliant See also:defence of the dictator " as a See also:man or See also:sovereign of See also:iron See also:energy and See also:industry; of See also:great and severe labour." It appeared in the Foreign Quarterly See also:Review for 1843, and is reprinted in his See also:Critical and See also:Miscellaneous Essays. See also:Sir See also:Richard F. See also:Burton gives a graphic See also:sketch of Francia's life and a' favourable See also:notice of his character in his Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay (1870), while C. A. See also:Washburn takes up a hostile position in his See also:History of Paraguay (1871).

End of Article: FRANCIA, JOSE GASPAR RODRIGUEZ (c. 1757-1840)

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