The United States and Paraguay, 1845-1860: Misunderstanding, Miscalculation, and Misconduct

<p>In 1845 the United States had its first, if tentative diplomatic relations with the Government of Paraguay. The people and Government of the United States knew as little of Paraguay as they did of Japan. To the United States the nation of Paraguay was a secluded and unknown state. But at this point the validity of this comparison between Japan and Paraguay ends. The United States never developed the interest in Paraguay that it did in Japan. There were two basic reasons which explain this indifference on the part of the United States, which was broken only by one sporadic exception. First, the United States never developed important commercial relations with Paraguay, largely because Paraguay had little to offer the merchants of the United States. Second, the United States faced no issue of vital national interest in its relations with Paraguay.</p> <p>Therefore, it would appear that the relations between these two nations should have proceeded with a minimum of friction. However, friction did arise. The relations reached an Impasse over a period of years because of misunderstandings, miscalculations, and the misconduct of the governments and agents of both nations. The culmination of these events was the dispatching of a large United states naval force to Paraguay.</p> <p>The object of this paper is to explore the manner by which these relations reached an impasse and the nature of, as well as the reasons behind, its subsequent resolution.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Year dc:date.available

1965

Author dc:creator

• Flickema, Thomas Orin

Contributors dc:contributor

• Guice
• Seidler
• Miller

• Latin American History

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/822

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.wayne.edu:oa_dissertations-1819