Fortress of Humaitá
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The Fortress of Humaitá (1854–68), known metaphorically as the Gibraltar of South America, was a Paraguayan military installation near the mouth of the River Paraguay. A strategic site without equal in the region, "a fortress the likes of which had never been seen in South America", it was "the key to Paraguay and the upper rivers". It played a crucial role in the deadliest conflict in the continent's history – the Paraguayan War – of which it was the principal theatre of operations.
Brazilian ironclad warships at last dash past the Fortress of Humaitá, 19th February 1868. By the Brazilian naval engineer and watercolourist Trajano Augusto de Carvalho (1830–1898).
Detailed plan of the Fortress of Humaitá, showing the batteries and other installations. Evolved by Brazilian military surveyors late in the War, it also shows the Allied lines of circumvallation. (This image is best viewed at high resolution.)
The Londres Battery of the Humaitá fortifications. Although this image by E.C. Jourdan of the Brazilian engineering corps has become iconic, it shows it in a state of part dismantlement. In reality the embrasures were protected by heaped earth.
Brazilian ironclad Rio de Janeiro sunk by a 'torpedo' in front of Curuzú. Painting by Adolfo Methfessel (1836-1909).
Paraguay
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Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. It has a population of around 6.1 million, nearly 2.3 million of whom live in the capital and largest city of Asunción, and its surrounding metro area.
José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, Paraguay's first dictator
Francisco Solano López
The Battle of Tuyutí, May 1866
Gran Chaco was the site of the Chaco War (1932–35), in which Bolivia lost most of the disputed territory to Paraguay