biography
| name: |
Francia, José Gaspar Rodriguez
|
pronunciation:
[fransya]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1766–1840)
|
| biography:
| Dictator of Paraguay, born near Asunción. He studied theology, then took up law, which he practised for 30 years with a high reputation. He helped to free Paraguay from Spanish rule, and in 1811 became secretary of the national junta, in 1813 one of the two consuls, and in 1814 dictator - first for three years, then for life. Under his firm rule, which excluded all foreign contact, Paraguay rapidly improved. He was an unscrupulous despot, and yet he improved agriculture, promoted education, repressed superstition, and enforced strict justice in his law-courts, however little he regarded it himself. |
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