which country is paraguay often confused with?
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Uruguay and Paraguay are two South American countries that are usually confused with each other due to the fact that their names are similar and that they both share a close proximity between each other, although they do not share a border as they are separated by the country of Argentina. These two countries are different in size and population, with Paraguay having an approximately population of 6.800.000 citizens and Uruguay having nearly half of that number, with approximately 3.300.000 citizens. Another difference is that Uruguay’s official language is Spanish while Paraguay has two different official languages, Spanish and Guarani.
Paraguay
Paraguay, landlocked country in south-central South America.Moreover, a civil war in 1947 and the long dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954–89) left a deep legacy of fear and self-censorship among Paraguayans, who began to overcome those impediments only in the early 21st century.
Since 1989 the democratization process has been rocky, and Paraguay has experienced bouts of instability in its military, the assassination of a vice president in 1999, and theindictment of former presidents Juan Carlos Wasmosy (1993–98) and Luis González Macchi (1999–2003) on corruption charges. In 2008 Paraguay’s Colorado Party, the longest continuously ruling political party in the world, lost power for the first time since 1947, though it returned to power in 2013. The national capital is Asunción.
Paraguay has a more-homogeneous population than most other countries in South America; most Paraguayans are of European and Guaraní ancestry. The Guaraní culture is strongly represented through folk art and festivals, and Guaraní was designated an official language of Paraguay in the country’s 1992 constitution. Paraguayans are intensely nationalistic and are proud to converse in Guaraní, which acts as a strong marker of their identity.
Rivers play an extremely important role in the economic life of Paraguay.The country is also a major world producer of soybeans, and Paraguayans in parts of the fertile eastern border region have achieved relatively high standards of living based on modern diversified agricultural production.
Relief
The Amambaí (Amambay) Mountains run approximately north to south along part of the border with Brazil and then run eastward as the Mbaracayú Mountains. From the northeast, other ranges extend southward toward Encarnación, diminishing to hills in the south. The highest peak is Mount San Rafael at 2,789 feet (850 metres), in the Cordillera de San Rafael in southeastern Paraguay. To the west lies the broad valley of the Paraguay River.
The area from Encarnación northward to the Brazilian border, comprising one-third of eastern Paraguay, is called the Paraná Plateau. The western part of the Eastern Region and the Paraná valley north and east of Encarnación are the areas most favourable to human settlement. The Chaco Boreal, which covers more than 95,000 square miles (246,000 square km), about two-thirds of the country, forms the northeastern part of the Gran Chaco, a flat and largely featureless tropical region that extends into Bolivia and Argentina.
Drainage
To the east of the Cordillera de San Rafael lies the Paraná (Alto [Upper] Paraná) River valley. To the west lies the broad valley of the Paraguay River. The Paraná forms both the eastern and southern borders of the country. Multiple tributaries of the Paraguay and Paraná cross the eastern and central regions.
The mountain ranges of Amambay and Mbaracayú form the watershed between the Paraguay and the Paraná rivers. Important eastern tributaries of the Paraguay River include, from north to south, the Apa, Aquidabán, Ypané, Jejuí Guazú, and Tebicuary. Except for the Acaray and Ytambey rivers, the streams that flow into the Paraná have little economic significance. The Paraná joins the Paraguay River at the country’s southwestern corner.
The only important tributary flowing from the west is the sluggish Pilcomayo, which joins the Paraguay near Asunción. Rising to the northwest in Bolivia, the Pilcomayo forms the southern border of the Chaco Boreal and is navigable in its lower reaches by small boats. Other Chaco rivers, including the Verde and Monte Lindo, are slow, sluggish, intermittent streams that drain into swamps or disappear during dry periods.
Paraguay has only two lakes of consequence.
Soils
This soil is generally red and sandy and is low in nitrogen and other basic plant foods.
Soils from basaltic lava, which generally are the most fertile, cover the Paraná Plateau. Transported soils cover a band along the Paraguay River, extending from the Apa River to the southern border and covering the Ñeembucú plain.
Climate
The climate is subtropical in most of the Eastern Region, which mainly lies south of the Tropic of Capricorn, and tropical in most of the Chaco Boreal extending to its north. Masses of humid air blanket the country in the summers, and the winters are subject to cold southern winds.
Summer temperatures, between October and March, generally range from 75 to 100 °F (24 to 38 °C). Winter temperatures usually range from 60 to 75 °F (16 to 24 °C),
although extremes in the 30s and 100s °F (about −1 and 40 °C) are not uncommon. Frost occurs frequently in the Eastern Region.
The annual average rainfall in eastern Paraguay varies from 65 inches (1,650 mm) in the southeast to about 55 inches (1,400 mm) along the Paraguay River. It diminishes gradually westward across the Chaco Boreal, averaging about 30 inches (760 mm). The heaviest rainfall is from October to April. The entire country is subject to periodic floods and droughts, both of which cause severe agricultural losses.
Plant and animal life
Forest resources of the Chaco include many species of hardwoods that yield tannin,
of which the red quebracho is the most important.
Perhaps the most famous is the samuú, on account of its bottle-shaped trunk.
Numerous palms, such as the caranday,are commercially useful.
The very hard palo santo (“holy wood”) yields a valuable oil.
Medicinal plants, which formerly were the basis of an extensive native pharmacopoeia, abound in Paraguay and include marijuana, the illegal cultivation of which increased dramatically beginning in the 1990s, mainly for export to Brazil. Since the early 21st century, there also has been growth in the production and export of medicinal teas and stevioside, which is extracted from the Stevia rebaudiana plant and used as a low-calorie natural sweetener.
Wildlife includes marsh deer, monkeys, armadillos, anteaters, otters, wild boars, tapirs, jaguars, ocelots, bats, and the coypu, a South American aquatic rodent.
People
Ethnic groups
Paraguay has one of the most homogeneous populations of any South American country. The vast majority of inhabitants are almost all mestizo (of mixed European and Indian ancestry). They pride themselves on their Guaraní descent, although the admixture of European strains is prominent. About 300,000 Brazilians, many of them farmers, immigrated to the Eastern Region in the 1970s because land in Paraguay was cheaper than in Brazil. Other immigrants have come from western Europe, particularly Germany, Italy, and Spain, and from Japan, China (Hong Kong), South Korea, and Taiwan. There are about 30,000 German-speaking Mennonites in Paraguay, about half of whom live in colonies in the Chaco.
Languages
As established in the 1992 constitution, Spanish and Guaraní are the official languages of Paraguay. Guaraní is spoken by nearly nine-tenths of the population, but it has only been used as a language of instruction in schools since 1996. Spanish is used almost exclusively in government and business. At least half of the population is bilingual. The constitution also recognizes other Indian languages as part of the country’s heritage.
Religion
About nine-tenths of the population professes adherence to Roman Catholicism. There is also a sizable minority of Evangelical Protestants. The constitution recognizes no official religion and emphasizes the state’s independence from the Roman Catholic Church.
Settlement patterns
Paraguay has one of the lowest population densities in the world. Only a very small percentage of the population lives west of the Paraguay River in the Chaco; the principal areas of rural settlement are in the Eastern Region, where Paraguayans and Brazilians have settled in large numbers since the 1970s, particularly in the regions of Alto Paraná, Itapúa, and Canindiyú. The Mennonite colonies in the Chaco were first established about 120 miles west (190 km) of Puerto La Victoria (Puerto Casado) in the 1920s and ’30s. Japanese immigrants, especially after the 1930s, established thriving agricultural colonies southeast of Asunción and near Encarnación. Korean immigration to Paraguay began in the 1960s, and small Korean communities exist in the country’s larger cities.
Uruguay
Uruguay, country located on the southeastern coast of South America.
The second smallest country on the continent,
Uruguay has long been overshadowed politically and economically by the adjacent republics of Brazil and Argentina, with both of which it has many cultural and historical similarities. “On the map, surrounded by its large neighbors,Uruguay seems tiny,” writes contemporary Uruguayan historian and novelist Eduardo Galeano. “But not really. We have five times more land than Holland and five times fewer inhabitants. We have more cultivable land than Japan, and a population forty times smaller.”
Land
The wedge-shaped country is bounded by Brazil to the north and east,
by the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and by the Río de la Plata to the south,
while the Uruguay River serves as its western boundary with Argentina.
Relief and soils
The Uruguayan landscape is largely characterized by gently rolling land, with an average elevation of about 383 feet (117 metres). Tidal lakes and sand dunes fringe the coastline. Elsewhere there are broad valleys, plains (pampas), low plateaus and hills, and ridges—notably Haedo Ridge (Cuchilla de Haedo) in the north and Grande Ridge (Cuchilla Grande) in the southeast—that are a southward extension of the Brazilian Highlands. Mount Catedral, which rises to 1,685 feet (514 metres) near the southeastern coast, is the highest point in the country.
Drainage
Although it is a well-watered land, no large rivers flow entirely within Uruguay. The Uruguay River and the estuary of the Río de la Plata, along the western border of the nation, are navigable for oceangoing ships until Paysandú and for smaller vessels above that point to the falls at Salto. The smaller Negro River, which traverses the country from northeast to southwest, is navigable only in its lower part, below Rincón del Bonete Lake (the Río Negro Reservoir). Among other small rivers are the Santa Lucía, Cebollatí, and Queguay Grande. Merín (Mirim) Lagoon, which lies mainly within Brazil, is the largest natural lake.
Climate
Uruguay has a generally pleasant, temperate climate. The average temperature for the midwinter month of July varies from 54 °F (12 °C) at Salto in the northern interior to 50 °F (10 °C) at Montevideo in the south. The midsummer month of January varies from a warm average of 79 °F (26 °C) at Salto to 72 °F (22 °C) at Montevideo. Frost is almost unknown along the coast.
Plant and animal life
Tall-grass prairies once covered most of Uruguay’s land surface but now compete with enclosed, planted pastures. The principal species are ombu—a scrubby, treelike plant—and alder. Others include willow, eucalyptus, pine, poplar, acacia, and aloe. The algaroba (carob tree) and quebracho (whose wood and bark are utilized in tanning and dyeing) are prevalent, and indigenous palms grow in the valleys and along the southeastern coast. Common smaller plants include mimosa, myrtle, rosemary, and scarlet-flowered ceibo.
People
Ethnic groups and languages
Uruguayans are of predominantly European origin, mostly descendants of 19th- and 20th-century immigrants from Spain and Italy and, to a much lesser degree, from France and Britain. Earlier settlers had migrated from Argentina and Paraguay. Few direct descendants of Uruguay’s indigenous peoples remain, and mestizos (of mixed European and Indian ancestry) account for less than one-tenth of the population. Blacks and persons of mixed Black and white ancestry make up an even smaller proportion of the total.
Religion
Nearly half of the people are at least nominally Roman Catholic. About one-third of the population adhere to other Christian faiths or are nondenominational Christians. About one-sixth of Uruguayans are agnostics or atheists. Jews, mostly in Montevideo, make up a small minority, which is nevertheless one of the larger Jewish communities in South America.
