As a Paraguayan...the conflict was meant to happen, even President Carlos Antonio Lopez (father of Francisco Solano López, president of Paraguay during the war) warned his son not to take any risks with Brazil "Always with the pen, never with the sword" was his last words to his son before passing away

Paraguayan here, in my family we have the story of my great, great, great, grandfather, he was called Celestino Valenzuela, he was a kid when the war happened. During the campaign of the hills or cordilleras in spanish many atrocities were commited and usually when the allied forces took villages they totally destroyed them, according with the story of my ancestor when his town was being destroyed and the most of the people was already killed a brazilian oficer saw him and had mercy on him, he took him and hided him, sent him to brazil, Rio de Janeiro, where he raised him as a son and even sent him to study in the military school in Rio. Years after that he returned to paraguay trying to find any relatives, it is unclear for me wether he did it or not but he stayed here and had children (as men were much needed here). This story of my ancestor taken as a child and returning to the country years later looking for relatives was actually something that happened to many paraguayans, not only him

To this day, in Brazilian military circles, whenever someone is a by-the-book, tough-as-nails fighting man, soldiers call him _"caxias"._

We need more on South American post colonial history. It was a fascinating time.

Another Paraguayan here. My great-grandmother was a very young child found wandering alone amidst the ruins of a desolated, decimated country in the aftermath of the Guerra Guazú (Big War) and was raised by a generous couple who sheltered her, gave her their last name Rojas and renamed her after the immaculate virgin Concepción. Despite being white w blue eyes, she only spoke Guaraní, the indigenous language and much later used to regale us children with stories about ghost military tanks, buried treasures glowing a green light in the dark, and wailing wondering soldier souls in the plains of the Chaco. Absolutely nothing was ever found about her biological origins. She died in the 1980’s at the age of 104. I love you GGm…

No one in this war ended up victorious... The war strengthen the military faction in Brazil, and it was this faction that made a coup d'etat against the emperor in the following years and founded the Brazilian republic...

I am Brazilian, 3 people from my family fought in this war... Peter Schmedaeke ( son of a german imigrant, his father was a german mercanary who came to brazil in 1820 and fought in the cisplatine war), born in Rio Grande do Sul in the 1840s, was a 2nd Sargent in the 2nd army corps, comanded by the Count of Porto Alegre. In the Battle of Curupaity the count ordered that the german imigrants and their descendents took the vanguard, the germans should advance in the first line of the allied attack (this way the Count would reduce the number of "brazilians" killed in the battle), thus, my Peter Schmedaeke went in, in the front and was wounded in the middle of the battle, probably a cannon ball or a musket ball, after the battle he was taken back to a hospital in the army encampment but died in the following days, sadly he never had any children... He was 24 when he was killed. I descent from his sister tho

0:35 - Chapter 1 - Independent but unstable 5:50 - Chapter 2 - The paraguayan offensives 10:55 - Chapter 3 - The allies turn the tide 15:45 - Chapter 4 - Invasion of paraguay 21:15 - Chapter 5 - Paraguayan fortress 25:10 - Chapter 6 - Generations erased

Good video. I'm Brazilian, I know the pronunciations might be difficult for you and there's absolutely no problem with that, but I'd just like to point out that in the Duke of Caxias title the word Caxias is pronounced like "cah-shee-ahs".

One of the things that I notice when I read or watch something related to the armed conflicts that took place in South America is that none of us (at least the majority), regardless of which side our countries were on in these conflicts, are not proud of having fought these wars, there are always sad feelings and wishes that they could have been avoided. I think this is a very unique characteristic of South Americans. I (a Brazilian) remember coming out of history classes that covered these topics, and being completely overwhelmed, they were never treated in a romanticized way, and I am glad that my teachers have chosen to do it this way. Great video!

Paraguay's lack of male population was so dire that they even signed a deal with Colombia essentially saying that all Colombian citizens were officially also Paraguayan citizens in order to encourage them to migrate there.

My daughter was in Paraguay serving in the Peace Corps and my wife and I visited a couple times. Got to see the trenches in the North Chaco where some of Chaco War of the 1930's was fought. They said it was three armies fighting over territory none of them wanted. Very rough miserable place to fight, spent an hour every night pulling thorns out of my boots, can't imagine how terrible the front line soldiers had it. FWIW it really is a nice place to visit with wonderful scenery in the South and incredible birdwatching in the North. Thanks Simon and Co for the history that led up to what I saw. Amazing it was so many years fighting over a lot of worthless dirt.

The diplomatic terms about Paraguayan territoral concessions in the aftermath of Paraguayan war are still kept in secret in a safe at the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty). PS: now PLEASE make a video about Canudos' War in Brazil, a sort of tiny version of Taiping Rebellion.

I'm from Corumbá and I have some cannonballs from that war, its very common in some parts of the paraguay river (near to citys and forts) to find them.

My great-great-grandfather was a Captain in this war, in the Argentine military. He was from the province of Corrientes. I've always wanted to know more. Thank you! I always knew it had to have been consequential because he was a poor kid born out of wedlock whose father never recognized him, but he wound up marrying THE GOVERNOR'S ELDEST DAUGHTER (my great-great-grandmother). So. Evidently buddy did something right to rise in status like that haha

I had never even heard of that war! (In 1864 and '65, both North and South America were fighting wars.) I learn a lot from this channel.

My grandfather was born and raised in Paraguay. He would tell us about this war very often, but even more about the Chaco War and General Estigarribia. This video reminded me of him, thanks Simon.

Dom Pedro II was a total badass. Went fisically to battle with his soldiers in the 1860s against the Congress's orders. Abolished slavery in Paraguay in a preview project of his abolition project to Brazil

One thing you should have mentioned, Simon, is that the US president at the time had to intervene. Let me explained. President Hayes at the time was chosen to be the mediator for the peace conference. Turns out, Brazil was secretly going to make a deal with Paraguay to still exist, which angered Argentina. This fiasco would have partition Paraguay like Poland if it wasn't for cooler heads agreeing for a mediator. Enter President Hayes. To summarize, he ultimately made Argentina to agree that keeping Paraguay around is better since they can be a buffer to buy them time for war agaisnt Brazil. Which made Buenos Aires to agree. While also giving Paraguay the Chaco region to them. Which later result to war with Bolivia in the 1930s. But yea, that actually happened and a fun fact. An obscure US president saving Paraguay from being partition.

Another half Paraguayan here😊☝🏽Thank you for making this video! This is by far one of the most devastating things to have happened in Latino America.. I learnt all this in school, and I still didn't know as much as you do haha. But it really is fascinating how this war played out.. VENCER O MORIR!🔥💪🏽🇵🇾

Thanks for the nice historical research work! Some of my ancestors (southern brazilians and uruguayans) fought in many of these wars and revolutions (Cisplatina, Farroupilha, Paraguay and Federalista).

Another very interesting video! South America was barely covered by my teachers in school, so I'd never heard about this war before. Very thorough and fascinating video. Well done Simon and team! 😊👏💯

My great-great-grandfather was a navy officer from Brazil during this war. I don't know much of what he did during the war but he had an outstanding career afterwards.

Thank you, Simon! Living in a country colonlized by the British (Canada), even in uni I only learned about history that involved the British empire (and the French because French language was my major). I love learning about all the other events that happened outside the Centre Of The World aka Europe. /S

Great video. Very few people from outside the region know about this conflict

I am surprised that this isn't in the Into the Shadows channel. The discovery of a 1870 Paraguayan census in the late 1990s raised the possibility that Paraguayan losses in population may have been 60-70% of the total population. I should also mention that the Paraguayan population was a mixed mestizo population the vast majority of which spoke Guarani a native Indian language. At the time and even today Paraguayans often refer to themselves as Guarani. This included the majority of the ruling elite. This gave Paraguay a certain cultural distinctiveness compared to other South American countries. Lopez was able to mobilize the Paraguayan people because he convinced them that the allies aim was the destruction of Paraguay and hence the Guarani people. The Treaty of the Triple Alliance did in fact contain secret clauses calling for the partition and taking over of large sections of Paraguay, all while cloaking their actual aims with saying they were overthrowing an evil Dictator; and certainly some of the allied leadership was in fact thinking of destroying Paraguay. (Mainly Argentinian.) Lopez himself is a bit of an enigma. Along with being rather cruel his identification of himself with his nation was extreme to the point of near extinction.

This war had so many negative effects on our country, Lopez was a lunatic, sending kids do Acosta Ñu, but Brazil was also incredibly cruel to Paraguayans at that time. We were the first ones to have a trainsystem, we were up and coming but this loss of population threw us so far back that it still has consequences today. Funfact: Argentina and Brazil took a lot of Land from Py that were for yerba mate so that's why we don't produce and export as much "Much of the 156,415 square kilometers (60,392 sq mi) lost by Paraguay to Argentina and Brazil was rich in yerba mate, so by the end of the 19th century, Brazil became the leading producer of the crop.[149] Foreign entrepreneurs entered the Paraguayan market and took control of its remaining yerba mate production and industry.[148]"

As someone who's spent over 10 years in Paraguay, married to a Paraguayan and with Paraguayan kids, I really like the way you explained this war, without all the pollution I usually get from Paraguayan sources or Argentinean sources when I lived there. My only recommendation is that you ask someone about the pronunciation of some of these places and names,. you actually read some of them in a way that doesn't even sound like it's written, changing the order of the letters and all. It is not a harsh criticism, the contents are amazingly well done, but I do believe a bit of effort on the pronunciation would be a very nice touch. By teh way it's quite simple, all these are guarani names, and guarani is almost always accentuated in the last syllabe. Most paraguayan names have the accent placed at the end. So if you put the accent at the end of each name, you'll already achieve a lot.

Great video. I live in Uruguay and it was nice to see you cover this.

Always a good day when Warographics uploads 😎😎 especially longer, more in depth videos like this one

Can you do 1 on the Yugoslav wars in the 90s?

🙏Simon squad producing another banger as always - love the content here by the way, keep it up

More channels needs to talk about this conflict

An excellent presentation. Because it occurred in South America it's practically unknown outside the continent, but it is indeed legendary in it's unbelievable ferocity. Thanks for this video!

I'm 34 and hardly knew a thing about this. Thanks, Simon and team :)

I feel this video apart from the butchering of guarani pronunciation is missing a very important battle which is seared into Paraguayans memory and image, The Battle of Acosta Ñu. A horrific massacre of mostly children who dressed and pretended to be men valiantly standing up to and many clinging onto their enemies legs. It is beyond description of how really horrific it must have been, as a child in a massacre or as a conscript being forced to murder children in droves. It brings a new meaning to children's day where the nation remembers their sacrifice. Also missing the old wives tale of the gold and silver Lopez had taken from the rich to fund the war or keep it from falling into enemy hands only to bury it or throw it in a lake to this day many people feverishly dig on their land and pursue the search to finding this forgotten buried treasure. A great quote from the war was of Lopez hearing of Meza's bungling of the river ambush and hearing he died of a shot, lopez is said to reply that he would have shot him twice had he(Meza) survived.

The Paraguayan War ranks as one of the bloodiest of all history behind ww1 and ww2, soldiers mown down every hour.

Amazing! thank you for doing this video!!

Wow Simon et al. Excellent video on a hidden part of history. As usual hats off to you. Keep up the good work, the public love it

As a Brazilian and Guarani descendant this war hits Very well, good job. Only correcting that the capital of my Homestate Mato Grosso was Barão de Melgaço, not just Melgaço wich is a city in Pará state, close to the Amazon river.

Finally! Thanks, Simon!

Thank you Very much for your work! We Love history!!

Thank you Simon. I am paraguayan and this video sums up brilliantly the war. Unfortunately it has taken us many decades to resurfice, but today we have one of the most stables economy and political situation in latin america. We also have a high demographic bonus, being our population more than 60% people in the range of up to 30yrs. We still have a long way to go, and we will!!!

Simon Whistler, thanks for all the fascinating knowledge you have shared with us all these years. Your content, channels, topics, narrations, just enhance the overall KZfaq experience 🤓👍🏻

Simon, I'm a new subscriber and IMHO you are brilliant. Again with a cheeky delivery, you made another rather dry subject to life. Brilliant! Have done pressed the bell and I'm still browsing the playlist. Outstanding!

Hello Simon and crew. I am a big fan of your videos and I am Paraguayan, I just came back from Japan, I lived there for 2 years, I often explained, talked and even gave classes about my country there for 2 years. Sometimes I even told some people about the Triple Alliance War. No one ever knew that Paraguay exists and even less about the war. In a big part, we are still a small and less know country because of the war. Is something that hurts to every Paraguayan. I wish I could have the video back then in Japan to show this people but I am glad this video exists know so I can show and I definitely will share it. Thank you Simon and crew, for your job, thank you for this video.

Thankyou for the video, I am from the UK and this is my first time learning about this conflict, I found this so interesting

Correction, Cuiabá is the capital of Mato Grosso, Melgaço was the name of a fortified camp to the south of Cuiabá which blocked the way to the city.

I loved this Simon, I was aware of this war but not the details. Maybe you can do the Soviet-Polish war at some point. Great content, keep it up.

A video of my home country?! Sad to see it make this channel but glad to learn about it.

Holy crap you're everywhere! You've narrated the last 3 videos I've watched. I was only expecting you the first time.

Good video, greetings from Paraguay

An excellent novel by Lily Tuck entitled “The News from Paraguay” won the 2004 National Book Award. It is a riveting account of the war from the viewpoint of Lopez’s wife. An insanely heroic war which resulted in Paraguay becoming the most backward nation in South America for many years. But many European men emigrated to Paraguay to look for wives and financial opportunity, and in the 1930s they fought again against Bolivia over a wasteland called the Chaco. They won this war, again with great loss of life, and were ruled by another dictator who was a Nazi sympathizer. Today, however, they are considered one of the most pleasant countries on the continent, and a great retirement destination. Go figure!

One of your best videos yet...imho

Between this, French Mexico and the US civil the Western Hemisphere was LIT in the 1860s

Good video 👍

A very good video about the Triple Alianza war !!.

Yesss I really love this newest Whistlerverse channel especially the 30 min episodes. They are also perfect timeout vids for my kids 😉

This was probably the most important event in Latin American history in the last 2 centuries

As a fully Brazilian (born and raised) I watched several videos about this war, in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Each one has a different approach and particular point of view. You didn't mentioned 2 points not written in the history books.: the young Paraguayan girls being raped by the Allies army, and the killed Paraguayan boys army, desguised as men. This is a very good video.

Hi Simon. I’m from Paraguay and I always watch your videos, first of all thank you for telling one part of our history. If you’re interested to know more about Paraguayan history and about the Triple Alianza and Chaco wars and the real reasons behind you can reach Paraguayan historians Herib Caballero Campos and Fabian Chamorro. I think that my people’s sad past deserves to be told for the world to know. One more thing, please stop calling us an “obscure country’’ as you did it on other videos, as I can tell almost everyone here are English speakers and you really can’t imagine how much my country has suffered. From independence to our very present days, but here are the ones that want to put our country standing again. Thanks for the video ❤️ it meant a world to me

Paraguay has a long, sad history of dictatorships and costly conflicts with its neighbors. The tremendous losses of population noted in this video was followed by the Chaco War fought with Bolivia (1932-1935), recognized as the bloodiest war in Twentieth Century South America. John Gillette writes about this saga of sadness in At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig which carries Paraguayan politics through the coziness of fleeing Nazis post WW2. It is an intriguing book.

Nice video!!

This was a certainly tumultuous time. During the early half of the 19th century the South American countries simply continued to observe the shaky administrative divisions of the Spanish empire as international borders. Often these didn’t make any sense and some times they weren’t consisten through the 300 years of colonial rule. By the 1860s something happened. Maybe it was a sudden realization of this situation or the advancement in Technology which valorized previously unaccounted resources in these frontiers (like guano and rubber). The republics started to assert their claims and sought to solve these terrible frontiers. Often through war. By the time the American Civil War was over and the war of the triple alliance was raging the Spanish Empire tried to assert some sort of soft dominion on the pacific coast trying to gain access to guano deposits, leading to a mostly naval war with Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador. About a decade later these same areas, this time found to be rich in nitrate, would be the disputed real estate to plunge Peru and Bolivia in a war against Chile. There were certainly other conflicts around this time, like the Patagonian Conquest of the desert, which comes to show the territorial differences and ambitions of these nations were still to be fulfilled. Still today they are a cause of ill-will, though the territorial disputes are, for the most part, solved and buried.

Most of the paintingsthat illustrate this video were made by Cándido López, an argentine painter and solider that lost his arm on the conflict and had to teach himself to paint with his left hand.

Population of Paraguay: The unique census previous to the Triple Alliance war was in 1846, with the results of a population around 250.000 (Kegler 1976). The population growth at that time was betwen 1.75 to 2.0 % (Whigham and Potthast, 1999) per year, so for 1865 the total population of Paraguay would be 400.000 to 450.000 . In 1871 was ordered a Census for the transition Government of Paraguay. The findings were an estimated population in the range of 140.000 to 166.000. (Whigham and Potthast, 1999). With these numbers, the population loss was 60% to 69% or 240.000 to 310.000 deaths. Of this amount, military loss in combat were around 100.000 soldiers. The rest of starvation, diseases and war crimes committed mainly for brazilian soldiers as result of the anarchy of that times.

This should be taught in every history class. I wish we were taught more about conflicts around the globe, not just the world wars and Napoleon!!

What a sad story. Thank you for covering it and may it never repeat in spite of the many dictators and lunatics that run the region.

At the Tomb of the Inflatable Pig: Travels Through Paraguay by John Gimlette is an informative and hilarious book about Paraguay that's goes in some depth about the War of the Triple Alliance and the Chaco war as well. Paraguay has a strange and fascinating history.

Thought you'd mention Bernardo Berro as well as Venancio Flores. Berro's life and work are great for a dedicated video

This guy is great. I love the way he recites history.

An interesting battle to cover (not sure if you do individual battles here) would be the battle of kapyoung in the Korean War. It arguably was a battle that saved the defeat of the war. Fought by Canadian Australian and New Zealand forces who were severely outnumbered. The battle often came down to hand to hand combat with artillery being called in on friendly positions. Please consider covering this as it is scarcely ever mentioned

Duque if Caxias is still known today in Brazil for his badassness and being very strict!

One of the most interesting people involved in this war was the Irishwoman Madame Eliza Lynch, who was the wife of President Francisco Lopez. The two of them met in Paris as Eliza's family fled there during the Irish Famine. During the Paraguayan War she served as a nursed and when times got desperate she led a female regiment and fought alongside men. At some point she was also made the Regent of Paraguay and was in charge of State affairs. according to legend, she witnessed her husbands death, and afterwards she buried him and their eldest son in the same grave with her bare hands. she is now a national hero in Paraguay, despite the Triple Alliance's efforts to scapegoat her as some sort of manipulative seductress who convinced Lopez to get involved in Uruguays affairs in the first place.

Very good video with a lot of historical accuracy. I am from Paraguay and I have been studying this war for a long time. Unfortunately, the President of Paraguay started an unnecessary war and for reasons far removed from the country, since there was no alliance, economic or political interests with Uruguay that forced Paraguay to start an external war. But just as Lopez started an unnecessary conflict, the allied leaders, Pedro II (Brazil) and Mitre / Sarmiento (Argentina) have their share of responsibility for not ending the war in September 1866 when López, feeling defeated, asked for peace conditions. In this way, the humanitarian catastrophe that took place after 1869 would have been avoided.

Wow, this war was very comprehensive

Hey I am a Paraguayan and am subscribed to your other channels. I want to thanks you for doing this video and doing it in such quality. As you may well know Paraguay is not very known worldwide and the content that is out there is either very biased or there is no depth to it. I mean I really appreciate it.

Great to learn some South American history. I’d love to hear more. And more about African wars.

I remember when I first heard of this war, i was stunned that it was never covered in any history book

My, that Brazilian ship really didn’t want to do what it was meant to do

Good, no more 480p uploads. I do hope y'all get those other ones fixed as well.

Simon! Content idea here! How bout doing videos on specific units throughout history, for example I grew up reanacting the American revolution as a 42nd Highland Regiment a foot and there’s never been a good video on their history!

Paraguay had warned Brazil not to meddle on Uruguayan matters and that any further acts of war on Uruguay would be considered as an act of war on Paraguay. This was in response to a letter from the National Party of Uruguay (Blancos) asking Francisco Solano Lopez to step in for help. In October of 1864, despite Paraguay's warning, Brazil invaded Uruguay once more and only THEN, in November of 1864, was it that Paraguay declared war on Brazil and counter-attacked by targeting the Marques de Olinda.

Great video. A little note, the only support Paraguay recibed was from Colombia, but it was symbolic on, as Colomboa and Paraguay share no border and are more than 4.000 km away.

Rest In Peace to those that passed away during the war.

Haven't talked about British influence in Paraguay at the time. But nice video. Brazilian here.

Excellent video. This war was devastating to all parties involved. While it strengthened Brazilian patriotism it weakened the prestige of the Emperor when after the war many military felt unappreciated by the crown, thus leading to the Republican Coup, dethroning Peter ii.

Não temos e não iremos pagar nada que aconteceu há vários anos atrás. É o mesmo que a Alemanha pedir reparação histórica por ter sido devastada em uma guerra que ela mesma causou. Se fomos falar em dívida histórica, Portugal, Espanha e Inglaterra estariam ferradas.

Paraguay REALLY miscalculated here.

Interesting, I both shared and saved.

When you're feeling your oats and decide to fight the whole world only to be reminded the whole world is bigger than you.

Here in Brazil, we don't have knowledge about this war. It's is secret of state, in memoriam our Paraguayan people.

Nice video !😌👍 Only a comment: "Caxias" is pronounced in portuguese not as "Kaksis", but rather "Casheeas". 😌👍

Me, as a Peruvian, watching this: Warographics: Peru invaded Bolivia Me: What, when? Oh, yeah... that happened. Our bad. Warographics: Then Peru and Bolivia invaded Chile Me: Oh mate, better check those sources again.

As put by a Brazilian historian in a documentary about the Paraguayan War, referring to Solano Lopez in the final years of the war: Does a true patriot bring his country to an end? it remained to be seen whether his fatherland wanted to die with him.

In 1870 the colombian government offered to grant Colombian citizenship to any Paraguayan stepping on Colombia if as a result of the war Paraguay were to disappear or split between the Allies.

Great overview of a little known conflict with immense repercussions.

Hello, everybody! Having watched the documentary, I am inclined to add some sort of notions that may come to be a bit more precise indication about the depicted concepts, and might be slightly different or ambivalent to English speaker people. 2:49 - Even when it was proclaimed in 1828, as a formal international recognition, we can also placed the Uruguayan independence in 1830, after bit more than two years of war between Argentina and Uruguay against the Brazilian domination. 3:04 - I dare to say the political concepts and ideology spectrum which Mr Whistle is refering to, are more linked to the British traditional Conservative vs Liberal dicotomy, rather than a quiet modern terminology, overall seen in United States, for example. 17:04 - The plan was not so improvised, but poorly calculated according to the battlefield characteristics. From West to East, the marshes and swampy terrain were thicker and heavier to pass through, so, when every single Paraguayan division was ready to perform accordingly, the western divisions had it slightly easier than the eastern ones; which actually gained time and resources for the allied army, because of the failure in attack all at once. The allies Left, indeed suffer heavy casualties and the Right was better prepared to face the assault and reorganize the canons. Of course, the perspective from the Allies point of view is South-North. 21:40 - The main issue was that the naval bombardment proceded according to what was expected to be a naval attack to a higher fortress, a fortified area with buildings, walls, and bunkers, like it later happened with Humaita's fortification. But the Paraguayan army had entrenched, dug in, with a palisade of nearly 6 metres tall in some sectors, leaving the artillery and fusiliers gun mouths barely above the trench ground; so, when the bombardment started, most of the Brazilian artillery aimed above the Paraguayan's heads and positions. 22:34 - Also, the change of commander of the Field Army, was severly hurried up due the need for the Argentinian president Bartolome Mitre, to return to his country, because the Paraguayan War was extremely unpopular and had, among other sympathetical reactions, a new rising of "caudillos federales", mostly Felipe Varela and Vicente Peñaloza. 25:14 - It must be said, the Argentinian forces of the ally army, having known of what was happening in Asuncion with the very first Brazilian division commiting different and wantoming kind of crimes against population and properties, for one full day refused to enter in the city and "ashamed the Argentinian Army with such barbaric and uncivilized behaviour". I might have been quite extensive in my notions, but I thought so adecuated. Anyway, thank you for the Documentary and for the patience of reading this thick-brain-out. Greetings!

Two still often ignored key points to remember: it was the lunatic paraguayan dictator who started it all by invading the Empire and Argentina, with everything else proceeding from this fact; and every human war and its imediate aftermath up until the early 1900s saw more death due to illnesses than actual violent, deliberate military action. This is true for all sides involved.

Great vid. Btw, the Duke of Caxias, the Brazilian general who took command towards the end, is pronounced Cash-ee-yus, not Cac-si-as