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Fortress of Humaitá
The Fortress of Humaitá (1854–68) was a defensive system near the mouth of the River Paraguay. A strategic site without equal in South America, it was "the key to Paraguay and the upper rivers". The site was an oxbow or sharp bend in the river, and practically all vessels wishing to enter the Republic of Paraguay were forced to sail around this bend. It was commanded by a 6,000 feet (1.8 kilometers) line of fortified artillery batteries, at the end which was a chain boom which, when raised, was meant to close the river to navigation. The fortress was protected from attack on its landward side by extensive earthworks or swamp. At its zenith, it was reputed to be impassable to enemy shipping. The fortress was deeply involved in the Paraguayan War (1865–70), but its construction was a key event in South American geopolitics long before that time.
The widespread perception which it created in its heyday – that Paraguay was practically immune to naval attack – may have induced its Marshal-President Francisco Solano López to take unnecessary risks in foreign policy and, in particular, to seize government vessels of the much more populous Brazil〔The number enrolled in the Brazilian National Guard was said (by Williams, 1979, ch. 13) to exceed the total population of Paraguay.〕 and Argentina. They united against him in the Treaty of the Triple Alliance. The war led to his country’s utter defeat and ruin and the casualties were immense.
A declared purpose of the Treaty of the Triple Alliance was the demolition of the Humaitá fortifications and that none others of that sort should be built again.〔Protocol to the Treaty of Alliance against Paraguay, 1 May 1866, article 1.〕 However the fortress, though not by then invulnerable to the latest armour-plated warships, was a serious obstacle to the Allies’ plans to proceed upriver to the Paraguayan capital Asunción and to recapture the Brazilian territory of Matto Grosso: one way or another, it held them up for two and a half years. It was finally taken in the Siege of Humaitá, an amphibious operation that culminated on 25 July 1868. It was then razed pursuant to the Treaty.
For present-day Paraguayans Humaitá is a symbol of national pride, standing for their country’s unyielding will to resist.
==Motives for its construction==
抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
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