After Paraguay proclaimed independence from the
Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, its first effective head of state was
utopist José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia. He ruled the country from 1814 until his death in 1840, ensuring
very little outside contact or influence. Since the establishment of the office of President of the Republic in 1844, during the family dictatorship of the
López family (1841–1870), Paraguay had 51 presidents. Between the end of the
Paraguayan War in 1870 and the
1954 coup d'état, the country had 44 presidents; 24 of them were forcefully removed from power. Eventually,
Army General Alfredo Stroessner, supported by the
Armed Forces and the
right-wing Colorado Party, seized power in the 1954 ''
coup d'état''. Relying on the military and the party as the "twin pillars" of his rule, and ruling in the
single-party system until 1962, Stroessner was elected for eight consecutive terms before being ousted in the
1989 coup d'état.
His 35-year-long rule was one of the
longest in history by a non-royal leader. == List of officeholders ==