Page "History of Paraguay" Paragraph 29

Tensions between royal authorities and settlers came to a head in 1720 over the status of the Jesuits, whose efforts to organize the Indians had denied the settlers easy access to Indian labor.

A full-scale rebellion, known as the Comunero Revolt, broke out when the viceroy in Lima reinstated a pro-Jesuit governor whom the settlers had deposed.

The revolt was in many ways a rehearsal for the radical events that began with independence in 1811.

The most prosperous families of Asunción, whose yerba maté and tobacco plantations competed directly with the Jesuits, initially led this revolt but as the movement attracted support from poor farmers in the interior, the rich abandoned it and soon asked the royal authorities to restore order.

In response, subsistence farmers began to seize the estates of the upper class and drive them out of the countryside.

A radical army nearly captured Asunción and was repulsed, ironically, only with the help of Indian troops from the Jesuit reducciones.