Imigração e colonização menonita no processo de legitimação do Chaco Paraguaio (1921-1935)

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the relationship between menonit’s immigration and the Chaco’s War (1932-1935). For that, we presented the first established menonit group in the region of Chaquenha since 1977. This process was able due to the need of the immigrants to find a new place to develop their communities attending their purposes, which oscillated between governmental interference or war chasings. This process was also able due to the help of the Paraguayan government that guaranteed a sort of privileges to immigrants in exchange of populating a conflict area. This environment was consolidated by a regulamentation of their own, named law 514, which, despite of its polemics, was approved and installed after a serial of speeches that extolled the positive factors of immigration. So, for this research was from utmost importance the analysis of primary sources and of the bibliography found in Paraguayan immigration project, with the purpose of colonization. Here, were, we can prove that they were seen as a different instrument that would guarantee the Paraguayan legitimation at the Chaco Boreal, which was being contested by Bolivia.