Francis Loraine Petre maintained, he used statistical information supplied by the President of Columbia. The book includes photographs that he took himself. His second book on South America was "Simon Bolivar—El Libertador; a life of the chief leader in the revolt against Spain in Venezuela, New Granada and Peru." Francis Loraine Petre Francis Loraine Petre (22 February 1852 – 6 May 1925) was a British civil servant in India and a military historian upon his retirement. He wrote a two-volume regimental history of the Norfolk Regiment, but is best known for his works on the Napoleonic Wars. The grandson of the 11th Baron
Military history of South America Paraguayan War (also known as the War of the Triple Alliance), one of the most violent wars to be fought in South America, commenced in 1864 between Paraguay and the allied countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Paraguay had evolved since independence under the rule of the López family; government was harsh, and the López family ruled the country as it would a large property estate. Paraguay's President Francisco Solano López was deeply patriotic, but also ambitious, perhaps arrogant, and possibly insane. In the years before the war, he had invested heavily in building up a military and a standing