ABSTRACT
The revolt against Caceres was important not only in that it strengthened the tradition of political autonomy which had been slowly evolving in the colony, but also in that, for the first time in the history of Paraguay, the mestizos played a leading political role. No other part of the Spanish American empire developed as strong a tradition of autonomy as did Paraguay. And that tradition survived throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Centuries later admirers and detractors of Irala were to debate the motivations for this decision. Irala was still in Asuncion when news arrived that a large expedition commanded by the new adelantado of the Río de la Plata was on its way. Irala sailed to Buenos Aires and in June supervised its evacuation. By the second half of the sixteenth century mestizos in Paraguay had achieved a considerable measure of equality before the law with Spaniards, and, apparently, considerable power as well.
