He is officially recognized as the country's national hero since the presidency of Colonel Rafael Franco between 1936 and 1937 after decades of liberal governments that rejected his figure as heroic.

At a very young age, he served in the Paraguayan Army fighting against Juan Manuel de Rosas in the sporadic hostilities sustained by Paraguay and Argentina during the Platine Wars.

[4] From one perspective, his ambitions were the main reason for the outbreak of the war[5] while other arguments maintain he was a fierce champion of the independence of South American nations against foreign rule and interests.

[8][9][10][11][12][13] His father, Carlos Antonio López, ascended to the Paraguayan Presidency in 1841 following the death of the nation's longtime dictator, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia.

He also modernized the Paraguayan Army with the novelties he acquired in Europe, adopting the French Code and the Prussian System of military organization (receiving some praise for this innovation many years later).

[16] López later equipped his army with uniforms designed to match those of the Grande Armée and it was said that he also ordered for himself an exact replica of Napoleon's crown,[17] yet this remains unproven.

[19][20] In November 1859, López was on board the Paraguayan steamer Tacuari, which was captured by Royal Navy ships attempting to pressure his father into releasing a British citizen from prison.

He had, as his great ambition, to position Paraguay as a credible "third force" in the ongoing rivalry between Argentina and the Empire of Brazil over control of the Rio de la Plata Basin.

In pursuit of this goal, López sought to organize the region's smaller nations into a political coalition designed to offset the power and influence of the Brazilians and the Argentines.

López found an eager ally in Uruguayan President Bernardo Berro, another leader whose country was frequently menaced by the various intrigues of the continent's two great powers.

The force seized and sacked the town of Corumbá and took possession of the province and its diamond mines,[24] together with an immense quantity of arms and ammunition, including enough gunpowder to last the whole Paraguayan Army for at least a year of active war.

[28] The war which ensued, lasting until 1 March 1870, was carried on with great stubbornness and with alternating fortunes, though López's disasters steadily increased.

[29] His first major setback came on 11 June 1865, when the powerless Paraguayan fleet was destroyed by the Brazilian Navy at the Battle of Riachuelo, which gave the Allies control over the various waterways surrounding Paraguay and forced López to withdraw from Argentina.

[31] Ramona Martínez, who worked as a nurse in the war, had been enslaved by López; for her fighting and rallying of soldiers, she was nicknamed "the American Joan of Arc".

[32] Allied troops captured the Paraguayan capital city of Asunción on 1 January 1869, forcing López and what remained of his army and government to flee to the countryside.

Two detachments were sent in pursuit of Solano López, who was accompanied by 200 men in the forests in the north, where he received news of the considerable Brazilian forces that were closing in on him.

[33] Upon hearing about this, López called a last war council with the remaining officers of his general staff in order to decide the course of action for the upcoming battle: whether they should escape into the rainforest hill range or stay and make a stand against the attackers.

For example, Eduardo Galeano argues that he and his father continued the work of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia in defending Paraguay as "the only country that foreign capital had not deformed".

In any case, Juan Silvano Godoi wrote on the event: Marshal López died profoundly convinced that, along with him, the independence of Paraguay would disappear.

[38] On 1 March, a national holiday in Paraguay, "Día de los Héroes" (Heroes' Day) is held in honour of López's memory.

In 2007, Argentine President Cristina Kirchner named an Argentinean unit, the 2nd Armored Artillery Group, after Marshal Francisco Solano López.

[39] Afterwards, Lieutenant General Bendini said: Marshal López inspired in his men a spirit and love for their land which made them prefer to die rather than surrender.