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45 free Paraguay trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Forty-five questions on Paraguay, the landlocked heart of South America where more people speak Guarani than Spanish. Geography and economy cover Asuncion, the Paraguay River that splits the country, the Gran Chaco and its Mennonite colonies, Ciudad del Este, soy and beef, and the Itaipu Dam that lets Paraguay run entirely on hydropower and sell the surplus abroad. History runs from the Jesuit reductions and their UNESCO-listed ruins through El Supremo's sealed-off republic, the Lopez dynasty, the Triple Alliance War that killed at least half the population, the Chaco War with Bolivia, 35 years of Stroessner and the harbouring of Josef Mengele, to the 1989 coup and the impeachment of a former bishop. Culture rounds cover terere, sopa paraguaya, nanduti lace, the harp and guarania, the flag with a different emblem on each side, and football's goalscoring goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the country, its wars, its cities and its people, and the sentence that establishes it is quoted under each explanation. Suits a pub quiz, a Spanish classroom or a Mercosur road trip.
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Q 01Which country is, with Paraguay, one of South America's only two landlocked nations?
Bolivia
Bolivia lost its Pacific coast to Chile in the War of the Pacific (1879–1884), leaving it and always-inland Paraguay as South America's only landlocked states.
Q 02What is the capital and largest city of Paraguay?
Asuncion
Founded as a fort in 1537, it is nicknamed the 'Mother of Cities' because expeditions from it refounded Buenos Aires and other settlements.
Q 03The capital was founded on 15 August 1537 as the first capital of which Spanish governorate?
Rio de la Plata
The date is the feast of the Assumption, hence the name; Buenos Aires had been abandoned and was refounded from Asuncion decades later.
Q 04What is Paraguay's third most spoken language, used by about 10 percent near the eastern border?
Portuguese
Portuguese is spoken by roughly a tenth of Paraguayans, chiefly the 'Brasiguayos', Brazilian settlers and their descendants who moved into the eastern border departments from the 1970s.
Q 05Which religious order ran the 'reductions' that gathered indigenous people into mission towns in Paraguay?
The Jesuits
They protected converts from Portuguese slave raiders for about 150 years until Spain expelled the order in 1767.
Q 06The ruins of two Jesuit mission towns in Itapua department were listed by UNESCO in which year?
1993
La Santísima Trinidad de Paraná and Jesús de Tavarangue, near Encarnación, were inscribed by UNESCO in 1993 as Paraguay's first World Heritage Site.
Q 07Paraguay dates its independence from Spain to 14 May of which year?
1811
Paraguay's revolt against Spanish rule began on the night of 14–15 May 1811 and 14 May is its Independence Day; a formal declaration followed only in 1842 under Carlos Antonio López.
Q 08Paraguay's first dictator, who sealed the country off from 1814 to 1840, was nicknamed what?
El Supremo
José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, 'El Supremo', ruled from 1814 until his death in 1840, closing Paraguay's borders to trade and outsiders.
Q 09Francia's 1814 decree allowed Spanish-born colonists to marry only whom?
Blacks, mulattoes or natives
Francia's 1814 decree barred peninsular Spaniards from marrying other whites, allowing them to wed only Blacks, mulattoes or natives, a deliberate blow to the colonial elite.
Q 10The 1864–1870 war that devastated Paraguay is known by what name?
The War of the Triple Alliance
The War of the Triple Alliance pitted Paraguay against Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay from 1864 to 1870 and is widely counted the deadliest interstate war in Latin American history.
Q 11Which Paraguayan leader died at the Battle of Cerro Cora in 1870, refusing to surrender?
Francisco Solano Lopez
He had succeeded his father as president-dictator in 1862 and led a guerrilla campaign after Asuncion fell.
Q 12Per a common estimate, how many adult males survived in Paraguay after the 1864–70 war?
28,000
The classic estimate holds that only about 28,000 adult men were among roughly 220,000 survivors, from a pre-war population put anywhere between 450,000 and 900,000.
Q 13Paraguay fought its northern neighbour in a 1932-1935 war over a region thought to be rich in what?
Oil
The 1932–35 war with Bolivia was fought over scrubland believed to hold oil; Paraguay, with about a third of Bolivia's population, won most of the disputed territory.
Q 21Paraguay's traditional lace, nanduti, takes its name from the indigenous word for what?
Spider web
Ñandutí means 'spider web' in Guaraní; the lace's radial, web-like motifs are worked on fabric stretched in a frame, and the town of Itauguá is its home.
Q 22Which instrument is most associated with Paraguayan music, from polkas to the languid guarania?
The harp
The Paraguayan harp, a diatonic harp of 36 to 40 strings, leads polkas and the guarania, the slow song form José Asunción Flores created in 1925.
Q 23The Itaipu Dam, shared with Brazil, sits on which river?
The Parana
Its name means 'sounding stone' in the indigenous language; ten of its twenty turbines generate at 50 Hz for Paraguay and ten at 60 Hz for Brazil.
Q 14Alfredo Stroessner ruled Paraguay for how many years before his 1989 overthrow?
35
Stroessner seized power in a May 1954 coup and ruled for 35 years, re-elected in seven stage-managed polls, until his ouster in February 1989.
Q 15Which infamous Nazi fugitive was granted Paraguayan citizenship under Stroessner?
Josef Mengele
Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz 'Angel of Death', obtained Paraguayan citizenship in 1959 under Stroessner before moving on to Brazil, where he drowned in 1979.
Q 16Stroessner's Paraguay took part in which 1970s state-terror campaign run by six South American dictatorships?
Operation Condor
Operation Condor, formalized in 1975, saw Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil coordinate the hunt for dissidents; its 'Archives of Terror' were found in Paraguay in 1992.
Q 17Fernando Lugo, elected president in 2008 and ending 61 years of one-party rule, had previously been what?
A Roman Catholic bishop
Lugo had been the Roman Catholic bishop of San Pedro, a liberation theologian, before winning in 2008; he was impeached and removed in June 2012 in what supporters called a parliamentary coup.
Q 18Which party has dominated Paraguay since 1947 and produced Stroessner, Cartes and Santiago Pena?
The Colorado Party
The Colorado Party (Asociación Nacional Republicana) has held power almost continuously since 1947, losing only the 2008 presidential race to Fernando Lugo.
Q 19What is unusual about Paraguay's national flag?
Its two sides carry different emblems
The obverse bears the national seal and the reverse the Treasury seal; the tricolour was inspired by France.
Q 20Paraguay's national drink, terere, is yerba mate prepared how?
With cold water and ice
Tereré is yerba mate steeped in cold water with ice and often medicinal herbs, sipped through a bombilla from a guampa; National Tereré Day falls on the last Saturday of February.
Q 24Roughly what share of Paraguay's electricity is generated from hydropower?
All of it
Virtually all of Paraguay's electricity is hydroelectric, chiefly from the Itaipú and Yacyretá dams; domestic demand is small, so most of its Itaipú share is sold on to Brazil.
Q 25The Friendship Bridge links Ciudad del Este with which Brazilian city?
Foz do Iguaçu
The Friendship Bridge (Puente de la Amistad), opened in 1965, spans the Paraná between Ciudad del Este and Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, a few miles from the Iguazú Falls.
Q 26Which natural sweetener comes from a plant native to Paraguay and long used by the Guaraní?
Stevia
Stevia rebaudiana is native to the Paraguay–Brazil border region, where the Guaraní used its leaves, called ka'a he'ê ('sweet herb'), to sweeten mate for centuries.
Q 27The Paraguay River separates the eastern region from which sparsely populated western region?
The Chaco
The Chaco, west of the Paraguay River, covers about 60 percent of the country but holds only a few percent of its people; its far west gets under 500 mm of rain a year.
Q 28Which religious community migrated from Canada in the 1920s to build prosperous farming towns in Paraguay's arid west?
Mennonites
Mennonites from Canada founded Menno Colony in the Chaco in 1927, followed by refugees from the Soviet Union at Fernheim (Filadelfia) in 1930; their cooperatives produce much of Paraguay's dairy.
Q 29Roughly what share of eastern Paraguay's Atlantic Forest has been cleared since the 1960s?
Nine-tenths
Eastern Paraguay's Atlantic Forest has shrunk by roughly nine-tenths since the 1960s, cleared for soy and cattle; a 2004 'Zero Deforestation' law slowed but did not stop the loss.
Q 30Which Paraguayan goalkeeper became the first known to score a professional hat-trick, in 1999?
Jose Luis Chilavert
Playing for Velez Sarsfield, he scored 8 goals for Paraguay in 74 caps and captained the side at two World Cups.