“To Extend the Area of Freedom”: Edward Hopkins and US Commercial Expansionism in Paraguay, 1844–58

At first glance, Edward Hopkins appears an unlikely imperialist. An American ex-patriate with deep anti-slavery principles, Hopkins struggled to succeed in every major enterprise he undertook. A former midshipman who was dismissed from the service, Hopkins found new employment as special agent to Paraguay in 1845. There he overstepped his bounds, muddying negotiations between Paraguay and the Argentine Confederation and promising US recognition of Paraguayan independence. Infuriated, the State Department revoked his commission.

Nonetheless, by the 1850s Hopkins had returned to Paraguay as an ambitious businessman. With the blessing of Paraguay’s dictator, Carlos Antonio Lpez, Hopkins founded the U.S. and Paraguay Navigation Company to establish a booming steamboat business on the Paraguay, Parana, and Rio de La Plata Rivers. He also became a prominent booster for US commercial investment Paraguay. His articles and reports eventually drew the interest of federal officials in Washington, who dispatched the USS Water Witch to survey the rivers around Paraguay. Hopkins’s arrogance intervened, provoking a confrontation between the commanding officer of the Water Witch and the Paraguayan government. The eventual result of this clash was the Paraguay Expedition of 1858, the largest US naval expedition in the antebellum era. In the end, what Hopkins’s story reveals is how ex-patriates could summon massive imperial intervention when their commercial goals were threatened.