Paraguay Trivia
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41 free Paraguay trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Sep 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.
30 of 41 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which country is, with Paraguay, one of South America's only two landlocked nations?
Bolivia
Bolivia lost its whole coast to Chile in the War of the Pacific, which left it and always-inland Paraguay as South America's only landlocked countries.
Q 02Which philosopher's sister co-founded Nueva Germania, a would-be 'pure German' colony in Paraguay?
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth co-founded it with her antisemitic husband Bernhard Förster, but the colony faltered, he killed himself, and she went home to Germany.
Q 03Besides Spanish and Guarani, which language is widely spoken in Paraguay's eastern border departments?
Portuguese
Portuguese is spoken by the 'Brasiguayos', Brazilian settlers and their descendants, drawn in their tens of thousands to the eastern border region as its farm economy boomed.
Q 04Which religious order ran the 'reductions' that gathered indigenous people into mission towns in Paraguay?
The Jesuits
The Jesuits shielded their Guaraní converts from slave raiders, but after Spain expelled the order in 1767 the missions were looted, mismanaged and abandoned.
Q 05Which exiled Latin American dictator was killed when guerrillas fired rockets at his car in Asuncion?
Anastasio Somoza
Anastasio Somoza fled Nicaragua in 1979 and took refuge under Stroessner, but a commando team tracked him down and blew up his car in September 1980.
Q 06Paraguay broke from Spain after its troops beat an invading army from which city?
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires's revolutionary junta sent Manuel Belgrano to bring Paraguay under its rule; beaten at Paraguarí and Tacuarí, he withdrew, and Paraguay went its own way.
Q 07Paraguay's first dictator, who sealed the country off from the outside world, was nicknamed what?
El Supremo
El Supremo, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, trapped even foreigners inside: he held the French botanist Aimé Bonpland captive for years.
Q 08Why did Paraguay's dictator Francia forbid Spaniards to marry one another?
Weaken the colonial elite
To weaken the colonial elite, Francia in 1814 barred Spaniards from marrying other whites, forcing old ruling families to marry into the local population.
Q 09The 1864–1870 war that devastated Paraguay is known by what name?
The War of the Triple Alliance
The War of the Triple Alliance ended with Paraguay under foreign occupation and forced to give up large areas of its territory to its victorious neighbours.
Q 10Which Paraguayan leader died at the Battle of Cerro Cora in 1870, refusing to surrender?
Francisco Solano Lopez
Francisco Solano Lopez held out in the northern jungles for 14 months after the capital fell, until Brazilian troops killed him at Cerro Cora.
Q 11Which Paraguayan city was known as Puerto Presidente Stroessner until 1989?
Ciudad del Este
Ciudad del Este began in 1957 as Puerto Flor de Lis, took the dictator's name, and in 1989 its residents voted for a new name meaning 'East City'.
Q 12Paraguay fought its northern neighbour in the 1930s over a region thought to be rich in what?
Oil
Oil: Paraguay, with a third of its enemy's population, won most of the disputed land, but the oil fields stayed on the losing side of the new border.
Q 13What ended Alfredo Stroessner's rule over Paraguay in 1989?
Military coup
A military coup: General Andrés Rodríguez toppled him in February 1989, Stroessner flew into exile in Brazil, and Rodríguez then won that year's presidential election.
Q 21Which instrument is most associated with Paraguayan music, from polkas to the languid guarania?
The harp
The harp came with Spanish missionaries in colonial times, and Paraguayan makers reshaped it into a lighter folk harp, now the national instrument.
Q 22The Itaipu Dam, shared with Brazil, sits on which river?
The Parana
The Parana: Itaipu feeds two different national grids, so ten of its turbines run at 50 Hz for Paraguay and ten at 60 Hz for Brazil.
Q 23Eliza Lynch, partner of Paraguay's leader in its 1860s war, was a native of which country?
Ireland
Ireland: she died forgotten in Paris, but Stroessner's regime later brought her remains to Paraguay and hailed her as a national heroine.
Q 14Which 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 15Stroessner's Paraguay took part in which 1970s campaign of state terror run by South American dictatorships?
Operation Condor
Operation Condor let the regimes hunt down each other's opponents across borders; its secret records, the 'Archives of Terror', turned up in a police station near Asunción in 1992.
Q 16Fernando Lugo, elected president in 2008 and ending 61 years of one-party rule, had previously been what?
A Roman Catholic bishop
A Roman Catholic bishop: within a year of taking office, Lugo admitted fathering a child while he was still bishop of San Pedro, and more paternity claims followed.
Q 17Which political party produced Paraguay's presidents Alfredo Stroessner, Horacio Cartes and Santiago Peña?
The Colorado Party
The Colorado Party lost the presidency in 2008 for the first time in 61 years, to Fernando Lugo, then won it back at the next election in 2013.
Q 18What is unusual about Paraguay's national flag?
Its two sides carry different emblems
Its two sides carry different emblems, the national arms and the Treasury's lion seal, and its red, white and blue were influenced by France's tricolour.
Q 19Paraguay's tereré is yerba mate prepared how?
With cold water and ice
With cold water and ice, which makes tereré a refresher in hot weather, and Paraguayans often add medicinal herbs called pohã ñana.
Q 20Paraguay's traditional lace, nanduti, takes its name from the indigenous word for what?
Spider web
Spider web: despite its Guaraní name, the lace is thought to descend from needlework brought by European settlers, reworked into radial, web-like circles.
Q 24The Friendship Bridge links Paraguay with which Brazilian city?
Foz do Iguaçu
Foz do Iguaçu: since the bridge opened in 1965, Brazilians have crossed it every day to buy goods made cheap by Paraguay's low taxes on imports.
Q 25Which natural sweetener comes from a plant native to Paraguay and long used by the Guaraní?
Stevia
Stevia: the Guaraní sweetened mate with its leaves, whose compounds taste hundreds of times sweeter than sugar.
Q 26Which vast wetland, famous for its caimans, spills over from Brazil into Paraguay's far north?
The Pantanal
The Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland, is about 80 percent submerged in the rainy season, when the Paraguay River and its tributaries overflow.
Q 27Which religious community migrated from Canada in the 1920s to build prosperous farming towns in Paraguay's arid west?
Mennonites
Mennonites: when Canada required English in their schools, conservative families left, and in Paraguay they turned dry scrubland into productive farms.
Q 28Which Paraguayan goalkeeper became the first known to score a professional hat-trick, in 1999?
Jose Luis Chilavert
Jose Luis Chilavert, who took his teams' penalties and free kicks, scored all three from the spot for Vélez Sarsfield against Ferro Carril Oeste.
Q 29Paraguay's national football team is nicknamed what?
La Albirroja
La Albirroja's Óscar Cardozo had a penalty saved by Iker Casillas at 0–0 in the 2010 World Cup quarter-final, and Spain won 1–0 on their way to the title.
Q 30The headquarters of CONMEBOL, South American football's governing body, is in which city of greater Asunción?
Luque
Luque hosts the building, and in 2015 Paraguay's Senate voted to lift its legal immunity so investigators could enter during the FIFA corruption scandal.