This paper examines the historical and economic evolution of Paraguay from the period preceding the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) through its prolonged process of institutional reconstruction and macroeconomic stabilization. It argues that the demographic, productive, and state destruction suffered by the country represents an extreme and unprecedented case in South America, whose magnitude profoundly and durably altered Paraguay's social, economic, and institutional structure. Far from constituting a functional or desirable process, this historical rupture imposed severe structural constraints that conditioned economic policy decisions in the decades that followed. Within this context, the paper contends that the long-term fiscal prudence and monetary stability observed in Paraguay emerged as adaptive responses to a traumatic historical experience, differentiating its macroeconomic trajectory from that of other Southern Cone economies.