Francia's greatest accomplishment—the preservation of Paraguayan independence—results directly from a noninterventionist foreign policy.

Deciding that Argentina is a potential threat to Paraguay, he shifts his foreign policy toward Brazil by quickly recognizing Brazilian independence in 1821.

This move, however, results in no special favors for the Brazilians from Francia, who is also on good, if limited, terms with Juan Manuel Rosas, the Argentine dictator.

Francia prevents civil war and secures his role as dictator when he cuts off his internal enemies from their friends in Buenos Aires.

Despite his "isolationist" policies, Francia conducts a profitable but closely supervised import-export trade with both countries to obtain key foreign goods, particularly armaments.

A more activist foreign policy than Francia's probably would have made Paraguay a battleground amid the swirl of revolution and war that sweep Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil in the decades following independence.