Kadiweu

The Kadiwéu descend from the Mbayá, a branch of the Guaikurú peoples of the Paraguay basin. Their ancestral society drew power from mounted warfare, captives and tribute from neighbouring communities. Horses made mobility an important political asset, while social distinctions separated chiefly families from people incorporated through capture.

European reports on the wider Guaikurú world begin in the sixteenth century. From the early eighteenth century, some Mbayá groups came within the influence of missionary settlements. Spanish and Portuguese forts along the Paraguay River intensified contact during that century and the beginning of the next, but colonial expansion produced agreements as well as fighting. The Mbayá concluded an accord with the Spanish in 1779 and another with the Portuguese in 1791. These negotiations show Indigenous groups taking an active place in the disputed frontier. The later Kadiwéu inherited this Mbayá history, whose social and political reach cannot be reduced to the boundaries of their present territory.