The town is founded by Jos Arcadio Buenda, a strong willed and impulsive leader who becomes deeply interested in the mysteries of the universe when a band of gypsies visits Macondo, led by the recurring Melquades. As the town grows, the fledgling government of the country takes an interest in Macondos affairs, but they are held back by Jos Arcadio Buenda. Civil war breaks out in the land, and Macondo soon takes a role in the war, sending a militia led by Colonel Aureliano Buenda, Jos Arcadio Buendas son, to fight against the conservative regime. While the colonel is gone, Jos Arcadio Buendia goes insane and must be tied to a tree. Arcadio, his illegitimate grandchild, takes leadership of the town but soon becomes a brutal dictator. But Soft What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks Monologue Definition' title='But Soft What Light Through Yonder Window Breaks Monologue Definition' />The Conservatives capture the town, and Arcadio is shot by a firing squad. The wars continue, with Colonel Aureliano narrowly avoiding death multiple times, until, weary of the meaningless fighting, he arranges a peace treaty that will last until the end of the novel. After the treaty is signed, Aureliano shoots himself in the chest, but survives. The town develops into a sprawling center of activity as foreigners arrive by the thousands. The foreigners begin a banana plantation near Macondo. The town prospers until a strike arises at the banana plantation. The national army is called in, and the protesting workers are gunned down and thrown into the ocean. At this time, rsula, the impossibly ancient widow of Jos Arcadio Buenda, remarks that it was as if time was going in a circle. After the banana worker massacre, the town is saturated by heavy rains that last for almost five years. The last member of the Buenda line, named Aureliano Babilonia originally referred to as Aureliano Buenda, before he discovers through Melquades parchments that Babilonia is his paternal surname, is born at this time. When the rains stop, rsula dies at last, and Macondo is left desolated. Aureliano Babilonia is finally left in solitude at the crumbling Buenda house, where he studies the parchments of Melquades, who has appeared as a ghost to him. He gives up on this task to have a love affair with his aunt, though he is unsure whether they are related. When she dies in childbirth and his son who is born with a pigs tail is eaten by ants, Aureliano is finally able to decipher the parchments. The house, and the town, disintegrate into a whirlwind as he translates the parchments, on which is contained the entire history of the Buenda family, as predicted by Melquades. As he finishes translating, the entire town is obliterated from the world.