War of the Pacific

The War of the Pacific was fought between Chile and the joint forces of Bolivia and Peru, from 1879 to 1884. Chile gained substantial mineral-rich territory in the conflict, leaving Bolivia a land-locked country.

Origins

The war grew out of a dispute between Chile and Bolivia over control of a part of the Atacama desert that lies between the 23rd and 26th parallels on the Pacific coast. The territory contained valuable mineral resources, particularly sodium nitrate from guano, and secondarily saltpeter. The government of Bolivia wanted to levy taxes on the commercial operators exploiting the area, who happened to be Chilean and British.

National borders in the region had never been definitively established; the two countries negotiated a treaty that recognized the 24th parallel as their boundary and that gave Chile the right to share the export taxes on the mineral resources of Bolivia's territory between the 23rd and 24th parallels. But Bolivia subsequently became dissatisfied at having to share its taxes with Chile and feared Chilean seizure of its coastal region where Chilean interests already controlled the mining industry.

Bolivian and Chilean historians disagree on whether the territory of Chacras, originally part of the Viceroyalty of Peru and later of the Viceroyalty de la Plata included access to the sea. Supporting their claims with different documents, the Bolivians claim that it did; the Chileans disagree. When Simón Bolívar established Bolivia, he claimed access to the sea, although most economic exploitation of the coastal region was being conducted by Chilean enterprises, under the aegis of Chile's more robust economy and more stable institutions.

The dispute was originally between Chile and Bolivia but Peru was brought into the war because it had an alliance with Bolivia and Argentina to contain what they perceived as Chile's imperialist ambitions in the region. Argentina never fulfilled its obligations.

In 1878, Bolivia, under President Hilarión Daza, tried to increase the taxes of the Chilean Antofagasta Nitrate Company over the protests of the Chilean government of President Aníbal Pinto. When Bolivia threatened to confiscate the company's property, Chilean armed forces occupied the port city of Antofagasta on February 14,1879. In response, Bolivia invoked its secret alliance with Peru, the Treaty of 1873, with brought the latter into the conflict.

Invasion of Peru

From the beginning of the war, it was clear that for an inevitably difficult desert war, control of the sea would be crucial.

The Bolivians had no navy, and Chile quickly defeated Peru's small navy, destroying one of its two best iron-clad warships. In the naval Battle of Iquique Bay, the Chilean sloop Esmeralda was sunken by the ironclad Huascar, while in a concurrent battle called by Chilean historians The Naval Battle of Punta Gruesa but included in the previous one by Peruvian historians, the gunboat Covadonga made the larger ironclad Independencia run aground. Ultimately, Independencia was shelled to a wreck; Chileans viewed Arturo Prat, captain of the Esmeralda, as a martyr to their cause. Five months later the Chileans captured Peru's only other important ironclad, the Huascar, in the Battle of Angamos.

Dominating the seas enabled the Chilean army to invade Peru. Chile had land superiority as well, having the advantage of modern artillery and better rifles.

An attempt at mediation by the United States failed in October 1880; by that time, Bolivia, defeated in a series of desert battles and in the Chilean occupation of Morro de Arica, had withdrawn from the war. After Peruvian defeats in the battles of San Juan and Miraflores, Lima fell in January 1881 to the forces of Chilean General Manuel Baquedano; the southern suburbs of Lima were sacked and burned to the ground. (Chilean historians claim that the Chilean troops entered Lima to prevent looting and destruction after the collapse of authority there; Peruvian historians are unanimous in saying that those same Chilean forces were responsible for the looting and destruction.)

With little effective Peruvian central government remaining, Chile pursued a brutal campaign throughout Peru, especially on the coast and the central Sierra, penetrating as far north as Cajamarca. Remarkably, even in these circumstances, Chile was not able to completely conquer Peru. As war booty, Chile confiscated the National Library from Lima along with much capital stock.

Peruvian resistance continued for three more years, with US encouragement. Finally, on 20 October 1883, Peru and Chile signed the Treaty of Ancón, by which the Tarapacá province was ceded to the latter.

Aftermath

Under the terms of the treaty, Chile was to occupy the provinces of Tacna and Arica for 10 years, after which a plebiscite was to be held to determine their nationality. But the two countries failed for decades to agree on the terms the plebiscite.

Finally, in 1929, through the mediation of the United States under president Herbert Hoover, an accord was reached by which Chile kept Arica; Peru reacquired Tacna and received $6 million indemnity and other concessions.

In 1884, a truce between Bolivia and Chile gave the latter control of the entire Bolivian coast, the province of Antofagasta, with its valuable nitrate, copper, and other minerals. A treaty in 1904 made this arrangement permanent. In return Chile agreed to build a railroad connecting the Bolivian capital of La Paz with the port of Arica and guaranteed freedom of transit for Bolivian commerce through Chilean ports and territory.

Later, Bolivia attempted to break out of its landlocked situation by making a grab for territory surrounding the Rio de la Plata, a massive river which leads to the Atlantic coast, an effort that resulted in the Chaco War (1932-1935) between Bolivia and Paraguay.

The War of the Pacific left traumatic scars on Bolivian and Peruvian society. Peruvians developed an unhealthy cult for the "heroic" defenders of the patria, such as admiral Miguel Grau, Francisco Bolognesi, and Andrés A. Cáceres, who were all killed in the war. The defeat engendered a deep inferiority complex among the ruling classes and a skewed view of the role of the armed forces, which dominated society throughout the 20th century.

For Bolivians, the loss of the territory which they refer to as the litoral remains a deeply emotional (as well as practical) issue, as was particularly evident during the Bolivian Gas War. President Carlos Mesa of Bolivia announced in 2004 that he would push for Chile to return the lost seacoast territory.

Chile, of course, fared better, gaining a lucrative territory, including the nitrates and saltpeter, major sources of income (although less so once Germany developed artificial nitrate synthesis during World War I). Still, the involvement of the British in the exploitation of these resources was, at best, a mixed blessing, leading them to meddle in Chilean politics, ultimately backing an overthrow of the Chilean president in 1891.

See also

• History of Bolivia
• History of Chile
• History of Peru
• Atacama border dispute

External links

• Clear brief account of causes and consequences of the War of the Pacific, 1879-1883.
• [1] La Guerra del Pacífico, Los Héroes Olvidados: Chilean site (in Spanish)