What was the War of the Pacific between Chile, Peru and Bolivia?
The War of the Pacific
La Guerra del Pacífico
February 1879–April 1884. The Atacama desert held the world's richest nitrate, used for fertiliser and explosives, mostly worked by Chilean companies on Bolivian and Peruvian soil.
Draft: not yet checked against its sources.
What happened
The Atacama desert held the world's richest nitrate, used for fertiliser and explosives, mostly worked by Chilean companies on Bolivian and Peruvian soil. When Bolivia raised its tax on nitrate exports, Chile occupied the port of Antofagasta in February 1879 and went to war with Bolivia and its ally Peru. Chile won the naval war, losing the Esmeralda at Iquique on 21 May 1879, where Arturo Prat died, but capturing the Peruvian ironclad Huáscar at Angamos in October. Its army beat the allies at Tacna in May 1880, after which Bolivia left the war, and entered Lima on 17 January 1881; Peruvian resistance in the highlands lasted until 1883. The Treaty of Ancón of 1883 gave Chile the province of Tarapacá, and a truce with Bolivia in April 1884 left Bolivia without a coast.
Say it
En la Guerra del Pacífico, Bolivia perdió su salida al mar.
In the War of the Pacific, Bolivia lost its access to the sea.
Why it matters
Nitrate made Chile rich for fifty years and gave it its northern third; Bolivia's loss of the sea is still a national wound and a diplomatic cause. The war fixed the three countries' borders and much of their rivalry.
Read about it
Connected
- The Porfiriato: order, progress and inequality (1876–May 1911)
- The Conquest of the Desert (1878–1885)
- The coup of 11 September 1973 in Chile (11 September 1973–11 March 1990)
Sources
- Las operaciones militares de la Guerra del Pacífico (1879-1884) — Memoria Chilena, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile