The South American War Chile, Bolivia, and Peru
War for Dominance in the Pacific
We don’t normally think of warfare and South America. We tend to think of South American as a set of stable countries, many with a shared history. This is generally correct but there are some exceptions. The “War of the Pacific” or “Saltpeter War” was conducted from 1879 to 1884 between the Peru-Bolivian alliance and Chile.
Causes of the war: Geography
Geographically the war arose over the original borders between Chile, Peru, and Bolivia. The area encompasses the “Atacama Desert” now known as the driest place in the world. But the desert is more important than that.
For Bolivia it provided the only access to the ocean and a harbor, as well as the rich resources of the desert. For Peru, the region enabled Peru to control islands in the Pacific which made it the most powerful Pacific power in South America. As an independent nation, Chile claimed territorial sovereignty over the entire desert region.
The geographical cause of the war was Chile’s desire to be the largest Pacific Navel power in the South America. In that age of water transportation, ports and passages were critically important because ships could not travel nearly as far as today. (Note: this same logic also manifest itself in a war with Argentina which resulted in Chile’s control of the Magellan Strait.)
Causes of the war: Economics
The Atacama Desert, now lying mainly in the Norte Grande district in Chile, is rich in resources. The war was fought for control of the region. The desert has large deposits of the minerals silver and sodium nitrate - which were in demand worldwide during this time. In the period before and during the war, sodium nitrate (also called Chilean Saltpeter) was highly sought for creation of fertilizers, explosives, and solid rocket fuel. The area also had large deposits of bird guano which was highly coveted as a fertilizer in Europe.
The first boon was of with silver ores in the desert in the 1830s. Chilean prospector and producers poured in the desert, which was then controlled by Peru and Bolivia. This caused local friction, but it was the global boom in sodium nitrate demand that precipitated the war.
The desert was also rich in copper, gold, and iron which Chile coveted.
The South American War Results
One can find the details of the back and forth on many websites that will show not only the results but the battles and advances. For this discussion, we will focus on the results. The simplest overview is that Chile won the war. It captured the Bolivian and Peruvian provinces along the coast and the Peruvian islands.
Bolivia no longer had access to the sea and Peru’s Pacific power was curtailed. The Atacama Desert region was incorporated into Chile and is now the area of Norte Grande.
Long Term Effects
Chile’s control of the region has led often to a boom-and-bust cycle, at least within the export sector. In the early 1900s, Germany developed a process to generate Sodium Nitrate which reduced the need for Chilean sodium nitrate. This was the first instance of Chile experiencing a resource based depression.
Copper led the growth in exports after the decline of sodium nitrate exports. Chile produces a quarter of the world’s copper, and its economy was very dependent on exports. The fortunes of Chile rose and fell on copper prices.
Today the Atacama Desert is rich in both copper and nonmetallic metals, particularly lithium which is critical for new industries. Chile holds a third of the world’s reserves of lithium and is the second largest producer of lithium right now.
Production of these natural resources, the manufacturing industry, and serviced sector has made Chile a high-income country and part of the “western” world.
The war also created a permeant problem with relations with Bolivia. Bolivia still claims a corridor to the Pacific across this region. Intermittent diplomatic efforts to grant access to this corridor either by road or rail have largely failed.
Outside of the region and South American historians, the war and its results are rarely considered. The national borders in the region, solidified in the 1884 results, are almost universally accepted. Long term stability in the region is assumed by all players, albeit Bolivia still resents Chile and this causes diplomatic problems.