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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Chile
Index
Two naval guards at the monument to the War of the Pacific
in front of the Naval Headquarters, Valparaiso
Courtesy David Shelton
Despite cooperation among Chile, Peru, and Bolivia in
the war
against Spain, friction began to develop over the
mineral-rich
Bolivian province of Antofagasta and the Peruvian
provinces of
Tarapacá, Tacna, and Arica, whose wealth was exploited
largely by
Chilean enterprises. In 1875 Peru seized Chilean nitrate
mines in
Tarapacá, and in 1878 a new Bolivian government greatly
increased
taxes on Chilean business interests. To protect these
interests and
preempt their threatened expropriation, Chile dispatched a
naval
squadron headed by the ironclad Blanco Encalada and
landed
200 troops at the Bolivian port of Antofagasta on February
14,
1879, provoking a declaration of war by Bolivia on March
1, an
action reciprocated by Chile on April 5. Peru, which had
concluded
the secret Treaty of Mutual Defense with Bolivia in 1873,
was now
also drawn into the conflict
(see The
Liberal Era, 1861-91
, ch. 1).
The Bolivian Army, with 2,361 members and generally
antiquated
equipment, and the Peruvian Army, with 5,241 members and a
mixture
of modern and older equipment, opposed the comparatively
wellequipped Chilean Army of 2,845 officers and enlisted
personnel. The
Chilean Navy, still under the command of Admiral Williams,
had two
new ironclads (the Blanco Encalada and the
Cochrane),
four unarmored steam corvettes, and two gunboats. These
vessels
faced a Peruvian force consisting of an ironclad frigate,
a small
ironclad turret ship, two monitors, an unarmored steam
corvette,
and a gunboat.
Neither Chile, Peru, nor Bolivia was prepared for war.
While
they were mobilizing their land forces, any major actions
were
confined to encounters between the Chilean and Peruvian
navies.
Bolivia lost its three warships and four Pacific Coast
ports early
in the war. The naval war commenced with simultaneous
bombardments
of Pisagua and Mollendo by the Chilean fleet, followed by
blockades
of Callao and Iquique.
The Chilean expeditionary force at Antofagasta,
reinforced to
a strength of 1,400, occupied the ports of Cobija,
Tocopilla, and
Mejillones, penetrating inland against weak resistance as
far as
Calama. No further major land actions occurred for the
next five
months. However, by the middle of May 1879 Bolivia and
Peru, having
expanded their ranks with mostly peasant conscripts, had
concentrated 9,000 men at Tarapacá, 4,000 at Tacna, and an
additional 7,000 in the vicinity of Arica.
Peru gained a Pyrrhic victory in the first naval action
of the
war. Its most powerful ships, the ironclad frigate
Independencia and the turret ship Huáscar,
closed in
on the two Chilean ships blockading Iquique on May 21,
1879. The
Peruvians broke the blockade, sinking the Chilean corvette
Esmeralda as her captain, Arturo Prat Chacón, led a
boarding
party of the Huáscar in a heroic but futile act.
However,
the Independencia hit a reef and sank as it was
pursuing the
fleeing Chilean gunboat Covadonga, which had sought
refuge
in shallow waters. Despite the loss of its largest unit,
the
Peruvian fleet remained a great menace, mainly owing to
the
audacity and genius of Admiral Miguel Grau. Flying his
flag on the
Huáscar, which, together with the corvette
Unión,
broke through the Chilean blockade of Callao on three
occasions,
Grau wreaked havoc on Chilean shipping.
Chilean naval energies were now largely directed toward
the
elimination of these two Peruvian ships. On October 8,
1879, Grau's
luck ran out when he skirmished with two Chilean flotillas
off
Punta Angamos. The Huáscar was captured after the
heroic
admiral was killed, although the Unión escaped. The
following month, the Peruvians suffered another major
setback when
the gunboat Pilcomayo, operating as a commerce
raider, was
sunk by the Chileans. Chilean naval supremacy was now
complete. The
surviving major units of the Peruvian Navy remained
blockaded at
Callao and Arica, and any naval action was limited to the
minor
units of both fleets. These consisted mainly of torpedo
boats, of
which Chile acquired a total of twelve and Peru three
during 1880-
81.
Major land operations commenced at the end of October
1879 with
the amphibious landing of more than 10,000 Chilean troops
at
Pisagua on what is now the Peruvian coast. After a
resolute defense
by its small Bolivian garrison, Pisagua was captured on
November 2.
The Chileans advanced rapidly southward from this
beachhead. On
November 19, a Chilean force of 6,000 defeated a
Confederation
force of 9,000 at Pozo Dolores, north of Iquique. As a
result of
this reverse, the Peruvians abandoned Iquique without a
fight. The
garrison joined the survivors of the Battle of Pozo
Dolores at
Tarapacá, where a total Confederation army of 5,000
assembled.
Although a reconnaissance force of 2,000 Chileans was
routed on
November 27, the victorious Confederation forces failed to
pursue
their advantage, abandoning Tarapacá and retreating to
Tacna. The
Chileans, now reinforced to 17,000, continued to advance
toward
Tacna and Arica. A Chilean force of 5,000 carried out an
amphibious
raid at Ilo, to the north of Tacna, on December 31, and
withdrew
after capturing and sacking Moquegua, the ruins of which
were soon
reoccupied by the Peruvians.
Another Chilean amphibious landing established a
beachhead at
Ilo on February 25, 1880. During the first weeks of March,
most of
the Chilean forces disembarked. On March 13, a force of
about
10,000 men carried out another major landing, at Pacocha,
and an
additional 3,000 landed at Vítar on March 14. On March 22,
these
forces, under General Manuel Baquedano González, pushed
through the
defenses at Moquegua and scored a crushing victory over
2,000
Peruvians at Torata. The Chilean forces now split for a
two-pronged
attack on Tacna to the south.
A combination of difficult terrain and the constant
harassment
by Peruvian guerrillas delayed the Chilean advance. It was
not
until May 26 that Baquedano's forces encountered a
combined force
of 10,000, which the Confederation had concentrated at
Alto de la
Alianza, north of Tacna. Baquedano scored another
spectacular
victory, which split the Bolivian and Peruvian armies; the
former
retired toward the Altiplano (Bolivia's high plateau), and
the
latter retreated in the direction of Arequipa. Following
this
disaster, the Bolivians took no further significant part
in
operations.
Chilean pressure was now concentrated on Arica, whose
2,000-man
garrison surrendered on June 7, 1880. Another lull in
major land
operations now occurred as the Chileans prepared for the
final
advance on Lima. At sea several minor Chilean vessels,
engaged in
the blockade of Callao, fell victim either to shore
batteries or to
the occasional sallies of Peruvian torpedo boats and armed
launches.
By November the Chileans had concentrated 25,000 men at
Arica.
Reembarking on November 14, this force made an amphibious
landing
four days later and captured Pisco. During the following
weeks, a
series of other amphibious landings allowed the Chileans
to close
in on Lima. On January 13, 1881, a Chilean force under
General
Baquedano scored a decisive if costly victory at
Chorrillos, south
of Lima. Two days later, the Peruvians broke an armistice,
negotiated under the auspices of the foreign diplomatic
corps in
Lima. The ensuing Battle of Miraflores resulted in the
total rout
of the Peruvians and the collapse of their army. Peru's
president
and his High Command fled into the interior. Lima itself
surrendered to the Chileans on January 16, and Callao fell
the next
day. The Chilean victory was now effectively complete,
although
guerrilla warfare was to continue another two years.
Chile's
imaginative combination of land and sea power in the war
against
Peru and Bolivia had introduced a highly mobile form of
amphibious
warfare that was without precedent in South America.
Before the victorious Chilean Army was demobilized, it
was
turned to the pacification of the Araucanians, who had
terrorized
the southern frontier after the depletion of the regular
army
garrisons during the war. By the mid-1880s, the authority
of the
Chilean government was established throughout the national
territory. Chile had now emerged as the major military and
naval
power in Latin America, with a battle-hardened army and an
impressive fleet of three ironclads, three cruising
vessels, one
gunboat, and ten torpedo boats. Its navy outranked all
other Latin
American navies, as well as the United States Navy, in
terms of
modern and effective seagoing warships. Thanks to its
navy, Chile
incorporated Easter Island (Isla de Pascua) into its
national
territory in 1888.
Data as of March 1994
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