THE WAR OF THE PACIFICO ANTECEDENTS
In April of 1879, the young South American republics of the Pacific; Bolivia, Chile and the Peru that grieve behind thirty years had faced in the call Guerra of the Confederation for the commercial prevalence in the costs of the Western Pacific, they began one of the longest, bloody and expensive conflicts in the history of Latin America whose causes resided in the politicians undertaken by the governments of La Paz and Santiago on the territory of Atacama, then under Bolivian sovereignty.
Soon after of emerging as independent States, Bolivia and Chile they maintained differences as for the limits that divided them in the coastal fringe. The Chilean interpretation established that its territory reached until the parallel 23 of south latitude, while for the Bolivians the limit noticed the parallel 26. The situation got complicated when in the lands in dispute were discovered important salitre locations that it was a coveted nitrate used as fertilizer and for the production of gunpowder.
In 1866 both countries settled their territorial differences by means of the subscription of a treaty that established the parallel 24 as limit, but they agreed the division for parts similar of the earnings for the salitre exploded by companies of Chilean capital and British among the parallel 23 and 25. However, the treaty would not be satisfactory for the new Bolivian authorities who argued that it lacked value to have been subscribed by Mariano Melgarejo, a dictator seemingly influenced by Chilean interests. In consequence, in 1872 was carried out a revision and in 1874 a new treaty was signed by means of which Chile gave up the economic benefits of the exploitation saltpeter deposit in the area understood in the parallel 24 and 25. To change the government from Bolivia committed to not increasing the taxes on the salitre during next 25 years, that is to say, up to 1899.
In the practice, the Bolivian jurisdiction stayed however, as a nominal element. The Chilean presence was overwhelming, its population overcame the Bolivian thoroughly and her companies dominated the economy of the place. The Bolivian political authority passed this way to be a fiction had bill of the enormous distance that it separated to that county of government's headquarters in La Paz.
In February of 1878 the Constituent Assembly of Bolivia, trusted the exercise of its sovereignty Atacama has more than enough, after approving a transaction taken place in 1873 between the Bolivian government and the company Salitres and Railroad of Antofagasta, it decreed a tax of ten cents of Pesos on each quintal of salitre exported by this anglo-Chilean company. The company rejected such a tributary imposition considering it a violation to the treaty of 1874 and instead of appealing to a civil right tribunal they requested the Chilean government's intervention. As consequence the chancellery of that country requested to the Bolivian authorities to repeal the tribute. Bolivia refused under the argument that was an internal matter between the State and a private company. Chile didn't accept such an explanation and it proposed an arbitration, but as this it was not summed up and La Paz was not rectified, at the end of December of 1878 Santiago's government dispatched to the port of Antofagasta, by way of deterrence, to the armored Blanco Encalada. A communication of the Chilean chancellor to its general consul in this port city, pointed out the following thing:
"As the attitude that the government from Bolivia has assumed he makes us fear the development of unpleasant events, my government has ordered the immediate exit for Antofagasta of the armored Blanco Encalada. The commandant of that ship dedicated to serve from help to people and Chilean interests, takes responsibility of coming from agreement with you in all the cases that claim his intervention. If the government from Bolivia persisted in the violation of the treaty of 1874, the opportunity they would have arrived of going to our ships to demand that our rights are respected."
The first of February of that year the government of Bolivia, in protest for the presence of that ship of war in his territorial waters, announced that it would proceed to the confiscation of the saltpeter deposits and that it would finish off them February 14. The Chilean reaction was not made wait. Twelve in that month the minister of external matters of Chile dispatched the consul Reyes the following communication:
"In few hours more the coast that belonged us before 1866 will be occupied by sea forces and earth of the republic and V.S. it will assume the position of political and civil governor of that territory."
In the date foreseen for the auction, the Chilean president Aníbal Pinto prepared a force of seven hundred soldiers to the colonel's control Emilio Sotomayor that the corvette O´Higgins had just arrived on board the armored Cochrane , disembarked in Antofagasta. Followed act Sotomayor dispatched one of his officials, so that, in parliamentarian's condition, introduces to the Bolivian Prefect the following notification:
"Considering the government from broken Chile on the part of Bolivia, the Treaty of 1873, orders me to take possession with the forces of my control of the territory understood in the degree 23. In order to avoid all unfortunate accident I hope you will take all the necessary measures so that our possession is peaceful, counting you with all the necessary guarantees as also its nationals. God keeps you."
The surprised Prefect's answer, Severino Zapata, was overwhelming:
" Sent by my government to occupy the Prefecture of this department I will only be able to leave to the force. You can to use this that will find civic Bolivian unarmed, but willing to the sacrifice and to the martyrdom. There are not forces with which to counteract to three armored ships of Chile, but we will not abandon this port but when it wastes away the armed invasion. From now on and it stops when hata reason, I protest to name of Bolivia and my government against the unnamed attack that is carried out. God keeps you."
However, the Chilean troops did not find organized resistance, because the Bolivian garnish of Antofagasta hardly consisted of 60 gendarmes and soon they extended its control to the adjacent coastal towns, claiming these territories for Chile. The first of March, the Bolivian president Hilarión Daza who maintained these facts secretly for not affecting the celebrations of the carnival in the highland, finally denounced them and it ordered the ceasing of relationships diplomats and commercial with Chile. Some weeks before, the Boss of Bolivian State had directed Severino Zapata a private letter that contained mistaken trial elements and it demonstrated the hurry of his to work:
"I have a good news that to give you. I have scrubbed the gringos decreeing the recovery of the saltpeter deposits and they will not be able to take off them no matter how much makes an effort the whole world. I hope Chile will not intervene in this matter... but if the Guerra declares us, we can have the support from the Peru to who we will demand the execution of the Secret Treaty. With this object, I will send to Lima to Reyes Ortíz. You see how I give you good news that you must thank me eternally and how I said the gringos how are totally scrubbed and the Chileans have to bite and to claim nothing else."
When the news of the occupation of Antofagasta arrived in Lima, the president Mariano Ignacio Prado decided to mediate among the parts to avoid that the contentious one derived in a conflict. To such an effect, he sent two emissaries to La Paz and Santiago. The diplomat that should complete the difficult mission in Chile was José Antonio de Lavalle who arrived to Valparaíso March 4, introducing later three days to the president I Pinto the formula of peace proposed by the Peru whose provisions contemplated, among other that Chile and Bolivia subjected their territorial differences to an I arbitrate and that Bolivia suspended the tax of ten cents on the salitre exports. The proposal didn't prosper and it was view with mistrust for a sector of the Chilean public opinion that considered that the Peru sought to favor Bolivia. As reaction, crowds attacked the Peruvian consulate and Lavalle it should be transferred to a hotel to safeguard their physical integrity.
The situation got complicated when Bolivia declared the war to Chile, at the time that, for instructions of its chancellery, the Chilean minister in Lima, Joaquín Godoy, demanded the Peru to maintain its neutrality. The difference between both competitors were abysmal, reason for the one which Daza, as it had advanced it in their letter to the Prefect Zapata, requested the attendance of the Peru agreement with the defensive treaty that both countries had subscribed secretly in 1873, and whose content was of the Chilean government's knowledge (1).
Prado was wrapped in a crossroad difficult to solve. This way, the Peruvian ruler's ambiguity that on one hand he wanted to be a sincere mediator in order to find a peaceful solution to the dispute and that for another it felt that he should stay faithful to the international commitments of the country, it ended up generating mistaken suspicions and resentments and the collision became unavoidable. April three Chile broke up diplomatic relationships later with the Peru and two days he declared him formally the war. The following day the president from the Peru declared for an ordinance that the casus foederis had arrived, according to the treaty of 1873 with Bolivia (2).
It is difficult to evaluate if under the prevalent conditions the Peru proceeded appropriately when being involved in a conflict that was he other people is to fulfill a commitment that could put in risk its survival. Morally their performance was impeccable. However, the Peruvian State was not prepared to face a conflict of proportions. Also the ally, contrary to the competitor, weak era, what constituted a factor that prevented to maintain a balance in the relationship of forces. This situation had been appropriately described in a date letter February 6 that the president Pinto directed the minister of war Saavedra, in which pointed out:
"I believe very difficult that the Peru takes part in our war with Bolivia. It is not that country under conditions of aiding the neighbor. Their political situation is very precarious, its finances in worse state that ours."
Indeed, the military capacity of the Peru had not been able to maintain a relationship with the growing economic prosperity experienced in the decade of 1870 because the president's government Manuel Prado had reduced the military expenses strongly as part of the political civilest of neutralizing the dominant paper of the armed forces. When assuming the presidency, Mariano Prado found his limited options and as the Peru sank in a financial crisis again, he could not make the corrections of the case. As for Chile, for effect of the economic crisis of that time and like it happened in the Peru, their defense expenses between 1877 and 1878 had also decreased, to the end that stops on 1878 their army it hardly possessed three thousand men, most of which were concentrated in the south of the country, in the frontier of the Araucanía. For it can be it discussible if that country came or not enlisting for the war. There are indications to favor and arguments in against. In any event, when occupying Antofagasta, the government from Chile had appealed to an act of armed aggression and it supported his to work in clearly defined political objectives and an wise organization capacity that it would allow them to lift three armies in little more than six months: The Army of the South that operated in the Araucanía, the Army of the Center that operated like reservation, and the Army in Campaign that would face the Peru and Bolivia. This last army ended up overcoming the twenty-five thousand men. In addition, starting from 1872 Missions military Chileans they acquired of Great Britain, France and Prussia weapons of last generation, as machine guns Gatling, canyons Krupp and rifles Comblain, material that modernized their obsolete arsenal.
It was evident that in their beginnings the war will locate in the sea, because the marine domain was fundamental to guarantee the success of the terrestrial operations of the competitors, including communications, displacement of troops, landings and provisioning along the extensive costs of the South Pacific. It was not required to be a strategist to understand that country that assured the domain of the sea would be the one that would win the conflict. The first phase of what would pass to be denominated the Guerra from the Pacific will be marine.
When exploding the war, the armada of Chile, contrary to the army, if it was properly conditioned. It had a respectable naval force, still for European standards, organized on the base of the Real Marina's Briton parameters and era, to the moment to explode the conflict, maybe the best in Latin America after that of the Brazil.
The heart of the squad constituted it two modern twin battleships with design of central bunker: The Admiral Cochrane and the Admiral BlancoEncalada, both, designed by Sir Eduardo Reed and built in the navy Earle Ship Building Company of Yorkshire (3). Each one had a displacement of 3,560 tons, a length of 210 feet and 46 feet of sleeve; a power of 4,300 horses of force and a armor of nine inches. They reached a speed of 12.75 knots and they possessed each one six canyons of 9 inches, four of 4.7 inches, four of 2.2 inches, a canyon of 20 pounds, one of 7 pounds, four of a pound, three machine guns Norfendelt and four tubes lanzatorpedos of 14 inches. In addition, they were provided of a ram of 8 feet. The first one, baptized initially as Valparaíso, entered to the service of the Chilean fleet January 24 1876. The Cochrane on the other hand, arrived in Chile in December of 1874 but it returned to Great Britain to finish its enlistment in January of 1877.
The squad also had a relatively new cannery, the Magellan, built in the British navy Raenhill & Company and in service from 1874. The ship had a displacement of 950 tons, 200 feet of length and 27 of sleeve, 1,040 horses of force and a to walk of 11 knots. Their armament consisted on a canyon of 7 inches, a canyon of 64 pounds and two canyons of 4 inches (4).
Chile also had three cruise uncover. The first of them was the Abtao, of the class Super Alabama, built originally in 1864 in Scottish navy for the North American confederates during the civil war, it displaced 1,600 tons, with 211 feet of length and 32 of sleeve; it had steel reinforcement in the helmet and it was armed with a canyon of 5.8 inches and four canyons of 4.7 inches. Their power was of 800 horses of force and it reached a speed of 10 knots (5). The other two cruises belonged to the class Alabama, the O'Higgins and the Chacabuco, built in 1866 in the navy Ravenhill of London, Great Britain. Each one displaced 1,101 tons, it had 1,200 horses of force and it reached a maximum speed of 12.5 knots. Their armament consisted on three canyons of 115 pounds, two of 70 pounds, four of 40 pounds and four machine guns Hochtkiss (6 and 7).
The Chilean armada also maintained operative two old wooden ships: the corvette Esmeralda, built in Northfleet, Great Britain, in 1854, which displaced 854 tons, with 130 feet of length and 32 of sleeve; it reached a speed of 8 knots propelled by two horizontal condensation machines with four boilers to coal, with a total of 200 horses of force. Their helmet was protected with copper sheets and it possessed sixteen canyons 32 pounds 6.5 feet long, four canyons 32 pounds 9.5 feet long and two canyons 12 pounds (8); and the schooner Covadonga, former ship of the Spanish armada, built in The Ferrol in 1858. Protected with iron helmet, it displaced 412 tons, it had a power of 140 horses of force and a to walk of 7 knots. It was provided of two canyons of 70 pounds, three canyons of 40 pounds and two canyons of 9 pounds (9).
The Chilean squad possessed diverse boat , torpedoes, almost all built ones in the navy Yarrow Poplar of Great Britain between 1879 and 1881. The ships varied in their design, the one that went from small units of 5 tons to sophisticated crafts of 35 tons of displacement. The heaviest, belonging to the class Thornycroft, possessed a steel structure with five cameras of water, battering ram prow and two chimneys, one to each band of the craft and they had a motor of 400 horses of force that it allowed them to reach a speed of 18 knots. They were armed with a machine gun Hotchkiss, a small canyon and three torpedoes of the class located McEvoy, two in the sides of the botalones, and one suspended in the stern. The torpederas had been baptized as Janaqueo, it Strained, Tucapel, Fresia, Tegualda, Recumilla, Glaura, Guale, Vedette and Quidora.
The marine Chilean had own or rented several transports of shipping private, among those that they should be mentioned to the one Lauds (1873-1,675 tons); Lamar (1870-1,400 tons); Copiapo (1870-1,337 tons), Amazons (1874-2,019 tons) Matías Cousiño (1,859-923 tons), Itata (1873-2,232 tons), Tolten (1872-317 tons), Valdivia (1865-900 tons), Chile (1863-1,672 tons), Carlos Roberto 1872-643 tons) and the Rimac (1872-1,805 tons). He Lauds, the Rimac, the Copiapo, the Amazons, the Valdivia and the Carlos Roberto, they were armed with canyons and machine guns (10).
The officials of the squad were of first level. When being declared the war, the control of the ships was in charge of the following officials: Blanco Encalada, ship captain Juan López; Cochrane, ship captain Enrique Simpson; Esmeralda, frigate captain Manuel Thomson; O´Higgins, frigate captain Jorge Montt; Chacabuco, frigate captain Oscar Viel; Magallanes, frigate captain Juan José Latorre; Covadonga captain of Frigate, Arturo Prat. The command of the ships would change quickly in the first weeks of the conflict. The seamanship on the other hand that added 1,800 men, it was very well trained and their units were armed with the rifle Kropatschek model 1877 of quick shot.
The rear admiral Juan Williams, who was distinguished during the war against Spain 1865-66, commanded the fleet. As that, it was remarkable the profusion of official of British ancestors, such as Condell, Rogers, Simpson, Thomson and the commandant Lynch, this last one inclusive, attributed in their youth to the Real Marina Briton and as such a veteran of the second war of the opium between China and Great Britain.
Bolivia practically did not have squad. Years before the conflict exploded with Chile, that country had a very modest naval force, composed by the old General brig Sucre, incorporate to its flotilla in the year 1844 whose function was to preserve the costs of the coast from the Paposo until the one Loa. It also possessed the brig María Luisa, of 240 tons of displacement, in not well conservation state, the same one that was finished off in 1872. Another ship was the cannon carry The Muzzle, small but modern craft acquired in 1875 and setting to the French Engineer's service Andrés Bresson, hired by the government of La Paz to make studies and scientific explorations in the Bolivian Coast. There were other ships of smaller behavior, more than all lanchones artillados, all those which, jointly with the ships of the merchant fleet, among them the Potosi, the Bolivar, the Charchamocha and the Elisa, they would be captured by the marine one Chilean during the occupation of the Bolivian coast. To this scenario, it should be added that the army of Bolivia, competed in modesty with its naval force, because it was composed of a division general, a brigade general, nine colonels and other officials that overall added 359. 1,522-armed soldiers with rifles Remington, Martini and Winchester constituted the troop. The chivalry consisted of 200 men and the artillery only possessed two lined canyons, two machine guns of more calibers, two of smaller caliber and 95 rifles of Sharfo. That era a factor that maybe the Peru should consider when maintaining the military alliance with the country of the highland whose rulers of that time made the error of not taking care from its coastal region appropriately when not developing a marine one and a dissuasive military force (11).
On the other hand, the squad of the Peru, except for an exception, had not been renewed in the last eleven years. It was integrated by two armored, two iron monitors, two wooden corvettes, some cannon carry and boats toreadors and six transports (12).
Without a doubt the main Peruvian ship, although not the biggest neither speedy, was the Huáscar, armored of sea with model ram Ericsson that displaced 1,130 tons, with 200 feet of length and 35 of sleeve. It was propelled by a motor of 1,500 horses of force, it had an armor of iron of 4.5 inches and a tower of 30 feet of diameter and 5.5 inches of armed armor with two canyons Armstrong of 300 pounds and two canyons pivot antes of 40 pounds. For the standards of those times, it was a ship of respectable war (13).
The frigate armored Independence, the bigger than the Peruvian ships, it had been built in England in 1864 for the house J.A. Samuda, in their navy of the river Támesis. Designed as ship of central battery, with three compartments, it had 215 feet of length, 44 of sleeve and a ram of 12 feet. It displaced 2004 tons and it possessed an armor of four inches and it has mediates. With 550 horses of force, it reached a speed of 11 knots. It was armed with the following lined canyons of avancarga: A Vavasseur of 250 pounds in the prow, an Armstrong of 150 pounds in the stern and twelve Armstrong of 70 pounds, or 6.4 inches, displaced in the central battery. It also had a potent ram of 12 feet.
The old monitors of coast class Canonicus, the Cripple Capac and the Atahualpa, baptized this way in honor of the first and last Inca of the Tanhuantisuyo, respectively; they were acquired in April of 1868. They had been built for the marine federalist from the United States by Alex Swift and Company in the navy Niles & Rivers Works of Cincinnati, Ohio, and completed on the 10 June of 1865, the first floor the name of USS Oneota and the second as the USS Catawaba. They displaced 2,100 tons, with a motor of 350 horses of force and a theoretical speed of 8 knots. They had a length of 226 feet and they were protected by an armor of 3 inches that increased to 5 inches in the vital parts of the ship. Their armament consisted on two powerful flat canyons of model avancarga Dahlgreen of 15 inches, mounted on an armored turret of 25 feet of diameter with 10 inches of armor. In the practice however, for their slowness and not well state, they were floating batteries; the Atahualpa practically could not move and the Cripple Capac hardly reached the 3.5 knots of speed (14).
The two corvettes, these very quick, they were the Union and the Pilcomayo. The first one, a model Alabama Super, it had been sent to build for the rebellious government of the Confederate States of America in the house Verns Siblings of Nantes, France. It was acquired by the Peru in 1864 and commissioned in 1865. Their length was of 243 feet and it displaced 1,600 tons. It had 500 horses of force, it was provided of rotation to helix, it reached a to walk of 12.5 knots and it was armed with two canyons of a hundred pounds, two of sixty eight pounds and twelve of forty pounds, all model Voruz of avancarga (15).
On the other hand the Pilcomayo, sometimes qualified as cannon era, was a ship of smaller might, but the newest of all, built in 1874 by the Peruvian government's order in Money Wigram & Sons in Blackwood, Great Britain, with machinery of J.Penn & Company of Geenwich, which reached a power of 180 horses of force. It displaced 700 tons, it she had 271 feet of length, it reached the 11 knots of speed and it was armed with two canyons of 70 pounds, one in each band of the ship and four canyons of 40 pounds or 4.5 inches, two for band, also lined, of avancarga, of model Parrot (16).
They completed the fleet the cañoneras Arno, Urcos, Captaincy, Receipt and Knock down that were armed each one with a canyon of 40 pounds, one of 32 pounds and a machine gun, as well as some boats torpederas of the class Herreshoff built in the United States, as the Alliance, Republic and Alay, armed with torpedos of the type Lay that reached a speed of 12.5 knots, with an explosive load of 36 kilos.
The marine Peruvian prepared to the moment of the conflict of the transports Chalaco (1863 - 990 tons and 400 horses of force), the Marañón, (2,015 tons and 700 horses of force), and the Limean ships (1865-1,162 tons), Mayro (1861-671 tons), Talisman (1871-310 tons) and Oroya (1873-1,050 tons, the quickest and new of all, acquired few days before initiate the war). Some of the transport armor was, for example the Limean and the Chalaco had two canyons of 40 pounds each one, while the Marañón loaded two canyons of 70 pounds and four of 40 pounds. Almost all the ships of the squad were immobilized and in the middle of repair process.
The marine one Chilean, with thirteen ships of war, including to the cutters, it displaced around 13,000 tons, while the Peruvian ships of war, seven in total, reached the 9,500 tons. The difference was accentuated even more if it was included in the total tonnage to the transports, because the Chileans overcame the 20,000 tons, against some 7,000 tons of the Peruvian auxiliary ships. Regarding artillery, the Chilean squad possessed a total of 114 canyons while the marine Peruvian had about 65 canyons. The Chilean squad because they led the Peruvian in modernity, quantity, displacement, armor, artillery power, and number of transports. The Peruvians however replaced this disadvantage with official naval very capable and prepared, although the sailors and cabin boys were in their majority beginners and the gunners lacked practice in exercises of real fire (17).
Initiate the war; the Peru organized its squad in two divisions. The first one, the most powerful, integrated by the Huáscar, the Independence and the transports Chalaco, Limean and Oroya was put low the ship captain's control Miguel Grau, one of the most experienced and noted Peruvian marines, major of the Huáscar. The second, integrated by the corvettes Union and Pilcomayo, the monitors Atahualpa and Handless Capac and the transport Talisman, were to the skilled ship captain's orders Aurelio García y García who he would become during the course of the conflict in major of the Union. The ship captains Juan Guillermo Moore and Nicolás of the Portal exercised the control of the Independence and of the Union respectively, while the frigate captains José Sánchez Lagomarsino, Antonio of the Guerra and Carlos Ferreyros was to the Cripple's front respectively Capac, the Atahualpa and the Pilcomayo. In that then to the captains Grau, García y García and Ferreyros, jointly with the rear admiral Lizardo Montero, was known as the four aces of the marine Peruvian
