The Saltpeter War: The War Of The Pacific

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The war of the pacific
Background
The War of the Pacific(Spanish: Guerra del Pacífico ), also called the Saltpeter War, is a war between united forces of Bolivia and Peru versus Chile fought between 1879 and 1883. Countries fought for the territory of Atacama desert, which is rich for the nitrates and guano, the droppings of seabirds, bats, and seals. The guano is an effective fertilizer and gunpowder ingredient due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen.

The immediate cause of the war(trigger)
The territorial dispute between Chile, Bolivia and Peru started long before the beginning of war itself, after discovery, in 1840s, that guano is an important resource for world economic and military expansion; however it reached its peak only after 1878, when Bolivia mooted the 1873 contract, which allowed Antofagasta Nitrate & Railway Company, the biggest miner in the region, to extract salt-peter without taxes. The Bolivian government wanted to implement a new 10 cents per quantal tax, despite the protests of the Chilean government, and even threatened to confiscate the company’s property, if it refuses to pay. Nevertheless the Antofagasta Nitrate & Railway Company rejected to pay and asked the Chilean government to intervene. Chile responded and sent a warship to the area, moreover, the chilean army claimed the port city of Antofagasta, after Bolivia announced the seizure and auction of the company.
The non-immediate causes of the war are a subject for debates, because the war is important in the history of latin america and because it is open for several interpretations. I will focus on three main paradigms of international politics: theory of realism, world society and dependency.

Realism:
Main actors: Chile, Bolivia and Pe...

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...this city to be connected to Chile and this also affected Chilean decision to intervene.

Conclusion and consequences of the war
The consequences of the war were huge for both sides of the conflict. Chile was able to grab rich expansions of guano, important for the economical well-being of the country and eventually got out of the crisis. Sicotte, Vizcarra and Wandscneider estimated that if Chile did not get the control of the expansions, its earnings from nitrates would have fallen by 80% by the end of nineteenth century. On the opposite Bolivia not only lost the expansions, it also lost its access to the sea, and became a landlocked country.
The analysis of the conflict from 3 different angles confirmed once again that all three theories, realism, world society and theory of dependency have the right to exist and can give the reasonable analysis to the conflict.

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