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The Treaty of Defensive Alliance was a
secret Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controvers ...
defense pact A defense pact (or defence pact in Commonwealth spelling) is a type of treaty or military alliance in which the signatories promise to support each other militarily and to defend each other.Volker Krause, J. David Singer "Minor Powers, Allianc ...
between Bolivia and
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
. Signed in the Peruvian capital,
Lima Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...
, on February 6, 1873, the document was composed of eleven central articles that outlined its necessity and stipulations and one additional article that ordered the treaty to be kept secret until both contracting parties decided otherwise. The signatory states were represented by the Peruvian Foreign Minister José de la Riva-Agüero y Looz Corswaren and the Bolivian Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of his or her sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the wor ...
in Peru, Juan de la Cruz Benavente. Ongoing border disputes between Bolivia and
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
worsened
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
's tense political environment, which was made all the more precarious by a global economic depression. The system of mutual defense established between Bolivia and Peru sought to protect their national security and the regional balance of power by containing Chilean expansionism, which was fueled by Chile's economic ambitions over the mineral resources of the
Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert ( es, Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in th ...
. The pact's stated intentions were to guarantee the integrity, independence, and sovereignty of the contracting parties. To improve the alliance from Chile, Peru attempted to have
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
join the defense pact. Border disputes with Chile made Argentina's attachment to the alliance seem inevitable. However, territorial disagreements between Bolivia and Argentina and the possible interference of
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
in favor of Chile prevented success. Argentina's possible inclusion into the Peruvian-Bolivian pact was still enough of a perceived threat that in 1881, Chile ensured it would not fight a
two-front war According to military terminology, a two-front war occurs when opposing forces encounter on two geographically separate fronts. The forces of two or more allied parties usually simultaneously engage an opponent in order to increase their chance ...
by settling its borders, with Argentina by giving up substantial territorial aspirations in
Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...
. In 1879, Peru mediated the diplomatic crisis caused by Bolivia's challenge to its boundary treaty with Chile. As well, Chile started a
military occupation Military occupation, also known as belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is the effective military control by a ruling power over a territory that is outside of that power's sovereign territory.Eyāl Benveniśtî. The international law ...
of
Antofagasta Antofagasta () is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2015 census, the city has a population of 402,669. After the Spanish American wars ...
(in Bolivia's
Litoral Department The Department of the Litoral, also known as the Atacama Department and commonly known as the Bolivian coast, was the description of the extent of the Pacific coast of the Atacama Desert included in the territory of Bolivia from its inception in 1 ...
). The mutual defense treaty then became a subject of contention and one of the reasons for the
War of the Pacific The War of the Pacific ( es, link=no, Guerra del Pacífico), also known as the Saltpeter War ( es, link=no, Guerra del salitre) and by multiple other names, was a war between Chile and a Bolivian–Peruvian alliance from 1879 to 1884. Fought ...
starting in 1879. Ever since, the treaty's usefulness, intentions, level of secrecy at the beginning of the war, and defensive nature have been subjected to debate by historians, political analysts, and politicians.


Background

In the early 1870s, relations between Bolivia and Chile were strained both sides were unsatisfied by the Boundary Treaty of 1866. Furthermore, in August 1872 Quintin Quevedo, a Bolivian diplomat who had been toppled in 1871 and a follower of President
Mariano Melgarejo Manuel Mariano Melgarejo Valencia (13 April 1820 – 23 November 1871) was a Bolivian military officer and politician, fifteenth president of the Republic of Bolivia from December 28, 1864, until his fall on January 15, 1871. He assumed pow ...
, started an expedition from Valparaiso against the Bolivian government, allegedly with the connivance of Chile. Peru, then having naval supremacy in the South Pacific, sent the ''
Huáscar Huáscar Inca (; Quechua: ''Waskar Inka''; 1503–1532) also Guazcar was Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire from 1527 to 1532. He succeeded his father, Huayna Capac and his brother Ninan Cuyochi, both of whom died of smallpox while campaigning near Q ...
'' and ''Chalaco'' warships to the Bolivian coast and told the Chilean government that Peru would not accept foreign intervention in Bolivia.


History

In early November 1872, the Bolivian Assembly authorized the government to negotiate and to ratify a Peruvian alliance. A few days later, Peruvian Foreign Affairs Minister
José de la Riva Agüero José Mariano de la Cruz de la Riva Agüero y Sánchez Boquete, Marquess of Montealegre de Aulestia (3 May 1783 – 21 May 1858) was a soldier, politician, and historian who served as the 1st President of Peru and 2nd President of North ...
informed the Peruvian Council of Ministers of the Bolivian government's willingness to negotiate. Three months later, on 6 February 1873, the Secret Treaty of Alliance between Peru and Bolivia was signed in Lima. Four days after the signing of the treaty, in a secret session, the Peruvian Chamber of Deputies asked the executive to purchase naval armaments. Economic interests were involved in the defensive alliance. On 18 January 1873, the '' Ley del Estanco'' (Monopoly Law) on exports of nitrate, or saltpeter, was promulgated, which was Peru's first attempt to build a nitrate monopoly. However, the practical difficulties in establishing the monopoly proved insurmountable, and the project was shelved. In ''The Peruvian Government and the Nitrate Trade, 1873–1879'', Miller and Greenhill state that "this development was doubly significant. it was the first Peruvian attempt to run public policy through a privately owned institution. It also clearly suggested that the estanco, now successfully delayed, was still a future possibility." In fact, in 1875, the Peruvian government expropriated the ''salitreras'' (nitrate fields) of Tarapaca to secure revenue from guano and nitrate. However, Peruvian nitrate had to compete with Bolivian nitrate, which was produced by Chilean capitalists. On February 6, 1873, a few days after the signing of the ''Estanco'', the Peruvian Senate approved the secret treaty. The parliamentary proceedings, however, have since disappeared. The Peruvian historian
Jorge Basadre Jorge Alfredo Basadre Grohmann (February 12, 1903 – June 29, 1980) was a Peruvian historian known for his extensive publications about the independent history of his country. He served during two different administrations as Minister of Educa ...
asserts that the two projects were unrelated to each other. However, Hugo Pereira Plascencia has found several items of evidence to the contrary. For example, he cites the 1873 writings of the Italian author Pietro Perolari–Malmignati, who stated that the Peruvian interest in defending its nitrate monopoly against the Chilean production in Bolivia was the main cause of the secret treaty. Perolari-Malmignati also wrote that Peruvian Foreign Minister José de la Riva-Agüero had informed Chilean Foreign Minister Joaquín Godoy on negotiations with Bolivia to expand the ''Estanco'' in Bolivia.Hugo Pereira Plascencia
La política salitrera del presidente Manuel Pardo
/ref> To strengthen the alliance against Chile, Peru sought to incorporate Argentina, which was then involved in a territorial dispute with Chile over
Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...
, the Strait of Magellan, and
Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla ...
, into the alliance. Peru sent a diplomat, Manuel Irigoyen Larrea (not to be confused with Argentine Minister
Bernardo de Irigoyen Bernardo de Irigoyen (December 18, 1822 – December 27, 1906) was an Argentine lawyer, diplomat and politician. Biography Born in Buenos Aires, Irigoyen enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires and earned a ''juris doctor'' in 1843. He was ...
), to Buenos Aires. Bolivia did not have a minister in Argentina and so it too was represented by Manuel Irigoyen. On 24 September 1873, the Argentine Chamber of Deputies approved the signing of the treaty and additional military funds of $6,000,000. The Argentine government, under President
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (; born Domingo Faustino Fidel Valentín Sarmiento y Albarracín; 15 February 1811 – 11 September 1888) was an Argentine activist, intellectual, writer, statesman and the second President of Argentina. His writing s ...
and Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos Tejedor, still required the approval of the Argentine Senate.For a more extensive description of the Peruvian activities in Argentina, see All three pursued the alliance but had different aims. Argentina and Peru were far more concerned about a possible hostile reaction from Brazil and feared a Brazilian-Chilean axis. Bolivia and Argentina failed to reach an agreement in the Chaco and
Tarija Tarija or San Bernardo de la Frontera de Tarixa is a city in southern Bolivia. Founded in 1574, Tarija is the largest city and capital and municipality within the Tarija Department, with an airport ( Capitán Oriel Lea Plaza Airport, (TJA)) off ...
territorial disputes. Therefore, Argentina asked to dismiss the
Boundary Treaty of 1866 between Chile and Bolivia The Boundary Treaty of 1866 between Chile and Bolivia, also called the Mutual Benefits Treaty, was signed in Santiago de Chile on August 10, 1866, by the Chilean Foreign Affairs Minister Alvaro Covarrubias and the Bolivian Plenipotentiary in Santi ...
as casus foederis and instead offered Peru an Argentina-Peru an alliance against Chile to protect Peru against a Chilean-Bolivian alliance. On 28 September 1873, the matter was discussed in the Argentine Senate, postponed until 1 May 1874, and then finally approved if certain declarations were added. However, the proposed changes were rejected by Baptista. Brazil ordered its ministers in Peru and Argentina to investigate a rumored Peruvian-Argentine-Bolivian alliance, especially with regards to any implications that such an alliance would have for Brazil and its strained relations with Argentina. Peru discreetly assured Brazil that the treaty would not affect its interests and delivered a copy of the treaty to the Brazilian minister. Moreover, to silence Brazil, Peruvian President Manuel Pardo asked Argentina and Bolivia to introduce a new clause into the protocol, complementary to the treaty, to make it clear that the Secret Treaty was aimed at not Brazil but Chile: :''The Alliance will not deal with questions which for political or territorial reasons may arise between the Confederation and the Empire of Brazil, but will only treat of the boundary questions between the Argentine Republic, Bolivia and Chile, and the other questions that may arise between the contracting counties.'' Soon, however, two events occurred and completely changed the state of affairs. On 6 August 1874, Bolivia and Chile signed a new Boundary Treaty, and on December 26, 1874, the recently-built Chilean ironclad '' Cochrane'' arrived in
Valparaíso Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...
. Those events tipped the South Pacific balance of power towards Chile. Then, Peru realized the possibility of an unwanted Patagonian conflict and became aware of Argentina's opposition to involvement in Pacific politics except for issues regarding Chile. Peru's government instructed its foreign minister in Argentina to stop trying to get Argentina to join the secret pact. For the moment, those events and the replacing of Sarmiento by
Nicolas Avellaneda Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...
as President of Argentina put an end to the project of a Bolivian-Peruvian-Argentinian alliance against Chile. In 1875 and 1877, when the Argentine-Chilean territorial dispute flared up anew, it was Argentina that sought to join the pact. This time, however, Peru refused. In October 1875, the Peruvian foreign minister wrote to his counterpart in Buenos Aires regarding the Argentine proposals: :''I have pointed out to you how desirable it would be to delay the Protocol of adherence. This is a matter that must be carried through with great care, since it is to our interest that the Argentine government should not believe that we are hanging back, in consideration of the difficulties raised over the Patagonian question.'' After the official disclosure of the pact, prior to the Chilean declaration of war in the
War of the Pacific The War of the Pacific ( es, link=no, Guerra del Pacífico), also known as the Saltpeter War ( es, link=no, Guerra del salitre) and by multiple other names, was a war between Chile and a Bolivian–Peruvian alliance from 1879 to 1884. Fought ...
, and during the period of Peruvian mediation between Bolivia and Chile, Chile asked Peru to declare itself neutral. Peru attempted to stall while it mobilized by neither accepting nor rejecting the Chilean demands. However, when Chile declared war on Peru, the Peruvian government finally declared the ''casus foederis'' for its alliance with Bolivia. In 1879, at the beginning of the War of the Pacific, the Peruvian government instructed its minister in Buenos Aires, Aníbal Víctor de la Torre, to offer the Chilean territories from 24°S to 27°S to Argentina if it entered the war. Later, the offer was made again in Buenos Aires by the Peruvian Foreign Minister Manuel Irigoyen who met Argentine President Avellaneda and Foreign Minister Montes de Oca. However, the offer was refused by Argentina because of a supposed lack of a powerful navy. During the failed Peace Conference in October 1880, Chile demanded the end of the secret pact. On July 23, 1881, Chile and Argentina signed the Boundary Treaty, ending Peruvian hopes that Argentina would enter the war.


Interpretations

Historians agree about most of the hard facts of the history of the treaty but not its content and interpretation. Both sides agree that it was against Chile but differ in how much Chile knew about the treaty's existence, content, and validity. The Peruvian historian
Jorge Basadre Jorge Alfredo Basadre Grohmann (February 12, 1903 – June 29, 1980) was a Peruvian historian known for his extensive publications about the independent history of his country. He served during two different administrations as Minister of Educa ...
asserts that it was a defensive alliance and was signed to protect the salitreras of Tarapaca, near the Bolivian salitreras in Antofagasta. He considers the alliance as a step further toward creating a Lima-La Paz-Buenos Aires axis, guaranteeing the peace and the stability of the American frontiers, and preventing a Chilean-Bolivian Pact that would force the loss of Antofagasta and Tarapaca to Chile and of Arica and Moquegua to Bolivia. He thinks that the treaty might have been made to impede the use of Bolivian territories by
Nicolás de Piérola Jose Nicolás Baltasar Fernández de Piérola y Villena (known as "''El Califa''" ("The Caliph"); January 5, 1839 – June 23, 1913) was a Peruvian politician and Minister of Finance who served as the 23rd and 31st President of the Republic ...
to conspire against the Peruvian government. He denies any economic interests over the Bolivian salitreras, at least in 1873. He argues that the 1873 Nitrate Monopoly Law was an initiative of the legislative, not of the executive, and states that in 1875, as Peru began to buy licenses over Bolivian salitreras, Peru had dismissed bringing Argentina into the axis. On the other hand, Hugo Pereira Plascencia has contributed several items of evidence to the contrary. In 1873, the Italian author Pietro Perolari–Malmignati cited the Peruvian interest in defending its saltpeter monopoly against the Chilean production in Bolivia as the main cause of the secret treaty and claimed that Peruvian Foreign Minister José de la Riva-Agüero had informed the Chilean Minister in Lima, Joaquín Godoy, about negotiations with Bolivia to expand the ''estanco'' in Bolivia. Some Peruvian histostians consider the treaty legitimate and harmless but a mistake because it gave Chile a pretext for the war and that the Peruvian bargaining in Buenos Aires was just a defensive provision. On the other hand, the Chilean historian Gonzalo Bulnes analyzes the content and the historical context of the treaty and deduces that since Peru and Chile had no common borders, the only territorial conflict that could have arisen was Bolivia and Chile and so Peru could remain neutral without failing its treaty obligation against Bolivia, which was tied to Peru from the Article 8 restriction of treaties affecting boundaries "or other territorial arrangements" without previous knowledge of the ally. He points out that the Bolivian-Chilean dispute on territories between 23°S and 24°S would not change Peru's neighborhood, as an intermediate Bolivian zone would remain between its and Chile's borders, including the ports of Tocopilla and Cobija. Rather than analyzing semantically the text of the treaty, Bulnes's argument rests mainly upon private and diplomatic correspondence and politicians' speeches before, during, and after the war. Much of the information is gathered from the "Godoy papers," documents of the Peruvian Foreign Affairs Ministry that fell into Chilean hands during the occupation of Lima.. Joaquín Godoy, the Chilean minister in Lima, returned to the city when the Chilean Army occupied the city. Bulnes sees the pact as part of a Peruvian move that would oblige Chile in 1873 to submit to arbitration whatever it suited Peru, Argentina, and Bolivia so that the three would dominate the Pacific and have the territory in dispute occupied by Bolivia: One document that Bulnes cites is a letter from the Peruvian Foreign Affairs Minister Riva Agüero to his Minister in Bolivia La Torre: The Peruvian historian Alejandro Reyes Flores, in "Relaciones Internaconales en el Pacífico Sur", writes: : Gonzalo Bulnes stated: : The Peruvian historian Jorge Basadre wrote (Cap. 1, pág. 8): : Basadre explains the targets and means of the alliance: : Basadre had reproduced in Cap. 1, pág. 6 the editorial published on the eve of the secret treaty's approval in the Peruvian Senate: : Pedro Yrigoyen, Peruvian ambassador in Spain and son of the Peruvian foreign minister at the beginning of the Chilean War, explains the reasons for the treaty: : Edgardo Mercado Jarrín, who was the Peruvian foreign minister under Juan Velasco Alvarado, describes the plan to follow: :


Secrecy

It is still a matter of dispute in Chilean historiography as to what extent the Chilean government or Chilean politicians were informed about the treaty. Sergio Villalobos asserts that the treaty was not properly known in Chile until 1879. Another Chilean historian, Mario Barros, in his ''Historia diplomática de Chile, 1541–1938'' states that the treaty was known there from the very beginning.


Consequences

One of the first consequences of the treaty was to bring together Brazil and Chile. As soon as the first rumors appeared about the new Peru-Bolivia-Argentina axis, they generated a closer cooperation between two states in conflict with some of the states in the axis. Brazil saw Argentina as a potential foe. According to Basadre, Peru neglected its military because of excessive trust in the treaty. As Antonio de Lavalle questioned Peruvian President Manuel Pardo about the new Chilean ironclads being built in Great Britain, Pardo answered that he also had two ironclads, "Bolivia" and "Buenos Aires", in reference to the axis. Bolivia, counting on its military alliance with Peru, challenged Chile with a violation of the 1874 Boundary Treaty. After its disclosure, the treaty had a shocking impact on the Chilean public opinion and blocked any attempt of Peruvian mediation, whether sincere or not.


See also

*
Argentina–Peru relations Foreign relations between the Argentine Republic and the Republic of Peru, have existed for over a century. Both countries established diplomatic relations on July 10, 1822. Both nations are members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbea ...
* Bolivia–Peru relations * Bolivia-Chile relations * Chile-Peru relations *
Anti-Chilean sentiment Anti-Chilean sentiment (Spanish: ''antichilenismo'') refers to the historical and current resentment towards Chile, Chileans, or Chilean culture. Anti-Chilean sentiment is most prevalent among Chile's neighbors Argentina, Bolivia and Peru. One ...


Notes


References


Bibliography

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Treaty of Mutual Defense (Peru-Bolivia) War of the Pacific Military alliances involving Peru Military alliances involving Bolivia Bolivia–Peru relations 19th-century military alliances Defensive Alliance (Bolivia-Peru) Defensive Alliance (Bolivia-Peru) 19th century in Bolivia 1873 in Peru 1873 in South America Military alliances involving Argentina 1874 in Argentina Argentina–Brazil relations