| Chaco War |
Bolivia and Paraguay before the 1932 War |
| Date |
1932 – 1935 |
| Location |
Gran Chaco region, South America |
Casus
belli |
Bolivian-Paraguayan border dispute |
| Result |
Paraguayan victory |
Territorial
changes |
Most of the Gran Chaco region is awarded to Paraguay. Bolivia keeps the strategic zones
and a port on the Paraguay river. |
|
| Combatants |
Republic of Bolivia
|
Republic of Paraguay
|
| Commanders |
| Hans Kundt |
Mcal. José Félix Estigarribia |
| Strength |
Army of Bolivia (250 000)
|
Army of Paraguay (150 000)
|
| Casualties |
| ~57,000 |
~43,000 |
The Chaco War (1932–1935) was fought between
Bolivia and Paraguay over control of a great part of the
Gran Chaco region of South America, which was
incorrectly thought to be rich in oil.
Origins
Though the region was sparsely populated, control of the Paraguay River running
through it would have given one of the two landlocked countries access to the Atlantic
Ocean. This was especially important to Bolivia, which had lost its Pacific Ocean
coast to Chile in the War of the Pacific
(1883).
Control of natural resources
Furthermore, the discovery of oil in the Andean foothills sparked speculation that the Chaco itself might be a rich source of
petroleum. Two large oil companies were involved in the exploration: Standard Oil (later
broken up into Exxon/Mobil, Chevron, and BP/AMOCO)[vague], which backed Bolivia, while Shell Oil supported
Paraguay.
Paraguayan stamp showing the Chaco Stamp Scott#136
In international arbitration, Bolivia argued that the region had been part of the original Spanish province to which Bolivia
was heir. Meanwhile, Paraguay had begun to cultivate the region, making it the world's largest producer of yerba mate, while the small indigenous population of Guaraní Indians was
related to that country's own Guaraní population. Paraguay had lost almost half of its territory to Brazil and Argentina in the War
of the Triple Alliance and was not prepared to see what it perceived as its last chance for a viable economy fall victim
to Bolivia.
The war
Border skirmishes throughout the late 1920s culminated in an all-out war in 1932, when the Bolivian army, following the orders of the President Daniel
Salamanca, attacked a Paraguayan garrison at Lake Pitiantuta.
Paraguay had a population only a third as large as Bolivia's (880,000 versus 2,150,000), but its guerrilla style of fighting,
compared to Bolivia's more formal strategy, enabled Paraguay to win more battles. Paraguay's use of poor-man's weapons also
proved more effective in the Chaco than the expensive modern weapons the Bolivians used. ‹The template Weasel-inline is being considered for
deletion.› [weasel words] Paraguay received military
supplies and intelligence from Argentina. The Paraguayans took advantage of their ability to
communicate over the radio in Guaraní language, which was not intelligible to the
typical Bolivian soldier. Paraguay had little trouble in mobilizing their troops, some battles being fought at merely a few
kilometers from Asunción, whilst the majority of Bolivian soldiers came from the western
highlands, some eight hundred kilometers away and with little or no logistic support.
The war was a disaster for both sides. Bolivia's European elite forcibly enlisted the large indigenous population into the
army, though they felt little connection to the nation-state, while Paraguay was able to foment nationalist fervor among its
predominantly mixed population. On both sides, but more so for Bolivian troops, the soldiers were ill-prepared for the dearth of
water or the harsh conditions of terrain and climate they encountered. In fact, of the war's 100,000 casualties, more died from
diseases such as malaria and other infections than from the actual fighting. (About 57,000 of
the total were Bolivian.) At the same time, the war brought both countries to the brink of economic disaster.
On November 27, 1934, Bolivian generals frustrated by the
progress of the war seized President Salamanca while he was visiting their headquarters in Villamontes and replaced him with the
vice president, José Luis Tejada Sorzano.
Aftermath
Chaco Peace. The stamp is Scott no. 629
By the time a ceasefire was negotiated on June 12, 1935,
Paraguay controlled most of the region. This was recognized in a 1938 truce, signed in
Argentina, by which Paraguay was awarded three-quarters of the Chaco Boreal. Bolivia did get a
small strip of land that bordered the Paraguay River's Puerto Busch. Some years later it
was found that there were no oil resources in the Chaco proper.
Many middle-class Bolivians were humiliated by Bolivia's quick military defeat during the Chaco War, which led to a
mass-movement away from the traditional order known as the Generación del Chaco[vague], which was epitomized by the MNR-led Revolution of 1952.
Cultural references
Some aspects of the Chaco War are the inspiration for Tintin's
comic book The Broken Ear by Hergé.
See also
External references
- Chaco War [1]
- Armor of the Chaco War [2]
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