"On 5th April 1879, the War of the Pacific begins, as Chile declares war on Bolivia and Peru. Below is an extract from Men at Arms 504: Armies of the War of the Pacific 1879–83 by Gabriele Esposito. Also known as the 'Saltpeter War' or the 'Guano War', MAA 504 looks into how the War of the Pacific was one of the bloodiest ever fought in the Andean region.
The War of the Pacific, fought by Chile against Peru and Bolivia, was the greatest military conflict ever fought in the Andean region, and, together with the War of the Triple Alliance (1864–70), it shaped the destiny of the Latin American nations.
This war was also known as the "Saltpeter War" or "Guano War," because its initial cause was rivalry over possession of sources for these two highly profitable nitrates. Over centuries, the dry climate of the Peruvian and Bolivian Pacific coasts had permitted the accumulation of vast amounts of these; guano was used as a fertilizer, and saltpeter had a fundamental role in the production of explosives, so both were highly exportable. The greatest amounts were found in the Atacama Desert located between Chile and Bolivia, the possession of which had consequently been a matter of contention since the 1830s.
In 1864 the Andean region was involved in a brief war against Spain. This "Chincha Islands War" or "First Pacific War" was mainly a series of naval actions fought between the Spanish and the allied Chilean/Peruvian fleets after the Spanish occupied Peru's guano-rich Chincha Islands, the source of almost 60 percent of the Peruvian government's annual revenue. The conflict had no significant political results, but Chile – shocked by the ease with which a relatively small Spanish fleet had been able to blockade its ports – invested in greatly improved armed services during the next decade…"
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