Editing Chaco War (section)

== Origins ==
[[File:Paraguay-bolivia-1924-1935.jpg|thumb|Paraguayan (1924, 1927 and 1932) and Bolivian (1928) stamps. The 1924 Paraguayan stamp shows no border with Bolivia. In 1927, the border is shown to run to the north from Gran Chaco. In 1932, it had moved even farther north with the disputed territory called ''Paraguayan Chaco''; with slogan saying "was, is and will be [ours]". The Bolivian stamp labels the region as the ''Bolivian Chaco''.]]
The origins of the war are commonly attributed to a long-standing territorial dispute and to the discovery of oil deposits on the eastern [[Andes]] range; in 1929, the [[Treaty of Lima (1929)|Treaty of Lima]] ended the hopes of the Bolivian government of recovering a land corridor to the Pacific Ocean, which was thought imperative to further development and trade.<ref>Hunefeldt, Christine, ''A Brief History of Peru'', New York: Facts on File, Inc., (2004) p. 149 {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>Morales Q., Waltraud, '' Brief History of Bolivia''. New York: Facts on File, Inc., (2003) p. 83 {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Woolsey |first=L. H. |date=1929 |title=The Bolivia-Paraguay Dispute |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/abs/boliviaparaguay-dispute/CE5C5F3B8C294B567C3E4CC99A8F1F70 |journal=American Journal of International Law |language=en |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=110–112 |doi=10.2307/2190239 |jstor=2190239 |issn=0002-9300}}</ref>

Both Bolivia and Paraguay were landlocked. The 600,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> Chaco was sparsely populated, but control of the [[Paraguay River]] running through it would provide access to the Atlantic Ocean.<ref>Hughes, Matthew "Logistics and the Chaco War: Bolivia versus Paraguay, 1932–1935" pp. 411–437 from The Journal of Military History, Volume 69, Issue # 2 April 2005 p. 412</ref> That became especially important to Bolivia, which had lost its [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] coast to Chile during the 1879 [[War of the Pacific]].<ref>[http://rediu.colegiomilitar.mil.ar/esp/ediciones/1030/articulos_originales/ReDiU_1030_art1-Guerra%20entre%20Bolivia%20y%20Paraguay%201928-1935.pdf ''Guerra entre Bolivia y Paraguay: 1928–1935''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140326061938/http://rediu.colegiomilitar.mil.ar/esp/ediciones/1030/articulos_originales/ReDiU_1030_art1-Guerra%20entre%20Bolivia%20y%20Paraguay%201928-1935.pdf|date=26 March 2014}} by Ana Maria Musico Aschiero {{in lang|es}}</ref> Paraguay had lost almost half of its claimed territory to Brazil and [[Argentina]] in the [[Paraguayan War]] of 1864 to 1870 and was not prepared to surrender its economic viability.<ref>[http://worldatwar.net/chandelle/v1/v1n3/chaco.html#prof The Chaco War]</ref>

In international arbitration, Bolivia argued that the region had been part of the original Spanish colonial province of [[Moxos Province|Moxos]] and [[Chiquitos Province|Chiquitos]] to which [[uti possidetis juris|Bolivia was heir]]. Meanwhile, Paraguay based its case on the [[Uti possidetis|occupation of the land]]. Indeed, both Paraguayan and Argentine planters were already breeding cattle and exploiting [[quebracho wood]]s in the area,<ref>Farcau, Bruce W. (1996). ''The Chaco War: Bolivia and Paraguay, 1932–1935''. Greenwood Publishing Group, pp. 7–8. {{ISBN|978-0-275-95218-1}}</ref> and the small nomadic indigenous population of [[Guaraní language|Guaraní]]-speaking tribes was related to Paraguay's own [[Guaraní people|Guaraní]] heritage. As of 1919, Argentine banks owned 400,000 hectares of land in the eastern Chaco, and the Casado family, a powerful part of the Argentine [[oligarchy]], held 141,000.<ref name="once">Farcau, p. 11</ref> The presence of [[Mennonite]] colonies in the Chaco, who settled there in the 1920s under the auspices of the Paraguayan Parliament, was another factor in favour of Paraguay's claim.<ref>Hughes, Matthew (2005). [http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/1251/3/Chaco%2BWar%2B-%2Brevised%2Bversion%2B1.pdf ''Logistic and Chaco War: Bolivia vs. Paraguay, 1932–1935''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170812181512/http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/1251/3/Chaco+War+-+revised+version+1.pdf |date=12 August 2017 }} The Journal of Military History, Volume 69, pp. 411–437</ref>

The impetus for war was exacerbated by a conflict between oil companies jockeying for exploration and drilling rights, with [[Royal Dutch Shell]] backing Paraguay and [[Standard Oil]] supporting Bolivia.<ref>"Para la mayoría de las voces, el conflicto entre Bolivia y Paraguay (1932–1935) tuvo su origen en el control del supuesto petróleo que pronto iría a fluír desde el desierto chaqueño en beneficio de la nación victoriosa."{{Citation|last=Archondo|first=Rafael|title=La Guerra del Chaco: ¿hubo algún titiritero?|journal=Población y Desarrollo|volume=34|page=29}}</ref> The discovery of oil in the [[geology of Bolivia#Lowlands and Sub-Andean zone|Andean foothills]] sparked speculation that the Chaco might prove a rich source of petroleum, and foreign oil companies were involved in the exploration. Standard Oil was already producing oil from wells in the high hills of eastern Bolivia, around [[Villa Montes]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.aporrea.org/tiburon/a143550.html|title=Fragmentos de vieja historia petrolera|last=Mazzei|first=Umberto|date=16 May 2012|language=es-LA|access-date=2016-07-07}}</ref> However, it is uncertain if the war would have been caused solely by the interests of the companies, not by aims of Argentina to import oil from the Chaco.<ref>{{Citation|last=Archondo|first=Rafael|title=La Guerra del Chaco: ¿hubo algún titiritero?|journal=Población y Desarrollo|volume=34|pages=29–39}}</ref> In opposition to the "[[dependency theory]]" of the war's origins, the British historian Matthew Hughes argued against the thesis that Bolivian and Paraguayan governments were the "puppets" of Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell respectively by writing: "In fact, there is little hard evidence available in the company and government archives to support the theory that oil companies had anything to do with causing the war or helping one side or the other during the war".<ref>Hughes, Matthew "Logistics and the Chaco War: Bolivia versus Paraguay, 1932–1935" pp. 411–437 from The Journal of Military History, Volume 69, Issue # 2 April 2005 p. 415</ref> The historian Bret Gustafson, on the other hand, argues that "the blurred lines between the bank and the oil industry show that [Standard Oil] did indeed finance the Bolivian build-up, even if instigating the war was left to Bolivian generals."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gustafson |first=Bret Darin |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1159629686 |title=Bolivia in the age of gas |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-4780-1252-8 |location=Durham |page=40 |oclc=1159629686}}</ref>

=== Prelude to war ===
[[File:Paraguay 1935.jpg|thumb|Map of Paraguay (USA, 1935)]]
The first confrontation between the two countries dates back to 1885, when the Bolivian entrepreneur Miguel Araña Suárez founded Puerto Pacheco, a port on the Upper Paraguay River, south of [[Bahía Negra]]. He assumed that the new settlement was well inside Bolivian territory, though Bolivia had implicitly recognized Bahía Negra as Paraguayan. The Paraguayan government sent in a naval detachment aboard the gunboat ''Pirapó'', commanded by Paraguayan War veteran [[Domingo Antonio Ortiz]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Scavone Y.|first=Ricardo|year=2004|title=Las relaciones entre el Paraguay y Bolivia en el siglo XIX|publisher=Servilibro}}</ref> which forcibly evicted the Bolivians from the area in 1888.<ref>Farcau, p. 8</ref><ref name=segunda>[http://www.histarmar.com.ar/ArmadasExtranjeras/Paraguay/ArmParaguaya-Ehlers-02-2aArmada.htm La Armada Paraguaya: La Segunda Armada] {{in lang|es}}</ref> Two agreements followed, in 1894 and 1907, which neither the Bolivian nor the Paraguayan Parliaments ever approved.<ref>Farcau, p. 9</ref> Meanwhile, in 1905 Bolivia founded two new outposts in the Chaco, Ballivián and Guachalla, this time along the [[Pilcomayo River]]. The Bolivian government ignored the halfhearted Paraguayan official protest.<ref name=segunda />

Bolivian penetration in the region went unopposed until 1927, when the first blood was shed over the Chaco Boreal. On 27 February, a Paraguayan Army foot patrol and its native guides were taken prisoners near the Pilcomayo River and held in the Bolivian outpost of Fortin Sorpresa, where the commander of the Paraguayan platoon, Lieutenant Adolfo Rojas Silva, was shot and killed in suspicious circumstances. ''Fortín'' (Spanish for "little fort") was the name used for the small pillbox and trench-like garrisons in the Chaco, although the troops' barracks usually consisted in no more than a few mud huts. The Bolivian government formally regretted the death of Rojas Silva, but Paraguayan public opinion called it "murder".<ref name=once /> After subsequent talks arranged in [[Buenos Aires]] failed to produce any agreement and eventually collapsed in January 1928, the dispute grew violent. On 5 December 1928, a Paraguayan cavalry unit overran Fortin Vanguardia, an advance outpost established by the Bolivian army a few kilometres northwest of Bahía Negra. The Paraguayans captured 21 Bolivian soldiers and burned the scattered huts to the ground.<ref>Farcau, pp. 12–13</ref>

The Bolivians retaliated with an air strike on Bahía Negra on 15 December, which caused few casualties and little damage. On 14 December, Bolivia seized Fortin Boquerón, which later would be the site of the first major battle of the campaign, and 15 Paraguayans died. A return to the ''[[status quo ante bellum|status quo ante]]'' was eventually agreed on 12 September 1929 in Washington, DC, under pressure from the [[Organization of American States|Pan American League]], but an arms race had already begun, and both countries were on a collision course.<ref>Farcau, p. 14</ref> The regular border clashes might have led to war in the 1920s if either side had been capable of waging war against one another.<ref name="Hughes pages 411-437">Hughes, Matthew "Logistics and the Chaco War: Bolivia versus Paraguay, 1932–1935" pp. 411–437 from ''The Journal of Military History'', Volume 69, Issue # 2 April 2005 p. 416.</ref> As it was, neither Paraguay or Bolivia had an arms industry, and both sides had to import vast quantities of arms from Europe and the United States to arm themselves for the coming conflict.<ref name="Hughes pages 411-437" /> It was the need for both sides to import sufficient arms that held back the outbreak of the war to 1932, when both sides felt capable of resorting to arms to settle the long-running dispute.<ref name="Hughes pages 411-437" />