Crisis Wars for Chile and Argentina

[jmm1184]

I have done some research into the histories of southern South America, and so I present a list of crisis wars. In depth research still needs to be done, but from years of light study, I have identified these crisis wars in Chile and Argentina.

Argentina
1810-1820: The Argentine War of Independence & Beginning of Argentine Civil Wars: The war of independence against Spain soon degenerated into different warlords/"caudillos" and provinces fighting for power. Independence from Spain was won in 1818, but in 1820 an attempt at a centralized state was defeated, beginning the 60-year long Argentine Civil Wars. Argentina was nominally ruled by Buenos Aires, the strongest of the provinces, but was in fact a collection of warring caudillos and their territories

1878-1884: The Conquest of the Desert: The Argentine state consolidated and centralized, a war of conquest that has been termed a genocide was waged on the Indians of the Pampas and Patagonia. Thousands of Indians were killed, and thousands more enslaved. The natives tribes of Argentina were practically annihilated, ending centuries of frontier warfare and opening the south of Argentina to white settlers.

1975-1980: The Dirty War: Social tensions between the poor urban classes and the elite Argentine landowners and capitalists culminated over several decades into guerilla warfare and state terrorism that became known as "The Dirty War." Urban marxist guerillas terrorized the police and military as well as civilians in an attempt to ignite a communist revolution, but the Argentine military took power in 1976 and proceeded to wipe out not only the marxist guerillas but anyone suspected of being allied or sympathetic to them. Thousands of people were "disappeared" and tortured, with estimates of 30,000 people being killed by the state. By 1980, the guerilla movement had been broken and was effectively over, though state terrorism and military rule continued until 1983.

Chile
1810-1830: The Chilean War of Independence & The Chilean Civil Wars: As in much of South America, the war for independence quickly became a civil war between different regions and interests groups in Chile, coalescing around liberals and conservatives. Independence was won from Spain in 1818, but this was followed by total war between Chilean factions, native Indians and rural bandits. Stability and order was not established until 1830, with the end of the Chilean Civil War of 1829-1830.

1879-1891: The War of the Pacific and The Chilean Civil War of 1891: Tensions over resources and land had been building for decades between Peru and Bolivia on one side and Chile on the other. These tensions erupted into war in 1879. By 1880 Bolivia was decisively defeated and withdrew from the war, but Peru fought on, leading Chile to launch an invasion into Peru. The capital Lima was occupied but a guerilla movement harried the Chilean forces. Chile was ultimately victorious, taking Bolivia's only maritime territory and winning resource-rich land from Peru's south. Tensions and bitterness between Peru, Bolivia and Chile remain to this day. However, this was apparently not the end of Chile's crisis. A brutal civil war erupted between the would-be dictator Balmaceda and the Parliament of Chile. Though fought over just a few months in 1891, the war cost 10,000 lives - the bloodiest war in Chile's history. Balmaceda was defeated and committed suicide, while Parliament established itself as the leading power in the government, overseeing a weak executive.

1973-1976: Establishment of military rule in Chile - Tensions between the urban poor and peasants against the landowning oligarchy reached a boiling point in the early 1970s when a marxist, Salvador Allende, was peacefully elected President of Chile. He sought to transform Chile into a marxist country, alienating the middle and upper classes and polarizing the nation. Many feared civil war, and in 1973 the military seized power under the leadership of General Pinochet. For the next three years thousands of marxist guerillas and innocent citizens were tortured and "disappeared" by the military regime. Estimates range between 3,000 to perhaps as great as 15,000 or higher. By 1976, armed resistance by marxist guerillas had been crushed, and the military entrenched itself, ruling Chile until 1990.

[John]

This information is very interesting. Thanks for posting it.

[jmm1184]

You're welcome! Argentina and Chile are interesting to observe in the present because they are both in awakenings. Have you followed any news dealing with either country? I suspect both are approaching awakening climaxes, if they haven't occurred already.

[jmm1184]

Also, I haven't studied the following countries enough to give summaries of the crisis wars, but here is a list of crisis wars for Peru, Bolivia, and Uruguay.

Peru
1811-1825: Peruvian War of independence/Simon Bolivar's war of liberation
1879-1895: War of the Pacific, peasant rebellions and civil wars
1980-1992 or 1999: The Shining Path rebellion. *the leader of the shining path was captured in 1992, and this crippled his organization, but the insurgency did not fully collapse until 1999 when the rest of the leaders were captured. Further research or a second set of eyes is needed to determine which event was the crisis war climax.

Bolivia
1811-1825: Bolivian war of independence
1879-1880: War of the Pacific
1952 or 1964-1982: social upheaval and military dictatorships

Uruguay
1810-1820: Argentine war of independence and Brazilian/portuguese invasion
1897-1904: Final uruguayan civil war
1968 or 1973-1980: Tupamaros guerilla movement and military dictatorship; "the dirty war"

[John]

Thanks again for posting this information. I've never really looked
much at Latin American countries, except for a couple of things about
Haiti, Mexico and Venezuela.

However, your timeline for Peru doesn't ring true to me.

Here's an interesting paper that talks about the 1932 Aprista
Insurrection in Trujillo, Peru, and also has some background
information on other Latin American insurrections.

https://www.ncsu.edu/acontracorriente/s ... aBryce.pdf

[jmm1184]

Very interesting article! I'll admit I skimmed it as I'm exhausted today, but I got the general gist of the article. The events of the Trujillo revolution seem to me to depict not a crisis civil war, but rather a violent generational awakening climax in which the elders won. I am sure beyond a doubt that The War of the Pacific (1879-1883) was a crisis war for Peru. Lima was occupied by the Chilean army, a guerilla war sprang up to fight against the Chileans, and the war left bitterness that is still felt between the two countries today. Moreover, I gathered that following the war Peru sank into chaos as creoles, mestizos, incas and blacks all fought each other - stability and unity was not achieved until 1895. Following this time there was a time of peace and stability known as the aristocratic republic (1895-1914) that saw economic growth and investment by the United States. However, the 1920s saw the rise of concerns over social justice for the nations poor, out of which came the APRA movement.

Thus the Trujillo revolution strikes me as being more consistent with a generational awakening climax than a crisis war. The memory of the War of the Pacific and the following anarchy would still have been fresh in the minds of the people, and I don't have the sense of decades of tension bursting into a crisis war. Rather, my sense is that following the Trujillo massacre Peru oscillated between democracy and dictatorship, while economically the country deteriorated, until 1980 when Abimael Guzman began the Shining Path revolt, a Maoist terrorist organization that sought to overthrow the government and establish a Maoist state. The war cost at least 70,000 lives, many of them civilians - specifically indigenous peasants. As the article alluded, the civil war continues to divide Peru today, and strikes me as a repeat of the Inca-Spanish/Indigenous-Creole faultline that has persisted in Peru since the Conquest of the Inca Empire by the Spanish conquistadors.

So the Shining Path rebellion and the War of the Pacific & subsequent anarchy are crisis wars for Peru. Peru is an awakening period right now, largely stable with a growing economy, though some insurgents from the Shining Path rebellion continue to hold out in the hinterlands and Andes.

One thing I am not sure about is whether or not the War of Independence was a crisis war for Peru. There was a large Inca rebellion in the early 1780s called the Tupac Amaru rebellion, which cost thousands of lives. Since the war of independence would have been fought 30-45 years after this rebellion, perhaps the Latin American Wars of Liberation were not a crisis war for Peru after all. Moreover, in my reading Peru was reluctant to join Bolivar and was primarily a royalist stronghold. Before the War of the Pacific Peru's generational history is shaky to uncertain for me, and so requires much greater amounts of research.

[gerald]

Side note regarding Argentina and Chile

About 15 years ago I was waiting to pass through customs going from Argentina into Chile from the South, and noticed signs along the border warning of land mines. I asked about the signs and was told that the mines were put there during the last hostilities, however no one paid any attention to where they were placed, hence they never bothered to remove them.

So-- they just let sheep graze there, and every so often ka-boom! lamb chops.