ABSTRACT
At the outset of the independence era, the exact borders of the nascent republics of Latin America were a highly controversial subject. As a result, bitter territorial disputes, often involving vast tracts of land and considerable wealth, quickly developed. Many of these territorial questions were in fact boundary disputes which resulted from Spain’s failure to delineate carefully its administrative units during the colonial period. The boundary dispute between Ecuador and Peru, sometimes referred to as the Zarumilla-Marañón dispute, falls into this category. Other irredentist issues between South American neighbouring states arose from challenging the validity of treaty settlements previously ratified by the parties to a dispute. An example of the latter was the Tacna-Arica question which plagued relations between Chile and Peru for over four decades after the end of the War of the Pacific. Emotionally charged and highly involved, territorial issues have complicated and disrupted inter-American relations throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
