ABSTRACT
For Bolivia, the War of the Pacific was a short conflict with enormous long-term consequences. After Bolivia and Chile signed a truce in 1884, Bolivian diplomacy worked to secure a sovereign outlet to the Pacific even as it fended off aggressive initiatives from neighboring states. The search for an outlet to the sea impacted on core elements of Bolivian foreign policy. This was clearly the case with Chile and to a lesser extent with Peru. It was also true of Brazil with whom Bolivia traded vast tracts of land in the Upper Amazon in return for tenuous access to the Atlantic Ocean via the Amazon and Paraguay rivers. In 1904, Bolivia and Chile signed a peace treaty which left Bolivia landlocked. The agreement ratified the failure of Bolivian foreign policy toward Chile and Peru after 1879 as the heart of that policy had been a sovereign port on the Pacific Ocean. It also marked the failure of core tenets of Bolivian foreign policy since 1825. Bolivian leaders at independence hoped to guarantee Bolivia’s economic future by securing a port facility which would encourage trade and investment and by concluding alliances which would guarantee the nation’s sovereignty, economic independence, national security, and territorial integrity. The 1904 treaty ratified a significant violation of the territorial integrity of Bolivia, and it left the nation landlocked, compromising economic independence, sovereignty, and national security by leaving its lifelines to the Pacific in the control of a neighboring state.
