Expulsion of Chileans from Bolivia and Peru in 1879

The Spanish magazine La Ilustración Española y Americana published on 15 June 1879 an image (of April 1879) of Chileans waiting at the port of Iquique for ships to return home.

The Expulsion of Chileans from Bolivia and Peru in 1879 was ordered by decrees of the allied governments of Bolivia (on 1 March) and Peru (on 15 April) at the beginning of the War of the Pacific (1879-1883). Chilean citizens, about 30,000[1] to 40,000 in number, were compelled to leave both countries within eight days, under threat of internment. Their property was confiscated. They were sent out on improvised rafts and pontoons at Peruvian ports or to wander through the desert to reach the northernmost positions occupied by the Chilean Army in Antofagasta. The edict of expulsion was widely popular in Peru[2]:701–702 and met with little resistance, and the expulsion was quickly carried out.

Chilean workers in Peru and Bolivia

In Peru and Bolivia, migrant Chilean workers took jobs that the local inhabitants were unable or unwilling to perform, in industries such as railroad construction, the nitrate industry, and the docks. These Chileans came freely, in search of better lives for themselves and their families. There were also Chilean investments in both countries.

Chileans were often key protagonists of labour, delictual but also "nationalist" quarrels and riots.[3]:441

Regarding the attitude of the Chilean workers in the new countries, Chilean historian Juan Pinto Vallejos asserts that they were, to a certain extent, accustomed to industrial work discipline and that their permanent rebellion against authorities and bosses were only a visible refusal to the capitalist driven disintegration of the traditional Chilean society. Among Chileans there arose a kind of spirit of corps because of their condition as foreigners in Peru and Bolivia, within a group whose only common ground was to come from Chile.[4]

Due to their increasing number, their violent conduct or their exacerbated national identity, Chilean migrants became an unsolved issue for the maintenance of peace, public order and security in Tarapaca as well as Antofagsta, and hence an object of official suspicion and surveillance.[5]

Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna wrote about a Chilean organization "La Patria" whose objective was to separate Antofagasta from Bolivia.[2]:53

Peru


Chilean workers were present in Peru during the second half of the 19th century, especially in the Tarapacá Province (Peru), but also in Central Peru. It is not known how many Chileans were living in Peru in 1879. Chilean historian Juan Pinto Vallejos[3]:428 cited the 1876 Peruvian census which registered 9,963 Chileans (26%) among 37,099 inhabitants of Tarapaca. In Iquique, the main port of the region, 52% were Chileans. Pinto Vallejos says that 1876 was a year of deep economic crisis in Peru, and so the Chilean population of the region must have increased between then and 1879. For example, between 1868 and 1872 there were 20,000 to 25,000 Chileans who came to work on construction of the railroad s, recruited by Henry Meiggs.

About 19% of the nitrate produced in Tarapaca (1878) came from previously Chilean-owned nitrate fields and factories before their expropriation by the Peruvian state in 1875.[6]

On December 27, 1876 Chile and Peru agreed on a treaty of friendship, commerce and navigation, but it was not ratified. Inter alia, it would have protected the rights of migrants in both countries.

Bolivia


In Bolivian Antofagasta, the 1878 census registered 6,554 Chileans among 8,507 inhabitants (77%).[3]:431

Chilean companies also exploited the mineral resources in Bolivia, including Huanchaca (silver mine), Corocoro (cooper mine), Oruro (silver mine) and the prosperous silver town of Caracoles. In all, there were 49 companies registered in Santiago or Valparaiso, with a nominal capital of 16,000,000 Chilean pesos. The main producer of nitrate in Antofagasta was the Chilean Compañía de Salitres y Ferrocarriles de Antofagasta (CSFA) which had as a minority shareholder the British Antony Gibbs & Sons of London. The CSFA had a nominal capital of $2,000,000 Chilean pesos.[7]

Crisis

Refugees during the War of the Pacific
Spanish merchants at a makeshift storage location outside Iquique. (22 July 1879)
Evacuation of Callao. (30 January 1881) US-flags raised to mark neutral soil.
Spanish refugees in Iquique. (8 June 1879)
Neither Peruvians (ca. 400 persons[8]:206) nor Bolivians residents in Chile were molested or had to leave the country.[9][10]

When Chilean forces occupied the region of Antofagasta in February the Bolivian garrisons marched to Cobija and Calama, subsequently to the Altiplano[11]:192, 218 and the deposed authorities embarked on the ship Amazonas bound for North.[11]:194

After the Chilean declaration of war (5 April) the Chilean Navy sought to stop the Peruvian export of nitrate and guano by shelling the export ports. Due to disruption of guano and saltpeter trade and the blockade, people from the towns connected only by sea with Central Peru (Iquique, Huanillos, Pabellon de Pica, Pisagua) began to leave the region.[12]:7 In November 1879, after the capitulation of Iquique, 1300 Peruvians embarked on the Ilo bound to Arica and Callao.[13]:168

The consulate of Peru in La Paz informed in Juli 1880 that 600 Peruvians escaping from the Chilean conquest of Tacna and Arica were living as refugees in the capital of Bolivia.[14]:370

As the war reached Central Peru, many cities, towns and villages suffered the horrors of war. In January 1881 the Chileans overran the defenses of Lima, capital of Peru, and people sought protection in European and US consulates, as well as their warships; but the feared foray[Notes 1] did not happen. That is registered by historians, but the fate of the inhabitants is not recorded.

In 1878 the Bolivian Government imposed a new tax upon nitrate exports, affecting the CSFA, in contravention of Article IV of the Boundary Treaty of 1874 between Chile and Bolivia which prohibited any new tax on Chilean capital in Antofagasta. The company refused to pay the tax, and in February 1879 the Bolivian Government cancelled their mining licenses, expropriated the CSFA and announced their auction. Peru, allied with Bolivia by the Secret treaty of alliance between Peru and Bolivia of 1873, had for a long time tried to build a Saltpeter Monopoly and was set to enjoy the biggest gains after a breakup of the CSFA, its main competitor.

On 14 February 1879 the port of Antofagasta, and later the whole province, was seized by Chilean troops. On 1 March 1879 Bolivia declared a state of war with Chile. On 5 April 1879 Chile declared war on Peru, and Bolivia and Peru declared the casus foederis the following day.

Eviction decrees

On 1 March 1879, Hilarion Daza, dictator of Bolivia, announced[8]:101 that Bolivia was in a state of war and ordered the cessation of all commerce with Chile, and the eviction of all Chilean citizens from Bolivian territory within 8 days (from the day they were officially informed); they were permitted to take only hand luggage and their personal papers. The rest of their property was seized by the state; their businesses had to be continued by a state supervisor, and the profits confiscated. This applied to all Chilean-owned industries (whether or not the owners lived in Bolivia). The expropriation of property was definitive, as the war required an energetic response from Bolivia. Moreover, any transfer of Chilean property dated after 8 November 1878 was nullified.

In Peru, the eviction was decreed by the Government of Mariano Ignacio Prado on 15 April "to secure the success of the military operations"; within 8 days all Chileans had to leave Peru, except Chilean owners of real estate and those with a Peruvian wife. Any infringement would result in the internment of the wrongdoer.[8]:208 Two days later, these exceptions were suspended "in reprisal for the Chilean bombardment of defenseless Peruvian ports", and all Chilean citizens had to leave Peru within 8 days.[8]:208

On 17 April the Peruvian newspaper "El Peruano" justified the measure, which was considered tough but necessary, for reasons of security against espionage, the insolent and provocative attitude of the Chileans in Peru, the aggression against Peruvians citizens in Chile, the Chilean bombardment of defenseless ports and the danger that creates the large number of Chileans in Peru for the public order. It alluded to the expulsion of German citizens from France during the Franco-Prussian War and that it was conform to the international law, according to Bluntschli. Further, the newspaper referred that Chile wouldn't reply because there were few Peruvians citizens and no Peruvian investments in Chile.[2]:701–702

Direct consequences

In Peru a human tragedy unfolded, as thousands of men, women and children tried to reach the coast and get a ticket in one of the ships bound for Chile in order to return home. Those who could not leave the country were imprisoned, and in some cases condemned to forced labor.

Chilean historian Diego Barros Arana wrote:

By the enforcement of law, in Lima and Callao were imprisoned Chileans who could not embark because of want of money or illness, but they [Peruvian authorities] met the deadline of 8 days. Nonetheless, in South Peru, especially in the coast regions, where the Peruvian army was concentrating, local authorities arbitrarily shortened the time limit. The prefect of Arequipa, who ordered the eviction of Chileans two days before the government decree, granted only 48 hours to leave Peru. In Tarapaca, Chileans got two or three hours. In Iquique, Chileans could not have embarked without the protection of British and US sailors; and in Huanillos they had to travel on foot through the desert, until they reached the Loa River, were they found help by the Chilean soldiers stationed in the region. (Orig. Spanish) En cumplimiento de la parte penal de esos decretos, en Lima i el Callao fueron reducidos a prisión los chilenos que por falta de recursos o por enfermedad, no pudieron embarcarse; pero se respetó el plazo acordado para salir del territorio. Pero, en los departamentos del sur del Perú, i especialmente en las poblaciones del litoral, donde se estaba reuniendo el ejército peruano, las autoridades locales acortaron a su antojo este plazo. Asi, el prefecto de Arequipa, que resolvió por si solo la espulsion de los chilenos dos días antes del primer decreto del gobierno supremo, les concedió solo 48 horas para salir al estranjero. En la provincia de Tarapacá se les concedieron dos o tres horas. En Iquique no habrian podido embarcarse sin la protección de los marinos ingleses i norteamericanos; i en Huanillos tuvieron que emprender su viaje a pié, por los arenales del desierto, hasta llegar a las orillas del Loa, donde fueron socorridos por las tropas chilenas que ocupaban estos lugares.
Diego Barros Arana, "Historia de la Guerra del Pacífico (1879-1880)", page 79

Sergio Villalobos asserts that the first group from Huanillos were 400 Chileans and the journey took three days, but later other groups came from Huanillo to Tocopilla. Other groups came to Iquique. They were concentrated in the customs zone of the port, and the Peruvians used them as a human shield in the face of the Chilean shelling of the port. On 5 April, hundreds of refugees from Lima embarked on the Chilean transporter Rímac (1872) and once there they began to threaten General Juan Buendia, Chief of the Peruvian Army of Iquique. The captain of the ship, without the means to confront the refugees, had to disembark Buendia at the next harbor.[15]

In Pabellon de Pica, one of the guano extraction fields in Tarapaca, during a Chilean Navy raid against the port on 15 April, Chilean sailors found 350 refugees on a pontoon, property of a British citizen who had allowed them to stay there because they were unable to walk to Tocopilla. The next day the raid was continued in Huanillos, where they found 100 Chileans enclosed in a pontoon. In both places, the guano loading equipment was destroyed and the refugees brought to Iquique (under blockade) to be embarked to Antofagasta.[12]:45

Carlos Donoso Rojas asserts that the Chilean Consul in Iquique, Antonio Solari Millas, had to face the difficult task of moving from the port the thousand of compatriots expelled and embark them and that on 29 May the Peruvian Government issued a decree that punished with fines those who protected or hid Chilean refugees.[16]:87 Even before their arrival in Antofagasta, the expelled workers had been contacted by the Chilean Army through the consul to serve in the buildup of the Expeditionary Corps.[16]

More than 1000 Chileans remained imprisoned in Lima and Callao until the occupation of the capital of Peru by the Chilean forces in January 1881.[17] Others were sent as forced laborers to the coal mines of Junin, and even at the end of 1879 and in January 1880 there are still reports of persecutions and suffering endured by those who were unable to leave Peru: on November 19, 1879, Spencer St John, British Plenipotentiary Minister in Peru, supported the claims of Henry Pender, a British subject who was beaten and robbed by the soldiers in Callao during riots against Chilean women married to foreign citizens. Pender had been mistaken for a Chilean.[18]:169

Military and economic consecuences

Juan José Latorre was son of a Peruvian businessman resident in Chile. He was commander of the ironclad Cochrane, the strongest unit of the Chilean fleet and he participated in the shelling of Callao, where his brother, Elías Latorre, defended the forts of the harbor.[19]

According to Valentina Verbal Stockmeyer,[20] during the buildup of the Chilean Army the first troops of the Expeditionary Army came from the professional army which was fighting in the Arauco War. The second wave of soldiers came from the Chilean inhabitants of Antofagasta which had acclaimed the Chilean occupation of the territory in February. The next draft came from the workers returning from Peru after their eviction. Chilean historian Francisco Antonio Encina estimated that about 7,000 repatriated people were enlisted in the Chilean Expeditionary Army.[20]

Historians point out the Chilean soldiers' resentment because of their expulsion as the origin of some unlawful behavior during the war. Regarding the looting and burn down of Mollendo Gonzalo Bulnes wrote:[21]

Indiscipline was perceived since the [Chilean] division disembarked, especially the 3rd Regiment, built up by repatriates from Peru, by the deported from that country, pushed off to the boots, the men and their families, at the beginnig of the war, waiting for a steamer to come home. They were the relicts [reminiscences] from the exodus of working people scattered in the guano and saltpeter labour, evicted in a peremptory short time by Prado's Government, without food, at a loss of their scarce furniture and household. It was known in the army the resentfulness of that unit and their determination to make them pay a high price. (Orig. Spanish) Sintomas de indisciplina se notaron desde que la division bajó a tierra especialmente en el rejimiento N° 3 formado con repatriados del Perú, con los espulsados del país, echados casi a empujones a los botes, ellos i sus familias, al principio de la guerra, en espera de un vapor que los condujese a Chile. Eran las reliquias del éxodo de un pueblo de trabajadores repartido en las faenas del guano i del salitre, lanzados en plazo perentorio por el Gobierno de Prado, sin víveres, perdiendo sus escasos muebles i utensilios domésticos. Era conocido en el ejército el encono de esa tropa, i su resolucion de hacer pagar caros los ultrajes.
Gonzalo Bulnes, De Antofagasta a Tarapacá, page 148

The Peruvian Navy had dimissed the Chileans who were serving in the warships before the eviction decree.[22]

For the Tarapaca nitrate industry, the loss of a considerable part of the workforce and the blockade of the port of Iquique reduced production.

Aftermath

During the failed Peace Conference of Arica in 1880 and during the negotiations of the Treaty of Ancon, one of the Chilean demands was the return of the confiscated property of the expelled Chileans. Tribunales arbitrales (courts of arbitration) were established between Chile and Peru in order to determine the amount of reparations to be paid for the confiscated property. (see Chilean law 1014, Establecimiento de Tribunal Arbitral Chileno-Peruano en 1897).

Sergio Villalobos wrote about the expulsion:

The decree issued by the Government in Lima was justifiable in wartime. But not the cruelty used to enforce it which had to provoke the wrath of those affected and of all Chileans. (Orig. Spanish) Las disposiciones dictadas por el gobierno limeño eran comprensibles en tiempo de guerra, aunque no la dureza para su cumplimiento, que tenía que provocar la indignación de los afectados y de todos los chilenos en general.
Sergio Villalobos R., Chile y Perú, La historia que nos une y nos separa, 1535-1883, page 162

See also

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ↑ Lima's seaside resort of Chorrillos had been shelled, burned down and looted by Chileans. Miraflores was burned down before the battle of Miraflores and after the battle, marauding Peruvian soldiers looted Lima. Chileans had burned down the port installations of Mollendo.

References

  1. ↑ Luis Valentín Ferrada Walker, La Guerra del Pacífico y la consolidación de los Estados Nacionales latinoamericanos, Centro de Estudios Bicentenario - Universidad Andrés Bello, page 17/239
  2. 1 2 3 Vicuña Mackenna 1880
  3. 1 2 3 Pinto Vallejos, Juan (1993). "Cortar raíces, juntar fama". Historia. 27: 425–447. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
  4. ↑ Juan Pinto Vallejos, Cortar raíces, criar fama, page 445:
    Tampoco le era desconocida la disciplina industrial, la movilidad física y laboral, la vida en grandes aglomeraciones obreras, e incluso, en algunos casos, la subordinación a jefes y patrones extranjeros portadores de nuevas prácticas empresariales. ...
    La permanente rebeldía frente a las imposiciones de la autoridad y el patrón, la violencia de las reacciones individuales y colectivas, en fin. la facilidad para situarse fuera de la ley, no eran actitudes desconocidas entre el peonaje chileno que por esos mismos años trabajaba en la minería del Norte Chico, los ferrocarriles, la zona carbonífera o las ciudades en expansión. Por el contrario, todo indica que la desarticulación de la sociedad chilena tradicional que acompañó la aparición de fonnas económicas capitalistas provocó justamente ese tipo de reacciones entre quienes se vieron obligados a tomar el camino de la proletarización. La rebeldía peonal, tan notoria durante gran parte del siglo XIX, no sería sino una exteriorización del rechazo a esa opción, y sobre todo a las opciones intermedias que la precedieron.
    ... Todo indica que su condición de extranjeros, y las reacciones que ella provocó en el poder local, tendieron a cohesionar y dotar de un cierto espíritu de cuerpo a quienes en un comienzo no tenían más en común que el porvenir de diferentes partes de Chile.
  5. ↑ Juan Pinto Vallejos, Cortar raíces, criar fama, page 444:
    En suma, ya fuese por su número, por su conducta violenta o por su exacerbada identidad nacional, los migrantes chilenos se constituyeron en un problema insoluble para la conservación del orden público tanto en Tarapacá como en Antofagasta, y por tanto en un objeto permanente de recelo y vigilancia.
  6. ↑ Basadre 1964, p. 2238
  7. ↑ Villalobos 2004, pp. 135–136
  8. 1 2 3 4 Ahumada Moreno, Pascual (1884). Guerra del Pacífico, Recopilación completa de todos los documentos oficiales, correspondencias y demás publicaciones referentes a la guerra que ha dado a luz la prensa de Chile, Perú y Boliviaconteniendo documentos inéditos de importancia, Tomo 1. Valparaíso, Chile: Imprenta del Progreso, Nemecio Marambio. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
  9. ↑ Villalobos 2004, pp. 162
  10. ↑ Querejazu 1979, pp. 282
  11. 1 2 Roberto Querejazu Calvo, "Guano, Salitre, Sangre", pdf version
  12. 1 2 Zolezzi Velásquez, Mario (1993). ""Historia de los puertos Guaneros del Litoral de Tarapacá (hasta 1879)" (PDF). Cuaderno de Investigación Social. Centro de Investigación de la Realidad del Norte; Iquique, Chile. 34: 1–70. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  13. ↑ Ahumada Moreno, Pascual (1886). Guerra del Pacífico, Recopilación completa de todos los documentos oficiales, correspondencias y demás publicaciones referentes a la guerra que ha dado a luz la prensa de Chile, Perú y Bolivia conteniendo documentos inéditos de importancia, Tomo 2. Valparaíso, Chile: Imprenta i librería Americana de Federico Lathrop. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
  14. ↑ Ahumada Moreno, Pascual (1886). Guerra del Pacífico, Recopilación completa de todos los documentos oficiales, correspondencias y demás publicaciones referentes a la guerra que ha dado a luz la prensa de Chile, Perú y Bolivia conteniendo documentos inéditos de importancia, Tomo 3. Valparaíso, Chile: Imprenta i librería Americana de Federico Lathrop. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  15. ↑ Villalobos 2014, pp. 160–161
  16. 1 2 Donoso Rojas 2004
  17. ↑ Mario, Barros (1958). Historia diplomática de Chile (Segunda ed.). Santiago de Chile: Editorial Andrés Bello. pp. 368–369. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  18. ↑ Harris Bucher, Gilberto. "Tribulaciones de los emigrados chilenos en Perú, Bolivia y Argentina durante el siglo XIX". Universidad de Playa Ancha: 169–170. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  19. ↑ Merlet Sanhueza, Enrique (1997). Juan José Latorre: héroe de Angamos. Editorial Andrés Bello. p. 31. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  20. 1 2 Verbal Stockmeyer 2014
  21. ↑ Gonzalo Bulnes, La Guerra del Pacífico: de Antofagasta a Tarapacá, page 148
  22. ↑ Gonzalo Bulnes, Causes of the War, page 145

Bibliography

External links

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