Land campaign of the War of the Pacific

After the naval campaign of the War of the Pacific was resolved, the Chilean terrestrial invasion began.

Land campaign and invasion Having gained control of the sea, Chile sent its army to invade Peru. Bolivia, unable to recover the Litoral Department, joined the Peruvian defense of Tarapacá and Tacna.

Campaign of Tarapacá

Once the naval superiority was achieved, the troops of the Chilean army began the occupation of the Peruvian province of Tarapacá.

On 2 November 1879 at 7:15 began the naval bombardment and disembarkment at the small port of Pisagua and the Junin Cove, –some 500 km north of Antofagasta. At Pisagua, several landing waves of Chilean troops attacked beach defenses held by Allies, and took the town. By the end of the day, the Chilean army were ashore and moving inland.William F. Sater, Andean Tragedy

From Pisagua the Chileans marched south towards the city of Iquique with 6,000 troops and defeated on 19 November 1879 the 7,400 allied troops gathered in Agua Santa in the Battle of San Francisco/Dolores. Bolivian forces retreated to Oruro and the Peruvians to Tiliviche. Four days later, the Chilean army captured Iquique without resistance.

A detachment of 3,600 Chilean soldiers, cavalry and artillery, was sent to face the Peruvian forces in the small town of Tarapacá. Peruvian forces started a march towards Arica to find Bolivian troops led by Hilarion Daza coming from Arica southwards, but in Camarones Daza decided to return towards Arica.

Chileans and Allies met on 27 November 1879 in the Battle of Tarapacá, where the Chilean forces were defeated,William F. Sater, Andean Tragedy, page 204: "only the lack of allied cavalry prevented Buendia's [Peruvian] men from finishing off the few remaining survivors" but the Peruvian forces, unable to maintain the territory, retreated further north to Arica by 18 December 1879.William F. Sater, Andean Tragedy, page 205: "The victorious troops had no choice, as Colonel Suarez ruefully admitted, but to abandon Tarapacá to the Chileans".

About the importance of the campaign Bruce W. Farcau wrote: "The province of Tarapacá was lost along with a population of 200,000, nearly one tenth of the Peruvian total, and an annual gross income of £28 million in nitrate production, virtually all of the country's export earnings."B.W. Farcau, The Ten Cents War

giving Santiago not only an economic bonanza but also a diplomatic asset.W.S.Sater, Andean Tragedy, page 181: "not only an economic bonanza but also a diplomatic asset that could barter in return for Peru ending the war".

Downfall of President Prado in Peru and President Daza in Bolivia The Peruvian government was confronted with widespread rioting in Lima because of the disastrous handling of the war to date.Bruce W. Farcau, The Ten Cents War, page 120: "He [Prado] was met with widespread rioting in the capital in protest over the administration's abysmal handling of the war to date"

On 18 December 1879 the Peruvian President Mariano Ignacio Prado suddenly took a ship from Callao to Panama, allegedly with six million pesos in gold,Bruce W. Farcau, The Ten Cents War, page 120: "…Prado suddenly gathered up his belongings … and took a ship …" supposedly to oversee the purchase of new arms and warships for the nation. In a statement in the newspaper El Comercio he turned over the command of the country to Vice President La Puerta. After a putsch and more than 300 deadBruce W. Farcau, The Ten Cents War, page 121: "Pierola … mounted an assault on the Palace but … leaving more than three hundred corpses …" Nicolás de Piérola overthrew La Puerta and took power in Peru on 23 December 1879.

Back to Arica from the aborted expedition to Iquique, on 27 December 1879 Daza received a telegram from La Paz informing him the army had overthrown him. He departed to Europe with $500,000. In Bolivia General Narciso Campero became president.William F. Sater, Andean Tragedy, page 208: "Daza received a telegram from Camacho, informing him that the army no longer …"

Bolivia's president Campero remained in office until the end of the war, but Pierola was recognized as president only by his occupation of Lima.

Election of Domingo Santa Maria in Chile During the Bolivian tax crisis of 1879, Chile voted a new Congress on schedule and in 1881 Domingo Santa María was elected as President of the Republic. He assumed the office on September 18, 1881. A new Congress was elected in on schedule in 1882.William F. Sater, Chile and the War of the Pacific, page 180: "Even in the midst of the Bolivian crisis, congressional elections occurred in schedule. In 1881, the nation selected a new president, Domingo Santa Maria, and the following year, elected a new congress"

Campaign of Tacna and Arica

After the failure of the peace talks the Chilean forces began to prepare for the occupation of South Peru. On 28 November 1879 Chile declared the formal blockade of Arica. Later the port Callao was also put under blockade.

A Chilean force of 600 men carried out an amphibious raid at Ilo as a reconnaissance in force, to the north of Tacna, on December 31, 1879, and withdrew the same day.Bruce W. Farcau, The Ten Cents War, page 130: "In the early morning hours of the 31. December 1879 …"

On 24 February 1880 approximately 11,000 men in nineteen ships protected by the warships Blanco Encalada, Toro and the Magallanes and two torpedo boats sailed from Pisagua and arrived off Punta Coles, near Pacocha, Ilo on 26 February 1880. The landing took several days and occurred without resistance The Peruvian commander, Lizardo Montero, refused to try to drive the Chileans from the beachhead, as the Chileans had expected.

On 22 March 1880 3,642 Chilean troops defeated 1,300 Peruvian troops in the Battle of Los Ángeles cutting any direct Peruvian supply from Lima to Arica or TacnaWilliam F. Sater, Andean Tragedy, page 222: "Baquedano could not simply bypass the Peruvian troops, whose presence threatened Moquegua as well as the communications network extending southeast across the Locumba Valley to Tacna and northwest to Arequipa and northeast to Bolivia" (Supply was possible only through the long way over Bolivia).

After the Battle of Los Ángeles there were three allied positions in South Peru. General Leyva's 2nd Army was at Arequipa, with some survivors of the battle at Los Angeles included. Bolognesi's 7th and 8th Division was at Arica and at Tacna was the 1st Army. All these forces were under the direct command of the Bolivian president, Campero.Bruce W. Farcau in The Ten Cents War, page 138 specifies 3,100 men in Arequipa, 2,000 men in Arica and 9,000 men in Tacna, but this figures contradict the total numbers given (below) by William F. Sater in page 229 But they were unable to concentrate troops or even to move from their garrisons.Bruce W. Farcau, The Ten Cents War, page 138: "…it became evident that there was a total lack of the necessary transport for even the minimum amount of supplies and water"William F. Sater, Andean Tragedy, page 227: "The allied force, he [Campero] concluded lacked sufficient transport to move into the field its artillery as well as its rations and, more significantly, its supplies of water"

After crossing of desert, on 26 May 1880 the Chilean army (14,147 men) destroyed the allied army of 5,150 Bolivians and 8,500 Peruvians in the Battle of the Halt of the Alliance.

The need for a port near the army to supply and reinforce the troops and evacuate the wounded made the Chilean command concentrate on the remaining Peruvian stronghold of Arica. On June 7, 1880, after the Battle of Arica, the last Peruvian bastion in the Tacna Department fell.

After the campaign of Tacna and Arica, the Peruvian and Bolivian regular armies ceased to exist. Bolivia effectively dropped out of the war.

Lackawanna Conference Prior to the United States becoming formally involved into the matter, the united proposal of France, England, and Italy was to provide Chile with Tarapacá while they retreated their troops to the Camarones River; Chile found this solution to be acceptable., page 97, in Spanish language

On October 22, 1880, delegates of Peru, Chile, Bolivia, and the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America in Chile held a 5-day conference aboard the in Arica. The Lackawanna Conference, also called the Arica conference, attempted to develop a peace settlement for the war. Chile demanded the Peruvian Tarapacá province and the Bolivian Atacama, an indemnity of $20,000,000 gold Pesos, restoration of property taken from Chilean citizens, the return to Chile of the transport vessel Rimac, the abrogation of the alliance treaty between Peru and Bolivia and the formal commitment on the part of Peru not to mount artillery batteries in Arica's harbor once it was returned by Chile. Furthermore, Arica was to be limited to commercial use only. Celae planned to retain all the territories of Moquegua, Tacna, and Arica until all peace treaty conditions were satisfied. Although willing to accept the negotiated settlement, Peru and Bolivia insisted that Chile withdraw its forces from all occupied lands as a precondition for discussing peace. Having captured this territory at great expense, Chile refused to accept these terms and the negotiations failed.

Lynch's Expedition To show Peru the futility of further resistance against Chilean forces, on 4 September 1880 the Chilean government dispatched an expedition of 2,200 men Bruce W. Farcau, The Ten Cents War, page 152: "Lynch's force consisted of the 1° Line Regiment and the Regiments "Talca" and "Colchagua", a battery of mountain howitzers, and a small cavalry squadron for a total of twenty-two hundred man" to northern Peru under the command of Captain Patricio Lynch to collect war taxes from wealthy landowners.Diego Barros Arana, Historia de la guerra del Pacífico (1879-1880), volume 2, page 98: "The Chilean government thought that it was possible to demonstrate to the enemy the futility of any defense of Peruvian territory not only against the whole [Chilean] army but also against small [Chilean] divisions. That was the purpose of the expedition, which the claims, insults, and affliction in the official documents of Peru and in the press had made famous" (Original: "[El gobierno chileno] Creía entonces que todavía era posible demostrar prácticamente al enemigo la imposibilidad en que se hallaba para defender el territorio peruano no ya contra un ejército numeroso sino contra pequeñas divisiones. Este fué el objeto de una espedicion que las quejas, los insultos i las lamentaciones de los documentos oficiales del Perú, i de los escritos de su prensa, han hecho famosa.")Jorge Basadre, Historia de la Republica del Peru, Tomo V, Editorial Peruamerica S.A., Lima-Peru, 1964, page 2475, Lynch's Expedition arrived on 10 September to Chimbote levied taxes of $100,000 in Chimbote, $10,000 in Piata, $20,000 in Chiclayo, and $4,000 in Lambayeque in local currencies; those who did not comply had their property impounded or destroyed. On September 11, 1880, the Peruvian government made a decree that made the payment of these taxes an act of treason, but most land owners still paid the Chileans under the belief that denizens of occupied areas had to comply with the occupying army.Diego Barros Arana quotes Johann Caspar Bluntschli: "Bluntschili (Derecho internacional codificado) dice espresamente lo que sigue: Árt. 544. Cuando el enemigo ha tomado posesión efectiva de una parte del territorio, el gobierno del otro estado deja de ejercer alli el poder. Los habitantes del territorio ocupado están eximidos de todos los deberes i obligaciones respecto del gobierno anterior, i están obligados a obedecer a los jefes del ejército de ocupación."

Campaign of Lima