The War of the Pacific known as the Saltpeter War and by multiple other names, was a war between Chile and a Bolivian–Peruvian alliance. It lasted from 1879 to 1884, was fought over Chilean claims on coastal Bolivian territory in the Atacama Desert; the war ended with victory for Chile, which gained a significant amount of resource-rich territory from Peru and Bolivia. Chile's army took Bolivia's nitrate rich coastal region and Peru was defeated by Chile's navy. Battles were fought in the Pacific Ocean, the Atacama Desert, Peru's deserts, mountainous regions in the Andes. For the first five months the war played out in a naval campaign, as Chile struggled to establish a sea-based resupply corridor for its forces in the world's driest desert. In February 1878, Bolivia imposed a new tax on a Chilean mining company despite Bolivian express warranty in the 1874 Boundary Treaty that it would not increase taxes on Chilean persons or industries for 25 years. Chile protested and solicited to submit it to mediation, but Bolivia refused and considered it a subject of Bolivia's courts.
Chile insisted and informed the Bolivian government that Chile would no longer consider itself bound by the 1874 Boundary Treaty if Bolivia did not suspend enforcing the law. On February 14, 1879 when Bolivian authorities attempted to auction the confiscated property of CSFA, Chilean armed forces occupied the port city of Antofagasta. Peru, bound to Bolivia by their secret treaty of alliance from 1873, tried to mediate, but on 1 March 1879 Bolivia declared war on Chile and called on Peru to activate their alliance, while Chile demanded that Peru declare its neutrality. On April 5, after Peru refused this, Chile declared war on both nations; the following day, Peru responded by acknowledging the casus foederis. Ronald Bruce St. John in The Bolivia–Chile–Peru Dispute in the Atacama Desert states: Even though the 1873 treaty and the imposition of the 10 centavos tax proved to be the casus belli, there were deeper, more fundamental reasons for the outbreak of hostilities in 1879. On the one hand, there was the power and relative stability of Chile compared to the economic deterioration and political discontinuity which characterised both Peru and Bolivia after independence.
On the other, there was the ongoing competition for economic and political hegemony in the region, complicated by a deep antipathy between Peru and Chile. In this milieu, the vagueness of the boundaries between the three states, coupled with the discovery of valuable guano and nitrate deposits in the disputed territories, combined to produce a diplomatic conundrum of insurmountable proportions. Afterwards, Chile's land campaign bested Peruvian armies. Bolivia withdrew after the Battle of Tacna on May 26, 1880. Chilean forces occupied Lima in January 1881. Peruvian army remnants and irregulars waged a guerrilla war. Chile and Peru signed the Treaty of Ancón on October 20, 1883. Bolivia signed a truce with Chile in 1884. Chile acquired the Peruvian territory of Tarapacá, the disputed Bolivian department of Litoral, as well as temporary control over the Peruvian provinces of Tacna and Arica. In 1904, Chile and Bolivia signed the "Treaty of Peace and Friendship" establishing definite boundaries; the 1929 Tacna–Arica compromise gave Arica to Chile and Tacna to Peru.
The conflict is known as the "Saltpeter War", the "Ten Cents War", the "Second Pacific War". It should not to be confused with the pre-Columbian Saltpeter War, in what is now Mexico, nor the "Guano War" as the Chincha Islands War is sometimes named; the war settled the "Tacna-Arica dispute", is sometimes known by that name as well, although the details took decades to resolve. Wanu is a Quechua word for fertilizer. Potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate are nitrogen-containing compounds collectively referred to as salpeter, salitre, caliche, or nitrate, they have other important uses. Atacama is a Chilean region south of the Atacama Desert, which coincides with the disputed Antofagasta province, known in Bolivia as Litoral; the Atacama border dispute between Bolivia and Chile concerning the sovereignty over the coastal territories between the parallels 23°S and 24°S was just one of several long-running border conflicts in South America as the area gained independence throughout the nineteenth century, since uncertainty characterized the demarcation of frontiers according to the Uti possidetis 1810 in remote, thinly-populated portions of newly-independent nations.
The dry climate of the Peruvian and Bolivian coasts had permitted the accumulation and preservation of vast amounts of high-quality guano deposits and sodium nitrate. In the 1840s, Europeans knew the guano and nitrate's value as fertilizer and saltpeter's role in explosives; the Atacama Desert became economically important. Bolivia and Peru were located in the area of the largest reserves of a resource the world demanded. During the Chincha Islands War, under Queen Isabella II, attempted to exploit an incident involving Spanish citizens in Peru to re-establish Spanish influence over the guano-rich Chincha Islands. Starting from the Chilean silver rush in the 1830s, the Atacama desert was prospected and populated by Chileans. Chilean and foreign enterprises in the region extended their control to the Peruvian saltpeter works. In the Peruvian region of Tarapacá, Peruvian people con
Ernesto Cofiño was a Guatemalan physician. He was a pioneer in pediatric research in Guatemala, he founded hospitals, was director of Caritas, promoted youth development. Having died with a reputation for sanctity, his cause of beatification was granted a nihil obstat by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on July 7, 2000. Ernesto Guillermo Cofiño was born in Guatemala City on June 5, 1899, he married in 1933 Clemencia Samayoa Rubio, raised five children. He lived as a widower for 25 years. In 1919, he started his studies at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of France. In 1929 he graduated as a surgeon. Cofiño was the first University Professor of Pediatrics in the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala medical school, where he taught for 24 years, he was a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the French Language Association of Pediatrics. He was involved in several medical positions. Sanatorio Antituberculoso Infantil in San Juan Sacatepéquez - Founder Unidad Asistencial de San Juan - Founder Centro Educativo Asistencial - Director from 1951 to 1955 Sociedad Protectora del Niño - Director Lucha Nacional contra la Tuberculosis - Director Asociación de Guarderías Infantiles de Bienestar Social - Interventor Caritas de Guatemala - Director for 3 years.
Organized the distribution of food for 90,000 from the poor villages Instituto Interamericano del Niño - Guatemalan Delegate Fundación para el Desarrollo Integral, a help to the victims of the earthquake of 1971, now the organizer of Centro de Formación Rural Utz Samaj - CofounderIn 1945, he founded together with others the Pediatric Association of Guatemala. For the youth, he promoted the following: Centro Universitario Ciudad Vieja - First Rector Instituto Femenino de Estudios Superiores Residencia de Estudiantes Verapaz Centro de Formación Profesional para la Mujer Junkabal Centro Educativo Técnico Laboral KinalHe was much involved in the pro-life movement, considered as "one of the founders of the pro-life campaign" in Guatemala. In 1956 he requested admission to Opus Dei. Through this, he was said to have learned how to sanctify his work, "imbuing his exquisite social sensibility and his great professional sense with an urgent zeal for the rechristianization of society."When he was 80 years old, he was diagnosed with cancer in the jaw.
He continued working until he succumbed to a resurgence of the cancer when he was 92. Within the Catholic faith, he may be referred to as, "Ernesto Cofiño, Servant of God", it can be assumed. Ernestocofino.org Opening of Cause of Beatification Sociedad Protectora del Niño Website
Operation Highjump titled The United States Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946–1947, was a United States Navy operation organized by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Jr. USN, Officer in Charge, Task Force 68, led by Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, USN, Commanding Officer, Task Force 68. Operation Highjump commenced 26 August 1946 and ended in late February 1947. Task Force 68 included 4,700 men, 13 ships, 33 aircraft. Operation Highjump's primary mission was to establish the Antarctic research base Little America IV. Highjump's objectives, according to the U. S. Navy report of the operation, were: Training personnel and testing equipment in frigid conditions; the Western Group of ships reached the Marquesas Islands on December 12, 1946, whereupon the Henderson and Cacapon set up weather monitoring stations. By December 24, the Currituck had begun launching aircraft on reconnaissance missions; the Eastern Group of ships reached Peter I Island in late December 1946. On January 1, 1947, Lieutenant Commander Thompson and Chief Petty Officer Dixon utilized "Jack Browne" masks and DESCO Oxygen rebreathers to log the first dive by Americans under the Antarctic.
Paul Allman Siple, Ph. D. was the senior U. S. War Department representative on the expedition. Dr. Siple was the same Eagle Scout who accompanied Admiral Byrd on the previous Byrd Antarctic expeditions; the Central Group of ships reached the Bay of Whales on January 15, 1947, where they began construction of Little America IV. Naval ships and personnel were withdrawn back to the United States in late February 1947, the expedition was terminated due to the early approach of winter and worsening weather conditions. Admiral Byrd discussed the lessons learned from the operation in an interview with Lee van Atta of International News Service held aboard the expedition's command ship the USS Mount Olympus; the interview appeared in the Wednesday, March 5, 1947, edition of the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio and read in part as follows: Admiral Richard E. Byrd warned today that the United States should adopt measures of protection against the possibility of an invasion of the country by hostile planes coming from the polar regions.
The admiral explained that he was not trying to scare anyone, but the cruel reality is that in case of a new war, the United States could be attacked by planes flying over one or both poles. This statement was made as part of a recapitulation of his own polar experience, in an exclusive interview with International News Service. Talking about the completed expedition, Byrd said that the most important result of his observations and discoveries is the potential effect that they have in relation to the security of the United States; the fantastic speed with which the world is shrinking – recalled the admiral – is one of the most important lessons learned during his recent Antarctic exploration. I have to warn my compatriots that the time has ended when we were able to take refuge in our isolation and rely on the certainty that the distances, the oceans, the poles were a guarantee of safety. After the operation ended, a follow-up Operation Windmill returned to the area in order to provide ground-truthing to the aerial photography of Highjump from 1947 to 1948.
Finn Ronne financed a private operation to the same territory until 1948. As with other U. S. Antarctic expeditions, interested persons were allowed to send letters with enclosed envelopes to the base, where commemorative cachets were added to their enclosures, which were returned to the senders; these souvenir philatelic covers are available at low cost. It is estimated that at least 150,000 such envelopes were produced, though their final number may be higher. On December 30, 1946, aviation radiomen Wendell K. Henderson, Fredrick W. Williams, Ensign Maxwell A. Lopez were killed when their Martin PBM Mariner George 1 crashed during a blizzard; the surviving six crew members were rescued 13 days including aviation radioman James H. Robbins and co-pilot William Kearns. A plaque honoring the three killed crewmen was erected at the McMurdo Station research base, Mount Lopez on Thurston Island was named in honor of killed airman Maxwell A. Lopez. In December 2004, an attempt was made to locate the remains of the plane.
In 2007 a group called the George One Recovery Team was unsuccessful in trying to get direct military involvement and raise extensive funds from the United States Congress to try and find the bodies of the three men killed in the crash. On January 21, 1947, Vance N. Woodall died during a "ship unloading accident". In a crew profile, deckman Edward Beardsley described his worst memory as "when Seaman Vance Woodall died on the Ross Ice Shelf under a piece of roller equipment designed to'pave' the ice to build an airstrip." Task Force 68Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, USN, Commanding Eastern Group Capt. George J. Dufek, USN, Commanding Seaplane Tender USS Pine Island. Capt. Henry H. Caldwell, USN, Commanding Destroyer USS Brownson. Cdr