The War of the Pacific was fought between Chile and an alliance of Bolivia and Peru over the nitrate- and guano-rich Atacama Desert. Its immediate cause was a dispute over a Bolivian tax on a Chilean-owned nitrate company, which led Chile to occupy the Bolivian port of Antofagasta. Chile's navy gained control of the sea after the Battle of Angamos, and its army went on to occupy the Peruvian province of Tarapaca and later the capital, Lima. Peru ceded Tarapaca to Chile in the Treaty of Ancon, and a later truce with Bolivia left that country without a coastline, a grievance that persists in Bolivian politics today.
Before and after
- from 11 January 1879 to 4 July 1879Anglo-Zulu War
- from 22 January 1879 to 23 January 1879Battle of Rorke's Drift
- 23 February 1879Birth of Kazimir Malevich
- 14 March 1879Birth of Albert Einstein
- from 5 April 1879 to 4 April 1884War of the Pacific
- 26 April 1879Birth of Owen Willans Richardson
- from August 1879 to October 1880Victorio's War
- 9 October 1879Birth of Max von Laue
- 22 October 1879Edison's carbon-filament lamp burns for 13 hours
More in Wars, politics & history
- 16 December 1773Boston Tea Party
- from 19 April 1775 to 3 September 1783American Revolutionary War
- from 14 July 1789 to 9 November 1799French Revolution
- from 1821 to 1829Greek War of Independence
- from 12 April 1861 to 9 April 1865American Civil War
- from 1868 to 1889Meiji Restoration
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.