What is the primary focus of the III Jornadas hacia el Sesquicentenario de la Guerra del Pacífico?

The event focuses on the historical War of the Pacific as its sesquicentennial approaches, providing a platform for academic discussion and re-evaluation.

III Jornadas hacia el Sesquicentenario de la Guerra del Pacífico

Name: III Jornadas hacia el Sesquicentenario de la Guerra del Pacífico
Start: 2026-11-12T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-11-13T00:00:00Z
Location: Lima

Nov 12–13, 2026Lima, PeruIn-person

Registration open

The III Jornadas hacia el Sesquicentenario de la Guerra del Pacífico is an academic event hosted in Lima, PER, focusing on the historical War of the Pacific as its sesquicentennial approaches. This conference provides a platform for scholars and researchers to present new findings, re-evaluate established narratives, and discuss the enduring impact of this significant conflict on the region. The event aims to foster a deeper understanding of the war's complexities and its continued relevance in contemporary geopolitical discourse.

Committees & topics

Topics
Military History of the War of the Pacific · Diplomatic Relations During and After the War of the Pacific · Economic History of the Nitrate Era and the War of the Pacific · Memory and Commemoration of the War of the Pacific · Ethnic Minorities in the War of the Pacific · Everyday Life During the War of the Pacific · Women in the War of the Pacific

Why it matters

The War of the Pacific, fought between CHL, BOL, and PER, remains a pivotal event in South American history, shaping national identities, borders, and international relations in the region. Understanding this conflict is crucial for comprehending the historical grievances and diplomatic challenges that persist among these nations. The conference's focus on the sesquicentennial highlights the ongoing process of historical interpretation and reconciliation, demonstrating how past events continue to influence present-day foreign policy and regional stability.

For diplomats and policymakers, engaging with the historical context of the War of the Pacific offers valuable insights into the long-term consequences of territorial disputes and resource competition. The discussions at this event can inform strategies for conflict resolution, regional integration, and bilateral relations. By examining the war through various lenses, participants can gain a more nuanced perspective on the historical drivers of conflict and cooperation in South America, which is essential for effective diplomatic engagement. The event underscores the importance of historical memory in shaping national narratives and international relations, making it a critical area of study for those involved in regional diplomacy.

How to prepare

Attendees should prepare by thoroughly reviewing the historical context of the War of the Pacific, focusing on the perspectives of CHL, BOL, and PER. Familiarity with key events, treaties, and figures will enhance engagement with the presentations and discussions. Consider how the historical narratives presented might influence contemporary diplomatic relations and regional integration efforts.

For those interested in contributing to the discourse, it is advisable to consider how the lessons from the War of the Pacific can be applied to modern diplomatic challenges. Reflect on how historical analysis can inform current approaches to resource management, border disputes, and regional security. Engaging with the diverse interpretations of the war will be crucial for a comprehensive understanding.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 3 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Peru

As a host nation and a direct participant in the conflict, PER's perspective often emphasizes the territorial losses and the lasting impact on national identity and development.

Role in topic

PER was a principal belligerent in the War of the Pacific, suffering significant territorial losses and experiencing profound societal changes as a result. The nation's historical narrative frequently reflects on the causes, conduct, and consequences of the war, often highlighting themes of national resilience and the pursuit of justice. The conference, held in Lima, PER, provides a platform for Peruvian scholars to present their research and contribute to the ongoing re-evaluation of this critical period in their history.

Chile

CHL's perspective typically focuses on its military successes and the strategic gains that solidified its position as a regional power, while also acknowledging the complex legacy of the conflict.

Role in topic

CHL emerged as the victor in the War of the Pacific, gaining significant territories rich in natural resources. Chilean historical accounts often highlight the strategic importance of these gains and the modernization of its military during the conflict. While celebrating national achievements, contemporary Chilean scholarship also engages with the ethical and long-term consequences of the war, particularly concerning its relations with neighboring countries.

Bolivia

BOL's perspective is largely shaped by its loss of access to the Pacific Ocean, a central theme in its national identity and foreign policy.

Role in topic

BOL was a key participant in the War of the Pacific, resulting in the loss of its coastline and direct access to the Pacific Ocean. This outcome has profoundly influenced Bolivian national identity and foreign policy, with the issue of maritime access remaining a significant diplomatic concern. Bolivian scholars and policymakers often analyze the war in terms of its enduring impact on the nation's economic development and geopolitical standing, making its historical interpretation a vital part of its national discourse.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Military History of the War of the Pacific

The War of the Pacific (1879–1884) pitted Chile against the allied republics of Peru and Bolivia in a conflict over the nitrate-rich provinces of the Atacama Desert. Sparked by a Bolivian tax on the Chilean-British Compañía de Salitres y Ferrocarril de Antofagasta, which violated the 1874 boundary treaty, Chile occupied Antofagasta in February 1879 and declared war on both Peru and Bolivia, activating a secret 1873 alliance between Lima and La Paz. The campaign unfolded in distinct theaters: the naval campaign (1879), decided by the Battle of Angamos and the death of Peruvian admiral Miguel Grau aboard the Huáscar; the Tarapacá campaign; the Tacna and Arica campaign of 1880; and the Lima campaign of 1881, culminating in the battles of Chorrillos and Miraflores and the occupation of the Peruvian capital.ns From 1881 to 1883 a protracted sierra campaign (the 'Campaña de la Breña') under Andrés Avelino Cáceres prolonged Peruvian resistance until the Treaty of Ancón ceded Tarapacá to Chile and placed Tacna and Arica under provisional Chilean administration. Bolivia signed a separate truce in 1884, losing its entire Pacific coastline. The conflict remains a touchstone in Andean military historiography for its early use of ironclads, breech-loading artillery, modern logistics across desert terrain, and irregular warfare in the highlands, and it continues to shape doctrine and commemorative practice in all three armed forces today.

Key players

Diplomatic Relations During and After the War of the Pacific

Diplomacy in the War of the Pacific was as decisive as combat. The conflict was preceded by the 1873 secret Peruvian-Bolivian Treaty of Defensive Alliance and the 1874 Chile-Bolivia boundary treaty, whose breach Chile invoked as casus belli. Throughout the war, the United States attempted mediation, most notably in the failed Lackawanna Conference of 1880 and again during the contested tenure of Secretary of State James G. Blaine, whose pro-Peruvian leanings clashed with Chilean intransigence and British commercial interests aligned with Santiago. European powers, especially the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany, exercised influence through bondholders, arms suppliers, and naval observers. The Treaty of Ancón (1883) closed hostilities with Peru but left the status of Tacna and Arica unresolved, generating a half-century diplomatic dispute settled only by the 1929 Treaty of Lima with U.S. arbitration by President Hoover, which returned Tacna to Peru and confirmed Arica as Chilean. Bolivia's 1904 Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Chile codified its landlocked status and produced a recurring 'maritime claim' that Bolivia took to the International Court of Justice in 2013–2018, where the Court ruled Chile was under no obligation to negotiate sovereign access. These diplomatic legacies continue to structure trilateral relations.

Key players

Economic History of the Nitrate Era and the War of the Pacific

The economic backdrop of the war was the global boom in sodium nitrate (salitre) and guano, fertilizers and gunpowder inputs in high demand in industrializing Europe. From the 1840s, Peruvian guano financed the Lima state and underwrote sovereign debt placed largely in London. By the 1870s, attention shifted to the nitrate fields of Tarapacá (Peru) and Antofagasta (Bolivia), where Chilean labor and British capital — figures such as John Thomas North later epitomized this nexus — dominated extraction. Peru's 1875 nitrate nationalization and Bolivia's 1878 tax increase on the Compañía de Salitres precipitated the crisis that became war. Chile's victory restructured the regional economy: the annexation of Tarapacá and Antofagasta gave Santiago control of the world nitrate monopoly, with customs duties on saltpeter financing roughly half of Chilean state revenue between 1880 and 1920. Peru lost its principal export base and entered a prolonged fiscal reconstruction marked by the 1889 Grace Contract, which transferred railways and resources to British bondholders. Bolivia reoriented toward Pacific access via Chilean ports under the 1904 treaty and pivoted economically toward tin. The synthetic nitrate process developed by Haber-Bosch after 1909 eventually collapsed the salitrera economy in the 1920s–30s, leaving enduring questions about resource curses, foreign capital, and uneven development.

Key players

Memory and Commemoration of the War of the Pacific

The War of the Pacific has produced three deeply divergent national memories. In Chile, the conflict is commemorated as a foundational civic epic, with figures such as Arturo Prat at Iquique (21 May) and the victories of Chorrillos and Miraflores integrated into the national calendar and military pedagogy. In Peru, memory centers on heroic resistance and loss — Miguel Grau and the Huáscar, Francisco Bolognesi at Arica, and the sierra campaign of Cáceres — and on the trauma of the occupation of Lima, including the looting of the Biblioteca Nacional. In Bolivia, the loss of the Litoral is annually marked on 23 March (Día del Mar) and has become a defining element of national identity and foreign policy. These memories have been continuously reactivated: through schoolbooks, monuments, museums, the 'chilenización' policies in Tacna and Arica (1880–1929), debates over the repatriation of war booty, and contemporary litigation at the ICJ. The approach of the war's sesquicentennial has reopened academic and public discussion of how each society narrates victory, defeat, and reconciliation, and of whether shared historiography is possible across the three states.

Key players

Ethnic Minorities in the War of the Pacific

The war was fought across territories with diverse Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and immigrant populations whose roles have only recently received sustained scholarly attention. In the Atacama and the Peruvian south, Aymara and Quechua communities supplied labor to the salitreras and were drawn into both armies, often through forced conscription; in the central sierra, Quechua-speaking comuneros formed the backbone of Cáceres's montonera resistance during the Campaña de la Breña. Chinese coolies, brought to Peru after 1849 under exploitative contracts on the guano islands and coastal haciendas, in several documented cases joined Chilean forces during the Lima campaign, with consequences for postwar Sino-Peruvian relations. Afro-Peruvian populations on the coast and Mapuche communities in southern Chile — the latter subjected to the parallel 'Pacificación de la Araucanía' (1861–1883) — were also affected by wartime mobilization. Postwar policies of 'chilenización' in Tacna, Arica, and Tarapacá targeted Peruvian-identified populations through schooling, religious administration, and at times coercion, while Indigenous communities navigated shifting citizenship regimes across the new borders. Contemporary historiography increasingly reads the war through these subaltern experiences, complicating the traditional state-centered narrative.

Key players

Everyday Life During the War of the Pacific

Beyond battles and treaties, the war reshaped daily life across the Andean Pacific. In the salitreras and port cities of Iquique, Antofagasta, Arica and Pisagua, workers, merchants, and families experienced sudden regime change, currency instability, and the militarization of labor. In occupied Lima (1881–1883), residents lived under Chilean administration, contributions de guerre, and the disruption of markets, schools and the press; the looting of the National Library and scientific collections became emblematic of cultural dispossession. In the sierra, peasant communities supplying Cáceres's columns faced reprisals, requisitions, and epidemic disease. Soldiers' experiences — diet of charqui and galleta, marches across waterless desert, yellow fever and dysentery — are increasingly reconstructed from letters, regimental diaries, and photographs. Civilian women, children, foreign residents, and the clergy navigated occupation, displacement, and shifting loyalties. The history of everyday life during the conflict offers a granular counterpoint to military and diplomatic narratives, illuminating how a regional war was lived block by block, hacienda by hacienda, and trench by trench.

Key players

Women in the War of the Pacific

Women's roles in the War of the Pacific were extensive and varied, though long marginal in official historiography. The 'rabonas' — women who accompanied Peruvian and Bolivian troops, cooking, nursing, transporting supplies, and at times fighting — were central to the operational sustainability of Andean armies, particularly during the sierra campaign. In Chile, women organized hospitals, sewing brigades, and fundraising committees, while Carmela Carvajal, widow of Arturo Prat, became an iconic figure of patriotic mourning. Antonia Moreno de Cáceres, wife of Andrés Avelino Cáceres, played a documented logistical and political role alongside her husband in the Breña campaign. Women also experienced the war as victims of violence, displacement, and economic precarity, particularly in occupied territories and in the salitre zones. In postwar decades, women in Tacna and Arica became key actors in resisting or accommodating chilenización, sustaining Peruvian schools, religious networks, and cultural practices. Recent scholarship — drawing on letters, parish records, photographs and oral tradition — has reconstructed these contributions, integrating gender into the social history of the conflict and its sesquicentennial reassessment.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for III Jornadas hacia el Sesquicentenario de la Guerra del Pacífico.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

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Lessons

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Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

By committee

Frequently asked questions

III Jornadas hacia el Sesquicentenario de la Guerra del Pacífico

Nov 12–13, 2026Lima, PeruIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Military History of the War of the Pacific · Diplomatic Relations During and After the War of the Pacific · Economic History of the Nitrate Era and the War of the Pacific · Memory and Commemoration of the War of the Pacific · Ethnic Minorities in the War of the Pacific · Everyday Life During the War of the Pacific · Women in the War of the Pacific

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 3 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Peru

As a host nation and a direct participant in the conflict, PER's perspective often emphasizes the territorial losses and the lasting impact on national identity and development.

Role in topic

Chile

CHL's perspective typically focuses on its military successes and the strategic gains that solidified its position as a regional power, while also acknowledging the complex legacy of the conflict.

Role in topic

Bolivia

BOL's perspective is largely shaped by its loss of access to the Pacific Ocean, a central theme in its national identity and foreign policy.

Role in topic

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Military History of the War of the Pacific

Key players

Diplomatic Relations During and After the War of the Pacific

Key players

Economic History of the Nitrate Era and the War of the Pacific

Key players

Memory and Commemoration of the War of the Pacific

Key players

Ethnic Minorities in the War of the Pacific

Key players

Everyday Life During the War of the Pacific

Key players

Women in the War of the Pacific

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for III Jornadas hacia el Sesquicentenario de la Guerra del Pacífico.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

US Job Openings at 6.7M

Trump's Economic Reset

Trump's Economic Approval Hits 30% Amid Iran

GOP Promotes Trump's Tax Savings on Deadline

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

By committee

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

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Frequently asked questions

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

International Conference on Internationalization and Global Perspectives in Higher Education (ICIGPHE)

II Congreso Nacional de la Asociación Peruana de Estudios Internacionales (2026)

V Jornadas Históricas 2026

LATAM Media Leaders Summit 2026

International Conference on Political Economy and Historical Change (ICPEHC)

FY Summit 2026

Frequently asked questions