Talk:War of the Pacific

Untitled / unsigned

== I read the article with fascination. In the section titled "Land War" it states: Peruvians fell back to Tiliviche. But the map in this section identifies a town named Tiviliche. Which one is correct? Thank you. -- — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lytsar (talk • contribs) 16:04, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Good point. There is an article in Spanish wikipedia on Tiliviche - https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiliviche - but that also mentions "La Hacienda de Tiviliche". -- Beardo (talk) 18:02, 9 October 2021 (UTC)

Casualties

The casualties in the infobox need work. The Chilean casualties were wrong due to a bizarre misreading where lines such as "434-58" for the killed at Alianza/Tacna were interpreted as "between 434 and 58" instead of "between 434 and 458". The situation for Peru and Bolivia is even worse because the source gives "killed in action" and "wounded" separately for some battles, only the sum for others, and for yet others both separate figures and the sum, where the sum given by the source doesn't agree with the sum of the separate numbers given by the same source (I assume that's due to conflicting information on which the source's casualty figures is based). Also, for many of the battles the numbers are clearly rounded to the nearest 100 (or possibly even 1000) whereas for smaller skirmishes two dead might get mentioned. The proportion of dead to wounded for Peru/Bolivia seems off throughout; for example, at San Francisco (19 November 1879) they are said to have suffered 135-500 dead, but only 88 wounded - and a total of 400-6,000 "Killed in action and wounded". For another battle, the "Killed in action" outnumber the "Killed in action and wounded". The Peruvian/Bolivian figures given by the source are, in sum over all listed battles:

• Killed in action: 12.934-18.213 (no estimate for one of the twelve considered battles)
• Wounded: 7.891-7.896 (no estimates for two of the battles)
• Killed in action and wounded: 4.367-10,467 (no estimates for seven of the twelve considered battles)
• POWs: 8.103-9.103 (no estimates for two of the battles)

The article currently makes it appear as if the "Killed in action and wounded" were the total casualties Bolivia and Peru suffered, which they're not due to both battles for which the source gives no such value at all and to the inconsistency between these figures and the others for the battles for which the source gives both kinds of data. I'll do the following:

• Correct the misinterpretation for Chile.
• For Bolivia and Peru, go with "about 25,000 killed and wounded, about 9,000 prisoners of war". This ballpark estimate avoids giving a false sense of accuracy.

Details should be covered in the body of the article. Huon (talk) 23:23, 26 December 2018 (UTC)

Map of Chilean claims

The image used shows the Falkland Islands as Argentina's territory even though it was occupied by Great Britain at the time. Regardless of opinions of who should and should not own these islands, showing them as being Argentinean at the time is incorrect and should be amended or the map replaced with another colour scheme to show claimed British territories. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.155.59.96 (talk) 12:07, 24 August 2019 (UTC)

Over half of the lede is about the origin of the war

I have noticed that over half of the lede is about the origin of the war. Some issues are also almost repeated in the lead. While I think the lede is balanced regarding the views on the origin, this is not place to discuss it at such lenght. There are more important things to include in the lead, like the phases of the war or its societal and political consequences. Any thoughts on this? Dentren | ^Talk 18:05, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

I agree that more is needed on the phases and consequences. The entire article needs to follow the WP:SUMMARY guidelines more accordingly.--MarshalN20 ^✉🕊 18:43, 24 April 2021 (UTC)

Here is a proposal to shorten the origins in the lead.

The war originated from a dispute over taxation of nitrate between Bolivia and Chile with Peru being drawn in by virtue of its 1873 treaty of alliance with Bolivia. Historians and commentators have however pointed out at deeper origins for the war including Chilean interest in taking over a resource-rich area, a long-running rivalry between Chile and Peru, as well as the unstable politics and troubled economies of Peru and Bolivia. On February 14, 1879 Chile's armed forces occupied the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta, subsequently war between Bolivia and Chile was declared on March 1, 1879, and between Chile and Peru on April 5, 1879.

I find the quote of Ronald Bruce St. John still very valuable so its should be kept among the footnotes. The secrecy and "anti-Chilean" nature of the 1873 treaty is irrelevant at this point. Also, I want to preventively state that whether Chile's actions were justified or not can be discussed elsewhere in detail. I find that the leghty origins section in the lead right now is just an unwarranted reminder that the origins were complex and that it was not just a war of aggression. Dentren | ^Talk 20:17, 5 June 2021 (UTC)

@Dentren: Instead of writing "originated", perhaps it would suit better to indicate that "The war began over a nitrate taxation dispute between Bolivia and Chile, with Peru being drawn in due to its secret defense pact with Bolivia"? --MarshalN20 ^✉🕊 02:28, 8 June 2021 (UTC)

MarshalN20, I added most of your suggestions but not the secretive nature of treaty since it would misslead the reader into thinking Chile was fought off-guard by an unexpected alliance. Regarding the defensive nature of the treaty I omitted it also for now as I recall som old arguments here about it and the Spanish version of the treaty article [1], which is well-crafted, problematizes it. Dentren | ^Talk 08:49, 7 July 2021 (UTC)

Salitre / salitrera

The article frequently uses the word salitre, which is the Spanish for saltpeter. Shouldn't it use the English word ?

Also salitrera - is there an English word for that ? -- Beardo (talk) 18:07, 9 October 2021 (UTC)

Hello Beardo, saltpeter is the word that should be used here. Caliche, the source rock of saltpeter, however should not be translated. Judginf from that article Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works a salitrera is a "saltpeter work". Dentren | ^Talk 23:33, 29 November 2021 (UTC)

"and Peru was defeated by the Chilean Navy"

This sentence which are apparently sourced (have not fact-checked these offline sources) is not completely correct. Peru as a political entity was not defeated by Chile's victory at sea. The Arica, Lima and Sierra campaigns show that the Peruvian state was unwillingly to accept the outcome of the naval war as its definitive defeat. By the time Chile had gained naval supremacy there was still a long way to go before a real victory. I therefore propose to remove the sentence "The Chilean Army took Bolivia's nitrate-rich coastal region, and Peru was defeated by the Chilean Navy.[9][10]" from the lead. Apart from not being completely correct it duplicates information already provided in the lead or that can be inferred from it, such as the fact the Chile won, that there was a naval war and that Chile occupied territories of the allies. Dentren | ^Talk 23:30, 29 November 2021 (UTC)