Visual history of a war
Bolivia and Paraguay fought for three years over a waterless scrubland believed to hold oil; 100,000 died and Paraguay won most of it.
- Fought
- 1932 to 1935
- Duration
- 3 years
- Dates
- 9 September 1932 to 12 June 1935
- Deaths
- About 60,000 Bolivians and 30,000 to 40,000 Paraguayans, many from thirst and disease
- Bolivia
- President Salamanca; General Hans Kundt (German), Enrique Penaranda; population 2 million
- Paraguay
- President Ayala; Jose Felix Estigarribia; population 900,000
- Result
- Paraguayan victory; Paraguay gains most of the Chaco; Bolivia keeps oil zone and river corridor
The Chaco War (1932-1935) was fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over the Gran Chaco, a semi-arid lowland disputed since independence and thought to hold oil after finds in Bolivia's foothills; landlocked Bolivia also wanted access to the Paraguay river. Bolivia, with twice the population and a German-trained army under Hans Kundt, attacked in 1932 but was beaten by Paraguayan forces under Jose Felix Estigarribia at Boqueron, Nanawa and Campo Via, where 8,000 Bolivians surrendered; thirst, disease and Paraguay's better knowledge of the terrain decided the war. Paraguay advanced to the Andean foothills before exhaustion and a Bolivian counter-attack at Villamontes; the armistice of June 1935 and the 1938 treaty gave Paraguay three-quarters of the Chaco. About 100,000 died, and both governments fell to military coups.
When it was fought: the era ribbon
The bold bar is Chaco War. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.
Chaco War forces and losses
Timeline of the Chaco War
- 1928Vanguardia incident
- 1932Pitiantuta; Boqueron
- 1933Nanawa; Campo Via
- 1934El Carmen; Ballivian falls
- 1935Villamontes; armistice12 June.
- 1938Peace treaty; boundary awarded
The disputed Chaco
The Chaco Boreal, 250,000 km2 of thorn forest and dust, was left undefined by colonial boundaries; Paraguay had lost land in the Triple Alliance war and Bolivia its coast to Chile in 1884, so both saw the Chaco as compensation. Standard Oil's finds in Bolivia and rumours of Chaco oil, and Bolivia's need for a river port, drove fort-building and clashes from 1927; a Bolivian attack on Fortin Carlos Antonio Lopez at Lake Pitiantuta in June 1932 started the war.
Boqueron to Campo Via
Bolivia's Kundt, veteran of the Eastern Front, attacked frontally at Nanawa in January and July 1933 and lost thousands to Paraguayan machine guns and mines; Paraguay's Estigarribia used encirclement, and at Campo Via in December 1933 trapped and captured two Bolivian divisions. Bolivia's Indian conscripts from the altiplano suffered in the heat while Paraguay's Guarani-speaking soldiers knew the water holes; both armies fought over wells. Kundt was sacked; Paraguay took Ballivian in November 1934 and pushed to the Parapiti river and the foothills at Villamontes by 1935.
Armistice and aftermath
Bolivia's defence of Villamontes and Paraguay's overstretched supply lines produced stalemate; a League of Nations effort failed but the neighbouring states arranged an armistice on 12 June 1935 and the Buenos Aires peace conference awarded Paraguay about three-quarters of the Chaco in 1938, with Bolivia keeping the oil-bearing foothills and a corridor to the river. Veterans' resentment overthrew both governments: Bolivia's 'Chaco generation' produced the 1952 revolution, Paraguay's the Febrerista revolt and, later, Stroessner. Little oil was ever found in Paraguay's Chaco until 2012.
It was the bloodiest war in South America in the twentieth century.
Related empires and wars
Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.
Empires of the same era and region
- Spanish Empire (1492 to 1976)
- Empire of Brazil (1822 to 1889)
- Dutch Empire (1602 to 1975)
Wars of the same era and region
- Paraguayan War (War of the Triple Alliance) (1864 to 1870)
- Colombian War of Independence (1810 to 1825)
- World War I (1914 to 1918)
- Cold War (1947 to 1991)
- La Violencia (1948 to 1958)
- Colombian conflict (1964 to present)
8 surprising things about the Chaco War
- Both sides used World War I surplus; Bolivia bought Vickers tanks and Paraguay used them as gun platforms after capturing them.
- More soldiers died of thirst, malaria and dysentery than of wounds; whole units were found dead around dry wells.
- Bolivia's German general Kundt had commanded on the Eastern Front and had no idea how to fight in the Chaco.
- The rumoured Chaco oil never materialised; Paraguay found gas and some oil there only in the 2010s.
- Russian White emigre officers served Paraguay, and Czech and German officers Bolivia; the war has been called a proxy conflict between Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell, though the evidence is thin.
- Bolivia's Indian conscripts fought in a war they barely understood, in a language they did not speak, at altitudes 3,000 metres below home.
- The Chaco War inspired the Bolivian novel Sangre de Mestizos and the phrase 'Chaco generation'.
- The border was finally demarcated only in 2009.