The War over the Chaco, 1935

By the dawn of the twentieth century, it became apparent that the peoples of Latin American, eager to break free of the yoke of neocolonialism, desired the freedom and fervor of nationalism. The desire to coalesce around a particular nation state was fostered in Paraguay in the mid-1930s during the Chaco War, in which nationalism was instrumental in both the cause and the conduct of the war. John Charles Chasteen conveys that “the new nationalism that swept the region in the 1900s was another wave of the earlier nativist spirit, now with a strong economic agenda” (Chasteen, 217).

J. W. Lindsay’s article “The War over the Chaco: A Personal Account” provides some insight into the dynamic of nationalism in early-twentieth century Latin America. In it, the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, two landlocked Latin American states attempting to find their way economically and geopolitically in the twentieth century, is described from the point of view of a foreign intervenor with the Paraguayan military.

Lindsay, specifically from the perspective of an outsider to the region, notes that the economic difficulties of both nations fueled the desire to go to war over the Chaco territory. As a participant on the Paraguayan side, his perspective is pro-Paraguayan, and he labels the Bolivians as the aggressors due to their desire to implement oil pipelines in the disputed region (Lindsay, 233). Evident in Lindsay’s writing, there was a lot of foreign intervention in the war, as he notes the presence of a White Russian on the Paraguayan side as well as the presence of German officers (Lindsay, 236-237).

Lindsay’s point of view does not necessarily allow for an unbiased account of the war, but it is helpful in viewing the war in the context of Latin American nationalism. It is a war such as the Chaco War, in which two nascent nations are pitted against each other in a post-neocolonial, economic and geopolitical struggle over a specific territory, that is an excellent example of the broader Latin American nationalistic trends of the time.

Works Cited

Chasteen, John Charles. Born in Blood and Fire. 4^th edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2016.

Primary Source:

Lindsay, J. W. “The War over the Chaco: A Personal Account.” International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1931-1939) 14, no. 2 (1935): 231-40. Accessed February 11, 2021. doi:10.2307/2602089.

By Owen Arace