This Must be the Place: How Maps and Atlases Foretold South America’s Deadliest War of the 20th Century

Post by Roger Peña, Librarian for Latin American, Iberian, Caribbean and Latinx Studies

“La geografía es un poderoso factor educativo para la formación del carácter nacional.” [Geography is a powerful tool for the formation of national character.]
– Bolivian Educational Atlas for Children, 1928

Deep in the Gran Chaco of South America—an area divided (and often disputed) between Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina—lies the dry and arid region known as the Chaco Boreal. Nicknamed “el infierno verde” [the green hell], this vast expanse of 100,000 square miles, tucked north of the Pilcomayo River, and west of the Paraguay River, was the site of one of the bloodiest wars in the Western Hemisphere, a brutal conflict between the young nations of Bolivia and Paraguay.

From 1932 to 1935, tens of thousands of soldiers from both countries perished not only from modern warfare and weaponry, but also from disease, dehydration, and hunger in what has become known as the Chaco War. Much of this dispute can be traced by period maps, atlases and reading material throughout Duke University Libraries.

Disputed territory, circa 1932. (Corum)

For more than a century, Bolivia and Paraguay, along with Argentina, had laid claim to the sparsely inhabited Chaco Boreal. Much of the confusion over territorial rights and claims stemmed from the inconsistent and often disorganized land surveys conducted during the colonial era, under the Spanish viceroyalties that conquered much of South America in the 16th century.

In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, both countries had experienced devastating territorial losses. Bolivia lost its access to the Pacific Ocean to Chile in the War of the Pacific and ceded valuable rubber-producing land in the Amazon to Brazil following the Acre War in 1903. Paraguay, meanwhile, had been left in near ruin after its catastrophic defeat in the War of the Triple Alliance (fought against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay) and endured a bloody civil war from May 1922 to July 1923. Tensions only escalated when oil prospecting, homesteading, and foreign investment entered the Gran Chaco region in the late 1800s, raising the stakes in a dispute already marked by centuries of uncertainty and mistrust.

In this context of historical loss and national insecurity, control over the vast, contested lands of the Chaco Boreal became a matter of vital national interest for Bolivia and Paraguay. Maps from this period, which are often contradictory and imprecise, would later foreshadow the war that erupted in the summer of 1932, when forts were attacked by each military in the disputed zone. For decades prior, the Chaco dispute had been visible on paper, with conflicting maps and atlases published by each nation staking claim to the region. Even children’s educational textbooks, such as the Bolivian, Geografía – Atlas Escolar de Bolivia, which provided the quote above, sowed ideas about who “owned” the Chaco.

Territory lost by Bolivia since independence in 1825 to 1932

After three years of brutal fighting, an armistice was agreed upon in 1935 and a final peace accord signed in 1938. Paraguay would be granted nearly all land claims to the Gran Chaco region while Bolivia would be allowed precious access to rivers leading to the Atlantic coast. The war would have tremendous effects for both sides with over 88,000 dead to fighting, disease, hunger and starvation. As Bolivia and Paraguay sought to rebuild, political instability would follow as different stakeholders jockeyed for power in the years that followed the Chaco War.

MAPS AT DUKE LIBRARIES

The quest for the Chaco can be traced through maps and print materials held at Duke University Libraries, particularly within the Bostock Maps and Microfilm Collection and the extensive Latin American Studies print collection.

The series of maps and atlases spotlighted in this post demonstrate the confusion surrounding the Chaco Boreal from the early 20th century to the end of the conflict. For instance, a 1916 map – printed in Argentina – overtly lays claim to the Chaco Boreal for the Paraguayan side while the 1927 map of Bolivia and 1928 children’s atlas show the Bolivians as the Chaco’s territorial homeland. National Geographic, one of the world’s most prominent atlas and map makers, whose work would be seen by millions across the world, featured the dispute throughout its maps of South America. National Geographic’s 1921 map divides the Chaco almost evenly between both nations according to the failed 1894 Benitez-Ichazo border treaty while two different versions of their 1937 South America map highlight the area as “Disputed Territory”.

Of particular interest is the 1935 folio-sized atlas, Historia cartográfica del Paraguay con relación al Chaco Boreal [The Cartographic History of Paraguay in Relation to the Chaco Boreal]. In the final year of the war, perhaps assuming that victory was inevitable, the Paraguayan government commissioned the publication of the atlas to commemorate their victory in the Chaco War. From cover to cover, the atlas serves not only to show Paraguay’s history and relationship with the Chaco region but also justification for its land claims to the disputed territory. Reproduced maps from the 16th to the 19th Centuries featuring exploration of the Chaco region by way of Asuncion (Paraguay’s capital) make up the atlas’s pages. The editors go so far as to include quotes from known cartographers and historians as well as maps from other nations showing the Chaco Boreal as Paraguayan territory. Ironically enough, one of these foreign maps was printed in Bolivia decades before.

From the Paraguayan atlas: “An official Bolivian map that consecrates Paraguayan sovereignty over the Chaco Boreal.”

One can’t help but compare the Historia cartográfica del Paraguay and the 1928 Bolivian atlas in the context of the Chaco War. These atlases, along with the maps highlighted here, demonstrate how maps and cartography are not only used for educational purposes, but may also be used as tools for national pride and political objectives.

*** The 1928 Bolivian atlas and the 1935 Paraguayan atlas are currently on display at the Nicholas Reading Room on the 2nd Floor of Bostock Library.

Works Cited

Chesterton, Bridget María. The Chaco War: Environment, Ethnicity, and Nationalism. Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.

Corum, James S. “Battle in the Barrens.” MHQ : The Quarterly Journal of Military History, vol. 21, no. 4, Summer, 2009, pp. 52-65,7.

Cote, Stephen. “A War for Oil in the Chaco, 1932–1935.” Environmental History, vol. 18, no. 4, 2013, pp. 738–58. JSTOR.

Ehrinpreis, Andrew. “Green Gold, Green Hell: Coca, Caste, and Class in the Chaco War, 1932–1935.” The Americas, vol. 77 no. 2, 2020, p. 217-245.

Klein, Herbert S.-. A Concise History of Bolivia. Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Sapienza Fracchia, Antonio Luis, and José Luis Martínez Peláez. The Chaco War 1932-1935: Fighting in the Green Hell. Helion & Company Limited, 2020.

Saunders, Nicholas J., and Paul Cornish. Modern Conflict and the Senses: Routledge, 2017.

Tucker, Spencer. The Roots and Consequences of 20th-Century Warfare: Conflicts That Shaped the Modern World. ABC-CLIO, 2016.