Andean tragedy

The author retells the beginning of one of the longest, bloodiest conflicts of nineteenth-century Latin America. The War of the Pacific pitted Peru and Bolivia against Chile in a struggle initiated over a festering border dispute. The conflict saw Chile's and Peru's armored warships vying for control of sea lanes and included one of the first examples of the use of naval torpedoes. On land the large armies used the most modern weapons including the Gatling guns which left thousands dead. The author uses primary and secondary sources of the countries involved that offers the definitive…