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The indigenous peoples in the countries involved in the War of the Pacific (1879–1884), Bolivia, Chile and Peru were variously impacted by direct warfare, mobilisation and taxation during the war. Additionally indigenous peoples were frequent subject of nationalistic discourses about the war both during it and after. Many infantry units mobilized by Bolivia and Peru consisted primarily of indigenous conscripts. Chileans tended to see the war as a "civilizing crusade" against an Ancien régime that fought with peoples of inferior stock but the war itself was never seen as a racial one by its participants. Accordingly, Chilean officers routinely referred to Peruvians with terms such as cholo and indio. On their part, some Bolivian and Peruvian discourses identified Chileans with the warrior-like Araucanians (Mapuche) and descendants of Spanish "scum" (escoria) different to the Spanish that settled in their countries. A few Mapuches actually fought in the Chileans ranks, for example Juan Bravo who excelled as naval sniper.

At the start of the war hostile Mapuche factions noticed the shrinking of Chilean garrisons in La Frontera as the country sent troops northwards to fight Peru and Bolivia. The apparent weakening of Chilean military presence in Araucanía and the many abuses caused the Mapuches to start planning rebellion.

1881–1883

After the occupation of Lima, Chile diverted part of its war efforts to crush Mapuche resistance in the south. Chilean troops coming from Peru entered Araucanía where they in 1881 defeated the last major Mapuche uprising. Following the occupation of Lima, Chilean newspapers published extremely patriotic, chauvinist, and expansionistic material. An extreme example of such journalism is Revista del Sur, which stated that firearms obtained in Peru, while useless in the hands of Peruvian "fags" (Spanish: maricas), would be useful by Chileans to "kill indians" (Mapuches).

Montoneras of indigenous farmers were crucial in resisting and difficulting the Chilean occupation of the central and northern highlands of Peru. Andrés Avelino Cáceres knowledge of Quechua would have helped him rally support among indigenous Peruvians for his resistance movement in the central highlands.

Post-war discourses

After the war, the indigenous peoples in Peru became scapegoats in the narratives of Peruvian criollo elites, exemplified in the writing of Ricardo Palma:

The principal cause of the great defeat is that the majority of Peru is composed of that wretched and degraded race that we once attempted to dignify and ennoble. The Indian lacks patriotic sense; he is born enemy of the white and of the man of the coast. It makes no difference to him whether he is a Chilean or a Turk. To educate the Indian and to inspire him a feeling for patriotism will not be the task of our institutions, but of the ages.

Chile's newly-acquired Aymara population was seen after the war as a "foreign element" contrasting with the also newly-conquered Mapuches who were seen as "primordial" Chileans.

References

1. ^ Ibarra Cifuentes, Patricio (2019). ""Seres aquellos de costumbres depravadas": cholos e indígenas andinos en los testimonios de chilenos durante la Guerra del Pacífico (1879 - 1884)" [“Beings those of depraved customs”: Cholos and Andean Indians in Chilean testimonies during the War of the Pacific (1879 - 1884)]. Estudios atacameños (in Spanish) (61). doi:10.4067/S0718-10432019005000202.
2. ^ Vergara, Jorge Iván; Gundermann, Hans (2012). "Constitution and internal dynamics of the regional identitary in Tarapacá and Los Lagos, Chile". Chungara (in Spanish). 44 (1). University of Tarapacá: 115–134. doi:10.4067/s0717-73562012000100009.
3. "Combate Naval de Punta Gruesa - 21 de mayo de 1879". armada.cl (in Spanish). Chilean Navy. 2015-04-01. Archived from the original on 2019-07-13. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
4. Bengoa 2000, pp. 269-270.
5. Velázquez Elizararrás, Juan Carlos (2007), "El problema de los estados mediterráneos o sin litoral en el derecho internacional marítimo. Un estudio de caso: El diferendo Bolivia-Perú-Chile", Anuario Mexicano de Derecho Internacional, 7: 1379–430
6. ^ Bengoa, José (2000). Historia del pueblo mapuche: Siglos XIX y XX (Seventh ed.). LOM Ediciones. pp. 282–283. ISBN 956-282-232-X.
7. "Ocupación de la Araucanía: Últimas campañas de ocupación", Memoria chilena, retrieved June 30, 2013
8. Pereyra Chávez, Nelson (2015). "Los campesinos de Ayacucho y la guerra del Pacífico:Reflexiones desde (y sobre) la teoría de los estudios subalternos" [Ayacucho peasants and the Pacific War: Reflections from (y on) the subaltern studies theory]. Diálogo Andino (in Spanish). 48: 31–40.
9. Larson, Brooke. 2004. Trials of Nation Making: Liberalism, Race and Ethnicity in the Andes, 1810–1910. Page 196.

• Indigenous peoples in Bolivia
• Indigenous peoples in Chile
• Indigenous peoples in Peru