It all goes back to the Chaco War. It seems in studying recent Bolivian history that the bulk of that history is refracted through the lens of that very important war from 1932 to 1935, in which Bolivia lost to its neighbor Paraguay. Arguably, only the 1879–83 War of the Pacific, in which Bolivia lost its coastline to Chile, and the 1952 Bolivian Revolution possibly cast longer shadows on that history.
At the time that the Chaco War was fought the nations of the world, mired in the Great Depression, were not paying much attention. But that lack of attention does not diminish the war's importance. First, there is the tremendous number of casualties and loss of life. Although estimates vary, on the Paraguayan side between 35,000 and 50,000 were killed; on the Bolivian side between 50,000 and 80,000 were killed. These were significant numbers as a percentage of the...
