Libertad o Muerte! - Part XXXIX
During the winter of '58 the Yuncos-Crisis as the conflict between Ecuador and Peru was called in the international press became more tense. Ecuador was interested to solve the conflict by arbitration and the peruvian government signaled their willingness to discuss the matter to Quito. After a first round of pointless negotiations it became obvious that a mediator was necessary should the talks have the slightest chance to solve the crisis.
But it became even harder for the negotiators to agree upon an arbitrator than to solve the conflict itself. Ecuador first proposed Platinea as mediator which lead to an outrage among the Peruvian delegates who saw proposal as an affront to their national pride and prestige. To counter the ecuadorian proposal the peruvians proposed Colombia as mediator which sent an uproar through the ecuadorian delegation. The ecuadorians feared that Colombia would not act in the sense of a mediator and seek a compromise or settle the claims in favor of the righteous owner (which in the eyes of the ecuadorian delegates could only be ecuador) but would seek a "compromise" which laid in their own interest. By that the delegates feared Colombia would give all the contested territory to Peru just to weaken Ecuador to invade and annex it in the following years.
After a pause of roughly a month the ecuadorian government send another envoy to Lima with the proposal of Brazil as mediator. In Lima the peruvian government received the proposal with mixed feelings. On the one hand it seemed that Brazil was the most neutral power in southern america in this conflict and had yet avoided any official statements on that topic. But on the other hand the brazilian government itself was very interested in expansion into the amazonas region. Therefore Lima declined the ecuadorian proposal politely without giving any reasons to not upset the brazilian Emperor and government. In Quito this polite but causeless denial heated up the political landscape and the ecuadorian public suspected a delaying meassure of the peruvian government to keep the ecuadorian government in ease while the peruvian army was preparing for war. In fact these suspicions were not unfounded. The peruvian army began drafting in mid december to replenish the losses from the atacama war but these news weren't not known to the ecuadorian or platinean government until February. But nevertheless fear and suspicions about an unprovoked peruvian attack were condensed into paranoia in the highest government ranks in Quito. In early February however the peruvian government proposed the United States of America as mediator. This second peruvian proposal seemed to lessen the expectations of war in Quito. But the ecuadorian government took two weeks to respond. Two weeks in which the telegraph lines between Quito and La Plata run hot. Quito seeked advice from their ally and the platinean prime minister responded that "it could not be in the interest of any south americans[1] to make a northerner without any sensitiveness for the regional & cultural pecularities judge over the welfare of a latin american people [...]". The platinean advice was chiefly driven by the interest of the platinean government to keep the USA out of what they saw as their very own sphere of influence.
After more than three months of inconclusive negotiations the crisis seemed to be more tense than before. In order to prevent any hostilities the platinean king Juan I. proposed to both governments that each should choose a mediator of their own which should act as solicitors for the country they had been chosen. Furthermore these two mediators should agree upon an arbitrator which should be an "international respected country without mutual interest in the given crisis and the southern american subcontinent".
Ecuador initially agreed upon this proposal and with some hesitation Peru did so too. With Platinea and Colombia the disputing parties made their pimary choises to their solicitors. The platinean foreign ministry immediately began to prepare a whole list of possible mediators (with Switzerland, Belgium and Sweden on top) and to establish contact with the colombian government. Both sides agreed upon holding a meeting on March 27th to choose a mediator. But by then war had already broken out.
During the winter of '58 the platinean foreign ministry was not really concerned about the Yuncos-Crisis and all news and reports were proceeded without haste. In various memoranda and sidenotes the involved departements and clerks of the foreign ministry stated that the Yunco-Crisis was a very limited and rather minor affair. The crisis lacked significance to fuel armed hostilities stated the head clerk of the south america department. In Buenos Aires and La Plata one thought it would more likely be a source of diplomatic upset for a limited time period but nothing serious. This might explain the calm with which the foreign ministry handled this crisis which otherwise would seem quite absurd in retrospective.
The Ministry of War and especially the army departement was pretty much occupied with itself. The recent reforms and drafting, equipping, organizing and taining new regular and reserve troops bound many of the resources and the manpower of the ministry's clerks and of the general staff.
As in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs no one seriously believed that the Yuncos-Crisis would erupt into war until February 22nd when the minister of Foreign Affairs forwarded a report from the platinean ambassador Baron Moreno at Lima to the general staff. This report was the first to report Peru's preparations for war, many would follow in the coming days and weeks. The ambassador reported that during the last six months the peruvian army was drafting recruits, predominantly from rural areas to keep their actions secret from foreign surveyors. While their were rumors about drafts in rural areas around for a while no hard evidence could be found in Lima by the staff of the platinean ambassy until late February when the army began recruiting in the city of Lima itself. Baron Moreno reports further that the countryside most likely had been depleted of young men fit for military service which leads to recruiting in the capital. But he also warns his superiors that the regular peruvian army migh had regained its former strength and replaced all losses from the last war as the recruitments in Lima are solely for regiments in the army reserve.
Shortly after Moreno's report was read by officers and clerks of the top level flurry activity broke out throughout the entire ministry. Reports were send back and forth and every departement painted the situation more threatening than the previous one. Within 2 days the whole war ministry was expecting the declaration of war from Peru at any minute. Infantry and cavalry regiments were redeployed to the Peruvian frontier. A plan was developed and put in action that would ensure that at any given time during the next 2 months 2 divisions of the national guard would be on maneuvres and could be send into battle immediately should war break out. Pressured by the general staff the secretary of war ordered the navy departement to rebase all vessels and the "Marine Reales" (royal marines) at the Valparaiso naval base.
Baron Moreno (shown on the left picture) reports increased recruitement of the Peruvian army to La Plata and Buenos Aires in February 1859
The expectancy of war also grabbed many members of the cabinet as well as King and Prime Minister themselves. On February 27th the cabinet concluded to pre-draw the third enlargement of the national guard from September 1st to March 1st. On the very next day parliament passed the bill to raise four more national guard divisions. Literally over night fourtythousand young platinean men were drafted.
On March 1st the third enlargement of the national guard bill went through both chambers of parliament and 40,000 men were drafted to enlarge the platinean national guard.
Since the first report of Baron Moreno many more reports were send from the emabassy at Lima to Buenos Aires. Nearly all of them painted the situation in ever darker shades. The peruvian army was redeployed in large scale to the forntiers, predominantly the ecuadorian one. The reserve regiments were called out for maneuvres and large supply trains were send to refill the army's depots in the border regions.
And then on March 6th Peruvian forces invaded Ecuador without a proper declaration of war. The next day Baron Moreno delivered Platinea's declaration of war to Peruvian president Dioniso.
[1] latin americans from iberian heritage
