This treaty set the Chile-Bolivia border at 24°S and barred Bolivia from raising taxes on Chilean interests for 25 years, directly precipitating the War of the Pacific when Bolivia violated Article 4 in 1878.
Key Facts
- Signed
- August 6, 1874
- Border established
- 24° South parallel
- Tax freeze duration (Article 4)
- 25 years years
- Superseded treaty
- Boundary Treaty of 1866
- Bolivian tax violation
- February 1878, on saltpeter exploitation
- Chilean company affected
- Compañía de Salitres y Ferrocarril de Antofagasta
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The Boundary Treaty of 1866 had left unresolved tensions over mineral-rich territories between Chile and Bolivia near the Atacama Desert. Both nations sought a more durable arrangement to govern the economically significant zone between parallels 23°S and 25°S, where saltpeter and other mineral exports generated substantial revenue and competing interests frequently clashed.
Signed on August 6, 1874, in Sucre by Bolivian Foreign Minister Mariano Baptista and Chilean minister Carlos Walker Martínez, the treaty fixed the Chile-Bolivia border at the 24th parallel. It abolished bipartite tax collection between 23°S and 25°S and, crucially, Article 4 prohibited Bolivia from increasing taxes on Chilean persons, capital, or industries for twenty-five years.
Bolivia violated Article 4 in February 1878 by imposing a new tax on the Chilean mining company CSFA. Chile's protest went unheeded, and Bolivia seized the company's assets for auction. On February 14, 1879, Chilean forces occupied Antofagasta, triggering the War of the Pacific and exposing the secret 1873 defensive alliance between Bolivia and Peru.
Political Outcome
Border fixed at 24°S parallel; bipartite tax zone abolished; Bolivia barred from raising taxes on Chilean interests for 25 years under Article 4
Ambiguous border and overlapping tax jurisdiction under the 1866 treaty
Clear border at 24°S with Chilean economic protections, later violated leading to the War of the Pacific