After a series of amphibious landings up the Peruvian coast in 1880, the Chilean army occupied the capital, Lima, Peru, in January 1881. Using then state-of-the-art technologies, Chile defeated the Andean allies, Peru and Bolivia, at sea in the opening months of the war.

From a historical perspective, it also offers a valuable data point in the evolution of modern industrial warfare.

1 Fought over the territorial frontiers of Chile, Bolivia, and Peru, it remade the political geography of South America. T he War of the Pacific (1879–84) is one of many milestones in global military history too often lost in the no-man’s-land between the U.S. Keywords: amphibious warfare, War of the Pacific, technology, nineteenth century In exploring the relationship(s) between amphibious and naval operations in the War of the Pacific, this article historicizes the emergence of modern amphibious warfare as a component of seapower in the industrial era. The war can be better understood as a campaign of port hopping, enabled by maritime capacity and naval power, but reliant on amphibious elements to achieve political results and sustain Chilean sea control. This view underestimates the complex and reciprocal interplay of amphibious and naval operations throughout the conflict. Historians have traditionally framed Chilean victory in the war as a function of seapower: naval superiority from which victory on land followed as a result.

Abstract: The War of the Pacific (1879–84) showcases the development of amphibious warfare during a period of industrialization and technological flux.

Armada naval sudamericana