I understand that Bolivia and Paraguay fought a brief, bloody war in the early 1930’s…maybe 1932? At any rate, it got the name of “Gran Chaco”-which is a mostly uninhabited plain in western Paraguay. Supposedly, the Bolivians lost their entire air force (3 planes), and thousands of men on both sides were killed.
Since Bolivia and Paraguay are both poor, landlocked countries, why did they decide to have a war?
Was the Garn Chaco plain worth anything?
There were some oil deposits there.
But a lot of the dispute was just over just over national pride. That territory had been in dispute for a long time.
Bolivia did have a sea port in its past, but lost it in the War of the Pacific in the 19th Century to Chile. Bolivia still would like to have Arica back.
A very nifty link.
http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/charlie/chaco1932.htm
The above website is nifty. 
This one has a nice map.
http://worldatwar.net/chandelle/v1/v1n3/chaco.html
BTW–Bolivia lost its coastline to Chile in the Pacific War.
Didn’t I say that earlier?
I didn’t sleep through an entire class in Latin American diplomatic history!
I got an A in it even!
They thought there was oil there. There in fact was none. But that is only part of the story.
Both Paraguay and Bolivia are agrumentitive nations with a chip on their shoulders. Bolivia for their losses in the Pacific War and Paraguay for the disasterous War of the Triple Alliance.
The two nations were (and still are) willing to fight to right past wrongs and to protect national honor and stuff.
I just skimmed a new book about paraguay, and there used to be a captured Bolivian tank (at a war memorial in Asucion).Seems to have disappeared, though.
There’s a really great story about the time a Paraguayan cavalry troop attacked a US Navy gunboat, which was on one of the big rivers bordering Paraguay. I couldn’t find a Google reference to it, though, so it may be another urban legend.
There’s a portion of Paraguay named after Rutherford B. Hayes who arbitrarted an earlier dispute between Paraguay and Bolivia over the Chaco.
Wasn’t this also known as the “Birdshit War”, since one of the points of contention was guano deposits (valuable as fertilizer)?
The last time I was in Paraguay (gee, twenty plus years ago) the Vicker’s tankette was still in front of the National COngress buiolding with a flagpole growing out of the back deck.
I used to have a photo of me posing in front of it.
Guano was part of the dispute in the War of the Pacific, but that factored more in earlier disputes among Chile and its neighbors.
But guano does sound interesting. But Bolivia was more concerned that Chile would cut it off from the sea.
Which Chile succeeded in doing.
Which leads to the rather unusual outcome were the winner ends up in deep shit and the looser regrets it.
I’d like to try the Gran Taco. I’m pretty hungry and it sounds delici- Oh, never mind…
There are a couple of books available on Amazon.com about the Chaco War. The cheapest one in print is $45.