Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• GUMUCIO, JORGE A

Titel

TOWARD A SOCIOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: THE CASE OF BOLIVIAN QUEST FOR AN OUTLET TO THE SEA

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

1987

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Application of sociological concepts can be useful in analyzing conflictive international situations, which are explained as part of a larger context, where nations occupy different positions within a world-system. The primary goal was to investigate the scope and role of the U.S. in Bolivia's maritime question where three aspects, were examined chronologically. The first, concerns Bolivia's territorial status and jurisdiction over its Pacific littoral. The second, considers the constant conflict that characterizes relations between Bolivia and Chile, resulting from the latter's expansionism, at the expense of Bolivian territories, which caused the War of the Pacific (1879-1883) and the Bolivian loss of its seacoast. The third analyzes the diverse Bolivian attempts to recover access to the Pacific Ocean. Direct reading of U.S. diplomatic documents made it possible to establish relevant facts regarding Bolivia's maritime question. This study allows some conclusions on the three aspects of the question. Regarding the first, diplomatic dispatches consistently establish that Bolivia before independence, as the Audiencia de Charcas had sovereign rights over the Atacama littoral on the Pacific and latter as a republic it exercised the same rights over the same territory. On the second aspect, the study shows that the State Department was kept well informed and that the U.S. was no mere spectator to the War of the Pacific. The warring parties, several times, invited United States assistance in searching for peace and the State Department, while expressed its readiness to assist, it had already accepted Chilean hegemony over the region. Regarding the third aspect, Bolivia on several occasions asked the Department of State for assistance to gain a sovereign outlet to the Pacific. The answers by U.S. diplomacy made Bolivia's position even more intricate on the whole matter. This study found that the U.S. maintained active participation in the entire Bolivia maritime question and in sponsoring the 1883 and 1929 treaties between Chile and Peru, it acquired certain responsibility on Bolivia' confinement. From a world-system perspective this study confirms that conflicts among peripheral nations, which remain marginal to the core-state interests are difficult to resolve without decisive participation of the latter.