Bolivian Cessions of Territory and the Chaco War

In the aftermath of a succession of wars and other cross-border conflicts with its immediate neighbors, Bolivia lost territories to Brazil, Argentina, and Chile – the last of which involved giving up its nitrate-rich Pacific coastline and making it a landlocked state. Three decades after this last cession, Bolivia fought a three-year long war with Paraguay over an arid region that held substantial oil deposits and, for Bolivia, river access to the Atlantic Ocean. Defeated in the Chaco War (1932-1935), Bolivia lost yet another important piece of its territory, and Paraguay doubled its own size. As it turned out, no significant oil or gas deposits were found in this region until 2012.