In March 1930, the 19-month First Chaco War finally came to an end with the signing of the armistice between Paraguay and Bolivian negotiators. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoThe scourge of the war caused by the territorial dispute between the two small South American countries was not large, and the number of participants in the war at its peak was less than 200,000, but it attracted keen attention from all over the world. In the sparsely populated Chaco Desert and the Grand Canyon area, the most representative military equipment of the Allied camp and the US-British alliance were all on display, and the Paraguayan army, which was carefully trained by German military advisers, was called "South American Prussia", and they used Mauser's rifles, machine guns of the German Arms and Ammunition Company, Krupp's artillery, Albarrot's "Albatross", and the "Hubert" of German military vehicles to beat the Bolivian army, which was several times more numerous. The British and American weapons used by the Bolivians are not useless, the Enfield rifle is as good as ever, the Lewis light machine gun shows the characteristics of light and reliable, the French M1897 field gun produced by the United States by purchasing patent rights is still sharp, the British Vickers medium tank developed and manufactured after the war and the American Stuart light tank have performed well on the battlefield. It can be said that the Chaco War, which lasted for a year and a half, was a display and contest between the two camps in military technology and tactics; judging from the course of the war, the German weapons and equipment and tactical thinking occupied a significant advantage, but the side that gained the advantage finally had to endure humiliation and retreat, and the US-British alliance undoubtedly won a great victory in politics and diplomacy.

In any case, the dissipation of the smoke of South America has finally relieved those who fear the recurrence of world war, after all, from the summer of 1927 to the present, countries have been suffering from the bitter winter of economic crisis for nearly three years, countless people are struggling to fill their stomachs, if a large-scale war breaks out at this time, most people may not be able to see cheese and meat on the table, and the ensuing death notices will plunge one family after another into endless grief.

In March on the South American continent, the heat had just dissipated, and a thunderclap suddenly shook people's hearts: under the leadership of retired general José Felix Uriburu and current Minister of Defense Agustín Pedro Justo, the Argentine army and navy staged a military coup d'état, arrested and imprisoned the current President Yrigoyen, and occupied Congress and key government departments, and the coup ended in a landslide victory for the military in just 24 hours. With Uriburu inaugurated as interim president and Justto as commander-in-chief of the army, the new regime soon announced that President Yrigoyen had colluded with the United States and Britain and betrayed national interests during his tenure, tried him publicly, and then imprisoned him.

The military coup in Argentina was not just a matter of overthrowing the current regime by soldiers dissatisfied with the status quo and government policies, but the first key figure in the coup, Uriburu, was born into a landed aristocratic family, and when he was a junior officer, he participated in the creation of a secret military organization dedicated to the maintenance of aristocratic rule, and in 1902 he went to Germany for military studies, and then served in the German Royal Guard, a special experience that made him an ardent admirer of Prussian militarism. Uriburu returned to China in 1907 as the rector of the Argentine High Military Academy, went to Germany again in 1907, became a member of the Supreme Council of the Army and Navy in 1919, became the Supreme Prosecutor General of Argentina in 1923, retired from the military in 1929, and led a military coup d'état that overthrew the Yrigoyen regime in 1930 - the same as the history of the old time, except that this military coup was instigated and supported by the German government. A few months before the coup, the German government had transferred 4 million marks in cash to Uriburu's secret account, and the German military attache in Argentina had sent Uriburu's lieutenant a small transceiver and a communication code.

The reason why Urigoyen's coup d'état was able to succeed was that on the one hand, the secret military organization under his control had considerable influence in the Argentine army and navy, and on the other hand, during Yrigoyen's second administration, affected by the world economic crisis, Argentina's exports were seriously sluggish, inflation was serious, and the economic index declined, and at the same time, the country suffered from a large-scale drought, and crops such as beef and wheat were not harvested, but the Yrigoyen government took severe central government intervention, resulting in an increase in government fiscal expenditure from 9% to 19%. Rather than changing the current situation of economic contraction, Uriburu caused the population to lose confidence in the government, the military worried about military salaries, and the aristocracy had to tighten its money......

After the establishment of the military regime in Uriburu, the German government on the other side of the ocean immediately made a statement, declaring that it "respects the choice of the Argentine people", and the Argentine branch of Deutsche Bank immediately provided an emergency loan of 50 million marks to the Argentine provisional government, while at the same time, a powerful fleet had embarked on a voyage from the Azores to South America.

In 1930, the United States invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Argentina, although the scale of British investment was much smaller before the war, but most of the remaining investments involved areas of strategic value, and more importantly, by suppressing Paraguay, which was supported by Germany, the US-British alliance easily retained its influence on South American countries, and the sudden change in Argentina was a catastrophic accident for the political pattern of South America and even the strategic layout of the US-British alliance!

Today's United States is the world's number one economic power, but its military and diplomatic strength is still at the "intercontinental level", and it is still far from the glorious British Empire, although those consortiums and enterprises that have invested in Argentina have the ability to influence the economic and political situation in Argentina, but they have no way to deal with the pro-German regime that came to power through a military coup, and the closest American troops to Argentina are deployed in Panama, more than 4,000 kilometers away, and the main fleet of the United States can reach Argentine waters in half a month, but there is a lack of reliable supply depots on the way. Forced intervention is confronted with international public opinion and the coercion of the Allied countries, and Argentina claims to be the number one military power in South America, and its army and navy strength should not be underestimated, and an expeditionary force of only 20,000 or 30,000 people cannot subdue it at all.

It was precisely with this in mind that the German government invested heavily in Uriburu and his military regime. After Uriburu came to power, the German plenipotentiary signed an aid agreement with the Argentine Provisional Government in Buenos Aires with a total of 600 million marks to help Argentina to provide relief to the affected people, stabilize domestic prices, and restore the economy of workers and peasants. The Provisional Government of Argentina signed an agreement on military cooperation with the German plenipotentiary, all the terms of which were kept secret.

The day after the agreement was signed, the German fleet sailed into Buenos Aires under the pretext of a visit. Upon hearing this, the whole world was in an uproar, and the US ambassador to Germany, in accordance with his own government's instructions, sent a sternly worded note to the German Government, asking the German Government to explain the intention of the German fleet stationed in the Argentine capital so that the US Government could assess whether the legitimate investment of its citizens in Argentina might be harmed. On April 25, U.S. President Clark Hoover signed a military ****** that brought U.S. troops to combat readiness for the first time since the Azores crisis. In this period of extremely tense international atmosphere, many people thought that a war between the two camps was imminent, but the US military was not sure of an expedition to Argentina and won the victory, and in addition to using military maneuvers to exert pressure on Germany and the Argentine provisional government, they were more likely to use proxy wars to suppress the pro-German regime established by Uriburu.

Shortly after the arrival of the German fleet in Buenos Aires, militants under the banner of support for former President Yrigoyen staged a reactionary uprising in northwestern Argentina, near Chile and Bolivia. At first, the insurgents numbered only a few hundred, but in less than half a month, the rebels quickly expanded to more than 3,000 people, including Argentine peasants who came in for dollars and Bolivian soldiers who fought as volunteers, all of whom were secretly paid by the U.S. government and armed with equipment even better than the regular American army, under the command of a group of Chilean officers.

In this era, Argentina is stronger than Mexico in both economy and military, and with the combat effectiveness of the Argentine Army, even without foreign aid, it can easily defeat this rabble fighting for money, but relying on the protection of Chile and Bolivia, the Argentine rebels are dead but not deadlocked, and they have been defeated again and again, so that the Argentine army that came to encircle and suppress them is helpless. Under the covert offensive of the dollar, Argentines constantly fell to Uncle Sam, and the Argentine troops sent to the north-western region became more and more demoralized and began to be attacked and ambushed inexplicably. Soon after, anti-government uprisings also broke out in the west and southwest of Argentina, as the fighting progressed, the Argentine government army collected more and more evidence about the direct participation of Chilean soldiers in the war, and the Uriburu regime and even the German government protested and put pressure on Chile, but the Chilean government, which has the support of the United States, is proud of its strong armament and does not need to be afraid of the military threat from Argentina, so it has been acting in defiance of the yang and is very angry at the abuse and even torture and killing of Chilean "volunteers" by the Argentine government army, and the antagonism between the two countries has escalated. And finally because of the mutiny of the "Moreno", war broke out.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, Argentina has become increasingly strong by relying on the high development of agriculture and animal husbandry, and Chile is in a state of full treasury with a large number of ore exports, and the two countries have no precedent for war in history, but there are some disputes along the border of more than 4,000 kilometers. Chile's military strength has always been strong, unwilling to be surpassed by Argentina's "rising star", so when Britain and Germany launched a heavyweight naval race in Europe, the two South American countries are also competing for a lightweight arms race, not to mention all kinds of twists and turns, by the beginning of the 30s, the Argentine Navy has two 28,000-ton Rivadavia-class dreadnoughts "Rivadavia" and "Moreno", and the Chilean Navy has a 29,000-ton "Admiral Latole" Super dreadnought, the Argentine Navy has a slight upper hand.

On July 4, 1930, the USS Moreno, which was on a training mission on the southern coast, mutinied, opened fire on the accompanying light ships, and then declared its independence from the Argentine Navy and joined the ranks of the insurgents. Since the Argentine rebels did not control any ports, the Moreno sailed south, bypassing Cape Freud to seek political asylum in Chile. Under the command of Uriburu's cronies, the Argentine Navy's flagship "Rivadavia" led a number of destroyers and torpedo boats in haste to chase after it, but the "Moreno" successfully sailed into the Valparaiso military port in Chile. The Chilean Government ignored the Argentine Government's foreign traffic and insisted on the detention of the "Moreno" and its entire crew until the end of the civil war, citing the fact that Argentina was in a state of civil war.

This diplomatic farce lasted until October 1930, when Argentina and Paraguay secretly signed a military alliance, Argentina declared war on Chile, and the army was divided into three routes to launch an attack on Chile, which was a narrow country. The Paraguayan army made a comeback in the Chaco area and launched an offensive on the Bolivian army on its own initiative. The South American War broke out in full force.

(End of chapter)