| abstract | - During the War of the Pacific, Chilean forces occupied great part of the south territory of Peru, including Tacna. The hostilities between both countries ended with the sign of the Treaty of Ancón in 1984, which between things established that the provinces of Tacna and Arica would stay under chilean control for 10 years, after which a plebiscite would be realized to decide the fate of both territories. However, this referendum never took place. During more than 30 years, the governments of Peru and Chile tried several negotiations to solve the matter, without achieving much success. At the same time, Chile initiate a process for Chilenizar the provinces of Tacna and Arica, and in this way to gain the support of the population. After the First World War, the intervention of the government of the United States was required to help to solve the matter, but did not also manage to advance much. In addition, nationalistic groups arose in Peru and Chile that they started causing many violence in the dispute territories, complicating the negotiations. However, the situation started worsening in the middle of the 20s, when Peru governed by the President Augusto Leguía, began to suffer an economic crisis that mean an increase in the popular dissatisfaction. It, added to the pressures to the Peruvian government not to lose the territorial dispute, prevented it from reaching with Chile a definitive compromise. For other side, Chile also experience a crisis in his political system, but this, only lasted one year, and it managed to be overcome thanks to the promulgation of a new constitution and the arrival to the government of a candidacy agreed by all the political sectors. For 1928, after the last attempts of mediation, the government of Leguía come to the determination that to declare the war to Chile was the only way of solving the dispute and take out to Peru of the increasing crisis that was experimenting.
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