in Tacna and Arica! Unable to overcome the
deadlock, Chile and Peru agreed in 1913 to postpone the settlement for
twenty years longer. At the expiration of this period, when Chile would
have held the provinces for half a century, the question should be
finally adjusted on bases mutually satisfactory. Officially amicable
relations were then restored.

While the political situation in Bolivia remained stable, so much could
not be said of that in Peru and Ecuador. If the troubles in the former
were more or less military, a persistence of the conflict between
clericals and radicals characterized the commotions in the latter,
because of certain liberal provisions in the Constitution of 1907.
Peru, on the other hand, in 1915 guaranteed its people the enjoyment of
religious liberty.

Next to the Tacna and Arica question, the dubious boundaries of Ecuador
constituted the most serious international problem in South America. The
so-called Oriente region, lying east of the Andes and claimed by Peru,
Brazil, and Colombia, appeared differently on different maps, according
as one claimant nation or another set forth its own case. Had all three
been satisfied, nothing would have been left of Ecuador but the strip
between the Andes and the Pacific coast, including the cities of Quito
and Guayaquil. The Ecuadorians, therefore, were bitterly sensitive on
the subject.

Protracted negotiations over the boundaries became alike tedious and
listless. But the moment that the respective diplomats had agreed upon
some knotty point, the Congress of one litigant or another was almost
sure to reject the decision and start the controversy all over again.
Even reference of the matter to the arbitral judgment of European
monarchs produced, so far as Ecuador and Peru were concerned, riotous
attacks upon the Peruvian legation and consulates, charges and
countercharges of invasion of each other's territory, and the suspension
of diplomatic relations. Though the United States, Argentina, and Brazil
had interposed to ward off an armed conflict between the two republics
and, in 1911, had urged that the dispute be submitted to the Hague
Tribunal, nothing would induce Ecuador to comply.

Colombia was even more unfortunate than its southern neighbor, for in
addition to political convulsions it suffered financial disaster and
an actual deprivation of territory. Struggles among factions, official
influence at the elections, dictatorships, and fighting betwee