When Peru entered the First World War

[Eduardo]

I thought I could place this thread in the "Research" section but guess it is to early. For some time now I have been thinking that it could be a good idea to mnake my history Ph.D. thesis in the participation of my country in the First World War. Nobody has really researched the subject. Of course, a marginal country in the other side of the world stiking its nose in the fight of the big ones is kind of wierd. But most countries in South America got involved. After all, Teddy Rooseveld had called un the "Backyard of the United States", and for many practical reasons we were.

The motive? A German submarine sunk our ship "Lorthon" in the Cantabric sea in front of Suances on 4th February 1917. The Lorthon carried nitrate "as fertilizer for the northern Spanish fields" and was going to deliver it at the port of Pasajes.

After several months, on 6 October 1917 the Peruvian Congress broke relations with Germany. Right after that 10 German ships that were in Peruvian ports were captured and given to an American company the "Emergency Fleet Corporation".

Another interesting aspect of Peruvian participation is the number of Peruvian born men who fought in both sides of the war.

If someone is interested in continuing this thread I will put more information. One of our pilots was Juan Bielovucic, the first man to fly over the Alps and survive. He fought for France.

Eduardo

[Guest Rick Research]

A combination of American political/economic pressure, I suppose-- and the opportunity to "nationalize" local German economic holdings under the guise of war compensation.

I was forced into doing my graduate university degree work on American pressure to get Greece to join the Allies in what was then the un-numbered Great War of 1914+... even before America entered the war. The "reasons" were the same ones later used to justify America's own declaration of war by the Democratic Party's war faction, which had 3 years to perfect their "spin" before trying the same lines on a domestic audience grown accustomed to their "externalized" arguments:

national honor (this was once very important when decent people actually HAD any sense of honor themselves),

openly admitted (and why not?) economic self-interest,

prestige/glory,

the dangers of being "left out in the cold" by the resentful and vindictive winners afterward--

and so the desire to join what was perceived or wished for as the winning side "before it is too late" to grab any Spoils Of War lying around for the taking while the going was still good and none of the other victors could protest local greed because they were all doing the same thing...

and of course, all the Higher Noble Sentiments of being on the side of righteousness, truth, beauty, and the angels of course-- by an astonishingly consistent NON-"coincidence" ever so neatly matching up with ALL of the above.

Nothing much has changed since or was any different before.

Except in the instances where deranged ideologies seek global hegemony-- and nothing there has changed much with a shuffling of the players since, either--

the eternal answer is almost always

Follow The Money.

Governments-- all governments-- are run by wealthy men

whether Western capitalists, limousine-riding dacha-owning "classless" Communists, fascist upstarts lining their own pockets, or hereditary rulers laden with generations of treasure

and wealthy men NEVER have any difficulty whatsoever in making their PRIVATE financial interests the "national" interest.

War is, after all, a form of high stakes political crime, in which other people's property is taken away from them by force and shared out by "The Gang." As in any crime:

who profits?

If that sounds like Marxist orthodoxy-- that is one thing I am most assuredly NOT a fan of. It just came out that way, unexpectedly, after 50 years of increasingly weary cynicism about the Powers That Be.

But some truths ARE fairly universal.

But as in my own studies--

I would recommend that you go through the "establishment media" newspapers and magazines published there from 1914 on. You will quickly see from who owned them and what positions they took while still neutral where they would later be on the day war was declared. External arguments for/against usually simply mirrored internal power politics. The economic and political "interests" that stood to gain and DID gain were "for," while those who had something to lose themselves were "against."

All things considered, good old economic self-interest is to be preferred over deranged ideological fanaticism, if it comes to that.

Because another universal truth is that no matter how vicious a deranged ideological enemy is, or how craven any domestic Fifth Column of defeatist collaborators is (now as then--which is the only way I can sleep at night)

LUNATICS will ALWAYS screw up and fail miserably in the end precisely because they are driven by impulses which are INSANE.

Now no different than at any other time.

with your studies!

[Eduardo]

Even before Per? took sides in the war, there were many peruvians fighting in both sides but mainly in the French Army. Some were the children of Europeans who decided to fight for their parents countries and some just because they had special liasons to them.

Among them was JOSE GARCIA-CALDERON, a young architect and writter, son of a former Peruvian president and brother to two of the most renoun intelectuals of the day. Jose had been educated in France since a young age and in 1914, as the war was declared, he joined as a volunteer in the French Foreign Legion. He begun in the trenches where he reached the degree of Second Lieutenant. Then he was promoted to observer in airplanes and baloons. In this possition he received the War Cross with three palms.

Jose Garcia-Calderon died when his observation baloon was destroyed by the enemy in Verdun on 5th May, 1916.

Among his works there were some notes of his experience in the trenches which his brothers published partially later. Will try to find them and comment on them

Eduardo

[Paul R]

Thank you for posting this topic. I learned a lot!! Please do post more as you get it!

[Brian Wolfe]

Please allow me to state my thanks for your post as well, it was quite informational.

I would like to hear more about Peru's involvment.

Cheers

Brian

[Eduardo]

Thanks. I am glad to be able to colaborate with something more tamn my postcards. Here I will list the name and tonage of the German ships that were "captured" by the Peruvian navy and rented to an American organization named "Emergency Fleet Corporation". (Note: in my texts two tonnage are given. "porte" the largest and "registro bruto". I can't find the English equivalent but anybody familiar with ships will understand I guess).

The steam ships: Porte Registro Bruto

Sierra Cordoba (name changed to "Callao") 8,200 8,220

Luxor (to "Salaverry") 12,000 7,109

Rhakotis (to "Eten") 8,500 6,982

Anubis (to "Paita") 8,000 4,763

Uarda (to "Pisco") 9,000 5,751

Marie 3,000 1,866

Sail Ships:

Hebe 4,000 2,469

Omega 4,000 2,471 *

Maipo 2,700 1,770

Tellus 2,500 1,465

The Uarda and Luxor were rented by the Emergency Fleet Corporation to the French Government.

To my knowledge the Omega was kept in Per? with another sailing ship to transport guano ( the bird's fertilizer) from the islands to Callao. The Omega was the last sail ship to continue in activity and using only sails. She finally broke to pieces in the early 50's. There is a book about her written by an American. I had something to do with the translation and publication into Spanish. Will look arround in my library and will give more details.

Eduardo

P.S. The names that were given to the steam ships are those of Peruvian ports. The last one in the List, correspondes to Pisco, the Port-city totaly destroyed by the earthquake of last week

Edited August 26, 2007 by Eduardo