Treaty of the Triple Alliance

The Brazilian government's reaction

When the Brazilian government discovered what Otaviano had negotiated − and in particular, the concessions he had made in favour of Argentina − it was not pleased; and the terms of the Treaty were strongly criticised by the Conservative opposition. The general belief in Brazil was that she did not need an alliance with Argentina in order to beat Paraguay, only that Argentina should keep out of the way. The Emperor referred the Treaty to the Section of Foreign Affairs of the Council of State.^[11] That body advised that the Treaty of the Triple Alliance was disadvantageous to Brazil in several ways, making it too easy for Argentina to annex Paraguay at some future date, and too difficult for the Brazilian navy to blockade Paraguay should that need ever arise.^[12] Otaviano's terms were severely criticised but he riposted that the situation in 1865 was so critical that if Argentina had wanted to take advantage of it "we would have given them twice, or three times as much".^[13]

The Section of Foreign Affairs said that as it was now too late to renegotiate the Treaty, the best way out, despite what it said, was that Argentina must not obtain "a handbreadth of territory" above the Pilcomayo River.^[14] The Pilcomayo flows through the Gran Chaco into the right bank of the River Paraguay (see map), but Argentina's claim to the Chaco went far north of that, indeed according to Article XVI^[15] she was to receive territory up to Bahia Negra, near the Bolivian border. After the War of the Triple Alliance by a long-drawn out process Brazil did succeed in preventing Argentina from getting territory to the north of the Pilcomayo. Hence today that river constitutes the international boundary between the Argentine province of Formosa and the Paraguayan department of Presidente Hayes.

Ratification

The Treaty could not take full effect until ratification.^[16] In Argentina it was ratified by the Senate and House of Representatives in secret session on 24 May 1865,^[17] but subject to the little-known exception described in the next section of this Article and later. Instruments of ratification were exchanged between Argentina and Brazil on June 12 and between Argentina and Uruguay on June 13.^[17]

Three versions

Following the diplomatic usage of the era, the Treaty exists in three different versions. There are no significant differences but the sequence of passages may vary.

The Treaty was celebrated (made) at Buenos Aires on 1 May 1865 and each country retained (took away) its own version. The differences were these.

1. Language. The Argentine and Uruguayan versions were in Spanish. The Brazilian version was in Portuguese.
2. Sequence. Each version gave prominence to its own nation, diplomatic representative and army by naming them first where possible. For example, in the Uruguayan version, Uruguay and its diplomat Dr. de Castro are mentioned before the much larger Brazil and Argentina and their representatives. As another example, in Article III (Uruguayan version) the role of the Uruguayan commander Venancio Flores is described before passing to the role of the commander of the much larger Brazilian land forces Osorio; the reverse happens in the Brazilian version.^[24]

Thus a precise labelling of a particular provision might require one to say e.g. "Article III, third indent (Uruguayan version)" (as the case might be).

Parliamentary paper. The British government obtained a copy of the Treaty and published it.

Source of text reproduced in this Article

The details of the Treaty were secret but the Uruguayan foreign secretary Dr de Castro supplied a copy to William Garrow Lettsom, the British minister at Montevideo, who on 27 June forwarded a translation of the Uruguayan version to the British Foreign Secretary Lord Russell.^[25] The British government ordered it to be printed and laid before both Houses of Parliament. It is that text that is reproduced in this Article.^[26]

Access to other language versions

The Brazilian version was published in Schneider, 1902^[27] and a downloadable version of this book is available.^[28]

It does not appear that a completely accurate version of the Argentine version can be downloaded anywhere.^[29]

A German language version was published in Schneider, 1872 and is downloadable.^[30] However it is not a direct translation from Portuguese or Spanish, but an indirect translation of the British parliamentary translation.

Article III

By this article the Allies agreed to confer the overall command of the land forces on President Bartolomé Mitre of Argentina initially, even though the Brazilian military resources were much larger, mainly because the initial campaign would have to take place in Argentine territory, and then in Paraguayan territory adjoining Argentina. Because Brazil had incomparably the biggest navy, however, they agreed that command of the naval forces should be conferred initially on the Brazilian Admiral Tamandaré. The decisions, however, caused a lot of friction and dissension with the Uruguayans accusing President Mitre of being overcautious and the Argentines accusing the Brazil's navy of failing to cooperate with the army.

The third indent of Article III led to the creation of the Army of the Vanguard led by the fierce Uruguayan gaucho Venancio Flores,^[38] whose function was to hurry ahead through the eastern part of the province of Corrientes, as described in Palleja's diaries.^[39]

Article VI

By this article the Allies pledged not to lay down their arms, unless by mutual consent, until they had abolished the López government, nor to treat separately with the enemy. This article has been criticised for making it difficult to negotiate peace. Indeed, after the initial enthusiasm, Argentina had a strong antiwar party and had it not been for Brazil, it is possible that Argentina might have opted to negotiate peace.

Article VII

As foreshadowed in Article 6, this clarified that the enemy the Paraguayan government (i.e., López) rather than the country of Paraguay. Therefore, a volunteer anti-López Paraguayan Legion would be admitted to join the Allies. It has been objected that the Paraguayan Legion were traitors to their country, but there can be no doubt that the López government was a dictatorship with an emigrée opposition. A different objection is that Paraguayan prisoners of war were forced to join the Legion or, at any rate, the Allied armies, which, had it been true, would have been outrageous.

Article VIII

This reiterated that the Allies bound themselves to respect the independence and sovereignty of the Paraguayan Republic, because the real enemy was the López regime. Although at the time some objected to this as a cynical manoeuvre, there is really little ground to doubt the sincerity of the Allies' motives on this point.^[40] Brazil and Argentina were traditional rivals, and neither wanted the other to absorb Paraguay.

A separate complaint was that the Allies did not really mean to respect the territorial integrity of Paraguay, because they meant to help themselves to large portions of Paraguayan territory. However, this objection presupposes that those territories were, in international law, Paraguayan, when in fact they had long been in dispute. No third-party State recognised anyone's claim to those territories; and like considerable parts of South America they were not really occupied by anyone other than aboriginal inhabitants. Brazil and Paraguay had been in dispute about the borders between Paraguay and the Mato Grosso; and large parts of the territories of the Chaco and the Misiones were in dispute between Paraguay and Argentina. Thus the territories were genuinely in dispute, and in the nineteenth century it was not surprising that, if there was to be a war, the victor should occupy territories in dispute as the spoils of victory.

Article IX

Still on the theme that the war was really against the López regime, this article provided that the Allies would collectively guarantee the independence of Paraguay for five years. In nineteenth century international practice a Power that guaranteed the independence of a country was agreeing to protect it by force should it be threatened. Bearing in mind the traditional rivalry and suspicion between Brazil and Argentina, what this signified was that if one threatened Paraguay the other would come to Paraguay's aid.

An objection against Article 9 was that the guarantee was only for 5 years, which was practically meaningless since the war lasted for 5 years anyway. However, the Allies were not to know this in 1865. Besides, another interpretation is that the 5 years would begin to run at the conclusion of the war. This interpretation is supported by the words "in conformity with the foregoing article". The foregoing article (article 8) said that "the Paraguayan people may elect their own government and give it any institutions they make fit", which would not have been possible until López's overthrow—i.e., until the end of the war.

Article XIV

This article provided that Paraguay would pay an indemnity for the war, which was criticized for being excessively harsh. But at the war's end, Paraguay was in no position to pay any indemnities, which were ultimately cancelled,^[41] nothing having been paid.^[42][43]

Paraguay successfully argued that if Paraguay had to pay indemnities, it would indicate, contrary to the Allies' claim, that the war was against the nation of Paraguay rather than López, the former president and instigator of the war.^[44]

Article XVI

By this article the allies agreed the boundaries that would result from their victory in the war. Subject to the later Hayes arbitration (which awarded the Chaco north of the Pilcomayo river to Paraguay), and subject to the territorial dispute between Paraguay and Bolivia (which was resolved by the much later Chaco War), the boundaries are those which exist now. The lower part of the Mato Grosso belongs to Brazil. The provinces of Formosa, Chaco and Misiones belong to Argentina.

Note that, by the second indent of this Article, Argentina was supposed to receive territory on the right bank of the River Paraguay (i.e. in the Great Chaco) all the way up to Bahia Negra. That is about 600 km to the north of the present boundary at the Pilcomayo river. For the reasons explained in the second section of this Article, from the moment the Treaty was signed Brazil set out to frustrate Argentina's claim to this territory, and succeeded. For a detailed account see Warren, chapter 10.^[45]

Article XVIII

The treaty was to be secret until its principal object had been fulfilled. Secret treaties, though they went out of fashion after the First World War,^[46] and are now regarded as unwise, were commonplace in the nineteenth century.

The British consul at Rosario Thomas Hutchinson thought that the "principal object" referred to the demolition of the Fortress of Humaitá, though not mentioned until the Protocol.^[47][48]

The Protocol

The Protocol was an appendix to the Treaty signed on the same day, apparently as an afterthought.^[48]

Article 1 expressly provided that the Fortress of Humaitá must be demolished and that "it shall not be permitted that others of an equal nature should be erected, which might impede the faithful execution of the Treaty".

The Protocol also required the disarmament of Paraguay and the sharing of military trophies and booty.

Alleged "secret clauses"

Sometimes, writings on the Paraguayan war may give the impression that certain special clauses of the Treaty were secret, while others were not. For example:

The overt object of the triple alliance was merely to secure free navigation of the rivers and to crush the Paraguayan dictator; the war was presented as a crusade on behalf of civilisation and liberty. This was propaganda. The treaty of alliance contained secret clauses providing for the annexation of disputed territory ....^[49]

Or:

Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay signed the Treaty of the Triple Alliance, which committed the three countries to a war to remove Solano López ... The Treaty as published declared that the Allies would respect the independence of Paraguay... The Treaty also contained secret clauses which foresaw fundamental adjustments in Paraguay's borders after the war... Paraguay would be reduced to a quarter of its existing territory."^[50]

Legally, and by Article 18, all of the clauses of the Treaty were of equally secret status. There were no 'public' vs. 'secret' clauses in the Treaty. All of the clauses the Treaty are set forth verbatim in this Article. There are no others.

However some provisions of the Treaty were obvious at the time or easy to guess (e.g., that there was some sort of alliance against López) and others were less so (e.g., the precise extent to which Argentina's territorial claims were to be vindicated). The confusion arose because none of the clauses were open to public inspection, which led to rumours.^[51]

Publication

According to Thompson the main provisions were quickly leaked to the Buenos Aires press.^[52]

According to Professor Thomas L. Whigham, publication of the detailed text was achieved as follows. The British chargé d'affaires in Montevideo William Garrow Lettsom had asked the Uruguayan foreign minister Carlos de Castro point-blank if the Allies planned to partition Paraguay. With the intention of soothing him de Castro requested discretion and surreptitiously gave him a complete copy of the treaty. But Lettsom was not satisfied: was this confiscation of part of its territory really better than a general annexation? He decided to send a copy to Lord Russell. The British government had for long been opposed to any sort of territorial concessions in Uruguay, and by extension anywhere in the Plate region.

The text of the Treaty annoyed Russell and his colleagues who considered it to breach long established diplomatic principles in the region. The British government ignored Lettsom's promises of secrecy and hurried the publication the complete treaty as part of a Blue Book put before Parliament without comment at the beginning of March 1866.

The news reached South America some weeks later and created an avalanche of adverse publicity.^[53]

Bolivia and Peru protested against the treaty and Chile seemed inclined to do the same. On the other hand, when the treaty was published in a Paraguayan weekly, it convinced many people that López was right to wage war with the Allies, and that "Paraguay was compelled to fight for her very existence".^[54] Thompson noted that "it gave me a further zest to fight for Paraguay, as I believed, from the terms of the Protocol, that she must either fight or be absorbed".^[55]

The Allies

The Allies overthrew the government of Francisco Solano López and razed the Fortress of Humaitá as required by the Protocol. Despite Article XIV's stipulations on indemnities, Paraguay's bankruptcy meant that the expenses of the war were irrecoverable and the demand was eventually dropped.

Conflict between Argentina and Brazil

Argentina and Brazil were on the brink of war between 1870 and 1876 due to treaty disputes and misunderstandings.

At the end of the war a provisional government was set up in Paraguay under the auspices of the Allies. The country continued to be occupied by Allied troops, chiefly Brazilian.^[56] Additionally, Brazilian forces were occupying the Isla del Cerrito, an island near the mouth of the Paraguay River claimed by Argentina, but which had served as Brazil's main naval base during the war.

Despite Article VI, which forbade individual countries from negotiating peace treaty, in 1872 Brazil sent Baron Cotegipe to Asunción to negotiate a separate treaty with Paraguay without any explanation to Argentina or Uruguay.^[57] This infuriated Argentina, whose foreign minister Carlos Tejedor sent a harshly worded missive excoriating Brazil for trying to negotiate privately with Paraguay. The Buenos Aires press misunderstood and exaggerated the extent of Brazil's breach of faith and said that war with Brazil was the only way of answering it.^[58]

As a result Argentina took possession of Villa Occidental, a settlement in the Central Chaco to the north of the Pilcomayo River.^[57] The Central Chaco was claimed both by Paraguay and Argentina, but was an area given to Argentina by Article XVI of the Treaty of the Triple Alliance.

Argentina sent ex-president Bartolomé Mitre to Brazil to help to restore good relations, and by late 1873 tension seemed to be over.^[59] However, it was not long before Argentina fortified Martín García Island ^[60]. The island was a longstanding bone of contention between Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, which has sovereignty of the island today. Located in the basin of the Río de la Plata, it could be used to threaten free navigation within the basin. As a result, Brazil reinforced its fleet in the Río de la Plata. Argentina began to acquire war materiel and to buy warships. The American minister in Rio de Janeiro also thought that Argentina was behind an unsuccessful attempt to topple President Jovellanos of Paraguay, whom the Argentines said was a Brazilian puppet ^[61].

In April 1874, Uruguay, the junior partner in the Alliance, negotiated a separate treaty of friendship with Paraguay under the auspices of Brazil. Argentina broke off diplomatic relations with Uruguay.^[62] The American minister thought that if war did break out between Argentina and Brazil, Uruguay would be on Brazil's side, and that the Argentine provinces of Corrientes and Entre Ríos (where there was considerable opposition to the government in Buenos Aires, and which in those days were virtually self-governing) would break away; he would not be surprised if, under Brazilian influence, there was formed "a new Riverine Republic … [which] would be composed of Uruguay, Entre Rios, Corrientes and Paraguay" ^[63].

In 1875, Argentina started fortifying Martín García Island again, which the United States saw as a full treaty violation threatening free navigation. "The problem was compounded by the appearance of two new Argentina ironclads, which caused further Brazilian apprehension and curiosity" ^[64].

In 1875, the Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil decided to try to prevent a war with Argentina, taking up the matter with Carlos Tejedor himself. Matters seemed to be progressing well, when Tejedor suddenly left Brazil. It appeared that Tejedor had been negotiating Argentina's own unilateral treaty with Paraguay, taking advantage of the fact that Paraguayan envoy Jaime Sosa was in Rio de Janeiro at the time. They signed the Tejedor-Sosa treaty, which called for the territory of Villa Occidental to be given to Argentina ^[65]. This treaty was quickly rejected by the Paraguayan government. It seems that Tejedor and Sosa expected this outcome but that Tejedor signed the treaty anyway to defy Brazil ^[66].

In the end Brazil and Argentina resolved their differences because "[they] had both learned from past experience that even a successful war would end in national financial disaster". In December 1876 they signed an agreement by which the island of Cerrito was ceded to Argentina, the Chaco south of the Pilcomayo River went to Argentina, the northern Chaco was left to Bolivia, and the Central Chaco was to be arbitrated between Argentina and Paraguay.

Brazil

On January 9, 1872, Paraguay and Brazil was signed a treaty in which Paraguay recognized as debt to Brazil all damages caused to Brazilian people and cities at an interest of 6% with an annual amortization of 1%.^[67] Paraguay opened up all of its waterways, the Parana and Uruguay rivers, to Brazilian trade and navigation. Brazil also reserved the right to occupy Paraguay with its imperial army in order to maintain peace and ensure treaty compliance.^[67]

The national limits between Paraguay and Brazil were established in three different treaties. On the treaty signed on January 9, 1872, the limits were set to be these: the riverbed of the Paraná River from Yguasu's mouth up to Parana's Seven Falls waterfall or Guaira Falls; from the Guaira Falls, by the summit of the Mbaracayu Range and later by Amambay's up to Apa River's source, from where it follows its riverbed down to its mouth on the eastern shore of the Paraguay River.^[67]

On January 16, 1872, another treaty was signed where the release of all deserters, prisoners and criminals of war was established.^[68] Two days later on the 18 a new treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation was signed. By the January 7, 1874, protocol, the Estrella stream was considered the Apa River's source.

The last and definite treaty was signed on May 21, 1927, in Rio de Janeiro. A complement to the first treaty, it established that the limit between both countries was the riverbed of the Paraguay river from the mouth of the Apa River with the Paraguay River up to its mouth in Bahia Negra.^[68]

Uruguay

A treaty of Peace, Commerce and Navigation was signed on December 13, 1873, between Paraguay and Uruguay. As with the Brazilian treaty, Paraguay recognized the expenses, damages and detriments of Uruguayan campaign. Both governments also committed to return all prisoners of war and reopen commerce on the rivers.^[68]

Argentina

A Treaty of Peace with Argentina was signed on February 3, 1876, between Paraguay and Argentina. In it, Paraguay recognized all war expenses as well as the damages and detriments caused to Argentine public and private property.^[69] The Navigation and transit of the Paraguay, Parana and Uruguay River was also opened.

In terms of borders, the main riverbed of the Parana River, from the Yguasy mouth up to its meeting with the Paraguay River; and from the meeting of Paraguay River with Pilcomayo River, following this river's main riverbed leaving thus the Central Chaco region as Argentine territory.^[69] The territory between the main Pilcomayo riverbed up to Bahia Negra was divided in two sections, having the first one (from the Verde River – 23° 10' Latitude South) was granted to Paraguay, and the second one was submitted to an arbitrator designed by both governments.^[69]

The arbitrator chosen by both nations was U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes, who awarded Central Chaco to Paraguay in 1878, and the Argentine army left Chaco Boreal in May 1879.^[70] In gratitude, Paraguay renamed the department as "Presidente Hayes" and the capital as "Villa Hayes". In fact, Asunción even has a soccer team named Club Presidente Hayes.^[71]