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CHAPTER XXVIII: Bolivia

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Bolivia having confiscated certain property belonging to a Chilian company, Chili despatched troops into the territory where the property was situated. This territory had previously been in dispute between the two Republics, but had been ceded to Bolivia on certain conditions. Peru having failed to mediate between the two governments, formed an alliance with Bolivia, and the allies declared war against Chili, April, 1879. The war dragged on for more than two years, resulting in the utter defeat of the allies. Chili deprived Peru of that portion of her territory containing the enormously rich nitrate deposits, and annexed Bolivia's only seaport, thus completely cutting off her communication with the sea.

The British having encroached on the territory of the Boers-the descendants of the Dutch colonists in South Africa-in 1880, the latter offered forcible resistance to the invaders. The Boers carried on a species of guerilla warfare, and after inflicting much injury on the British, overwhelmingly defeated them at the battle of Majuba Hill, where general Colley, the commander of the British forces, was slain. The Boers sent delegates to Europe, appealing especially to Germany to see that justice be done them. A settlement was concluded, largely, it is thought, through the interposition of prince Bismarck, which left Boer independence and autonomy as complete as before the invasion.

James A. Garfield, twentieth President of the United States, was inaugurated in the hundredth year after the close of the war of Independence; and his inaugural address outlined a period of conciliation toward the South, which had then passed through the friction of reconstruction. But at the time these expectations were about to be realized he was stricken down by the hand of an assassin, a weak-minded, fanatical creature, who was chagrined at not receiving an appointment to office. Vice-president Arthur, after the death of the President, succeeded him, retaining the cabinet of President Garfield. In 1885, a difficulty broke out between a British company in Burmah and King Thebaw, apropos of a concession claimed by the company for cutting teak wood. The British company claimed it was wronged; and the King averred that the company put forward its claims, as a pretext to seize his territory, and annex it to British India. King Thebaw's army was dispersed; the King and his household seized, and removed to India; and his kingdom was made a part of Great Britain's empire in Asia.

A short time previously France forcibly annexed Tonquin, a semi-independent vassal of China. an

The recuperative powers of France, after her crushing defeat by Germany, alarmed the latter, and prince Bismarck, then chancellor of the German empire, fearing an attack by France at an opportune moment, for the recovery of the lost provinces, formed the Triple Alliance - that is an offensive and defensive alliance, under certain conditions, by Germany, Austro-Hungary, and Italy. This has been offset by a dual alliance, between France and Russia, not so formally announced, but none the less real. -

Mr. Gladstone, having been elected prime Minister of the United Kingdom for the third time, undertook, in 1885, to carry out a series of reforms. He began by extending the franchise, so that practically at present the people of Great Britain and Ireland possess universal suffrage. The restriction of the franchise is so limited that it may be said only those who do not deserve to be allowed to participate in the making of the laws are excluded. It was the culmination of the first Reform Bill of 1832. The following year, Mr. Gladstone sought to carry out his policy of re-establishing a parliament in Dublin; but the British voters were not sufficiently educated for so radical a measure, and Mr. Gladstone was turned out of office. In August 1892, Mr. Gladstone was for the fourth time returned to power-the first instance of such a thing in the parliamentary history of England-on the Irish Home Rule programme-the triumphant result of his great reform bill of 1885.

In 1888, the government of the empire of Brazil decreed the freedom of all its slaves, numbering 1,500,000. By this act, slavery ceased to exist in the last of civilized countries.

The following year, the emperor Dom Pedro II. was deposed, placed on board a vessel, with the rest of the imperial family, and deported to Portugal, and the empire was transformed into a republic, by a bloodless revolution. Thus the last vestige of monarchy on the Western Continent disappeared without civil strife, or bloodshed. Shortly afterward, the Emperor and Empress died in exile.

On the accession to office of President Harrison, March 4, 1889, James G. Blaine became Secretary of State. The Secretary at once sought to carry out the policy, which had been interrupted while he was in the cabinet of President Garfield, by the latter's assassination. This policy involved closer commercial relation with Mexico and the Central and South American republics. Representatives of all the states south of the Rio Grande met at Washington, representing nearly one hundred and twenty millions of people. All of these states, through their delegates, agreed to settle their difficulties by arbitration, with the exception of Chili, which a short time subsequently was subjected to deep humilation in her difficulty with the United States by having rejected this proposal. Treaties of reciprocity were entered into between the United States and many of the Southern Republics; and the Postal Subsidy Law was passed by the United States Congress, as a result of this conference, which gives the United States a practical monopoly of South American trade. Even the British West Indies and Cuba had to fall into line, with the permission of Great Britain and Spain, as a result of this policy. An inter-Continental railway was one of the results of this conference, the surveys for which has already been made, and which will be realized ere many years.

Cardinal Lavegerie, of Algeria, Roman Catholic Primate of Africa, made a crusade in 1888 in Europe against the Arab slave trade in Africa. His exposition of the horrors of the infamous traffic-that costs the lives of about two million negroes yearly, and depopulated vast regions of Africa-made a profound impression on the Continent, and in Great Britain. He was largely instrumental in bringing about the anti-slavery congress at Brussels, which has resulted in concerted action by the leading European powers for the suppression of the slave trade. The power of the Arabs in the Lake region has now been broken, and the African coast north of Zanzibar being so carefully patrolled, the slave trade has received its death blow, and in few years will have ceased to exist.

The Russian government undertook the expulsion of the bulk of the Jewish inhabitants of the empire. The exodus that followed this policy occasioned untold hardship and suffering among the Hebrews of Russia; and large sums of money were raised on the Continent, in England, and the United States for the exiles. Baron Hirsch alone contributing ten million dollars. Colonies were formed in the Argentine Republic, the United States and Canada, and the severe lot of the exiles was largely mitigated by the charities of their own and other races. In 1891, a revolution broke out in Chili, for many years the most stable and prosperous of the South American states. President Balmaceda became involved with the Congress on a constitutional question, resulting in a bloody and bitter civil strife. Chili, though being politically independent, has been practically a commercial dependency of Great Britain; and British influence had sowed the seeds of friction between the Chilian Congressionalists and the United States, on account of our reciprocity policy that discriminated against the commercial monopoly of Great Britain. Furthermore, the American Minister, Eagan, was obnoxious, for personal reasons, to the British Legation in Santiago.

The United States commander in Chilian waters, and minister Egan were accused of acting in the interest of Balmaceda; and the sailors of the United States war-ship Baltimore were attacked in the streets of Valparaiso by a concerted plan, and one was killed and many wounded, the Chilian police joining in the murderous attack. Chili refused reparation, and minister Matta deliberately insulted the United States in his answer to the demand for reparation. The Congress at Washington, irrespective of party, declared its intention of supporting the President; a naval demonstration was made against the Chilian republic; the President was about to ask the Congress for authority to declare war; but, Chili, advised by the European powers, dismissed Señor Matta, appologized to the United States government, and paid seventy-five thousand dollars in gold for the two murdered, and the several wounded American sailors.

During the first six months of 1892 a famine, the result of a failure of the harvest of the previous years, prevailed over a vast extent of eastern and south -eastern Russia. Forty millions of people were reduced to starvation, millions of whom must have perished, were it not for the energetic action of the Czar's government. The ex- The export of all food products from the empire was prohibited by imperial ukase, and three , and three hundred and seventy-five millions of dollars was expended by the government in pregovernment in preserving the lives of the people, until the following harvest. The United States sent several shiploads of food to the famine-stricken people, and generous sums of money were raised for their relief, in the United States and Great Britain.