Colombia Peru War (jan 1, 1932 – jan 1, 1933)

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On the first of September 1932, the conflict that would become known as the Colombia-Peru war would begin, after two hundred Peruvian soldiers attacked and captured the southern amazonian Colombian city of Leticia. The attack came as a surprise to Colombians, as in the past there had appeared to be no reason for conflict in the region, with some even questioning whether the Peruvian government had even ordered the invasion, due to the vast majority of invaders being civilians and not soldiers, however, this would eventually expand into a multiple month long conflict along the amazonian border between Peru and Colombia. Consisting mainly of skirmishes along the disputed border between the two countries, both wanting to control the area for the valuable natural resources, mainly oil and rubber, would end up claiming. Disputes had existed in this region before, notably in ten years of minor skirmishes between Colombia Peru and Ecuador around the region that had seemingly been resolved on March 24th 1922 with the Salomon-Lozano treaty having established a reasonable border between the three nations, however, a decade later, disputes were reignited, and war erupted between the two countries along the Putumayo river, ending in somewhere around 200 casualties on both sides. The Colombians, avoiding Leticia due to strong Peruvian reinforcements, found success in battles for Tarapaca and Gueppi, and after the assassination of Peruvian president Luis Sanchez Cerro on April 30th 1933, his successor had much less enthusiasm to continue the conflict, leading to gradual de escalation, until a league of nations enforced ceasefire was put into effect on May 24th 1933. Leticia would eventually be returned to Colombia after around a year of UN control, and in the following years, the war would largely be forgotten. Relations between Colombia and Peru would quickly improve, and the overall legacy of the war is hardly felt today, with most Colombians being unaware that it even took place

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