Department of Tarapacá (Peru)
| Tarapacá | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Peru | |||||||||
| 1878–1883 | |||||||||
Location of Tarapacá within Peru (1874) | |||||||||
| Capital | Iquique | ||||||||
| Demonym | Tarapacan (en) Tarapaqueño/a (es) | ||||||||
| Area | |||||||||
• 1883 | 69,000 km2 (27,000 sq mi) | ||||||||
| Historical era | War of the Pacific | ||||||||
| 25 April 1837 | |||||||||
• Littoral Province | 1 December 1868 | ||||||||
• Status upgraded | 17 August 1878 | ||||||||
| 2 November 1879 | |||||||||
| 20 October 1883 | |||||||||
| 31 October 1884 | |||||||||
| Contained within | |||||||||
| • Department | Littoral (1837–1853) Moquegua (1853–1868) | ||||||||
| Subdivisions | |||||||||
| • Type | Provinces | ||||||||
| • Units | Province of Iquique Province of Tarapacá | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Chile | ||||||||
Tarapacá (Aymara: Tarapaka) was a department of Peru. Located in the country's then southernmost coast, it existed as a province from 1837 to 1878, when it was elevated to a department, after which it was occupied by Chile in 1879 and unconditionally ceded in 1883. Its capital was Iquique.
Tarapacá was created in 1837 as a province of the Littoral, a department of South Peru. The short-lived country became one of three constituent countries of the Peru–Bolivian Confederation, which was dissolved in 1839 following the War of the Confederation. It was later given autonomy as a littoral province in 1868, after which it was elevated to a department in 1878. Tarapacá was essential to the Peruvian nitrate monopoly, created by the Peruvian government in 1875 to capitalize on the high demand for nitrates at the time.
The political disputes that emerged over the territory of the Atacama Desert and its respective exploitation rights eventually led to war in 1879. The conflict, later known as the War of the Pacific, concluded with a Chilean military victory and the occupation of several areas of Peru and the Bolivian coast. Tarapacá had been occupied since 1879, starting with a landing operation on November 2, but was only formally ceded in 1883, with the signing of the Treaty of Ancón.