Peru's Amazonian Attribute: the Construction of Sovereignty, 1903-1942

Starting from the premise that borders are constructed rather than historically given, this article describes the process that, following the War of the Pacific (1879), turned civil and governmental actors in Peru to claim their own space in the Amazon, successively disputing territories with Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador and which, in the final analysis, appears to have been successful. This was a complex process that, in addition to demonstrating how Peru discarded the thesis of utis possidetis iuris, which it once supported, for the thesis of fait accompli, more appropriate for the de facto occupation of disputed space.