Bolivia breaks off relations with Germany

On 13 April 1917 the government of Bolivia in La Paz handed the German minister Wilhelm von Sanden his passports and announced the breaking off of diplomatic relations with the German Empire. The next day the Bolivian minister in Washington, Ignacio Calderón, informed Secretary of State Robert Lansing. He wrote that the break was the “natural consequence” of the attitude of his country, which “is happy to stand by the side” of the United States in defence of law and justice against the rule of force and violence. Bolivia was the second South American country to break with Germany, two days after Brazil.

The government of President Ismael Montes had already taken its stand in the winter. When Washington broke off relations with Germany on 3 February, the Bolivian foreign minister told the American minister John O’Rear that his government fully supported the “noble and lofty” attitude of the United States. In reply to the German note on unrestricted submarine warfare, La Paz protested, stating that the ban on neutral shipping in the unrestricted zone and attacks on neutral merchant ships could not pass without objection. It added that in this crisis it would align its attitude with that of the United States government. The note was published by every Bolivian newspaper.

In its note of 13 April the Bolivian ministry wrote that Germany was in practice carrying out its threats against neutral ships and people. It also recalled that the Bolivian minister in Berlin had been on board the Dutch liner Tubantia, torpedoed in March 1916 in “neutral Dutch waters”. All the passengers and crew of the Tubantia survived, but this had not been forgotten in La Paz. In the Bolivian government’s view, Germany had not only violated every principle of justice but had in practice also annulled the Hague Conventions, which it had itself signed. In these circumstances it was impossible to maintain relations any longer.

Bolivia, landlocked since the War of the Pacific, had, unlike Brazil, lost no ship. It was guided above all by solidarity with Washington, but the economy also counted. The war had raised the price of tin, Bolivia’s main export, which was bought chiefly by Great Britain and the United States. Its ties with Germany were not weak, however. Since 1908 the Bolivian army had been trained by a German military mission under Hans Kundt, who in 1914 returned to Germany to fight at the front.

Things went no further than the break in relations. Bolivia did not declare war on Germany, and on 9 June von Sanden sailed from Rio de Janeiro on the Dutch ship Frisia, together with the former German minister in Brazil. The Americans issued them safe-conducts for the journey via New York. Over the following months Guatemala, Peru, Uruguay and Ecuador took a similar step.