Pactos de Mayo

The Pactos de Mayo are 4 protocolls signed in Santiago de Chile by Chile and Argentina on 28. May 1902 in order to distend its relations and resolve its territorial disputes. The disputes had led both countries to increase their military budget and ran an arms race in the 1890s.

1.- "Acta Preliminar": Argentina renounce to intervene in the Chilean affairs at the Pacific ocean

2.- "Tratado general de Arbitraje": Frame contract to define how to resolve territorial controverse

3.- "Convención sobre Limitación de Armamentos Navales": The most famous of the protocolls is the arms control treaty. It stated that Chile and Argentina selled off warships they had under construction in Europa and the disarmament of some ships already in service. As a consequence of territorial disputes both countries had began to increase their military budget and an arms race ensued in the 1890s. Of longer-lasting importance, the pact resolved the power projection competition by assigning each country a sphere of influence: Chile in the Pacific and Argentina in the Atlantic and Rio de la Plata.

4.- "Agreement": to ask the Edward VII of the United Kingdom the demarcation ad hoc of his [http://untreaty.un.org/cod/riaa/cases/vol_IX/37-49.pdf award of 1902] .

During the Beagle Channel Arbitration Argentina brought forward the argument that the Pactos de Mayo implied a demarcation clause between both countries: Chile at the Pacific and Argentina at the Atlantic. Chile denied the argument, the pactos are not a Border Treaty and therefore no place is named as limit between the Pacific and the Atlantic. The Cape Horn as limit between both oceans is an Argentine Convention.

References

See also

* Beagle conflict
* [http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Tratado_General_de_Arbitraje_entre_Chile_y_Argentina_de_1902 Tratado General de Arbitraje entre Chile y Argentina de 1902]

Bibliography

* Joseph S. Tulchin, Francisco Rojas Aravena, Ralph H. Espach, "Strategic Balance and Confidence Building Measures in the Americas", Stanford University Press, 1998, ISBN 0804736081, 9780804736084, 199 Pages
* [http://www.cema.edu.ar/ceieg/arg-rree/7/7-028.htm Los pactos de Mayo de 1902] in Spanish Language
* [http://www.cema.edu.ar/ceieg/arg-rree/7/7-032.htm El debate sobre los pactos de Mayo en la política interna argentina] in Spanish Language
* [http://www.histarmar.com.ar/InfHistorica/AntiguaFlotadeMar/NavesArgenlaGuerraRusoJaponesa.htm Trabajo de investigación histórica enviado por su autor, Sr. Carlos A. Manus como colaboración a Histarmar] with the text of the Pactos, in Spanish Language