Bolivia July 1932.
Thinking promotions are too slow, Bolivian militaries launch a a serie of attacks on Paraguayan outposts in the Chaco, a thorny and worthless desert, and this without giving any information to their government.
The reoccupation of these outposts led the Bolivian government, unaware of the previous incidents, to seize a number of small forts on the border. Quite upset, Paraguay decided to allow its army to react.
This was the start of the only full-scale conventional War fought in the Americas during the 20th Century, a most bizarre and tragic conflict, which consumed the lives of tens of thousands of men, and where access to water became the single most important factor. Although ill-equipped, the paraguyans still managed quite well, not the least because that many of their soldiers were Guarani Indians, who were quite used to a life in the scrub desert of Chaco, while the Bolivian Antiplano were mountain people, who had enormous problems to cope.
