War of the Pacific, 1879–1884

The War of the Pacific began in 1879 after disputes over taxation, commercial interests and sovereignty in the nitrate-rich Atacama Desert. Chile fought the allied republics of Peru and Bolivia at sea and on land, eventually occupying Lima and gaining control of extensive coastal territories.

The conflict transformed the regional balance of power. Bolivia lost its Pacific coastline, Peru endured occupation and political disruption, and Chile acquired valuable nitrate provinces. Military service, bereavement and the movement of civilians brought the war into households far from the battlefield.

Portrait in Sepia places family history against the war and its consequences, using personal trauma and disrupted memory to connect private lives with national conflict. The period supports fiction about military mobilisation, Pacific commerce, occupation and the social effects of territorial expansion.