Ecuadorian-Peruvian War

When Manuel Prado y Ugarteche won Peruvian presidency in 1939 he was soon confronted with a border conflict with Ecuador. After gaining independence from Spanish rule, Ecuador had been left without access to either the Amazon or the Río Marañón, and thus had no access to the Atlantic Ocean. Attempting to assert its territorial claims in a region near the Río Marañón, Ecuador occupied militarily Zarumilla, a town along its southwestern border with Peru. The Peruvian Army responded promptly and engaged the Ecuadorian Army in combat.

The brief war was a major success for Peruvian forces. Peru had established the first paratroop unit in the region and used it to good effect - the first combat in the hemisphere involving airborne troops resulted in the capture of the town of Puerto Bolívar, in Ecuador, on July 27, 1941. When military actions ceased at the end of the month, Peru held Ecuador's southernmost province of El Oro and much of the eastern jungle territory that had been part of Ecuador since the 1830s. The Rio Protocol of February 1942 ended the war and awarded to Peru some 205,000 square kilometres of previously disputed Amazon territory.

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