The Spanish Arbitration of the Ecuador-Peru Dispute
Although a border question had existed between Ecuador and Peru since independence, it was not until 1887 that they made serious efforts to resolve their mutual frontiers. The formative first phase of the dispute extended from the creation of Ecuador in 1830; the second began August 1, 1887, with the Bonifaz-Espinosa agreement and concluded in 1910 with the total collapse of the settlement procedures therein pacted. The intervening twenty-three years saw the development of arguments destined to be used to some extent even down to the present, witnessed the futile attempt of the mother country to arbitrate, and brought the major American powers into the matter for the first time.