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Martial portraits figure on the stamps of many of the South and Central States; to mention them all would require a goodly sized dictionary of American biography. In addition, specialists find much interest in tracing, by extra-territorial postmarks, the movements of troops in the various wars between Brazil and Paraguay, Chili and Peru, etc.; and many of the countries give us scenes recording outstanding incidents in their histories, especially on their issues commemorative of the centenary of their freedom from the Spanish yoke. Chili, for example, depicts the battles of Chacabuco, Roble, Maipo, the sea fight of April
27, 1818, between the Lautaro and the Esmeralda, and another ending in the capture of the Maria Isabella on October 28. In this series also is a portrait of the renowned Admiral Cochrane, the 10th Earl of Dundonald, who organised the Chilian Navy and played a great part in Chili's struggles for freedom from Spain.
Ecuador's issue of 1896 marks the end of a period of civil strife and the triumph of the Liberal Party, a portion of the proceeds of the sale of the stamps being devoted to the destitute families of soldiers killed while serving in defence of the Liberal cause.
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Colombia gives us a number of stamp designs of war-like interest, including warrior heroes, and a crude picture (Fig. 318) of the cruiser Cartagena. A particularly bitter commemoration of the centenary of the independence of Colombia in 1910 was the picturing on a registration fee stamp of the wholesale executions ordered by the Spanish victors at Carthagena on February 24, 1816. (Fig. 319). To this stamp objections were raised by the Spanish Minister at Bogota, and in deference to his protests it was withdrawn from circulation.
Guatemala displays its Artillery Barracks (Fig. 320). The much disturbed Dominican Republic warns off possible invaders by displaying the fortress of Santo Domingo. Its map issue of 1900 (Fig. 320A), owing to a dispute over the boundary indicated nearly led to war with the Haytian Republic. Hayti shows the fortress of Sans Souci ([Fig. 321]). Peru having had its stamps much overprinted by the Chilians in 1881-1883, vaunts more peaceful subjects on its recent picture stamps, e.g., its General Post Office, Municipal Institute of Hygiene, and the Lima Medical School. Uruguay, after its civil war of 1904, added a "peace" overprint to its contemporary stamps, reading PAZ-1904. It also illustrates the fortress and port of Montevideo,
and its cruiser of the same name on its issues of 1908 and 1909 ([Fig. 322]), and Venezuela has given us crude sketches of the revolutionary steamer Bankigh ([Fig. 323]), and a map stamp illustrative of the great boundary dispute with Great Britain.