The Peruvian War of Independence was fought from 1811 to 1826 when Peruvian patriots rose up against the Spanish and royalist authorities during the South American Wars of Liberation.
History[]
The overthrow of the Spanish Bourbon monarchy by the French emperor Napoleon I at the start of the Peninsular War in 1808 caused a power vacuum in South America, whose Spanish colonies questioned the authority of the new Spanish monarch, Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte. However, the Viceroy of Peru Jose Fernando de Abascal maintained order by organizing armies to suppress uprisings in Upper Peru (Bolivia) and then annexing Upper Peru to the rest of Peru, using its silver to enrich the merchants at Lima and winning their loyalty.
Despitie the royalist tendencies of Peru, there were two short-lived uprisings in Tacna in 1811 and 1813, an 1812 Native American revolt in Huanuco, and a rebellion in Cuzco from 1814 to 1815. The last revolution began when the criollo elite allied with the retired brigadier Mateo Pumacahua and rebelled against the Audiencia, forming a junta which demanded the complete implementation of the Cadiz Cortez's liberal reforms passed by Spain's 1812 Constitution. After some victories in Peru and Upper Peru, the rebellion was crushed in mid-1815 when royal forces and loyal curacas (native chiefs) combined their strength and took Cuzco, having Pumacahua executed.
Viceroy Abascal proceeded to send the royalist regiments of Lima and Arequipa, reinforced by expeditionary forces from Europe, to crush the Chilean patriot cause. The first expedition succeeded in 1814, but it was later defeated at the Battle of Chacabuco in 1817; the second expedition in 1818 achieved early successes, but was defeated at the Battle of Maipu that same year. On 5 February 1819, Argentina and Chile signed a treaty to prepare for the invasion and liberation of Peru. The Argentine leader Jose de San Martin believed that the liberation of Argentina would not be secure until the royalist stronghold in Peru was defeated. On 21 August 1820, the Chilean admiral Thomas Cochrane landed in Valparaiso with 4,118 soldiers, and it captured Ica on 8 September. On 9 October 1820, the Grenadiers of Cuzco rebelled and proclaimed the independence of Guayaquil (Ecuador), and, on 21 October, San Martin created the flag of Peru.
On 1 November 1820, Juan Antonio Alvarez de Arenales proclaimed the independence of Huamanga (Ayacucho), and he proceeded to defeat a royalist division under Joaquin de la Pezuela at Cerro de Pascua. On 5 June 1821, the new Viceroy Jose de la Serna announced his departure from Lima, but he ordered its garrison to resist the patriots in the Royal Felipe Fortress. On 27 June, however, the patriots entered Lima, and the inhabitants of the city begged San Martin to enter the city and end the Spanish repression. De la Serna moved his headquarters to Cuzco, and he attempted to help the beleaguered royalist forces in Callao. On 22 September 1822, after a debate with Simon Bolivar over the future of the Peruvian government, San Martin abandoned Peru; Bolivar had supported a republican government, while San Martin had supported a constitutional monarchy, and Bolivar was ultimately entrusted with command of the independence movement. The patriots would face tough fighting from the royalists, and the Peruvians were bogged down by the royalist resistance even after independence. The republicans controlled northern Peru and the coast, but the rest of the country remained under royalist control. Eventually, Gran Colombia's army, led by Bolivar, arrived in Lima on 10 December 1823 with the aims of liberating all of Peru. The Peruvians were victorious under Bolivar at the Battle of Junin and under Antonio Jose de Sucre at the Battle of Ayacucho, and the last royalist holdouts surrendered the San Felipe Fortress in 1826. Peru was liberated from Spanish rule, but it remained a highly unstable state for decades.