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Peru Postindependence: Military Defeat and Nation-Building
The military's role in Peruvian affairs during most of
the
nineteenth century was a large one, owing to both the
difficulties of building a domestic political consensus
and
significant foreign military threats. However, until the
establishment of the army's Military Academy (Escuela
Militar) in
Lima's southern district of Chorrillos in 1896, Peru's
armed
forces tended to be more the personal, noncareer armies of
local
and regional caudillos than a true national and
professional
force. Disputes over boundary and sovereignty issues
provoked
conflicts between Peru and Colombia (1828), Chile
(1836-39), and
Bolivia (1841), all with outcomes unfavorable to Peruvian
interests and objectives. Domestically, military leaders
occupied
the presidency almost continuously from 1821 to 1872, when
the
first elected civilian president, Manuel Pardo (1872-76),
took
office. The most successful of Peru's early military
presidents,
General Marshal Ramón Castilla (1845-51, 1854-62), brought
some
degree of stability and order and a more disciplined
military
force.
Castilla's force was successful in a brief border
conflict
with Ecuador and a naval blockade of that country in 1859,
as
well as in a more serious attempt by Spain to reassert its
influence in Peru, Ecuador, and Chile in the mid-1860s.
Spain had
not yet recognized Peru's independence, and its naval
forces
blockaded Peruvian ports and occupied the economically
vital
Chincha Islands off the Peruvian coast in April 1864.
These
islands held rich deposits of guano, which became a
Peruvian
government monopoly that was largely responsible for
Peru's
growing prosperity in the 1850s and 1860s. When the
Spanish fleet
attacked Callao on May 2, 1866, Peruvian forces repulsed
the
invaders in a significant military victory and brought
about the
lifting of the Spanish blockade along with the withdrawal
of
Spanish ships. This defeat ended Spain's last attempt to
regain
dominance in its former colonies. Extension of diplomatic
recognition was to follow, but not until 1879.
Peru's military preparedness did not keep pace with its
increasing economic prosperity in the 1870s. President
Pardo
reduced military expenditures sharply as part of his
Civilista
Party's (Partido Civilista--PC) policy of trying to
downgrade the
historically dominant role of the armed forces. His
elected
successor, General Mariano Ignacio Prado (1865-67,
1876-79),
found his military options limited indeed when he
attempted to
deal with the growing problem of Chilean investment and
ownership
of the nitrate workings in Peru's arid, southernmost
province of
Tarapacá and, at the same time, with Chilean military
threats
against Bolivia to protect its equally significant nitrate
investments in Bolivia's coastal province of Antofagasta.
Despite its discouraging military options, Peru felt
obliged
to honor its secret treaty obligations with Bolivia when
Chile
declared war on Bolivia on April 5, 1879. Thus ensued the
War of
the Pacific, a military, political, and economic disaster
unprecedented in Peruvian history. Although Bolivia
resigned
itself to defeat within months and gave up its coast to
Chile,
Peru fought on. Peruvian naval forces were soon
overwhelmed, even
though Admiral Miguel Grau, aboard the iron-clad monitor
Huáscar, acquitted his outclassed forces
brilliantly in
defeat and death (to become a Peruvian national hero after
whom
the cruiser Almirante Grau of today's Peruvian Navy
is
named). Chile's army advanced northward to occupy much of
southern Peru, including Iquique in 1879, Arica in 1880,
and
although slowed and harassed by the courageous actions of
General
Andrés Avelina Cáceres and his troops, began a more than
two-year
occupation of Lima in January 1881
(see
fig. 3). By the
Treaty of
Ancón of October 1883, Peru accepted defeat, giving up all
of
Tarapacá Province (which included Iquique) and agreeing to
Chilean occupation of Tacna and Arica for ten years, until
a
plebescite was to be held. (This provision was not honored
and
was the source of much bitterness between Chile and Peru
before a
solution was reached in 1929 with United States
arbitration,
gaving Tacna back to Peru and awarding Arica to Chile.)
Chilean
forces finally withdrew from Lima in August 1884
(see The War of the Pacific, 1879-83
, ch. 1).
Data as of September 1992
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