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Peru INDEPENDENCE IMPOSED FROM WITHOUT, 1808-24
Despite the Túpac Amaru revolts, independence was slow
to
develop in the Viceroyalty of Peru
(see
fig. 2). For one
thing,
Peru was a conservative, royalist stronghold where the
potentially restless creole elites maintained a relatively
privileged, if dependent, position in the old colonial
system. At
the same time, the "anti-white" manifestations of the
Túpac Amaru
revolt demonstrated that the indigenous masses could not
easily
be mobilized without posing a threat to the creole caste
itself.
Thus, when independence finally did come in 1824, it was
largely
a foreign imposition rather than a truly popular,
indigenous, and
nationalist movement. As historian David P. Werlich has
aptly put
it, "Peru's role in the drama of Latin American
independence was
largely that of an interested spectator until the final
act."
What the spectator witnessed prior to 1820 was a civil
war in
the Americas that pitted dissident creole elites in favor
of
independence against royalists loyal to the crown and the
old
colonial order. The movement had erupted in reaction to
Napoleon
Bonaparte's invasion of Spain in 1808, which deposed
Ferdinand
VII and placed a usurper, Joseph Bonaparte, on the Spanish
throne. In America this raised the question of the very
political
legitimacy of the colonial government. When juntas arose
in favor
of the captive Ferdinand in various South American
capitals
(except in Peru) the following year, even though of
relatively
short duration, they touched off a process toward eventual
separation that ebbed and flowed throughout the continent
over
the next fifteen years. This process developed its
greatest
momentum at the periphery of Spanish power in South
America--in
what became Venezuela and Colombia in the north and the
Río de la
Plata region, particularly Argentina, in the south.
Not until both movements converged in Peru during the
latter
phases of the revolt, specifically the 4,500-man
expeditionary
force led by General José de San Martín that landed in
Pisco in
September 1820, was Spanish control of Peru seriously
threatened.
San Martín, the son of a Spanish army officer stationed in
Argentina, had originally served in the Spanish army but
returned
to his native Argentina to join the rebellion. Once
Argentine
independence was achieved in 1814, San Martín conceived of
the
idea of liberating Peru by way of Chile. As commander of
the
5,500-man Army of the Andes, half of which was composed of
former
black slaves, San Martín, in a spectacular military
operation,
crossed the Andes and liberated Chile in 1817. Three years
later,
his somewhat smaller army left Valparaíso for Peru in a
fleet
commanded by a former British admiral, Thomas Alexander
Cochrane
(Lord Dundonald).
Although some isolated stirrings for independence had
manifested themselves earlier in Peru, San Martín's
invasion
persuaded the conservative creole intendant of Trujillo,
José
Bernardo de Tagle y Portocarrero, that Peru's liberation
was at
hand and that he should proclaim independence. It was
symptomatic
of the conservative nature of the viceroyalty that the
internal
forces now declaring for independence were led by a
leading
creole aristocrat, the fourth marquis of Torre Tagle,
whose
monarchist sympathies for any future political order
coincided
with those of the Argentine liberator.
The defeat of the last bastion of royal power on the
continent, however, proved a slow and arduous task.
Although a
number of other coastal cities quickly embraced the
liberating
army, San Martín was able to take Lima in July 1821 only
when the
viceroy decided to withdraw his considerable force to the
Sierra,
where he believed he could better make a stand. Shortly
thereafter, on July 28, 1821, San Martín proclaimed Peru
independent and then was named protector by an assembly of
notables. However, a number of problems, not the least of
which
was a growing Peruvian resentment over the heavy-handed
rule of
the foreigner they dubbed "King José," stalled the
campaign to
defeat the royalists. As a result, San Martín decided to
seek aid
from Simón Bolívar Palacios, who had liberated much of
northern
South America from Spanish power.
The two liberators met in a historic meeting in
Guayaquil in
mid-1822 to arrange the terms of a joint effort to
complete the
liberation of Peru. Bolívar refused to agree to a shared
partnership in the Peruvian campaign, however, so a
frustrated
San Martín chose to resign his command and leave Peru for
Chile
and eventual exile in France. With significant help from
San
Martín's forces, Bolívar then proceeded to invade Peru,
where he
won the Battle of Junín in August 1824. But it remained
for his
trusted lieutenant, thirty-one-year-old General Antonio
José de
Sucre Alcalá, to complete the task of Peruvian
independence by
defeating royalist forces at the hacienda of Ayacucho near
Huamanga (a city later renamed Ayacucho) on December 9,
1824.
This battle in the remote southern highlands effectively
ended
the long era of Spanish colonial rule in South America
(see Colonial Period
, ch. 5).
Data as of September 1992
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