| State |
Entry |
Exit |
Combat Forces |
Population |
Losses |
| Bolivia |
1836 |
1839 |
80000 |
1000000 |
2000 |
| Chile |
1836 |
1839 |
50000 |
4000000 |
4000 |
| Peru |
1836 |
1839 |
15000 |
1700000 |
1000 |
Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation... transitory union
of Peru and Bolivia (1836-39). Bolivia's dictator, Andrés Santa Cruz, conquered Peru
after helping to quell an army rebellion against Peruvian president Luís José de Orbego
so in 1835. Santa Cruz then divided Peru into a northern and a southern part, with Orbegoso
as president in the north and Gen. Ramón Herrera in the south. These states were then
joined to Bolivia, of which Gen. José Miguel de Velasco was made president. Santa Cruz
assumed the office of "protector" of the confederation, a lifetime and hereditary
office. Since he had already proved himself an able administrator in Bolivia,
influential Peruvians welcomed his rule.
Great Britain, France, and the United States recognized the
confederation, but its South American neighbours feared and opposed the powerful new
state. In 1836 fighting broke out between the confederation and Chile, whose relations
with independent Peru had already been strained by economic problems centring on
rivalry between their ports of Callao (near Lima) and
Valparaíso, Chile. In 1837 Santa Cruz's forces defeated an Argentine army sent to
topple him.
The Chileans, joined by Peruvians opposed to Santa Cruz,
persisted in their fight until, under the command of Gen. Manuel
Bulnes, they finally defeated the forces of the confederation at the Battle of Yungay
(department of
Ancash, Peru) on Jan. 20, 1839. This defeat caused the immediate dissolution of the
confederation; Santa Cruz went into exile.
*****
General Andrés de Santa Cruz, who had established a
confederation of Peru and Bolivia, supported opponents of Rosas's in Argentina. Rosas in
turn aided the influential governor of the northern province of Tucumán when that
governor decided to go to war against Santa Cruz's confederation. The northern
Argentine forces, in alliance with Chile and Peruvian nationalist rebels, were
victorious in 1839.
*****
Santa Cruz continued his political ambitions in Peru
while president of
Bolivia. He established the Peru-Bolivia Confederation in 1836... The potential
power of this confederation aroused the opposition of Argentina and, above all,
Chile; both nations declared war on the confederation. Although Santa Cruz
repelled an attack by Argentina, he failed to stop the Chilean expansion into
the disputed territories on its northern frontier. His decisive defeat by
Chilean forces in the Battle of Yungay in January 1839 resulted in the breakup
of the confederation and ended the career of Bolivia's ablest nineteenth-century
president. Santa Cruz went into exile in Ecuador.
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