War of the Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation 1836-1839

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.

References

How to Stop a War; Argentina; Bolivia - A Country Study; Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation.

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