This Month in Latin American History

The Battle of Ayacucho, Painting by Martin Tovar y Tovar1 December 9, 1824 The Battle of Ayacucho marks the end of South America’s Wars of Independence As the wars of independence unfolded over the 1810s in South America, the central Andean heartland, which had long been Spain’s most important colony on the continent, remained under loyalist control. Peru and Upper Peru (modern- day Bolivia) thus served both as bulwarks of Spanish power and as potential threats to the new nations that began taking shape both to the south in Argentina and Chile and to the north in Venezuela and Colombia. However, in 1820 a revolution in Spain restored the constitutional system of 1812 against the wishes of King Ferdinand VII, cutting off reinforcements to the royalist forces and allowing the Argentine forces under Josè de San Martìn and the Venezuelan forces of Simòn Bolivar to converge on Peru. By 1823, Peru was under Patriot control, leaving Upper Peru under the leadership of Josè de la Serna, who had put up desperate, though effective, resistance to the armies of Bolivar, helped in part by growing dissent among the various independence armies and governments. However, following news of another upheaval in the Spanish government in late 1823, Bolivar was able to take the initiative once again, and in December of 1824 his army, under the command of Marshal Anotnio Josè de Sucre were able to defeat de La Serna’s forces decisively. While royalist resistance lingered into 1825, this was the last major battle in a series of wars that had lasted nearly fifteen years, allowing the modern nations of South America to take shape. Want to know more? Take Latin American History! Contact Prof. Greg Hammond at [email protected]

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ayacucho#/media/File:Martin_Tovar_y_Tovar_01.JPG