Peru Declared Independence - July 28, 1821

Peru declared independence from Spain on this day in 1821.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to this day in history class. It's July. Peruvian
independence was declared on this day in eighteen twenty one.
You might wonder why I didn't say Peru declared its independence,
and that's because that's not how it happened. So many
stories of nations becoming independent start with an uprising by
that nation's people, Like there's a declaration of independence that's

(00:26):
often paired with fighting back against a monarch or a
colonizing nation, and that sometimes blossoms into a war that
stretches on before independence truly is achieved, regardless of when
it was actually declared. That is not what happened in Peru, though.
So in eighteen o eight, Napoleon invaded Spain and that
sparked a series of struggles for independence in Spain's colonies.

(00:51):
These went on for more than a decade, from eighteen
ten until eighty one, and usually the prevailing force in
these movements was people of European descent who had been
born in these Spanish colonies, So it wasn't so much
the work of indigenous people or of enslaved Africans who
were living in these colonies. But even as its neighbors

(01:11):
fought for independence, Peru really didn't get involved. The Peruvian
aristocracy was still pretty loyal to Spain, and Peru also
had a lot of Spanish residents. The Spanish army also
had a major presence in the Peruvian capital of Lima.
There was an army right there readily available to put

(01:31):
down any kind of revolution. Made it a little bit
more of a challenge to actually start a revolution. So instead,
Peruvian independence was largely instigated by its neighbors. Was mostly
fought in Chile, not in Peru. In particular, General Jose
Saint Martin was from Argentina and he had already fought

(01:52):
for independence in Buenos Airis and in Chile. He was
basically trying to ensure Argentina's own independence. There had been
a battle for independence in Argentina. There was this idea
that if Spain continued to have a presence, then people
were going to continue to be at risk of becoming
a colony. Again. We're also some silver mines conveniently located

(02:13):
in Peru that he wanted access to. So first Argentina
fought for Chilean independence, which was obtained in eighteen eighteen,
and then he used Chile as a base of operations
to stage an attack on the Spanish forces in Peru.
Chile and Peru don't share much of a land border.
This was planned as a naval operation. In September of eighteen.

(02:35):
Tint Martin's first took the Peruvian port of Peaceco, and
then he moved on to Lima after Spanish forces withdrew
from that area, and it was he, not the people
of Peru, who declared its independence. This was actually the
last Spanish colony in South America to become independent. Even
though he had his whole plan that involved surrounding the

(02:56):
Spanish to drive them completely out of South America, he
didn't have an army strong enough to defeat it, so
he went to Simone Boulivard for help. Bolivar had been
fighting for independence in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, and he
had been a major force for independence in most of
Spain's northern colonies in South America. It's not totally clear

(03:20):
what happened when these two men met in eighty two
to talk about the situation, but whatever it was that happened,
Saint Martin left. Bolivar refused whatever offer it was that
he had made. He withdrew his force, he resigned his
protectorship at Peru and Simone Boulivard took over the fight.
After this, Saint Martan went into exile in Europe, where

(03:43):
he died at the age of eighteen fifty, impoverished and
long out of the military action. Eventually, Spain did remove
the rest of its forces from South America, and today
July is the day that newly elected Peruvian presidents take office.
Thanks to Chris tofer Hasciotus for his research work on
today's episode and Tatari Harrison for her audio skills on

(04:05):
all of these episodes. You can subscribe to This Day
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in tomorrow for some Civil War espionage