Military history of South America - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The military history of South America can be divided into two major periods - pre- and post-Columbian

Pre-Columbian

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...

- divided by the entrance of European forces to the region. The sudden introduction of steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

, gunpowder

Gunpowder

Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...

weapons and horses into the Americas would revolutionise warfare. Within the post-Columbian period, the events of the early 19th century, when almost all of South America was marked by wars of independence, also forms a natural historical juncture. Throughout its history, South America has had distinct military features: it has been geographically

Geography of South America

The geography of South America contains many diverse regions and climates. Geographically, South America is generally considered a continent forming the southern portion of the American landmass, south and east of the Panama-Colombia border by most authorities, or south and east of the Panama Canal...

separated from many major military powers by large oceans; its unique terrain

Geography of South America

has imposed major logistical challenges

Logistics

Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...

, and privileged naval lines of communications.

Early military history

Early South American military history is distinctively different from that in Asia or Europe. Metallurgy

Metallurgy

Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...

influenced warfare in the Americas less than in other parts of the world; in South America the use of stone, wood and bone, backed by limited use of copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

, dominated weaponry up until the European invasions. The extinction

Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

of horses early on in the human habitation of the Americas meant that early South Americans had no cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

- five thousand years of using horses in warfare

Horses in warfare

The first use of horses in warfare occurred over 5,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of horses ridden in warfare dates from Eurasia between 4000 and 3000 BC. A Sumerian illustration of warfare from 2500 BC depicts some type of equine pulling wagons...

had no parallel on the continent. In naval warfare

Naval warfare

Naval warfare is combat in and on seas, oceans, or any other major bodies of water such as large lakes and wide rivers.-History:Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Land warfare would seem, initially, to be irrelevant and entirely removed from warfare on the open ocean,...

, early South Americans did not build ships on a size comparable with those on other continents. Politically, state formation also came relatively late to South America, affecting the ability of South America to generate large armies early on in its history.

Caribbean coast, Amazonia and the south

The northern edge of the continent saw military events dominated by a struggle between two ethnic groups. The first, the Arawak, lived along the eastern coast of South America, as far south as what is now Brazil, and up into Guyana

Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

. When first encountered by Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...

, the Arawak were described as a peaceful people, although the Arawak had already dominated other local groups such as the Ciboney

Ciboney

The Ciboney were pre-Columbian indigenous inhabitants of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. The name Ciboney derives from the indigenous Taíno people which means Cave Dwellers; evidence has shown that a number of the Ciboney people have lived in caves at some time. Over the years, many...

. The Arawak had, however, come under increasing military pressure from the Caribs, who are believed to have left the Orinoco

Orinoco

The Orinoco is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes called the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3% of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia...

river area in South America to settle in the Caribbean. Over the century leading up to Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean archipelago in 1492, the Caribs are believed to have displaced many of the Arawaks who previously settled the island chains, and making inroads into what would now be modern Guyana. The Caribs were skilled boatbuilders and sailors, and owed their dominance in the Caribbean basin to their military skills. Cannibalism

Cannibalism

Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...

formed a key part of the Caribs' war rituals: the limbs of victims may have been taken home as trophies.

The territory of current day Brazil had as many as 2,000 tribes prior to European discovery, mostly semi-nomadic peoples who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture. One such tribe were the Tupi, who had expanded to inhabit almost all of Brazil's coast, reaching an estimated population of 1 million people by 1500 AD. The Tupi often fought against the other tribes of the region and among themselves, aiming to capture their enemies to later kill them - as amongst the Caribs, cannibalism was a key part of the Tupi ritual

Ritual

A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....

s after a war. Further south, across the regions of modern day Paraguay

Paraguay

Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

and Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

, early South American warfare appears to have been sporadic and decentralised - although the historical sources prior to contact with European invaders is limited. The Minuane

Minuane

Minuane were one of the indigenous tribes of Uruguay and Brazil . They were related to the other tribes in the area like Charrua and Guenoa. Nowadays no one claims Minuane ancestry in Uruguay or in neighbouring countries. The tribe seems to be extinct....

were one of the indigenous tribes of Uruguay

Uruguay

, related to the other tribes in the area like Charrúa

Charrua

The Charrúa were an indigenous people of southern South America in the area today known as Uruguay and southern Brazil. They were a nomadic people that sustained themselves through fishing and foraging...

and Guenoa, living across the area today known as Uruguay

Uruguay

, northeastern Argentina and southern Brazil. They were a nomadic people that sustained themselves through fishing and foraging. Another Paraguayan tribe, the Guaraní people, also had a nomad

Nomad

Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...

ic, decentralized society; they tended to form tribal groups by dialect, and like the Minuane

Minuane

, were not known as a war-like people - although the Charrúa

Charrua

people are believed to have killed Spanish explorer Juan Díaz de Solís

Juan Díaz de Solís

Juan Díaz de Solís was a Spanish navigator and explorer.Díaz de Solís was probably born in Lebrija, Seville, although some other authors argue that his birth may have actually taken place in Portugal to an Andalusian emigree family....

during his 1515 voyage up the Río de la Plata

Río de la Plata

The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...

Pacific Rim

By contrast, the mountainous Pacific Rim of South America saw the evolution of a sequence of empires deploying well organised military forces. Early cultures in the central Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

seem to have been less centralised and far less militaristic. The Chavín culture

Chavín culture

The Chavín were a civilization that developed in the northern Andean highlands of Peru from 900 BC to 200 BC. They extended their influence to other civilizations along the coast. The Chavín were located in the Mosna Valley where the Mosna and Huachecsa rivers merge...

, for example, which dominated the Moche Valley region in modern day Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

from 900 BC to 300 BC, has left no archaeological trace of warfare. The Moche

Moche

'The Moche civilization flourished in northern Peru from about 100 AD to 800 AD, during the Regional Development Epoch. While this issue is the subject of some debate, many scholars contend that the Moche were not politically organized as a monolithic empire or state...

, however, formed a complex state along the northern coast of Peru from 100 BC – 700 AD, which included warfare. The mummified remains of a Moche

Moche

woman found in 2005 were accompanied by various military and ornamental artifacts, including war clubs

Club (weapon)

A club is among the simplest of all weapons. A club is essentially a short staff, or stick, usually made of wood, and wielded as a weapon since prehistoric times....

and spear throwers

Atlatl

An atlatl or spear-thrower is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in dart-throwing.It consists of a shaft with a cup or a spur at the end that supports and propels the butt of the dart. The atlatl is held in one hand, gripped near the end farthest from the cup...

, hinting at the military technology of the Moche. Towards the end of the Moche

Moche

, later settlements have fortifications and defensive works, but there is no evidence of a foreign invasion, for example by the Wari empire, as many scholars have suggested in the past. There is however some evidence of social unrest, possibly the result of climatic changes as factions fought for control over scarce resources.

As the Moche declined, the Wari civilisation was growing in power, lasting from 600 – 1200 AD. The capital city of Wari

Wari ruins

The Wari Ruins are located near Quinua, in the Huanta Province, Ayacucho Region, Peru at an altitude 2770 m above sea-level. These ruins are all that is left of Wari, the capital city of the Wari ....

was located north-east of the modern city of Ayacucho

Ayacucho

Ayacucho is the capital city of Huamanga Province, Ayacucho Region, Peru.Ayacucho is famous for its 33 churches, which represent one for each year of Jesus's life. Ayacucho has large religious celebrations, especially during the Holy Week of Easter...

, Peru. From there, the Wari expanded to control much of the highlands and coast of modern Peru

Peru

. Early on, their territory expanded to include the ancient oracle center of Pachacamac

Pachacamac

The temple of Pachacamac is an archaeological site 40 km southeast of Lima, Peru in the Valley of the Lurín River. Most of the common buildings and temples were built c...

, though it seems to have remained largely autonomous. Later it expanded to include much of the territory of the earlier Moche

Moche

and later Chimu cultures.

The Chimú themselves had originated in the coastal areas once dominated by the Moche

Moche

, centering on the Moche Valley, south of modern day Lima. By 900 AD, a sequence of Chimú rulers had conquered the surrounding valleys, with the final Chimú Kingdom

Monarchy

A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...

being founded somewhere in the first half of the 14th century AD, followed by a great military expansion across the region. At their peak, the Chimú advanced to the limits of the desert coast, to the Jequetepeque valley

Jequetepeque District

Jequetepeque District is one of five districts of the province Pacasmayo in Peru.-References:...

in the north, and Carabayllo in the south. Their expansion southward was stopped by the military power of the great valley of Lima

Lima

Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

, and the kingdom would survive up until the time of the Inca invasions.

Meanwhile to the south, Tiwanaku

Tiwanaku

Tiwanaku, is an important Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia, South America. Tiwanaku is recognized by Andean scholars as one of the most important precursors to the Inca Empire, flourishing as the ritual and administrative capital of a major state power for approximately five...

had emerged as a well-organised, centralised military power for much of 400 AD – 1000 AD, taking forward military evolution in the Andean region. Tiwanaku, west of La Paz flourished as the capital for approximately five hundred years. Around 400 AD, Tiwanaku expanded militarily, moving into the Yungas

Yungas

The Yungas is a stretch of forest along the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains from southeastern Peru through central Bolivia. It is a transitional zone between the Andean highlands and the eastern forests. Like the surrounding areas, it has characteristics of the Neotropic ecozone...

and bringing its culture to many other cultures in modern-day Peru

Peru

, Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

, and Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

. Tiwanaku grew by combining military expansion with colonies, trade agreements and the establishment of religious cult. Tiwanaku

Tiwanaku

's power continued to grow until about 950 AD when a dramatic shift in climate

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...

occurred. As the rains reduced, many of the furthest cities began to produce fewer crops to give to the elites. As the surplus of food dropped, the elite's power began to fail - by 1000 AD, Tiwanaku had disappeared. The land was not inhabited again for many years, but the Tiwanaku

Tiwanaku

approach to empire and military expansion was to be critical as a precursor of the Inca empire.

Further north along the Andes, into modern-day Ecuador, later cultures included the Quitus, who formed the city of Quito

Quito

San Francisco de Quito, most often called Quito , is the capital city of Ecuador in northwestern South America. It is located in north-central Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains...

in the first millennium. The Quitu

Quitu

The Quitus were Pre-Columbian indigenous peoples in Ecuador who founded Quito, which is now the capital of Ecuador. The inhabitants' existence spanned from 2000 BCE to the beginning of the Spaniards' conquest of the city in 1524...

were ultimately conquered by the Caras tribe

Caras (tribe)

The Cara culture flourished in coastal Ecuador, in what is now Manabí Province, in the first millennium CE.-History:In the 10th century CE, they followed the Esmeraldas River up to the high Andean valley now known as the city San Francisco de Quito. They defeated the local Quitu tribe and set up a...

, who founded the Kingdom of Quito about 980 AD. Under their kings, the shyris, the Caras

Caras (tribe)

formed a powerful military state that would survive and dominate the Ecuadorian highlands up until the Inca period.

Inca conquests

The Inca Empire

Inca Empire

The Inca Empire, or Inka Empire , was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru. The Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century...

was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The Inca Empire arose from the highlands of Peru

Peru

sometime in the early 13th century; from 1438 to 1533, the Incas used a variety of methods, from conquest to peaceful assimilation, to incorporate a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean mountain ranges, including large parts of modern Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, Peru, western and south central Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

, northwest Argentina, north and north-central Chile

Chile

, and southern Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

. The Inca approach to warfare was well organised and disciplined, building on the Andean military societies before it. It represented a major step forward in military organisation in South America.

Rise of the Inca

The Incan empire expanded into what later became Ecuador

Ecuador

during the reign of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, who began the northward conquest in 1463. He gave his son Topa

Topa

Topa is a census town in Hazaribag district in the Indian state of Jharkhand.-Demographics: India census, Topa had a population of 5008. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Topa has an average literacy rate of 62%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 72%,...

control of the army, and Topa conquered the kingdom of the Quitu

Quitu

and continued coastward. Upon arriving, he undertook a sea voyage to either the Galápagos or the Marquesas Islands

Marquesas Islands

The Marquesas Islands enana and Te Fenua `Enata , both meaning "The Land of Men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9° 00S, 139° 30W...

. Upon his return, he was unable to subdue the people of Puná Island

Puná Island

Puná Island is an Island off the coast of southern Ecuador at approximately 80 degrees west longitude and 3 degrees south latitude. It is located at the head of the Gulf of Guayaquil, south of the mouth of the Guayas River and the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city and chief port...

and the Guayas

Guayas Province

Guayas is a coastal province in Ecuador. It is bordered to the west by Manabí, Santa Elena, and the Pacific Ocean ; to the east by Los Ríos, Bolívar, Chimborazo, Cañar, and Azuay; to the north by Los Ríos and Bolívar; and to the south by El Oro and the Pacific Ocean.With a population of over 3...

coast. His son Huayna Capac

Huayna Capac

Huayna Capac was the eleventh Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire and sixth of the Hanan dynasty. He was the successor to Tupac Inca Yupanqui.-Name:In Quechua, his name is spelled Wayna Qhapaq, and in Southern Quechua, it is Vaina Ghapakh...

, however, was able to subsequently conquer these peoples, including the Cañaris

Cañaris

The Cañari are an indigenous ethnic group traditionally inhabiting the territory of the modern provinces of Azuay and Cañar in Ecuador; the term also refers to an independent pre-Hispanic tribal confederation of the same name, from which the modern people are descended. They are particularly noted...

who put up resistance for many years, consolidating Ecuador into the Inca Empire

Inca Empire

. In the south, the Mapuche

Mapuche

The Mapuche are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina. They constitute a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Their influence extended...

successfully resisted many attempts by the Inca Empire to subjugate them, despite their lack of state organization. They fought against the Sapa Inca Tupac Yupanqui and his army. The result of the bloody three-day confrontation known as the Battle of the Maule

Battle of the Maule

The Battle of the Maule was fought between the Mapuche people and the Inca Empire in what is now Chile. The three-day battle, which is generally believed to have occurred in the reign of Tupac Inca Yupanqui , marked the end of the Incas' southward expansion.In a six-year campaign with an army that...

was that the Inca conquest of the territories of Chile ended at the Maule river

Maule river

The Maule river is one of the most important rivers of Chile and is inextricably linked to this country's pre-Hispanic times, the country's conquest, colonial period, wars of Independence, modern history, agriculture , culture , religion, economy and politics...

. They fell back to the north behind the Rapel

Rapel River

Rapel River is a river of Chile located in the O'Higgins Region. It begins at the confluence of the rivers Cachapoal and Tinguiririca in the area known as La Junta...

and Cachapoal River

Cachapoal River

Cachapoal River is tibutary river of the Rapel River in Chile located in the O'Higgins Region. The river gives its name to the Cachapoal Province.- Source :*...

s where they established a fortified border guarded by fortresses like Pucará de La Compañía and the Pucará del Cerro La Muralla

Pucara del Cerro La Muralla

Pucará de Cerro La Muralla is a Pucara , probably Inca on a strategic mountain top, five km to the south of San Vicente de Tagua Tagua, to the south side of the dry lagoon . This is southernmost pucará of the Inca Empire.- History :The Inca invasion, having advanced beyond the Choapa river, came...

.

The Incas developed an integrated form of wafrare; spies would be sent into regions prior to an invasion; attempts would be made to bribe local leaders and to marry local elites into the Inca families. Where conquest by force had occurred, the Incan empire would uprooting groups of Quechua-speakers from the Inca heartlands, called mitimaes and loyal to the empire, and resettle them in the disputed regions.

Inca warfare

The Inca army was the most powerful on the continent during the period. Although enjoying a similar level of technology to their enemies, they excelled at mobilizing their available manpower and creating well disciplined forces. In contrast to the Aztec

Aztec

The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...

s, who waged war mainly to take prisoners for human sacrifice and who took tribute rather than land from the defeated people, the Incas' goals of war were to kill enemy soldiers and directly conquer enemy lands, putting them under the rule of the Sapa Inca, who was the highest head of the army. By the time the Inca empire had reached its full size, every section of the empire contributed in setting up an army for war. The Incas could field armies of 100,000 at a time, and were well organized in military logistics

Logistics

, using magazines owned by the state to supply mass contingents with food, and also white tents in camp, organized in symmetric patterns. Roads allowed very quick movement for the Inca army, and shelters called quolla were built one day's distance in travel from each other, so that an army on campaign could be fed and rested. Inca officers, often drawn from the Sapa Inca's own household, added to the overall sense of discipline.

The traditional mode of battle in the Andes was a form of siege warfare where large numbers of usually reluctant draftees

Conscription

Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

were sent to overwhelm opponents. They went into battle with the beating of drums and the blowing of trumpets. Inca fortifications were massive, with carefully fitted stones forming huge fortifications, as at Cusco

Cusco

Cusco , often spelled Cuzco , is a city in southeastern Peru, near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region as well as the Cuzco Province. In 2007, the city had a population of 358,935 which was triple the figure of 20 years ago...

.
Inca soldier would wear tunic

Tunic

A tunic is any of several types of clothing for the body, of various lengths reaching from the shoulders to somewhere between the hips and the ankles...

s, often with checkered patterns, and protected themselves with helmet

Helmet

A helmet is a form of protective gear worn on the head to protect it from injuries.Ceremonial or symbolic helmets without protective function are sometimes used. The oldest known use of helmets was by Assyrian soldiers in 900BC, who wore thick leather or bronze helmets to protect the head from...

s made of wood, copper, bronze, cane, or animal skin; some were adorned with feathers. Shields made from wood or hide would be carried, with some soldiers also adding quilt cotton padding or small wooden planks to their tunic

Tunic

A tunic is any of several types of clothing for the body, of various lengths reaching from the shoulders to somewhere between the hips and the ankles...

s for additional protection. Inca armies carried multiple weapons, including heavy slings

Sling (weapon)

A sling is a projectile weapon typically used to throw a blunt projectile such as a stone or lead "sling-bullet". It is also known as the shepherd's sling....

, bolas

Bolas

Bolas are a throwing weapon superficially similar to the surujin, made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, designed to capture animals by entangling their legs...

, two-handed wooden swords with serrated edges, bronze or bone-tipped spear

Spear

A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or...

s, clubs

Club (weapon)

A club is among the simplest of all weapons. A club is essentially a short staff, or stick, usually made of wood, and wielded as a weapon since prehistoric times....

, stone or copper headed battle-axe

Axe

The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...

s, bronze knives

Knife

A knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...

and scythes

War scythe

A war scythe is a kind of improvised pole weapon, similar to a fauchard, usually created from standard scythes. The blade of the scythe is transformed so as to extend upright from the pole, thus forming an infantry weapon practical both in offensive actions against infantry and as a defensive...

: polearms, each affixed with a large, curving blade, used for slashing at enemies from a distance.

Inca civil war

The Inca Civil War broke out after the death in 1527 of the Sapa Inca Huayna Capac

Huayna Capac

to smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

, which he had caught whilst investigating the rumours of the European in the north. His eldest son and heir, Ninan Cuyochi

Ninan Cuyochi

Ninan Cuyochi, born 1490?, died 1527, the oldest son of Sapa Inca Huayna Capac and first in line to inherit the Inca Empire, but he however died of smallpox shortly before his father, bringing about a civil war....

, died shortly after him. With both the leading Inca and the successor to the throne dead, there was unrest as to who would become the next Inca king. No clear rules stated how one was to gain succession to the throne, with two brothers Huáscar

Huáscar

Huáscar Inca was Sapa Inca of the Inca empire from 1527 to 1532 AD, succeeding his father Huayna Capac and brother Ninan Cuyochi, both of whom died of smallpox while campaigning near Quito.After the conquest, the Spanish put forth the idea that Huayna Capac may have...

and Atahualpa

Atahualpa

Atahualpa, Atahuallpa, Atabalipa, or Atawallpa , was the last Sapa Inca or sovereign emperor of the Tahuantinsuyu, or the Inca Empire, prior to the Spanish conquest of Peru...

claiming primacy. From 1531-2, the two brothers' armies participated in numerous battles. Atahualpa was victorious at Mochacaxa, Pincos and Andaguayias and then marched south into his brother's territories, killing those, including many of the Cañari

Canari

Canari is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica.-Population:-References:*...

tribesmen who had sided with Huáscar. Approaching Cajamarca

Cajamarca

Cajamarca may refer to:Colombia*Cajamarca, Tolima a town and municipality in Tolima DepartmentPeru* Cajamarca, city in Peru.* Cajamarca District, district in the Cajamarca province.* Cajamarca Province, province in the Cajamarca region....

, Atahualpa sent the majority of his army ahead to continue the advance while he stayed in the city to explore the rumors that the Spaniards had arrived in the empire. There, good news reached Atahualpa

Atahualpa

Atahualpa, Atahuallpa, Atabalipa, or Atawallpa , was the last Sapa Inca or sovereign emperor of the Tahuantinsuyu, or the Inca Empire, prior to the Spanish conquest of Peru...

- Huáscar

Huáscar

had sent another army to meet Atahualpa's, but his forces had been routed and Huáscar himself had been taken prisoner, bringing an end to the civil war.

European invasion

The European invasions of South America in the 16th and 17th centuries, principally by the Spanish and Portuguese, were to have a dramatic impact. The military conquests destroyed the Inca state; the consequent epidemics and social chaos reduced this and other indigenous societies by up to 93%. Few other military events have had as long lasting consequences for a region.

Initial conquest of the Inca Empire

The Spanish conquistadors who would conquer the Incas, Francisco Pizarro

Francisco Pizarro

Francisco Pizarro González, Marquess was a Spanish conquistador, conqueror of the Incan Empire, and founder of Lima, the modern-day capital of the Republic of Peru.-Early life:...

and his brothers Gonzalo

Gonzalo Pizarro

Gonzalo Pizarro y Alonso was a Spanish conquistador and younger paternal half-brother of Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of the Inca Empire...

and Hernando

Hernándo Pizarro

Hernando Pizarro y de Vargas was a Spanish conquistador and one of the Pizarro brothers who ruled over Peru...

, were attracted by the prospects of wealth and power. Pizarro made several early attempts to invade Peru

Peru

from his main base in Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

; the first, leaving in 1524, met with setbacks in the battle of Punta Quemada

Battle of Punta Quemada

The Battle of Punta Quemada, fought sometime in January 1525, was a brief but deadly encounter between a band of Spanish conquistadors and the warlike natives of Colombia, thought to be a northern tributary tribe to the Andean Kingdom of Quito, subordinate to and as well northern capital of the...

against the natives of Colombia

Colombia

, and was forced to retreat. The second reached Atacames

Atacames

Atacames is a beach town located on Ecuador's Northern Pacific coast. It is located in the province of Esmeraldas, approximately 30 kilometers away from the capital of that province, which is also called Esmeraldas. In 2005 Atacames's population was 11,251 inhabitants. Atacames has one of the...

on the Ecuadorian coast, before encountering recently subdued tribes under the rule of the Incas, resulting in another withdrawal. Pizarro however pushed on, exploring the Tumbes region

Tumbes Region

Tumbes is a coastal region in northwestern Peru and southwestern Ecuador. Due to the region's location near the Equator it has a warm climate, with beaches that are considered among the finest in Peru...

of northern Peru and hearing the first reports of the wealth of the Inca emperor. Unable to get local Spanish support for another expedition, Pizarro returned to Spain where he convinced the King to mount another full-scale expedition. When Pizarro returned to Peru in 1532 with 168 men under his command, he found it vastly different than when he had been there just five years before, the consequence of the intervening civil war and the disease that was now destroying the Inca Empire.

Arranging a sequence of discussions with Emperor Atahualpa

Atahualpa

Atahualpa, Atahuallpa, Atabalipa, or Atawallpa , was the last Sapa Inca or sovereign emperor of the Tahuantinsuyu, or the Inca Empire, prior to the Spanish conquest of Peru...

, Pizarro laid a trap for the Inca leader. When Atahualpa arrived in Cajamara in November, accompanied by 7,000 unarmed soldiers and attendants, the Spanish made a surprise attack, initiating the battle of Cajamarca

Battle of Cajamarca

The Battle of Cajamarca was a surprise attack on the Inca royal entourage orchestrated by Francisco Pizarro. Sprung on the evening of November 16, 1532, in the great plaza of Cajamarca, the ambush achieved the goal of capturing the Inca, Atahualpa, and claimed the lives of thousands of his...

. The shocked Incas offered such feeble resistance that the battle has often been labeled a massacre with the Inca losing 2,000 dead compared to five of Pizarro's men. Contemporary accounts by members of Pizarro's force explain how the Spanish forces used a cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

charge against the Inca forces, in combination with gunfire from cover - both military technologies were new to the Inca. Other factors in the Spaniard's favor were their steel swords, helmets and armour. The Spanish also had three small cannon

Cannon

A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...

which were used to great effect against the crowded town square. Taking the Inca emperor prisoner, the Spanish invaders demanded a huge sum of precious gems and metals to be exchanged for Atahualpa. By May, 1533 Pizarro received all the treasure he had requested; it was melted, refined, and made into bars. Atahualpa was executed by the Spanish in August 1533.

The Spanish consolidation and civil wars

After Atahualpa's execution, Pizarro installed Atahualpa's brother, Túpac Huallpa

Tupac Huallpa

Túpac Huallpa , original name Auqui Huallpa Túpac, was a puppet Inca Emperor of the conquistadors in 1533, during the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire led by Francisco Pizarro.-Life:...

, as a puppet Inca ruler. Pizarro's lieutenant, Benalcázar

Benalcázar

Benalcázar is an urban parish in the northeastern part of the city of Quito, capital of Ecuador. The parish was named after conquistador Sebastián de Benalcázar....

, travelled north with 140 foot soldiers and a few horses to conquer modern-day Ecuador, where he defeated the forces of the Inca general Rumiñahui

Rumiñahui (Inca warrior)

Rumiñahui, Ruminavi, Rumiñagui, or alternatively Rumiaoui, born late 15th century, died June 25, 1535, was an Inca warrior who, after the death of Emperor Atahualpa, led the resistance against the Spanish in the northern part of the Inca Empire in 1533.Born in Pillaro in the modern province of...

with the aid of Cañari

Canari

Canari is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica.-Population:-References:*...

tribesmen. Túpac Huallpa

Tupac Huallpa

Túpac Huallpa , original name Auqui Huallpa Túpac, was a puppet Inca Emperor of the conquistadors in 1533, during the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire led by Francisco Pizarro.-Life:...

then died unexpectedly, leaving Manco Inca Yupanqui

Manco Inca Yupanqui

Manco Inca Yupanqui was one of the Incas of Vilcabamba. He was also known as "Manco II" and "Manco Cápac II" . Born in 1516, he was one of the sons of Huayna Cápac and came from a lower class of the nobility.Túpac Huallpa, a puppet ruler crowned by conquistador Francisco Pizarro, died in 1533...

in power. He began his rule as an ally of the Spanish and was respected in the southern regions of the empire, but there was still much unrest in the north near Quito

Quito

where the remaining Inca generals were amassing troops. The Inca armies inflicted considerable damage before the Spanish succeeded in recapturing Quito, effectively ending any organized rebellion in the north of the empire. After being mistreated, Manco Inca rebelled, escaping Spanish custody and attempted to retake Cusco in 1537. The Inca leadership did not, however, have the full support of its subject peoples and Manco was eventually forced to retreat, first to the fortress of Ollantaytambo

Ollantaytambo

Ollantaytambo is a town and an Inca archaeological site in southern Peru some 60 kilometers northwest of the city of Cusco. It is located at an altitude of 2,792 meters above sea level in the district of Ollantaytambo, province of Urubamba, Cusco region...

, and then further into the mountainous region of Vilcabamba

Vilcabamba, Peru

Vilcabamba was a city founded by Manco Inca in 1539 and was the last refuge of the Inca Empire until it fell to the Spaniards in 1572, signaling the end of Inca resistance to Spanish rule.- History :...

, holding onto some power for several more decades. His son, Túpac Amaru

Túpac Amaru

Túpac Amaru, also called Thupa Amaro , was the last indigenous leader of the Inca state in Peru.-Accession:...

, was the last Inca, and was finally killed by the Spanish in 1572. In total, the conquest took about forty years to complete.

Alongside the Spanish campaign to occupy Peru, a civil war broke out between Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro

Diego de Almagro

Diego de Almagro, , also known as El Adelantado and El Viejo , was a Spanish conquistador and a companion and later rival of Francisco Pizarro. He participated in the Spanish conquest of Peru and is credited as the first European discoverer of Chile.Almagro lost his left eye battling with coastal...

over prerogatives and rights over the conquered cities, in which Almagro was ultimately killed. Almagro's faction, the Almagristas, later avenged his death by killing Pizarro, but were finally defeated in the battle of Chupas

Battle of Chupas

After the assassination of Francisco Pizarro, in retaliation for his father's execution in 1538, Diego de Almagro II, El Mozo, continued to press claims as the rightful ruler of Peru and as leader of his father's supporters...

in 1542, and their new leader, Diego Almagro El Mozo, executed. Conflict broke out again, however, two years later when controversial New Laws

New Laws

The New Laws, in Spanish Leyes Nuevas, issued November 20, 1542 by King Charles V of Spain regarding the Spanish colonization of the Americas, are also known as the "New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of the Indians", and were created to prevent the exploitation of the...

were introduced by Peru's first viceroy. Gonzalo Pizarro

Gonzalo Pizarro

Gonzalo Pizarro y Alonso was a Spanish conquistador and younger paternal half-brother of Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of the Inca Empire...

organized a conquistador army to challenge the viceroy. The rebel army was victorious in 1546 at Añaquito

Battle of Añaquito

After his unheard claims as governor of New Castile following the death of his brother, Gonzalo Pizarro pressed claims to be recognized as the ruler of the land he and his brothers had conquered. After the arrival of appointed royal viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela in 1544, Gonzalo succeeded to have him...

near Quito but over the following months the support for Gonzalo diminished when the royal authorities offered pardon and a repealing of the New Laws. Most of Gonzalo's army deserted him just before the battle at Sacsayhuamán

Sacsayhuamán

-External links:* BBC Article...

near Cuzco; Gonzalo surrendered and was beheaded

Decapitation

Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...

The Spanish conquest of Chile

The first Spanish attempt to conquer Chile under Diego de Almagro

Diego de Almagro

in 1536 resulted in failure as his forces marched over the Andes, but the potential for new lands remained an important driver for some of the Spanish leaders now ruling Peru. The second Spanish invasion of Chile was led by Pedro de Valdivia

Pedro de Valdivia

Pedro Gutiérrez de Valdivia or Valdiva was a Spanish conquistador and the first royal governor of Chile. After serving with the Spanish army in Italy and Flanders, he was sent to South America in 1534, where he served as lieutenant under Francisco Pizarro in Peru, acting as his second in command...

, who had first arrived in South America in 1534, and had served under Francisco Pizarro

Francisco Pizarro

Francisco Pizarro González, Marquess was a Spanish conquistador, conqueror of the Incan Empire, and founder of Lima, the modern-day capital of the Republic of Peru.-Early life:...

in Peru. In 1540 he led an expedition of 150 Spaniards and around a thousand native Indians into Chile. Raising this force had been challenging, as Spanish soldiers and equipment were in very short supply in South America and many suspected that Chile would turn out to be a poorer country than Peru. The Spanish marched through the Atacama Desert

Atacama Desert

The Atacama Desert is a plateau in South America, covering a strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes mountains. It is, according to NASA, National Geographic and many other publications, the driest desert in the world...

, avoiding the mountains and successfully fighting their way through to the Copiapo

Copiapó

Copiapó is a city in northern Chile, located about 40 miles east of the coastal town of Caldera. Founded on December 8, 1744, it is the capital of Copiapó Province and Atacama Region....

valley. By the end of the year, Valdivia reached the valley of the Mapocho river, establishing the capital of his new territory, Santiago

Santiago, Chile

Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...

.

The region was already held by the warlike Mapuche

Mapuche

and the Picunche

Picunche

The Picunche , also referred to as picones by the Spanish, were a mapudungun speaking Chilean people living to the north of the Mapuches or Araucanians and south of the Choapa River and the Diaguitas...

peoples. Valdivia pushed southward and divided the land and the local inhabitants among his followers, putting the natives to work in the mines. Local Indian resistance led by Michimalonco

Michimalonco

Michima Lonco was an indigenous chief said to be a great warrior, born in the Aconcagua Valley and educated in Cusco by the Inca Empire. He presented himself to the Spaniards, naked and covered by a black pigmentation...

began to emerge, but the natives were crushed at the battle of Cachapoal and, in 1541, at the siege of Santiago

Santiago, Chile

- although the city was badly damaged. Valdivia soon began rebuilding Santiago and conquering the northern region of Chile, including the Atacama Desert

Atacama Desert

. In 1546 Valdivia set out to conquer the south with sixty horsemen and crossed the Itata River

Itata River

The Itata River flows in the Bío-Bío Region, southern Chile.Until the Conquest of Chile the Itata was the natural limit between the Mapuche, located to the south, and Picunche, to the north.-References:* . - External links :*...

, finally reaching the Biobío River where he was attacked by Mapuche warriors at the battle of Quilacura

Battle of Quilacura

Battle of Quilacura was a battle in the Arauco War, fought at night, four leagues from the Bio-Bio River, between the Spanish expedition of Pedro de Valdivia and a force of Mapuche warriors led by Malloquete on February 11, 1546.-Sources:...

and was forced to retreat. Valdivia invaded southern Chile again, but faced heavy resistance from the indigenous population. Valdivia pressed on, defeating the Mapuche at the battle of Penco

Battle of Penco

The Battle of Penco, on March 12, 1550 was a battle between 60,000 Mapuche under the command of their toqui Ainavillo with his Araucan and Tucapel allies and Pedro de Valdivia's 200 Spaniards on horse and afoot with a large number of Yanacona inclucing 300 Mapochoes auxiliaries under their leader...

and founding Concepción

Concepción, Chile

Concepción is a city in Chile, capital of Concepción Province and of the Biobío Region or Region VIII. Greater Concepción is the second-largest conurbation in the country, with 889,725 inhabitants...

in 1550. The Spanish occupiers then faced a number of great rebellions across the extreme south of their new territories, marking the beginning of a long-running war that would last three centuries.

Spanish-Mapuche wars

The first great Mapuche

Mapuche

rebellion occurred in 1553, under the leadership of generals Caupolicán

Caupolican

Caupolicán was a Toqui, the military leader of the Mapuche people of Chile, that commanded their army during the first Mapuche rising against the Spanish conquistadors from 1553 to 1558....

and Lautaro. It initially met with success, killing Valdivia at the battle of Tucapel

Battle of Tucapel

The Battle of Tucapel is the name given to a battle fought between Spanish conquistador forces led by Pedro de Valdivia and Mapuche Indians under Lautaro that took place at Tucapel, Chile on December 25, 1553...

. Lautaro found it difficult to turn these early victories into a strategic gain, however; his forces moved slowly, hampered by epidemics and internal divisions. Francisco de Villagra

Francisco de Villagra

Francisco de Villagra Velázquez was a Spanish conquistador, and three times governor of Chile.-Early life:Born at [Santervás de Campos], he was the son of Alvaro de Sarría and Ana Velázquez de Villagra, who were not married. For this reason he took the name of his mother...

, the new Spanish general, killed Lautaro in 1557, whilst Caupolicán

Caupolican

Caupolicán was a Toqui, the military leader of the Mapuche people of Chile, that commanded their army during the first Mapuche rising against the Spanish conquistadors from 1553 to 1558....

was defeated in a sequence of battles at Lagunillas

Battle of Lagunillas

The Battle of Lagunillas was a battle in the Arauco War on November 8, 1557 between the army of García Hurtado de Mendoza and the Mapuche army near some shallow lakes a league south of the Bio-Bio River.-History:...

and Millarapue

Battle of Millarapue

The Battle of Millarapue that occurred November 30, 1557 was intended by the Toqui Caupolicán as a Mapuche ambush of the Spanish army of García Hurtado de Mendoza that resulted in a Spanish victory when the ambush failed.-History:...

. Finally captured, Caupolicán

Caupolican

Caupolicán was a Toqui, the military leader of the Mapuche people of Chile, that commanded their army during the first Mapuche rising against the Spanish conquistadors from 1553 to 1558....

was painfully executed by the Spanish, bringing the rebellion to a close.

The pause was short lived. Illangulién

Illangulién

Illangulién, Quiromanite, , Queupulien or Antiguenu, was the Mapuche toqui elected to replace Lemucaguin or Caupolicán the younger in 1559 following the Battle of Quiapo to his death in battle in the Battle of Angol in 1564....

was elected as successor to Caupolicán

Caupolican

Caupolicán was a Toqui, the military leader of the Mapuche people of Chile, that commanded their army during the first Mapuche rising against the Spanish conquistadors from 1553 to 1558....

, and under his leadership the Mapuche learned to work iron, use Spanish weapons, including firearms and cannon, ride horses captured from their conquerors and acquired better strategies and tactics. In 1561, the second great revolt began against Spanish rule led by various Mapuche generals including Loble

Loble

Loble , also known as Lig-lemu or Lillemu, was the Mapuche vice-toqui of the Moluche north of the Bio-Bio River who led the second Mapuche revolt during the Arauco War....

and Millalelmo

Millalelmo

Millalelmo or Millarelmo was a famous Mapuche military leader in the second great Mapuche rebellion that began in 1561 during the Arauco War...

. Attacking isolated and underdefended Spanish settlements and forts, the Mapuche contained the Spanish field army around the rebuilt city of Concepción

Concepción, Chile

, resulting in the siege of Concepción

Siege of Concepcion

During the Siege of Concepcion of the Arauco War, 20,000 warriors of the army of the Mapuche laid siege to the Spanish garrison and civil population in the fortress of Concepcion, Chile.-History:...

in 1564. The logistical challenges of maintaining a large army in the field resulted in the Mapuche finally lifting the siege. Meanwhile, the Spanish killed Illangulién

Illangulién

at the battle of Angol

Battle of Angol

Battle of Angol was a battle fought between the Mapuche and the Spanish conquerors in March 1564.-History:In Los Infantes captain Lorenzo Bernal del Mercado had discovered that the rebels had constructed a pucará close by, establishing a blockade of the city...

. Pedro de Villagra

Pedro de Villagra

Pedro de Villagra y Martínez was a Spanish soldier who participated in the conquest of Chile, being appointed its Royal Governor between 1563 and 1565....

, who had taken command of the Spanish forces, then regrouped his forces and began a fresh campaign against the Mapuche. In 1565, Pedro de Villagra defeated the Mapuche at the second battle of Reinohuelén, following this up by ambushing and killing Loble

Loble

Loble , also known as Lig-lemu or Lillemu, was the Mapuche vice-toqui of the Moluche north of the Bio-Bio River who led the second Mapuche revolt during the Arauco War....

, effectively ending the second great revolt.

The region remained unstable, however, and in 1592 Martín García Óñez de Loyola

Martín García Óñez de Loyola

Don Martín García Óñez de Loyola was a Spanish Basque soldier and Royal Governor of Chile.-Early life:...

was appointed to finish the war, taking an army from Panama deep into Mapuche territory. The invasion turned into disaster, when Loyola was surprised at the Curalaba

Disaster of Curalaba

The Disaster of Curalaba is the name given to a battle between Spanish conquerors led by Martín García Óñez de Loyola and Mapuche people led by Pelantaru on a place called Curalaba , in southern Chile...

and killed. This marked the beginning of another great Mapuche uprising that resulted in a six year struggle called the 'Destruction of Seven Cities

Destruction of Seven Cities

The Destruction of the Seven Cities in Araucanía was a result of the great Mapuche revolt in 1598. It is considered sometimes as the end of the Conquest of Chile...

' that eliminated almost all the Spanish settlements south of the Biobío River. The Spanish sent in Alonso de Ribera

Alonso de Ribera

Alonso de Ribera de Pareja was a Spanish soldier and twice Spanish royal governor of Chile .-Early life:...

to stabilise the situation; he created a permanent army of 1,500 men, paid from royal revenues in Peru. The Spanish came to rely on a series of forts along the frontier, backed by a concentrated mobile force behind it. In the early 17th century, this defensive stance was criticised, leading to a resumption of offensive Spanish actions, until Francisco López de Zúñiga

Francisco López de Zúñiga

Francisco López de Zúñiga y Meneses, 2nd Marquis of Baides and Count of Pedrosa was a Spanish soldier who served as Royal Governor of Chile from May of 1639 to May of 1646....

held the Parliament of Quillin, with the toqui Lincopinchon and established the first formal peace with Mapuche people. Smaller uprisings and skirmishes would continue, however, until the 19th century.

Portuguese conquests

The Portuguese first landed in Brazil in 1500, as part of a journey following Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...

's way to India, around Africa. Subsequent Portuguese expeditions focused on Africa and India, rather than South America, relying on passing trade with the peoples of Brazil, enabled by explorers such as João Ramalho

João Ramalho

João Ramalho is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2004 is 4,245 and the area is 417.18 km². The elevation is 551 m....

, who lived among the Guaianaz tribe near today's São Paulo

São Paulo

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...

, and Diogo Álvares Correia, nicknamed Caramuru

Caramuru

Diogo Álvares Correia , called Caramuru by the Tupinambá, was a Portuguese settler born in Viana do Castelo. He departed for Brazil in 1509, and his ship wrecked in the coast of Bahia, Diogo Álvares found himself among the Tupinamba Indians...

, who lived among the Tupinamba natives near today's Salvador de Bahia. Concerned by reports that France might also be sending expeditions to Brazil, the Portuguese crown decided to send a large expedition to take full possession of the land and combat the French. In 1530, an expedition led by Martim Afonso de Sousa

Martim Afonso de Sousa

Martim Afonso de Sousa was a Portuguese fidalgo and explorer.Born in Vila Viçosa, he was commander of the first official Portuguese expedition into mainland Brazil...

arrived to block the French from the coast and create the first colonial villages, such São Vicente

São Vicente, São Paulo

São Vicente is a coastal city of southern São Paulo, Brazil. Its estimated population in 2006 was 329,370 inhabitants.It was the first Portuguese permanent settlement in the Americas and the first capital of the Captaincy of São Vicente, now the state of São Paulo...

.

The high cost of military occupation encouraged the Portuguese crown to find new ways to pay for the costs of colonialisation. Between 1534-6 King John III

John III of Portugal

John III , nicknamed o Piedoso , was the fifteenth King of Portugal and the Algarves. He was the son of King Manuel I and Maria of Aragon, the third daughter of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile...

divided the land into 15 Captaincies of Brazil, which were given to Portuguese noblemen who were granted considerable powers to administer, explore and profit from them. The captaincies faced strong opposition from the local tribes, and following widespread failure and the French threat along the Brazilian coast, King John III decided to revert Brazil to a royal enterprise. In 1549, a large fleet set sail to Brazil to establish a central government in the colony; Tomé de Sousa

Tomé de Sousa

Tomé de Sousa was the first governor-general of Brazil from 1549 to 1553, when it was a Portuguese colony. He was a nobleman and soldier born in Rates, Póvoa de Varzim...

, the first Governor-General of Brazil, brought detailed instructions, prepared by the King's aides, about how to develop of the colony, including building up its military defences. The first three Governor-Generals all faced strong armed opposition from the local tribes and ongoing problems with the French - by 1573, however, the Portuguese were militarily well established all along the Brazilian coast

Dutch, English and French conquests

The remaining European nations had to content themselves with seizing relatively small territories, usually based on isolated forts or islands along the coast. The Dutch, working through the Dutch West India Company

Dutch West India Company

Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...

built fortified plantations in modern day Guyana

Guyana

, displacing the local Caribs, but found themselves in fierce competition with the neighbouring English plantations. Eventually European land swapping would result in the creation of Dutch Guiana

Dutch Guiana

Dutch Guiana, also known as Netherlands Guyana or Dutch Guyana , is the name given to various Dutch colonies on the northern coast of South America, created by the Dutch West India Company...

and British Guyana

Guyana

. French Guiana

French Guiana

French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...

was settled by the French in 1604, although its earliest settlements were abandoned in the face of hostility from the local tribes and tropical diseases; even two hundred years later, the French sheltered along the coast on the islands called the Iles de Salut or the "Islands of Salvation".

Further south, the Dutch West India Company

Dutch West India Company

Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...

attempted to take part of Brazil as New Holland, resulting in thirty years of conflict with the Portuguese until finally being sold to Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

in 1661. France made several attempts to expand into South America, neither of them tremendously successful. From 1555 to 1567, French Huguenots made an attempt to establish the colony of France Antarctique

France Antarctique

France Antarctique was a French colony south of the Equator, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio...

in what is now Brazil, making an alliance with the Tamoio and Tupinambá Indians of the region, who were fighting the Portuguese, before being overcome by their more powerful neighbours. From 1612 to 1615, a second failed French attempt to seize part of the Brazilian coast was made in present-day São Luís, Brazil.

European hegemony in the 18th century

The 18th century saw numerous wars as the European powers sought dominance and trade advantage in South America and along the sea-lanes of the region. Conflicts were limited by the difficulties of projecting land forces at such distances. Ongoing conflicts and revolts with native peoples continued, dominated by the logistical

Logistics

challenges of taking distant or inland territories before the development of the railway.

European wars and South America in the 1700s

Many conflicts in South America during the 18th century were the result of rivalries in the Old World. In 1739, the War of Jenkins' Ear

War of Jenkins' Ear

The War of Jenkins' Ear was a conflict between Great Britain and Spain that lasted from 1739 to 1748, with major operations largely ended by 1742. Its unusual name, coined by Thomas Carlyle in 1858, relates to Robert Jenkins, captain of a British merchant ship, who exhibited his severed ear in...

broke out between Great Britain

Kingdom of Great Britain

The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...

and Spain, the result of disagreement over trade rights and Spanish markets. The British attempted to isolate the Spanish colonies, sending George Anson

George Anson, 1st Baron Anson

Admiral of the Fleet George Anson, 1st Baron Anson PC, FRS, RN was a British admiral and a wealthy aristocrat, noted for his circumnavigation of the globe and his role overseeing the Royal Navy during the Seven Years' War...

to attack the annual gold shipments, whilst Admiral Edward Vernon

Edward Vernon

Edward Vernon was an English naval officer. Vernon was born in Westminster, England and went to Westminster School. He joined the Navy in 1700 and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1702 and served on several different ships for the next five years...

unsuccessfully attempted to seize Cartagena de Indias, one of Spain's principal gold-trading ports in their colony of New Granada, modern day Colombia

Colombia

. Although the half-hearted Spanish effort to turn their successful defence into an offensive ended in failure, Spain's victory in Cartagena de Indias was crucial in maintaining its access to the Atlantic sea-lanes and therefore its empire. The diplomatic resolution formed part of the wider settlement of the War of the Austrian Succession

War of the Austrian Succession

The War of the Austrian Succession – including King George's War in North America, the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear, and two of the three Silesian wars – involved most of the powers of Europe over the question of Maria Theresa's succession to the realms of the House of Habsburg.The...

by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle

Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748 ended the War of the Austrian Succession following a congress assembled at the Imperial Free City of Aachen—Aix-la-Chapelle in French—in the west of the Holy Roman Empire, on 24 April 1748...

.

A few years later, war almost broke out again as a result of the Falklands crisis

Falklands Crisis (1770)

The Falklands Crisis of 1770 was a diplomatic standoff between Britain and Spain over possession of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. These events were nearly the cause of a war between France, Spain and Britain — the countries poised to dispatch armed fleets to contest the barren...

of 1770. Britain had considered claiming the Falkland Islands in 1748, but Spanish objections had caused the shelving of the plan. At the end of the Seven Years War, however, France landed on the islands; at the same time, the British landed on the other end of the islands. France handed over their base to the Spanish, and a larger Spanish force forced the surrender of the British detachment. War looked imminent until the French withdrew their support for the Spanish position, and a compromise was reached. In 1771 the British were allowed to restore their base, but the ultimate question of sovereignty was not addressed - which would lead to several future conflicts over the next two centuries.

Finally, in 1806-7 the British made a concerted attempt

British invasions of the Río de la Plata

The British invasions of the Río de la Plata were a series of unsuccessful British attempts to seize control of the Spanish colonies located around the La Plata Basin in South America . The invasions took place between 1806 and 1807, as part of the Napoleonic Wars, when Spain was an ally of...

to seize control of the wealthy Río de la Plata

Río de la Plata

from Spain, with the aim of establishing a British colony there. The invasions were in two phases. A detachment from the British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

occupied Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

for 46 days in 1806 before being expelled. In 1807, a second force occupied Montevideo

Montevideo

Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...

, following the battle of Montevideo

Battle of Montevideo (1807)

The Battle of Montevideo was a battle between the British and Spanish Empires during the Napoleonic Wars, in which British forces captured the city of Montevideo. It formed part of the British invasions of the River Plate.-The Prelude:...

, remaining for several months, and a third force made a second attempt to take Buenos Aires. After several days of street-fighting against the local militia and Spanish colonial army, in which half of the British forces in Buenos Aires were killed or wounded, the British were forced to withdraw. The resistance of the local people and their active participation in the defence, with only a little direct support from the Spanish Kingdom, were important steps toward the later wars of independence.

Native revolts and slavery

As large-scale slavery was introduced into South America, it began to impact military events. In the north-east, in modern-day Suriname and Guyana, escaped African slaves began to form a military buffer zone between the hostile inland tribes and the coastal areas. These so-called Maroons
Maroon (people)
Maroons were runaway slaves in the West Indies, Central America, South America, and North America, who formed independent settlements together...

formed bands and in some cases armed camps. Amongst the slaves which remained, uprisings occurred throughout the period, the most famous, the Berbice Slave Uprising

Berbice Slave Uprising

The Berbice Slave Uprising was a slave revolt in Guyana. It began in February 1763 and lasted into 1764.The uprising began on Plantation Magdalenenberg on the Canje River in Berbice. The slaves rebelled, protesting harsh and inhumane treatment, and took control of the region. As plantation after...

, began in 1763. Led by Cuffy

Cuffy (person)

Cuffy, or Kofi , was an Akan person who was captured in his native West Africa and sold into slavery to work in the plantations of the Dutch colony of Berbice in present-day Guyana. He became famous because in 1763 he led a revolt of more than 2,500 slaves against the colony regime...

, the slave revolt came to number about 3,000 and threatened European control over the Guianas before being crushed. In Brazil, these runaway slave communities, emerging from the 16th century onwards, were termed Palmares
Palmares (quilombo)
Palmares, or Quilombo dos Palmares, was a fugitive community of escaped slaves and others in colonial Brazil that developed from 1605 until its suppression in 1694. It was located in what is today the Brazilian state of Alagoas.-Quilombos or mocambos:...

. By the 1690s, these communities numbered approximately 11,000, living in fortifications called macocos. Six Portuguese expeditions tried to conquer the Palmares between 1680-6, but failed, only retaking the territories in 1694.

Despite the huge losses of the previous centuries, the native peoples of South America were not entirely suppressed. In the Andes, several major revolts occurred, with their leaders claiming authority by their descent from the Inca ruling family. In the 1650s, Pedro Bohórquez

Pedro Bohórquez

Pedro Chamijo , more commonly known as Pedro Bohórquez or Inca Hualpa, was a Spanish adventurer in the Viceroyalty of Peru. He was probably born in Spain, but some sources say he was born in Quito...

had himself crowned as the Inca emperor of the Calchaquí

Calchaquí

The Calchaquí were a tribe of South American Indians of the Diaguita group, now extinct, who formerly occupied northern Argentina. Stone and other remains prove them to have reached a high degree of civilization...

es Indians, fooling both Indians and Spanish alike. From 1742 onwards, Juan Santos Atahualpa

Juan Santos Atahualpa

Juan Santos Atahualpa was a leader of an indigenous rebellion in the Andean jungle provinces of Tarma and Jauja, near what was then Spanish Peru in the mid 18th century....

led a revolt from the jungle settlement of Quisopango and Spain was not able to reassert control over the region until the 1780s. In 1780 another large-scale revolt occurred, under the leadership of Tupac Amaru II

Túpac Amaru II

Túpac Amaru II was a leader of an indigenous uprising in 1780 against the Spanish in Peru...

; his revolt spread quickly across the southern Andes, placing La Paz

La Paz

Nuestra Señora de La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia, as well as the departmental capital of the La Paz Department, and the second largest city in the country after Santa Cruz de la Sierra...

under siege, before Tupac Amaru II

Túpac Amaru II

Túpac Amaru II was a leader of an indigenous uprising in 1780 against the Spanish in Peru...

was captured and executed by the Spanish.

Many other tribes attempted to revolt against their colonial rulers. The Wayuu

Wayuu

Wayuu is an Amerindian ethnic group of the La Guajira Peninsula in northern Colombia and northwest Venezuela. They are part of the Maipurean language family.- Geography :...

along the Venezuela-Colombia border had never been very subjugated by the Spanish and between 1701 and 1769 there were six rebellions, during which the Wayuu became famous for their use of firearms and horses in battle. In 1769, the largest of these, there were as many as 20,000 Wayuu under arms. In the south, another major revolt, the 'War of the Seven Reductions', occurred in 1754, when the Guarani tribes rose up against Spanish-Portuguese rule. The Guarani lived along the contested border in South America; when the colonial powers decided to redraw the boundaries at the Treaty of Madrid

Treaty of Madrid (1750)

The Spanish–Portuguese treaty of 1750 or Treaty of Madrid was a document signed by Ferdinand VI of Spain and John V of Portugal on January 13, 1750, concerning their empires and status of their territories in what is now Brazil....

, the decision was taken to relocate the Guarani. Led by Sepé Tiaraju

Sepé Tiaraju

Sepé Tiaraju was an indigenous Guarani leader born in the Jesuit reduction mission of São Luiz Gonzaga and who died on February 7, 1756, in the municipality of São Gabriel, in the present-day state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil....

, the Guarani fought to avoid removal from 1754-6, ultimately being defeated by the combined forces of Spain and Portugal.

Not all the revolts were indigenous in origin. The revolt of the Communeros broke out in Paraguay from 1721 to 1732, forming one of the first uprisings against Spanish colonial rule

Spanish colonization of the Americas

Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...

. Led by José de Antequera y Castro

José de Antequera y Castro

José de Antequera y Castro was a Panamanian lawyer and judge in Peru , and the leader of an insurrection in Paraguay against the viceroy and the king.-Early career:...

, the revolt formed around grievances between the settlers and the Spanish crown. In 1724 Viceroy José de Armendáriz

José de Armendáriz

José de Armendáriz y Perurena, 1st Marquis of Castelfuerte was a Spanish soldier and colonial administrator. From May 14, 1724 to February 4, 1736 he was viceroy of Peru.-Early career:He entered the military and fought in the War of the Spanish Succession, on the side of Philip V of Spain...

sent in troops, who defeated the Comuneros. Antequera was captured, brought to Lima

Lima

and executed. Further revolts in Asunción in 1730 and 1732 were also quelled.

Wars of Independence, 19th century

The Wars of Independence in South America were the numerous wars against Spanish rule

Spanish Empire

The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....

that took place during the early 19th century, from 1808 to 1829. The conflicts can be characterized both as a civil war

Civil war

A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....

s and a war of national liberation

Wars of national liberation

In Marxist terminology, wars of national liberation or national liberation revolutions are conflicts fought by oppressed nationalities against imperial powers to establish separate sovereign states for the subjugated nationality. From a Western point of view, these same wars are called insurgencies...

, since the majority of combatants on both sides were Spanish Americans and the goal of the conflict for one side was the independence of the Spanish colonies in the Americas. The events in Napoleonic Europe, during which France deposed Ferdinand VII of Spain and Maria I of Portugal

Maria I of Portugal

Maria I was Queen regnant of Portugal and the Algarves from 1777 until her death. Known as Maria the Pious , or Maria the Mad , she was the first undisputed Queen regnant of Portugal...

provided the spark for conflict within both Spanish and Portuguese colonies between those pro-Independence criollos who sought political and economic independence from Europe and Royalist

Royalist (Spanish American Revolutions)

The royalists were the American and European supporters of the various governing bodies of the Spanish Monarchy, during the Spanish American wars of independence, which lasted from 1808 until the king's death in 1833...

criollos, who supported the continued allegiance to and permanence within the Spanish

Spanish Empire

or Portuguese

Portuguese Empire

The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...

empires. The conflict saw prolonged campaigns between poorly equipped, largely peasant forces, often in harsh conditions. By the end of the wars, the military relationship between South America and Europe had changed forever.

New Granada, Venezuela, Quito

New Granada responded to the troubles in Spain by establishing a sequence of city juntas in mid-1810, deposing the existing viceroy. The splintering of political authoirty continued as city juntas turned on one another militarily, marking the start of the period known as the Patria Boba, or the Foolish Fatherland. By contrast, in Venezuela, new juntas that emerged formed a joint Congress. The Congress initially upheld the deposed Spanish king's rights, but a faction proposing complete autonomy rapidly won favour, declaring independence as a republic in 1811. Civil war rapidly broke out between the juntas and the royalists in Venezuela. Blockaded by the Spanish regency and defeated at the battle of San Mateo

Battle of San Mateo

The Battle of La Victoria occurred on 20 and 29 June 1812, in La Victoria, Venezuela. Both Spanish assaults on the city by captain Domingo de Monteverde against the forces of Francisco de Miranda were repulsed by the Venezuelan forces entrenched in the city and Monterverde fell back to San Mateo...

the first Venezuelan republic collapsed in 1812. Simón Bolívar

Simón Bolívar

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...

fled Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

and in 1813 joined the republican army of United Provinces of New Granada

United Provinces of New Granada

The United Provinces of New Granada was a country in South America from 1811 to 1816, a period known in Colombian history as the Patria Boba. It was formed from areas of the New Kingdom of Granada. The government was a federation with a parliamentary system, consisting of a weak executive and...

, achieving dominance over the other factions by late 1814. Bolívar was then authorised to lead a liberating force back into Venezuela in what became known as the Admirable Campaign

Admirable Campaign

The Admirable Campaign was a military action led by Simón Bolívar in which the provinces of Mérida, Barinas, Trujillo and Caracas were conquered by the independentists...

, quickly defeating the royalist troops at the battle of Alto de los Godos

Battle of Alto de los Godos

The Battle of Alto de los Godos was a battle that took place on 25 May 1813 in Maturín, Venezuela and that resulted in a patriot victory against the forces of Spanish general Domingo de Monteverde...

. The Llanero

Llanero

A llanero is a Venezuelan or Colombian herder. The name is taken from the Llanos grasslands occupying western Venezuela and eastern Colombia. The Llanero were originally part Spanish and Indian and have a strong culture including a distinctive form of music.During the wars of independence,...

people of the southern plains, however, then rebelled against the Criollo

Criollo people

The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...

republicans, defeating them and reestablishing royalist control of Venezuela. Bolívar fought on, but a stalemate ensued in which the royalists controlled the highly populated, urban north and the republicans the vast, under-populated plains of the south.

The status quo did not last for long. In mid-1815 a large Spanish expeditionary force under Pablo Morillo

Pablo Morillo

Pablo Morillo y Morillo, Count of Cartagena and Marquess of La Puerta, aka El Pacificador was a Spanish general....

had arrived in New Granada. Morillo

Pablo Morillo

Pablo Morillo y Morillo, Count of Cartagena and Marquess of La Puerta, aka El Pacificador was a Spanish general....

retook Cartagena

Cartagena, Colombia

Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...

and by mid-1816 had conquered Bogotá and returned all of New Granada to royalist control. Bolívar reinvaded, defeating the royalists at Boyacá

Battle of Boyacá

The Battle of Boyacá in Colombia, then known as New Granada, was the battle in which Colombia acquired its definitive independence from Spanish Monarchy, although fighting with royalist forces would continue for years....

. The republicans of New Granada and Venezuela came together to form Gran Colombia

Gran Colombia

Gran Colombia is a name used today for the state that encompassed much of northern South America and part of southern Central America from 1819 to 1831. This short-lived republic included the territories of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, northern Peru and northwest Brazil. The...

as a united front against the royalists. In 1821 the Gran Colombian army won a decisive victory at the Battle of Carabobo

Battle of Carabobo

The Battle of Carabobo, 24 June 1821, was fought between independence fighters, led by Simón Bolívar, and the Royalist forces, led by Spanish Field Marshal Miguel de la Torre. Bolívar's decisive victory at Carabobo led to the independence of Venezuela....

, with the last royalist strongholds falling within two years. A Spanish fleet sent in 1823 was defeated at the Battle of Lake Maracaibo

Battle of Lake Maracaibo

The Battle of Lake Maracaibo also known as the "Naval Battle of the Lake" was fought on 24 July 1823 in Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo between Admiral José Prudencio Padilla and royalist Captain Ángel Laborde....

, marking the end of the war for independence in the north.

Meanwhile, in 1820, an independence movement had established itself in Ecuador

Ecuador

, creating a junta and an army in Guayaquil

Guayaquil

Guayaquil , officially Santiago de Guayaquil , is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador,with about 2.3 million inhabitants in the city and nearly 3.1 million in the metropolitan area, as well as that nation's main port...

; other towns in Ecuador declared independence in short order, leaving the way open for a campaign on the capital, Quito

Quito

. By the end of the year, the majority of the country was firmly under republican rule. Field-Marshal Melchor Aymerich, acting President and supreme commander of the military forces in the Quito, then turned the tide of battle at Huachi and began to retake territory, triumphing again the following year at the battle of Tanizagua. Assistance from Gran Colombia arrived in the nick of time, however, in the form of General José Mires and large quantities of weapons. The republicans' first attempt to then take Quito in late 1821 failed with heavy casualties, but in 1822 victory at the battle of Pichincha

Battle of Pichincha

The Battle of Pichincha took place on 24 May 1822, on the slopes of the Pichincha volcano, 3,500 meters above sea-level, right next to the city of Quito, in modern Ecuador....

finally saw a republican victory - Ecuador joined the union of Gran Colombia

Gran Colombia

Río de la Plata and the region

In 1809, Upper Peru

Upper Peru

Upper Peru was the region in the Viceroyalty of Peru, and after 1776, the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, comprising the governorships of Potosí, La Paz, Cochabamba, Los Chiquitos, Moxos and Charcas...

, modern Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

, saw the creation of two juntas in response to the situation in Spain; a rapid response by the viceroys of Lima

Lima

and Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

crushed the revolt, and Upper Peru came under the control of the Viceroyalty of Peru

Viceroyalty of Peru

Created in 1542, the Viceroyalty of Peru was a Spanish colonial administrative district that originally contained most of Spanish-ruled South America, governed from the capital of Lima...

which defended it vigorously. The following year, Buenos Aires itself formed a junta which removed the local Viceroy

Viceroy

A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...

from power. The junta, presided by Cornelio Saavedra

Cornelio Saavedra

Cornelio Judas Tadeo de Saavedra y Rodríguez was a military officer and statesman from the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata...

expanded to include deputies from the other provinces and became the known as the Junta Grande, or the "Big Junta". Two campaigns were ordered by the Junta Grande in order to gain support for the revolutionary ideas of Buenos Aires. The first of these was an attempt to conquer Upper Peru. An initial victory at the Battle of Suipacha

Battle of Suipacha

The Battle of Suipacha was fought on 7 November 1810 in Bolivia during the Bolivian War of Independence between the Spanish colonial army and the Republican forces sent by the Primera Junta from Buenos Aires. At the time Bolivia was known as Upper Peru . It was the first decisive defeat of the...

led to reversals and the royalist victory at the Battle of Huaqui

Battle of Huaqui

The Battle of Huaqui , was a battle between the Primera Junta's revolutionary troops and the royalist troops of the Viceroyalty of Peru on the border between Upper Peru, , and the Viceroyalty of Peru on June 20, 1811.- Prelude :The army commanded by Juan...

. The second campaign focused on Asunción

Asunción

Asunción is the capital and largest city of Paraguay.The "Ciudad de Asunción" is an autonomous capital district not part of any department. The metropolitan area, called Gran Asunción, includes the cities of San Lorenzo, Fernando de la Mora, Lambaré, Luque, Mariano Roque Alonso, Ñemby, San...

in neighbouring Paraguay

Paraguay

. Buenos Aires sent 1,100 troops under General Manuel Belgrano

Manuel Belgrano

Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano , usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano, was an Argentine economist, lawyer, politician, and military leader. He took part in the Argentine Wars of Independence and created the Flag of Argentina...

to Asunción, expecting to be welcomed as liberators; instead, they were defeated at Paraguarí

Battle of Paraguarí

The battle of Paraguarí took place on January 19, 1811, in Paraguarí , between the patriot army led by Manuel Belgrano and the Royalist army located in Paraguay...

and Tacuarí

Battle of Tacuarí

The Battle of Tacuarí was a battle in Southern Paraguay between revolutionary forces under the command of General Manuel Belgrano, member of the Primera Junta government of Argentina, and Paraguayan troops under colonel Manuel Atanasio Cabañas, at the time at the service of the royalists.- History...

by local Paraguayan forces. The royalist governor in Asunción then became concerned about the loyalty of his men, and demobilised the victorious units. Discontent spread, and in May 1811 an uprising overthrew the governor, with Paraguayan independence being declared shortly afterwards.

Internal disagreements led to the fall of the Junta, and a sequence of campaigns between 1811 and 1815, in which commanders such as General Manuel Belgrano

Manuel Belgrano

fought royalist armies from Upper Peru in a harsh, but chaotic sequence of campaigns, hampered by the governmental instability in Buenos Aires. The result was an effective stalemate. Meanwhile, Uruguay had shrugged off royalist rule several years before. In 1811, the royalist headquarters for the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata

Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata

The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, , was the last and most short-lived Viceroyalty of the Spanish Empire in America.The Viceroyalty was established in 1776 out of several former Viceroyalty of Perú dependencies that mainly extended over the Río de la Plata basin, roughly the present day...

had retreated to Montevideo

Montevideo

. José Gervasio Artigas

José Gervasio Artigas

José Gervasio Artigas is a national hero of Uruguay, sometimes called "the father of Uruguayan nationhood".-Early life:Artigas was born in Montevideo on June 19, 1764...

invaded from Buenos Aires with 180 men, defeating the Spanish in April at the battle of Las Piedras

Battle of Las Piedras

The Battle of Las Piedras was fought on May 18, 1811 as part of the Uruguayan struggle for independence.-Background and development of events:...

and assuming control of the "Orientals", or modern Uruguay

Uruguay

. By 1816 in Europe, King Ferdinand had been returned to in power, and an urgent decision was needed regarding independence. An assembly of representatives from most of modern-day Argentina, alongside those of present-day Uruguay

Uruguay

, met at the Congress of Tucumán

Congress of Tucumán

The Congress of Tucumán was the representative assembly, initially meeting in Tucumán, that declared the independence of the United Provinces of South America on July 9, 1816, from the Spanish Empire....

declaring full independence from the Spanish Crown as the United Provinces of South America

United Provinces of South America

The United Provinces of South America was the original name of the state that emerged from the May Revolution and the early developments of the Argentine War of Independence...

. San Martín

José de San Martín

José Francisco de San Martín, known simply as Don José de San Martín , was an Argentine general and the prime leader of the southern part of South America's successful struggle for independence from Spain.Born in Yapeyú, Corrientes , he left his mother country at the...

, who had distinguished himself in recent years, took military command and rejected yet another direct invasion in favour of a new strategy that would use Chile as an indirect means of liberating Upper Peru.

Chile, Peru and Upper Peru

In Chile, the conflict began in 1810, starting as an elitist political movement against the Spanish colonial master, now under the control of France, and finally ending as a fully-fledged civil war. Under the first stage of the conflict, the Patria Vieja campaign, the rebels, led primarily by José Miguel Carrera

José Miguel Carrera

José Miguel Carrera Verdugo was a Chilean general, member of the prominent Carrera family, and considered one of the founders of independent Chile. Carrera was the most important leader of the Chilean War of Independence during the period of the Patria Vieja...

and his associated family, fought a sequence of battles resulting in defeat at the hands of the Royalist forces, who reoccupied Chile under the Reconquista. The royalist forces were aided by the increasing conflict between Carrera

José Miguel Carrera

and his rival Bernardo O'Higgins

Bernardo O'Higgins

Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme was a Chilean independence leader who, together with José de San Martín, freed Chile from Spanish rule in the Chilean War of Independence. Although he was the second Supreme Director of Chile , he is considered one of Chile's founding fathers, as he was the first holder...

, the two forces coming to open blows at the battle of Las Tres Acequias

Battle of Las Tres Acequias

The Battle of Les Tres Acequias, fought during the Chilean War of Independence, occurred near San Bernardo on 26 August in 1814. The confrontation occurred between the two factions of Carrera and Bernardo O'Higgins, resulting in a defeat for O'Higgins that would in turn lead on to the defeat of the...

. Both Carrera

José Miguel Carrera

and O'Higgins

Bernardo O'Higgins

were forced to flee Chile.

Meanwhile, in Peru a similar conflict for independence has begun in 1809. During the previous decade Peru had been a stronghold for royalists, who fought those in favor of independence in Upper Peru, Quito

Ecuadorian War of Independence

The Ecuadorian War of Independence was fought from 1820 to 1822 between several South American armies and Spain over control of the lands of the Royal Audience of Quito, a Spanish colonial administrative jurisdiction from which would eventually emerge the modern Republic of Ecuador...

and Chile. Local attempts at establishing juntas, led by Criollos

Criollo people

in Huánuco in 1812 and during the rebellion of Cuzco from 1814 to 1816, were suppressed. Peru finally began to succumb in 1817 under the military pressure of José de San Martín

José de San Martín

. With large parts of Peru now independent, San Martín transited the Andes to Mendoza

Mendoza, Argentina

Mendoza is the capital city of Mendoza Province, in Argentina. It is located in the northern-central part of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains, on the eastern side of the Andes. As of the , Mendoza's population was 110,993...

in Argentina, and then across into Chile, alongside his political ally O'Higgins

Bernardo O'Higgins

, defeating royalist forces in the third and final part of the Chilean war, the Patria Nueva
Patria Nueva (Chile)
Patria Nueva was a period in the history of Chile which started with the victory of Ejército de los Andes and the Batlle of Chacabuco, on 12 February 1817 and finished with the abdication of Bernardo O'Higgins, in 1823....

campaign, culminating in the battle of Maipú

Battle of Maipú

The Battle of Maipú was a battle fought near Santiago, Chile on April 5, 1818 between South American rebels and Spanish royalists, during the Chilean War of Independence...

. Combining Peruvian and Chilean independent forces, including the newly formed Chilean Navy

Chilean Navy

-Independence Wars of Chile and Peru :The Chilean Navy dates back to 1817. A year before, following the Battle of Chacabuco, General Bernardo O'Higgins prophetically declared "this victory and another hundred shall be of no significance if we do not gain control of the sea".This led to the...

, San Martín

José de San Martín

and Simón Bolívar

Simón Bolívar

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...

completed their campaign in Peru, which formally declared independence in 1821.

Meanwhile, the independent cause in Upper Peru

Upper Peru

had been kept alive by six guerrilla

Guerrilla warfare

Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...

bands that formed in the backcountry

Backcountry

A backcountry area in general terms is a geographical region that is:* isolated* remote* undeveloped* difficult to accessThe term may apply to various regions that are reasonably close to urban areas but are:* not immediately accessible by car...

of Upper Peru. The areas they controlled are called repubiquetas in the historiography of Bolivia. Led by caudillos, they created quasi-states which attracted many followers from political exiles from the main urban centers to the fringe members of Criollo and Mestizo society, and where possible allied themselves with the regional Indian communities. A fifteen-year stalemate ensued. The fight for independence gained new impetus after the battle of Ayacucho

Battle of Ayacucho

The Battle of Ayacucho was a decisive military encounter during the Peruvian War of Independence. It was the battle that sealed the independence of Peru, as well as the victory that ensured independence for the rest of South America...

in which a combined army of 5,700 Gran Colombia

Gran Colombia

n and Peru

Peru

vian troops under the command of Antonio José de Sucre

Antonio José de Sucre

Antonio José de Sucre y Alcalá , known as the "Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho" , was a Venezuelan independence leader. Sucre was one of Simón Bolívar's closest friends, generals and statesmen.-Ancestry:...

defeated the royalist army of 6,500. The Colombians and Peruvians, who had already liberated Ecuador

Ecuador

and Peru, tipped the balance of power in favor of the independence forces. The remaining royalists surrendered in 1825, and although Simón Bolívar

Simón Bolívar

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...

, president of Gran Colombia and Peru at the time, was keen to incorporate Upper Peruvia into the wider federal state, local leaders supported full independence. A constituent congress renamed the country "Bolívar", later changed to Bolívia, later the same year.

Brazil

Brazil too was affected by the events in Napoleonic Europe, but in a rather different fashion. For a while Brazil formed the seat of King João VI

John VI of Portugal

John VI John VI John VI (full name: João Maria José Francisco Xavier de Paula Luís António Domingos Rafael; (13 May 1767 – 10 March 1826) was King of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves (later changed to just King of Portugal and the Algarves, after Brazil was recognized...

and his government, after they fled from Napoleon

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

's army in 1808. The Liberal Revolution of 1820

Liberal Revolution of 1820

The Liberal Revolution of 1820 was a political revolution that erupted in 1820 and lasted until 1826. It was unchained via a military insurrection in the city of Porto, in northern Portugal, that quickly and peacefully spread to the rest of the country. From 1807 to 1811 Napoleonic French forces...

then led the Royal family to return to Portugal, leaving the heir-apparent Prince Pedro as regent of the Kingdom of Brazil. Later in 1821, however, the Portuguese Assembly voted to abolish the Kingdom of Brazil and the royal agencies in Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

, thus subordinating all provinces of Brazil directly to Lisbon

Lisbon

. Troops were sent to Brazil, and all Brazilian units were placed under Portuguese command. This marked the beginning of the Brazilian war of independence.

During the initial months, the situation remained tense. Lisbon sent reinforcements that arrived off Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

later in the year; they were not allowed to land, and returned to Portugal without bloodshed. Prince Pedro seized the initiative and in September 1822 he declared that he would deliver independence for Brazil, or die trying, announcing himself Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. Using various mercenary commanders, including Admiral Thomas Cochrane

Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald

Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, 1st Marquess of Maranhão, GCB, ODM , styled Lord Cochrane between 1778 and 1831, was a senior British naval flag officer and radical politician....

, the Emperor set about driving all of the Portuguese, many of whom were veterans of the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

, out of Brazil, and establishing the central authority of Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

. Both sides generally avoided large, set-piece battle and by 1825 both sides were exhausted; and Pedro was able to acquire Portuguese recognition of Brazilian independence in exchange for significant financial compensation.

European reintervention in 19th century

Despite the Monroe doctrine

Monroe Doctrine

The Monroe Doctrine is a policy of the United States introduced on December 2, 1823. It stated that further efforts by European nations to colonize land or interfere with states in North or South America would be viewed as acts of aggression requiring U.S. intervention...

, the 19th century saw significant European intervention in the military affairs of South America, mostly driven by commercial imperatives, and hampered by the huge logistical challenges involved.

British and French interventions

In January 1833, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

sent two naval vessels to re-assert British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands

Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...

, after the United Provinces of the River Plate, modern-day Argentina, ignored British diplomatic protests over the appointment of Luis Vernet

Luis Vernet

Luis Vernet was a merchant from Hamburg of Huguenot descent. Vernet established a settlement on East Falkland in 1828, after first seeking approval from both the British and Argentine authorities. As such, Vernet is a controversial figure in the history of the Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute...

as Governor of the Falkland Islands and a dispute over fishing rights. The episode, which ended without bloodshed when the badly outnumbered local United Provinces officer surrendered, remains politically contentious. Argentina claims that the population of the islands were expelled in 1833, however sources from the time suggest that the colonists were encouraged to remain.

During the 1830s and 1840s, the British and French governments were at odds with Rosas

Juan Manuel de Rosas

Juan Manuel de Rosas , was an argentine militar and politician, who was elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires in 1829 to 1835, and then of the Argentine Confederation from 1835 until 1852...

' leadership of the United Provinces, modern day Argentina, and his economic policies of protecting the local industries with high tariffs. This had led to two naval blockade

Blockade

A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...

s, a French one

French blockade of the Río de la Plata

The French blockade to the Río de la Plata was a two-year long naval blockade imposed by France on the Argentine Confederation ruled by Juan Manuel de Rosas. It closed Buenos Aires to naval commerce. It was imposed in 1838 to support the Peru–Bolivian Confederation in the War of the Confederation,...

in 1838, and an Anglo-French one

Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata

The Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata was a five-year long naval blockade imposed by France and Britain on the Argentine Confederation ruled by Juan Manuel de Rosas. It was imposed in 1845 to support the Colorado Party in the Uruguayan Civil War and closed Buenos Aires to naval commerce...

in 1845. By the 1840s, the advent of
steam-powered sailing

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

meant that merchant ships could easily sail up rivers that had previously been impassable; as a result British and French vessels had been sailing past Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

and trading directly inland, avoiding customs duties in the process. The Rosas government tried to stop this practice by declaring the Argentine rivers unnavigable by foreign countries, barring access to Paraguay

Paraguay

an ports in the process. The British and French governments responded by intervening up the Paraná river

Paraná River

The Paraná River is a river in south Central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina for some . It is second in length only to the Amazon River among South American rivers. The name Paraná is an abbreviation of the phrase "para rehe onáva", which comes from the Tupi language...

in 1845 with a joint fleet of steam frigates, partially armoured and armed with rapid-fire guns and Congreve rocket

Congreve rocket

The Congreve Rocket was a British military weapon designed and developed by Sir William Congreve in 1804.The rocket was developed by the British Royal Arsenal following the experiences of the Second, Third and Fourth Mysore Wars. The wars fought between the British East India Company and the...

s. The result was a battle between an Argentinian fort that attempted to block the river and the European ships; the Anglo-French fleet had the best of the fight, but suffered considerable damage. The defence was enough to produce a political compromise in which France and Britain recognised the right of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

to administer its own territories and rivers.

Spanish reintervention

The Chincha Islands War

Chincha Islands War

The Chincha Islands War was a series of coastal and naval battles between Spain and its former colonies of Peru and Chile from 1864 to 1866, that began with Spain's seizure of the guano-rich Chincha Islands, part of a series of attempts by Isabel II of Spain to reassert her country's lost...

was a series of coastal and naval battles between the former colonial power of Spain and Peru

Peru

and Chile between 1864 to 1866. During the 1860s Spain had built up a very large naval force and was involved in a sequence of new colonial ventures around the world. In 1862, a Spanish naval expedition, including steam frigates, was sent to South America under Admiral Luis Hernández Pinzón; the visit went badly and diplomatic relations went downhill, with Spain demanding compensation and then the repayment of former debts from the wars of independence.

In April 1864, the Spanish fleet seized the lightly defended Chincha Islands

Chincha Islands

The Chincha Islands are a group of three small islands 21 km off the southwest coast of Peru, to which they belong, near the town of Pisco,...

in an attempt to force Peru to provide payment - the islands were the principal source of valuable Peruvian guano

Guano

Guano is the excrement of seabirds, cave dwelling bats, and seals. Guano manure is an effective fertilizer due to its high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen and also its lack of odor. It was an important source of nitrates for gunpowder...

. The Spanish vessels also blockade

Blockade

d Peruvian ports. An attempt to produce a diplomatic solution failed when the Peruvian Congress refused to ratify it. Anti-Spanish sentiment was growing rapidly in the region, and Chile first declared that it would not sell coal supplies to the Spanish navy and then, when Spain demanded compensation, came out openly in support of Peru against Spain, declaring war. Ecuador

Ecuador

and Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

joined the alliance the next year. It became evident that Spain was over extended. An isolated Spanish vessel was captured at the battle of Papudo

Battle of Papudo

The Naval Battle of Papudo was a naval engagement fought between Spanish and Chilean forces on November 26, 1865, during the Chincha Islands War...

, and Spanish attempts to blockade Chile as well as Peru were undermined by the distances involved, although Spanish naval bombardment, as at the Valparaíso bombardment

Valparaiso bombardment

The Bombardment of Valparaíso on 31 March 1866 happened after the Chincha Islands War, when a Spanish fleet shelled, burned and destroyed the undefended port of Valparaíso.-Background:...

which destroyed most of the Chilean merchant navy, could cause significant damage. The inconclusive battle of Abtao

Battle of Abtao

The Naval Battle of Abtao took place on February 7, 1866, between a Spanish naval squadron and a combined Peruvian-Chilean fleet, at the island of Abtao in the Gulf of Ancud near Chiloé Archipelago in south-central Chile.-Background:...

was followed by the battle of Callao

Battle of Callao

The Battle of Callao occurred on May 2, 1866 between a Spanish fleet under the command of Admiral Casto Méndez Núñez and the fortified battery emplacements of the Peruvian port city of Callao during the Chincha Islands War...

. Although the Spanish navy was not defeated on either occasion, morale was increasingly low and the Spanish eventually decided to withdraw from the Chincha Islands

Chincha Islands

The Chincha Islands are a group of three small islands 21 km off the southwest coast of Peru, to which they belong, near the town of Pisco,...

and return to Spain.

Regional wars and discontent in the 19th century

The remainder of the 19th century was a violent time in South America, seeing numerous wars between the newly independent states. The conflicts were driven by the uncertain frontiers of the colonial period, attempts to achieve regional dominance, and the importance of trade and the consequent involvement of many European nations in the internal affairs of the continent. As the century progressed, the growing wealth of South America allowed the creation of larger and more modern armies than in the revolutionary period, with the death toll of the wars increasing as a result.

The rivalry between Argentina and Brazil

With independence, United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, centred on modern-day Argentina with its capital in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

, found itself in competition with the neighbouring Empire of Brazil for dominance across the Río de la Plata

Río de la Plata

. The first conflict to emerge concerned the long-disputed Banda Oriental
Banda Oriental
The Banda Oriental del Uruguay was the South American territory east of the Uruguay River and north of the Río de la Plata, coinciding approximately with the modern nation of Uruguay, the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul and some parts of Santa Catarina...

, or 'Eastern Strip', approximately present-day Uruguay

Uruguay

; it had been re-annexed by Portugal in 1821, giving the country a strategic position over the Río de la Plata

Río de la Plata

and control over the United Provinces' main port. Dom Pedro I then declared the region a province within the Empire of Brazil. Intending to regain control of the region, the United Provinces urged the people of the region, known as Orientales (or 'Easterners'), to rise up, giving them political and material support. In response, Brazil declared war on the United Provinces.

The first military moves occurred at sea, as Brazil blockaded the ports of Buenos Aires and Montevideo

Montevideo

. On land, however, Buenos Aires held the initial advantage, pushing into Brazilian territory and winning the battle of Ituzaingó

Battle of Ituzaingó

The Battle of Ituzaingó was fought in vicinity of Santa Maria river, in a valley of small hills where a stream divided the valley in two....

. Dom Pedro I commenced his offensive the next year, hampered by the ongoing rebellions across much of Brazil at the time. By 1828, Uruguayan leader Fructuoso Rivera

Fructuoso Rivera

José Fructuoso Rivera y Toscana was an Uruguayan general and patriot who assisted in the efforts to force Brazilians out of the Banda Oriental.-Founder of Colorado Party and President of Uruguay:...

had conquered the eastern territories, but not decisively. The high cost of the war was affecting both sides by this time, and the damage to trade was concerning the British, resulting in both parties signing the Treaty of Montevideo

Treaty of Montevideo

There have been several treaties signed in Montevideo such as:*1828 Treaty of Montevideo in which Brazil and Argentina recognized the independence of Uruguay, after British mediation....

acknowledging the independence of most of the disputed territory in the form of the Estado Oriental del Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

. The eastern section was retained by Brazil.

Soon after the end of the Argentina–Brazil War Don

Don (honorific)

Don, from Latin dominus, is an honorific in Spanish , Portuguese , and Italian . The female equivalent is Doña , Dona , and Donna , abbreviated "Dª" or simply "D."-Usage:...

Juan Manuel de Rosas

was elected governor of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires Province

The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...

in 1832. Rosas wished to create a state in the image of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, allowing Argentina to became the main power in South America. To achieve this, it would be necessary to integrate the three neighbouring countries of Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

, Uruguay

Uruguay

and Paraguay

Paraguay

, and most part of the southern region of Brazil.

Meanwhile, the new state of Uruguay

Uruguay

remained unstable and deeply split. On one side, the conservative Blancos
National Party (Uruguay)
The National Party , also known as the White Party , is a major right-wing conservative political party in Uruguay, currently the major opposition party to the ruling Frente Amplio government....

, or Whites, represented the bulk of the business interests, and were supported by France, the United Kingdom

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

. On the other side, the liberal Colorados
Colorado Party (Uruguay)
The Colorado Party is a political party in Uruguay.- Aims :It unites Conservative, Moderate and Social democratic groups. It was the dominant party of government almost without exception during the stabilisation of the Uruguayan republic....

, or Reds, favoured protectionism against European imports and represented many of the rural areas. Brazil chose to support the Colorados, whilst the dictator of the United Provinces, Manuel de Rosas, was a close friend of the Blanco President Manuel Oribe

Manuel Oribe

Manuel Ceferino Oribe y Viana was the fourth president of Uruguay.-Biography:Manuel Oribe was the son of Captain Francisco Oribe and María Francisca Viana, a descendant of the first governor of Montevideo, José Joaquín de Viana...

. In 1838, a European-backed Colorado army took up arms against Oribe

Manuel Oribe

and Uruguay

Uruguay

became the centre of the 'Great War', as rival armies backed by the different countries fought for control. The siege of Montevideo, which began in February 1843, would ultimately last for nine years. Rosas' options were limited by the pressure from European states not to interfere with international shipping. In 1845, when access to Paraguay

Paraguay

was blocked, Britain and France allied against Rosas, seized his fleet and began a blockade of Buenos Aires, resulting in an accommodation.

Brazilian emperor Dom

Dom (title)

Dom is a title of respect prefixed to the given name. It derives from Latin Dominus.It is used in English for certain Benedictine and Carthusian monks, and for members of certain communities of Canons Regular. Examples include Benedictine monks of the English Benedictine Congregation...

Pedro II

Pedro II of Brazil

Dom Pedro II , nicknamed "the Magnanimous", was the second and last ruler of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was the seventh child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of...

passed out of his minority in the late 1840s. For imperial Brazil, a powerful republican United Provinces was seen as an existential threat to the monarchy. The maintenance of an independent Paraguay and Uruguay was essential if Brazil was to retain its primacy in the region. In 1849, Brazil decided to launch an attack in the south with its powerful standing army, and in preparation for this formed first a military alliance with Bolivia, and a defensive military alliance with the Colorado Uruguayan government, and then a treaty of offensive alliance between Uruguay, Brazil and rebellious elements of the United Provinces. A large Brazilian army, backed by the Brazilian Armada along the coast, intervened in Uruguay, where the outnumbered Oribe

Manuel Oribe

surrendered his forces without a fight. The Brazilian fleet prevented any of his forces from escaping to Argentina. With Uruguay now under the complete control of the Colorados, the alliance renewed their treaty, with the new aim of removing Rosas from power. The battle of Caseros

Battle of Caseros

The Battle of Caseros was fought near the town of Caseros, more precisely between the present-day train stations of Caseros and Palomar in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, on 3 February 1852, between the Army of Buenos Aires commanded by Juan Manuel de Rosas...

saw a victory for the alliance, and Rosas retreated in defeat to England

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, marking a period of imperial hegemony for the Brazilian empire across the region.

The War of the Triple Alliance

War of the Triple Alliance

The Paraguayan War , also known as War of the Triple Alliance , was a military conflict in South America fought from 1864 to 1870 between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay...

, one of the most violent wars to be fought in South America, commenced in 1864 between Paraguay

Paraguay

and the allied countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay

Uruguay

. Paraguay had evolved since independence under the rule of the López family; government was harsh, and the López family ruled the country as it would a large property estate. Paraguay

Paraguay

's President Francisco Solano López

Francisco Solano López (politician)

Francisco Solano López Carrillo was president of Paraguay from 1862 until his death in 1870. He was officially the eldest son of president Carlos Antonio López, whom he succeeded...

was deeply patriotic, but also ambitious, perhaps arrogant, and possibly insane. In the years before the war, he had invested heavily in building up a military and a standing army capable of taking on his larger neighbours; he increasingly looked eastwards towards the possibilities of an Atlantic port and access to valuable trade routes.

López

Francisco Solano López (politician)

Francisco Solano López Carrillo was president of Paraguay from 1862 until his death in 1870. He was officially the eldest son of president Carlos Antonio López, whom he succeeded...

had forged an alliance with the Blanco faction in Uruguay

Uruguay

. The tensions between the different factions in Uruguay

Uruguay

, combined with the links between Uruguay

Uruguay

and those territories absorbed into Brazil in 1828, meant that renewed military conflict remained a real possibility. When Brazil intervened to support its own clients, the Colorado faction, López

Francisco Solano López (politician)

Francisco Solano López Carrillo was president of Paraguay from 1862 until his death in 1870. He was officially the eldest son of president Carlos Antonio López, whom he succeeded...

declared war on Brazil. López

Francisco Solano López (politician)

Francisco Solano López Carrillo was president of Paraguay from 1862 until his death in 1870. He was officially the eldest son of president Carlos Antonio López, whom he succeeded...

then invaded Argentina in order to move forces quickly against Brazil, leading to Argentina joining the war on Brazil's side. The triple alliance - Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay - were outnumbered at the start of the conflict on land, but held a clear advantage at sea, thanks to Brazil's naval Armada. Initially, Paraguayan forces had the advantage and advanced rapidly. The alliance responded at the naval battle of Riachuelo

Battle of Riachuelo

The naval Battle of Riachuelo was a key point in the War of the Triple Alliance. By late 1864, Paraguay had scored a series of victories in the war; on June 11, 1865, however, its naval defeat by Brazil began to turn the tide in favor of the allies....

in 1865, where the Brazilian fleet commanded by Francisco Manoel Barroso da Silva

Francisco Manoel Barroso da Silva

Commodore Francisco Manoel Barroso da Silva directed the Brazilian fleet while the Marquis of Tamandaré was absent during the Battle of Riachuelo in the War of the Triple Alliance....

won, destroying the Paraguayan navy. The battle decided the outcome of the war in favour of the Triple Alliance, as the limitations on road transport mean that rivers were critical to military maneuver. By the end of 1865, the Triple Alliance was on the offensive on land and were prepared to invade Paraguay. The invasion itself ground on, marked by high rates of disease and attrition. It was not until 1869 that Asunción

Asunción

was finally occupied, and the conflict then turned into a drawn-out guerrilla war that lasted until López was killed in 1870. The result was disastrous for Paraguay - some estimates place total Paraguayan losses — through both war and disease

Infectious disease

Infectious diseases, also known as communicable diseases, contagious diseases or transmissible diseases comprise clinically evident illness resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism...

— as high as 1.2 million people, or 90% of its pre-war population. It took decades for Paraguay to recover from the destruction.

For Uruguay, too, peace remained hard to come by. Civil war broke out again in 1871 in the 'Revolution of the Lances

Revolution of the Lances

The Revolution of the Lances occurred in Uruguay from September 12, 1870 to April 6, 1872.-Parties to the conflict:...

', named after an improvised weapon used by South American militias. Timoteo Aparicio, leading the Blanco faction, fought until 1872, when a temporary compromise was achieved with the ruling Colorado faction. The final battle of the long-running civil war was not fought until 1904, when the battle of Masoller

Battle of Masoller

The Battle of Masoller, which occurred on September 1, 1904, was the final battle of the intermittent Uruguayan Civil War which marked much of 19th century Uruguay, resulting in the victory of the Colorado forces.-Location and historical background:...

resulting in victory for the Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

forces.

Wars along the Pacific Rim

In 1828, in the aftermath of the wars of independence, the Republic of Peru

Peru

and Gran Colombia

Gran Colombia

, a confederation of the modern-day countries of Colombia

Colombia

, Ecuador

Ecuador

, Panama

Panama

, and Venezuela

Venezuela

, went to war over disputed territories along their border: the Gran Colombia–Peru War. During the campaign for independence, there had been agreement that the new state lines should follow the old colonial boundaries. The ambiguities and changes during the colonial years, however, made this principle challenging to apply in practice. Early in 1828, Peru launched a campaign against Bolivia to take back the disputed territory and ultimately forced the Colombian military units stationed there out of Bolivia. Bolivar

Simón Bolívar

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...

declared war on Peru in June; Peru responded in kind in July. Naval battles along the coast began shortly afterwards. Initially successful on land, the Peruvians were defeated at the Battle of Portete de Tarqui in 1829; their surrender followed. Following a military coup in Peru, the Convenio de Girón was signed, invoking the status quo based on the old, still disputed, colonial frontiers - almost guaranteeing future conflicts. The dissolution of Gran Colombia in 1830 complicated matters further, with Peru later arguing that the Convenio de Girón ceased to apply with the fragmentation of one of the signatories.

Tensions over borders in the Andes continued, with the Ecuadorian–Peruvian war of 1858 commencing a long-running conflict. Ecuador had effectively ceded long-disputed territory in the Amazon Basin

Amazon Basin

The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries that drains an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of South America. The basin is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela...

to British creditors. This angered the Peruvian government, who demanded the transaction to be nullified. When Ecuador refused, war broke out. The Peruvian navy moved quickly to blockade the entire Ecuadorian coast and their army moved in and occupied Guayaquil

Guayaquil

, Ecuador's largest city and port. With little other option, Ecuador signed the Treaty of Mapasingue, declaring the cession null and settling the border dispute in Peru's favour. Ecuador regarded the treaty as inequitable, and the conflict was not to be resolved until late in the 20th century.

The next major conflict, the War of the Pacific

War of the Pacific

The War of the Pacific took place in western South America from 1879 through 1883. Chile fought against Bolivia and Peru. Despite cooperation among the three nations in the war against Spain, disputes soon arose over the mineral-rich Peruvian provinces of Tarapaca, Tacna, and Arica, and the...

grew out of the initial dispute between Chile and Bolivia for control over part of the Atacama desert on the Pacific coast. Technical advances in the 1840s made the desert's guano

Guano

deposits incredibly valuable, and international investment poured in. The usual colonial-era ambiguities

Atacama border dispute

The Atacama border dispute was a dispute between Chile and Bolivia in the 19th century that ended in the transfer to Chile of all of the Bolivian Coast and the southern tip of Bolivia's ally Peru through the Treaty of Ancón with Peru and the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1904 between Chile and...

meant that the borders were uncertain. An arms race to build modern, ironclad vessels began. Peru signed a secret treaty of alliance with Bolivia; arguments between Chile and Bolivia grew, Peruvian mediation failed amidst the Chilean discovery of the secret treaty, and in 1879 violence broke out. The desert terrain meant that control of the coastal seas would be decisive; Bolivia had no navy of its own, and Peru faced fiscal problems that rendered many of its vessels unusable. Although also stretched financially, Chile's navy, upgraded and modernised, was in much better shape. Peru fell back on highly effective raiding activity, requiring three naval battles at Chipana, Iquique

Battle of Iquique

The Battle of Iquique was a confrontation that occurred on May 21, 1879, during the naval stage of the War of the Pacific, a conflict between Chile and Peru and Bolivia. The battle took place off the, by then, Peruvian port of Iquique...

and Angamos before the larger Chilean force could achieve sea dominance. The naval battles and landings were keenly observed, as they saw the deployment of the then novel armor-piercing shells, naval torpedoes, torpedo boats, and purpose-built landing craft

Landing craft

Landing craft are boats and seagoing vessels used to convey a landing force from the sea to the shore during an amphibious assault. Most renowned are those used to storm the beaches of Normandy, the Mediterranean, and many Pacific islands during WWII...

. On land, the Chilean forces were successful, and by early 1880, Bolivia had been forced to withdraw from the war entirely. The battle of Arica

Battle of Arica

The Battle of Arica, also known as Assault and Capture of Arica Cape, was a battle in the War of the Pacific. It was fought on 7 June 1880, between the forces of Chile and Peru....

, another Chilean victory, saw the first use of land mine

Land mine

A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....

s in South America. In January 1881, the Chileans took the Peruvian capital, Lima

Lima

, and after several years of guerrilla warfare Peru and Chile signed the Treaty of Ancon

Treaty of Ancón

The Treaty of Ancón was signed by Chile and Peru on 20 October 1883, in the Ancón District near Lima. It was intended to settle the two nations' remaining territorial differences at the conclusion of their involvement in the War of the Pacific and to stabilise post-bellum relations between...

, by which Peru's Tarapacá Province

Tarapacá Province (Peru)

The Province of Tarapacá was an old territorial division of Peru, which existed from 1837 until 1883.* It was created in 1837, in Litoral Department....

was ceded to the victor; on its part, Bolivia was forced to cede Antofagasta

Antofagasta

Antofagasta is a port city in northern Chile, about north of Santiago. It is the capital of Antofagasta Province and Antofagasta Region. According to the 2002 census, the city has a population of 296,905...

Indigenous revolts and conquests

The balance of power with the indigenous peoples turned steadily in the favour of the newly independent states during the second half of the 19th century. The Mapuche

Mapuche

still remained largely autonomous in the 1860s, following several centuries of resistance to Spanish, and then Chilean, rule - but pressure was increasing. In 1860, the French

Second French Empire

The Second French Empire or French Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...

lawyer and adventurer named Orélie-Antoine de Tounens visited the region and established Nouvelle France, also sometimes called the Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia. This provided the trigger for Chilean action, who invaded and captured Orélie-Antoine, detaining him as a lunatic. Over the next twenty years the Chilean military set about building roads and telegraph systems, pacifying the region and forcibly assimilating

Cultural assimilation

Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...

the Mapuche into Chilean society. The Mapuche fought back, particularly during the War of the Pacific

War of the Pacific

, but were ultimately defeated - some indigenous remnants were placed into reservations and their land given to Chilean and foreign settlers. Argentina also led their own campaign of pacification in neighbouring Patagonia

Patagonia

Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...

, the "Conquest of the Desert

Conquest of the Desert

The Conquest of the Desert was a military campaign directed mainly by General Julio Argentino Roca in the 1870s, which established Argentine dominance over Patagonia, which was inhabited by indigenous peoples...

" during the 1870s, spurred by greed, the military success of Chileans, and recent uprisings. Initially the military aimed at simply enabling white colonialisation of the desert, but in 1877 military efforts began to extinguish, subdue and expel the local Indians in their entirety. Some Mapuche were forced into Chile, whilst the remaining indigenous peoples largely perished.

Brazil saw a number of large armed revolts during the century, usually caused by the distance from the political capital and economic difficulties. One of the first was the Balaiada
Balaiada
The Balaiada was a social revolt that occurred between 1838 and 1841 in the interior of the province of Maranhão, Brazil.-Background:During the imperial period, the Maranhão region, which exported cotton, suffered a grave economic crisis because of competition with the increasingly productive...

, a social revolt that occurred between 1838 and 1841 in the interior of the province of Maranhão

Maranhão

Maranhão is a northeastern state of Brazil. To the north lies the Atlantic Ocean. Maranhão is neighbored by the states of Piauí, Tocantins and Pará. The people of Maranhão have a distinctive accent...

, Brazil. The imperial government combined political pacification with an effective military offensive, pacifying the province by 1841. Another revolt, the War of the Farrapos, involved declaring of a new state, the Piratini Republic

Piratini Republic

The Riograndense Republic, often called Piratini Republic , was a de facto state that existed between September 11, 1836 and March 1, 1845 geographically coinciding with the present state of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil...

with the support of the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...

. After many deaths, both revolts were resolved diplomatically. By contrast, the War of Canudos

War of Canudos

The War of Canudos was a conflict between the state of Brazil and a group of some 30,000 settlers who had founded their own community in the northeastern state of Bahia, named Canudos...

, which took place in Bahia

Salvador, Bahia

Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...

, north-eastern Brazil from 1893-7, ended violently after heavy artillery bombardment. The Contestado War

Contestado War

The Contestado War , broadly speaking, was a guerrilla war for land between settlers and landowners, the latter supported by the Brazilian state's police and military forces, that lasted from October 1912 to August 1916....

, an uprising in southern Brazil between 1912-6, was to drag on for several years before being completely suppressed by purely military means.

Towards the end of the century, Brazil saw several large revolts in its navy - a force still heavily dominated, amongst the other ranks at least, by black sailors. In 1893, the Revolta da Armada
Revolta da Armada
Brazilian Naval Revolts, or the Revoltas da Armada , were armed mutinies promoted mainly by Admirals Custodio de Mello and Saldanha da Gama and their fleet of Brazilian Navy ships against unconstitucional attitudes of the then the central government in Rio de Janeiro.-First revolt:In November 1891,...

occurred in Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

, focused on the federal government - it lasted seven months before being ultimately suppressed. In 1910, Chibata Revolt occurred, during which more than 2,000 sailors rebelled against the use of physical punishments for military offences, in particular the use of the chibata, a type of whip associated with the slave trade. The mutineers, mostly black, threatened to destroy the city unless their demands were met. An amnesty was declared and the use of the whip brought to an end, but after the mutineers had stood down, the Government rescinded the amnesty and imposed harsh punishments.

South America and the Global Wars

During the World Wars and the eventual Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

, South America's distance from the main theatres of conflicts and the economic benefits of neutrality minimised its military involvement in these global conflicts. By the 1960s, Marxism

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

had given a new context to the revolts of earlier centuries, and gave additional encouragement to the involvement of the military in civilian society and government.

The naval arms race of the early 1900s

At the beginning of the 20th century, another naval arms race emerged in South America. During much of the previous century, the Brazilian imperial Armada had enjoyed a decisive naval advantage, but following the Brazilian revolution of 1889, the nation's navy fell into disrepair. By the turn of the 20th century, it was lagging behind those of Chile and Argentina. Soaring demand for coffee and rubber

Rubber boom

The rubber boom was an important part of the economic and social history of Brazil and Amazonian regions of neighboring countries, being related with the extraction and commercialization of rubber...

brought the Brazilian economy an influx of revenue, some of which was used to finance a 1904 Naval rearmament program. Before the bulk of the work could be completed, however, was launched in 1906, leading Brazil to alter her order for two, far more expensive vessels of a similar design. The Minas Geraes and São Paulo

Brazilian battleship Sao Paulo

São Paulo was a dreadnought battleship designed for the Brazilian Navy by the British company Armstrong Whitworth. She was the second of two ships in the Minas Geraes class, and was named after the state and city of São Paulo....

instantly changed the balance of naval power in the region, sparking a new arms race; Chile ordered the dreadnoughts Almirante Latorre

Chilean battleship Almirante Latorre

Almirante Latorre, named after Juan José Latorre, was a super-dreadnought battleship built for the Chilean Navy . She was the first of a planned two-ship class that would respond to earlier warship purchases by other South American countries...

and Almirante Cochrane from Britain, and Argentina commissioned two vessels from the United States—the Rivadavia

ARA Rivadavia

ARA Rivadavia"ARA" is an acronym for Armada de la República Argentina was a battleship of the Argentine Navy. Named after the first Argentine president, Bernardino Rivadavia, she was the lead ship of her class and the third dreadnought built during the South American dreadnought race...

and Moreno

ARA Moreno

ARA Moreno was a dreadnought battleship designed by the American Fore River Shipbuilding Company for the Argentine Navy...

. The cost was colossal—over a quarter of each country's annual national income was being spent on naval procurement during the period. The sheer cost of the expansion, combined with declining trade revenues during the First World War, eventually brought the naval arms race to a halt.

World War I

With the exception of Brazil, the independent states of South America were not greatly involved in the conflict of the First World War. Despite the internal political tensions within the country, Brazil entered into World War I in 1917 alongside with the Triple Entente

Triple Entente

The Triple Entente was the name given to the alliance among Britain, France and Russia after the signing of the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907....

, after initially adopting neutrality. Brazil's contribution

Brazil during World War I

In 1917, the Brazilian president Venceslau Brás declared war against the Central Powers. Brazil in World War I had a position supported by the Hague Convention, keeping initially neutral, trying not to restrict the market to their export products, mainly coffee, latex and industrial manufactured...

was valued, but modest, essentially little more than symbolic from a military

Military

A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...

perspective. Its primary contribution was in the naval war in the Atlantic

U-boat Campaign (World War I)

The U-boat Campaign from 1914 to 1918 was the World War I naval campaign fought by German U-boats against the trade routes of the Entente Powers...

, though it also sent a unit to the Western front

Western Front (World War I)

Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...

.

Such military action that did occur in South America was naval, and focused on a force of German Naval vessels led by commander Maximilian von Spee

Maximilian von Spee

Vice Admiral Maximilian Reichsgraf von Spee was a German admiral. Although he was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the counts von Spee belonged to the prominent families of the Rhenish nobility. He joined the Kaiserliche Marine in 1878. In 1887–88 he commanded the Kamerun ports, in German West...

. In an effort to avoid being trapped in South East Asia, Spee had attempted to sail across the Pacific, to round Cape Horn, and then force his way back home to Germany. Sir Christopher Cradock

Christopher Cradock

Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher "Kit" George Francis Maurice Cradock KCVO CB was a British officer of the Royal Navy. He was born at Hartforth, Richmond, North Yorkshire...

was sent to intercept Maximilian von Spee

Maximilian von Spee

with two older armoured cruisers; Spee decisively defeated him in November 1914 at the battle of Coronel

Battle of Coronel

The First World War naval Battle of Coronel took place on 1 November 1914 off the coast of central Chile near the city of Coronel. German Kaiserliche Marine forces led by Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee met and defeated a Royal Navy squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher...

off the coast of Chile. From there, Spee stopped at Valparaíso

Valparaíso

Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...

in Chile before continuing on to raid the coaling station at Stanley

Stanley, Falkland Islands

Stanley is the capital and only true cityin the Falkland Islands. It is located on the isle of East Falkland, on a north-facing slope in one of the wettest parts of the islands. At the 2006 census, the city had a population of 2,115...

in the Falkland Islands

Falkland Islands

. Unfortunately, he was unaware that large force of modern British ships were now based at Stanley, and Spee's force was destroyed in the ensuing Battle of the Falkland Islands

Battle of the Falkland Islands

The Battle of the Falkland Islands was a British naval victory over the Imperial German Navy on 8 December 1914 during the First World War in the South Atlantic...

World War II

Once again, Second World War had less military impact on South America than in many parts of the world. Brazil was the only country to fight in the war, deploying a 25,000 strong joint force - the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB). The Brazilian Army and Air Force fought in Italy and the Navy in the Atlantic Ocean. Just under a thousand Brazilian servicemen died

Killed in action

Killed in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to...

during the conflict.

The beginning of the Second World War, like the first, however, began with naval action off the South American coastline. The Admiral Graf Spee, a modern , was named after the German admiral lost in the previous war. She had been sent to the region as a commerce raider

Commerce raiding

Commerce raiding or guerre de course is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt the logistics of an enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging the combatants themselves or enforcing a blockade against them.Commerce raiding was heavily criticised by...

with the task of sinking British merchant shipping, but avoiding combat with superior enemy forces. Numerous British hunting groups were assigned to find her, with three British ships finally tracking her down in December 1939. The Battle of the River Plate

Battle of the River Plate

The Battle of the River Plate was the first naval battle in the Second World War. The German pocket battleship had been commerce raiding since the start of the war in September 1939...

ensued, during which the Graf Spee was damaged. She docked for repairs in the neutral port of Montevideo

Montevideo

, but was forced by international law to leave within 72 hours. Faced with what he believed to be overwhelming odds, her captain scuttled his ship rather than risk the lives of his crew.

Cold War

The Cold War

Cold War

had less impact on South America than in many parts of the world, but by the 1970s the ideological struggle was heavily impacting military affairs. On the one hand, an increasing number of civilian governments across the region were being replaced by military dictatorships, usually right-wing in nature and allied to the West; on the other hand, an increasing number of left-wing orientated guerrilla and terrorist organisations were being established. The result was a sequence of harsh, dirty military confrontations. In Uruguay

Uruguay

, the Tupamaro movement, named after the Túpac Amaru II

Túpac Amaru II

Túpac Amaru II was a leader of an indigenous uprising in 1780 against the Spanish in Peru...

revolt in the 18th century, emerged during the 1960s to confront the Military of Uruguay

Military of Uruguay

The Armed Forces of Uruguay consist of an army, navy, and air force. These three branches are constitutionally subordinate to the president through the Minister of Defense...

. Branches of the Tupamaro movement began to establish themselves across the region. In Argentina, the People's Revolutionary Army

People's Revolutionary Army (Argentina)

The Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo was the military branch of the communist Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores in Argentina...

began a violent campaign against the security forces and military. In 1975, various South American regimes responded with the collaborative, international counterinsurgency campaign known as Operation Condor

Operation Condor

Operation Condor , was a campaign of political repression involving assassination and intelligence operations officially implemented in 1975 by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America...

. Operation Condor

Operation Condor

was a campaign of political repressions involving assassination

Assassination

To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

and intelligence

Intelligence (information gathering)

Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...

; the militaries of South America were heavily involved. One of the most famous elements of this confrontation, the Dirty War

Dirty War

The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...

of Argentina, saw a vicious response to the killings of military officers and police in leftist action, with thousands of suspects killed by the authorities. In Chile, the government of General Augusto Pinochet

Augusto Pinochet

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...

similarly used his military to undertake similar operations

Chile under Pinochet

Chile was ruled by a military dictatorship headed by Augusto Pinochet from 1973 when Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup d'etat until 1990 when the Chilean transition to democracy began. The authoritarian military government was characterized by systematic suppression of political parties and...

.

The 1980s saw a resurgence of violence in other parts of South America. In Peru, the Shining Path

Shining Path

Shining Path is a Maoist guerrilla terrorist organization in Peru. The group never refers to itself as "Shining Path", and as several other Peruvian groups, prefers to be called the "Communist Party of Peru" or "PCP-SL" in short...

movement launched a Maoist

Maoism

Maoism, also known as the Mao Zedong Thought , is claimed by Maoists as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxist communist theory, derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong . Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was widely applied as the political and military guiding...

guerrilla campaign from the countryside, starting a war which has still not entirely concluded today, with a significant loss of life. In Colombia

Colombia

, the 1960s Communist guerrilla organisation the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army, or FARC, enjoyed a resurgence in the 1980s with the advent of drugs money. The war between the Colombian armed forces and FARC still continues; according to the Colombian government, as of 2008, FARC had an estimated 6,000-10,000 members, down from 16,000 in 2001, having lost about half their fighting force after President Álvaro Uribe

Álvaro Uribe

Alvaro Uribe Vélez was the 58th President of Colombia, from 2002 to 2010. In August 2010 he was appointed Vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid....

took office in 2002.

Legacy conflicts

Numerous legacy issues remained in South America into the 20th century, some of which attracted military solution. Military technology was increasing throughout the period, with the introduction of mobile warfare

Maneuver warfare

Maneuver warfare, or manoeuvre warfare , is the term used by military theorists for a concept of warfare that advocates attempting to defeat an adversary by incapacitating their decision-making through shock and disruption brought about by movement...

and aircraft

Aircraft

An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...

- but logistics and the sheer cost of modern warfare remained key challenges, leading to an increasing trend towards diplomatic

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...

solutions over the period.

Border disputes

The Chaco War

Chaco War

The Chaco War was fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the northern part of the Gran Chaco region of South America, which was incorrectly thought to be rich in oil. It is also referred to as La Guerra de la Sed in literary circles for being fought in the semi-arid Chaco...

, fought between Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

and Paraguay

Paraguay

between 1932-5, was another conflict motivated by economics. The contested Gran Chaco

Gran Chaco

The Gran Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semi-arid lowland region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, northern Argentina and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, where it is connected with the Pantanal region...

region was thought to be rich in oil, with the international oil companies vying for exploitation rights - Standard Oil

Standard Oil

Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...

backing Bolivia, with Shell Oil supporting Paraguay. It could also provide a valuable access for either landlocked country to the Atlantic Ocean. To add to the problem, both Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

and Paraguay

Paraguay

had lost significant territories in the previous century, and were keen to rebuild their strength. Border skirmishes throughout the late 1920s culminated in an all-out war in 1932. Although much smaller, Paraguay undertook a complete mobilisation of its resources and fought the conflict in an unconventional style, making the war a more balanced proposition. Much of the technology deployed was new; Bolivia deployed three Vickers 6-Ton

Vickers 6-Ton

The Vickers 6-Ton Tank or Vickers Mark E was a British light tank designed as a private project at Vickers. It was not purchased by the British Army, but was picked up by a large number of foreign armed forces and was copied almost exactly by the Soviets as the T-26. It was also the direct...

tank

Tank

A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...

s during the war, and both sides making use of aerial warfare

Aerial warfare

Aerial warfare is the use of military aircraft and other flying machines in warfare, including military airlift of cargo to further the national interests as was demonstrated in the Berlin Airlift...

for the first time in South America. The cost of these new weapons was crippling to both sides. By the time a ceasefire was negotiated in 1935, Paraguay controlled most of the region. This was recognised in a 1938 truce, signed in Buenos Aires, under which Paraguay was awarded three-quarters of the disputed region, with Bolivia keeping the remaining territory. Some years later it was found that there were no oil resources in the Gran Chaco

Gran Chaco

region kept by Paraguay, but the territories kept by Bolivia were, in fact, rich in natural gas and petroleum.

Colombia

and Peru

Peru

resumed their ongoing disagreements over borders in 1932, resulting in the Colombia–Peru War. Attempts to demilitarise the disputed regions had been tried, but in the aftermath of insurrections in Peru, forces were deployed into the disputed region, on the then Colombian side of the border. Domestic opinion in Colombia responded aggressively and demanded a response. In practice, the region was sufficiently remote that this proved difficult. After some desultory fighting both sides signed the Rio de Janeiro Protocol, reaffirming the previous border agreements. Peru

Peru

and Ecuador

Ecuador

also renewed their long-running territorial arguments in 1941 in the Ecuadorian-Peruvian war

Ecuadorian-Peruvian war

The Ecuadorian–Peruvian War was a border war fought between July 5, 1941 and July 31, 1941, the first of three military conflicts that occurred between these two South American nations during the 20th century....

. National accounts vary as to which side commenced the conflict, but the fighting rapidly escalated. Peru fielded Czech tanks with air support, and seized Puerto Bolívar

Puerto Bolívar

Puerto Bolivar is part of the municipality of Machala, El Oro Province, Ecuador. Puerto Bolívar is one of the world's largest shipment points for bananas, most of them destined for Europe; about 80% of Ecuador's banana production is shipped through these port facilities.The port was named in honor...

by paradrop, the first event of its kind in South America. Within seven weeks, Peru had occupied the whole of the disputed region and, under pressure, Ecuador signed the Rio Protocol

Rio Protocol

The Protocol of Peace, Friendship, and Boundaries between Peru and Ecuador, or Rio Protocol for short, was an international agreement signed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on January 29, 1942, by the foreign ministers of Peru and Ecuador, with the participation of the United States, Brazil, Chile, and...

in 1942, affirming Peru's control of the territory. The conflict was to recur twice more before ultimate resolution. In 1981, the Paquisha War

Paquisha War

The Paquisha War was a brief military clash that took place between January and February 1981 between Ecuador and Peru over the control of three watchposts. While Peru felt that the matter was already decided in the Ecuadorian-Peruvian War of 1941, Ecuador did not agree with the Rio de Janeiro...

broke out between the two nations, ending in a ceasefire and the Peruvian Army in control of most of the area. In the aftermath of the incident, both sides increased their military presence up and down the Cordillera del Cóndor

Cordillera del Cóndor

The Cordillera del Condor is a range in Ecuador and Peru....

area and the Cenepa valley, starting a cycle of tensions and provocations that ended up producing another military confrontation in 1995, the Cenepa War

Cenepa War

The Cenepa War , also known as the Alto Cenepa War, was a brief and localized military conflict between Ecuador and Peru, fought over control of a disputed area on the border between the two countries...

. This conflict was indecisive, with both sides claiming victory, and after the mediation efforts of the United States of America, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, the two sides finally signed a definitive peace agreement in 1998.

Falkland Islands war

The unresolved tensions from the British re-establishment of rule on the Falklands islands in 1833 gave a context for the 1982 conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the islands. The initial invasion in April 1982 was characterised by Argentina as the re-occupation of its own territory, and by the UK as an invasion of a British overseas territory

British overseas territories

The British Overseas Territories are fourteen territories of the United Kingdom which, although they do not form part of the United Kingdom itself, fall under its jurisdiction. They are remnants of the British Empire that have not acquired independence or have voted to remain British territories...

. Britain launched a naval task force

Task force

A task force is a unit or formation established to work on a single defined task or activity. Originally introduced by the United States Navy, the term has now caught on for general usage and is a standard part of NATO terminology...

to engage the Argentine Navy

Argentine Navy

The Navy of the Argentine Republic or Armada of the Argentine Republic is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with the Army and the Air Force....

and Argentine Air Force

Argentine Air Force

The Argentine Air Force is the national aviation branch of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic. , it had 14,606 military and 6,854 civilian staff.-History:...

, and retake the islands by amphibious assault

Amphibious warfare

Amphibious warfare is the use of naval firepower, logistics and strategy to project military power ashore. In previous eras it stood as the primary method of delivering troops to non-contiguous enemy-held terrain...

. The use of Britain's nuclear submarine force led to the sinking of the Argentinian cruiser the Belgrano

ARA General Belgrano

The ARA General Belgrano was an Argentine Navy light cruiser in service from 1951 until 1982. Formerly the , she saw action in the Pacific theater of World War II before being sold to Argentina. After almost 31 years of service, she was sunk during the Falklands War by the Royal Navy submarine ...

and the consequent non-intervention of the Argentine navy. In the air, the use of Exocet

Exocet

The Exocet is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. Hundreds were fired in combat during the 1980s.-Etymology:...

missiles showed the vulnerability of the British fleet, but the task force successfully landed on islands. A challenging land campaign, including the battle of Goose Green

Battle of Goose Green

The Battle of Goose Green was an engagement of the Falklands War between British and Argentine forces. Goose Green and its neighbour Darwin are settlements on East Falkland in the Falkland Islands. They lie on Choiseul Sound on the east side of the island's central isthmus...

, resulted in the defeat of the Argentinian land forces. At the end of combat operations on 14 June the islands remained under British control. The political effects of the war were strong in both countries, leading to the downfall of the Argentinian military government and the bolstering of government of Prime Minister

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

in the United Kingdom.

Early military history

Caribbean coast, Amazonia and the south

Pacific Rim

Inca conquests

Rise of the Inca

Inca warfare

Inca civil war

European invasion

Initial conquest of the Inca Empire

The Spanish consolidation and civil wars

The Spanish conquest of Chile

Spanish-Mapuche wars

Portuguese conquests

Dutch, English and French conquests

European hegemony in the 18th century

European wars and South America in the 1700s

Native revolts and slavery

Wars of Independence, 19th century

New Granada, Venezuela, Quito

Río de la Plata and the region

Chile, Peru and Upper Peru

Brazil

European reintervention in 19th century

British and French interventions

Spanish reintervention

Regional wars and discontent in the 19th century

The rivalry between Argentina and Brazil

The War of the Triple Alliance

Wars along the Pacific Rim

Indigenous revolts and conquests

South America and the Global Wars

The naval arms race of the early 1900s

World War I

World War II

Cold War

Legacy conflicts

Border disputes

Falkland Islands war

See also

Further reading