Peruvian War of Independence

The Peruvian War of Independence is the emancipation war that took place in
Peru between 1811 and 1826. At the time to studying this event, we must distinguish
between two spotlights: the national and the international. Why is this important? The
historiography has evolved from the classical that said that the independence project
was developed from a national identity, being mythologized following the David
against Goliath structure, a weak nation against a full empire (Pérez, 2010, p. 7).
However, recent studies have changed the course of this historiography towards a more
critical view, far from the national speech. In this essay, I will try to answer if this
independence project was, first, a revolution, and if it could have national and liberal
ambitions.

To answer the previous question, we must, firstly, understand the event itself and
the causes and precedents. One of the most relevant is the Tupac Amaru II, at the end of
the XVIII century. Tupac Amaru was a cacique son of an Indian royal family, so, part of
the local authorities who started a pacific call-up against the tax pressure and the abuses
from Spanish authorities, ending it in a failure insurrection. The failure occurred
because of the intention of join social elites and indigenous, fearing these elites the loss
of their privileges. The movement wasn´t about the independence otherwise it tried to
equate in rights Indians and Spanish (Martínez, 1993, p. 256). The relevance of this
insurrection resides in the fact that the caciques will support everyone who keeps up
their privileges, being that the reason why, for most of the independence war, they
supported the royal stance and being part of the Spanish empire (Martínez, 1993, pp.
255 – 257; Sala, 1992, pp. 69 – 70). Another example of this is the fact that, during the
Napoleonic wars, there was a power vacuum where the different territories around
America experienced an autonomy government, drifting in conflicts between these
elites; however, they didn´t look for an independence, they were looking for more
autonomy as they exposed in the Courts of Cadiz in 1812 (Hampe, 2012, pp. 31 – 32;
Najarro, 2021, p. 217).

After the Napoleonic wars, the Old Order came again with Fernando VII, ending
with the autonomy that these elites were enjoying; however, they kept up they privileges
what made them to support the Spanish faction during the independence war. It is
important to say that the war was around Peru, but not inside Peru until 1820 and being
liberated by Bolivar in 1821 (Sepúlveda, 1993, p. 279-281; Saavedra, 2010, p. 182).
The royal faction reconquered Peru in 1823 until the Ayacucho battle in 1824 with the
final independence of Peru and the birth of the Republic of Peru (Sepúlveda, 1993, pp.
281 – 282).

The first time Peru achieved the independence in 1823 they issued the
Constitution of 1823, which had a liberal character, but just in the paper. This
constitution was based on the liberal ideas of the Cadiz Constitution, and less in the
United States Constitution, but it was really based on the principles of a military
warlordism and a false democracy, while the people wasn´t part of it, it was a kind of
assemble between the elites (Jamanca, 2007, p. 285), but, after 1824 the power ended in
Bolivar´s hands, who issued a new constitution in 1826 based in the French Constitution
of 1799 in his project of established an Andean Confederation, failing at the time he
forgot the intention of the Peruvian elites of keeping up their privileges and power
(Sepúlveda, 1993, p. 281; Basadre, 2002, p. 81 – 82).

In conclusion, we see a lack of intention in the independence project, there wasn

´t a union behind the nation identity. We must understand that the Peruvian society didn
´t exist at that time, being the elites the main reason of the different movements. This
elite didn´t care about the indigenous situation as long as their privileges weren´t
affected, so, there wasn´t unity even less a national feeling; however, there was a
national speech after the independence in order to link all the new society or citizens
under a speech and under a historical landmark which was mythologized. Neither was it
a liberal movement, because, as we saw, there were liberal thoughts on the paper of the
constitutions, but the government was done following the principles of a military
warlordism where the people didn´t have any power. There wasn´t either a middle class
itself, the power was in elites and military institutions without there being a middle
class. In order to finish, I don´t think this independence was a revolution as I think a
revolution is made from the lower strata and this one was made by social elites.

Bibliography
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Manuel Ruiz Martín

Major developments in world history from the 17th century up to today