Maipú, Battle of

Battle of Maipú, a conflict that took place near Santiago, Chile, on 5 April 1818. A revolutionary army composed of Argentines and Chileans and commanded by General José de San Martín defeated a royalist army composed primarily of American loyalists and commanded by General Mariano Osorio. This decisive victory eliminated Spanish influence in Chile. The battle raged for six hours and the entire royalist army was destroyed. Two thousand royalists were killed and 2,432 captured. Only a handful, including General Osorio, escaped. The insurgents sustained about 1,000 casualties. The victory at Maipú was an important milestone in San Martín's grand strategy to cross the Andes, defeat the royalists in Chile, and then attack Peru by amphibious assault. Revolutionary forces had previously tried to attack Peru via the land route through Bolivia but were repeatedly defeated.

See alsoSan Martín, José Francisco dexml .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Martin Súarez, Atlas histórico-militar argentino (1974).

Christián García-Godoy, ed., The San Martín Papers (1988).

Additional Bibliography

Archer, Christon I., ed. The Wars of Independence in Spanish America. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2000.

Jocelyn-Holt Letelier, Alfredo. La independencia de Chile: Tradición, modernización y mito. Madrid: Editorial MAPFRE, 1992.

Pasquali, Patricia. San Martín: la fuerza de la misión y la soledad de la gloria: biografía. Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1999.

                                        Robert Scheina