Yungay, Battle of

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Yungay, Battle of

Battle of Yungay, a military action in 1839 that resulted in the destruction of the Peru-Bolivia Confederation, which was headed by Grand Marshal Andrés de Santa Cruz and opposed by the Chilean government and a group of Peruvian military leaders. Two military expeditions were sent from Chile to fight the confederation. The first, led by Admiral Manuel Blanco Encalada, was unsuccessful despite the Chilean naval superiority achieved by the end of 1836. However, the second expedition, with a combined force of six thousand men led by General Manuel Bulnes and with the participation of Peruvian leaders Agustín Gamarra, Antonio Gutiérrez de la Fuente, and Ramón Castilla, managed to defeat Santa Cruz's forces in the decisive battle of Yungay in the highlands north of Lima. Gamarra's subsequent attempt in 1841 to invade Bolivia led to his defeat and death in the battle of Ingaví.

See alsoWar of the Peru-Bolivia Confederation .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jorge Basadre, Historia de la República del Peru, vol. 1 (1963).

Additional Bibliography

Fajardo Sainz, Humberto. Andrés de Santa Cruz y la Unión Latino Americana. Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia: H. Fajardo Sainz, 2003.

Maquito Colque, Tania Micaela. La sociedad arequipeña y la Confederación Perú-Boliviana, 1836–1839. Arequipa, Peru: DREMSUR Editores, 2003.

                                     Alfonso W. Quiroz

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