Peru Army / Ejercito del Peru - History
Although the Spanish were able to impose effective control over much of the region by 1537, the conquerors soon fell to fighting among themselves over the spoils of their success. Order under the Spanish viceroys was gradually established and extended, but not without regular and persistent challenges at the local or regional level from dissident indigenous groups, often in the name of the Incas.
Because of the economic importance of Peru to the crown, second only to Mexico, there was a larger Spanish military presence in Peru than in the rest of Spain's New World empire. Even so, until the colonial reforms of 1764 by the Bourbon dynasty in Spain, the military garrisons were small and stationed in the cities. Many career officers and troops served their tours of duty in these Peruvian cities and then returned to Spain. Landowners were left to their own devices for protecting their local interests, so they raised private militias as necessary.
Military forces during the last sixty years of Spanish rule were more regularized and institutionalized into three categories: Spanish regiments on temporary service, others on permanent colonial service, and colonial militias. The independence movements that began to sweep Latin America in 1810 during Napoleon Bonaparte's occupation of Spain and his brother Joseph's brief reign were slow to reach Peru, but they inevitably arrived. New regiments raised locally to protect the viceroyalty initially defeated independence forces attempting to liberate the area from outside, but eventually played an important role in ousting the Spaniards themselves.
However, the main impetus for independence came from Simon Bolivar Palacios and Jose de San Martin from the viceroyalties of New Granada and Rio de la Plata (River Plate), respectively. It was San Martin who brought his army to Peru from Chile and took Lima after refusing to negotiate with the viceroy, declaring independence on July 28, 1821, and making himself military dictator. He used this position to advance the cause of independence and to prepare militarily for the final campaigns against the Spanish. This preparation included establishment of a series of military units, the first of which, called the Peruvian Legion, was formed on August 18, 1821. In addition, he formed Los Montoneros, a mounted guerrilla force, to harass the royalists and shield the operations of the republican regulars.
San Martin resigned and went into exile in France before full independence was secure, when he realized that he and Bolivar would not be able to cooperate. Nevertheless, San Martin's earlier organizational and training efforts earned him the sobriquet of protector of Peruvian independence and founder of the EP. As San Martin had expected, Bolivar went on to win the Battie of Junin in August 1824, with significant help from the forces that San Martin had prepared. These Peruvian units also made important contributions to the final battle for independence at Ayacucho on December 9, 1824, under the command of General Antonio Jose de Sucre Alcala.
With Ayacucho the Peruvian nation was born, and a new country emerged. The significance of this event led to declare December 9 as Army Day.
The Army of Peru was along the main protagonist nineteenth century national events, and its history merges with national history. Between 1825 and 1841, the Army consolidated its organization, establishing its first organic regulations (1825 and 1827), Uniform (1830), and accounting (1839) and make his first military school in 1830, worked in the same street of the "studies" in a local convent of San Pedro. Its first director was General Emilio Cortez. It was official for weapons of infantry and cavalry. The studies lasted two years and were complementary units, when the graduating cadet second lieutenant or ensign.
Equally gave birth to the first military regions: one in the center, between Jauja and Ayacucho, the second in the south, comprising the departments of Arequipa, Cusco and Puno, the third based in Lima, and the fourth in the north covering Trujillo and Piura.
After the War of the Pacific, there began a process of national reconstruction. The government of General Andrés Avelino Cáceres restored national unity and raised as a priority issue for National Defence and the reintegration of the homeland captive provinces. This involved reorganizing and equipping the Army. He arranged the purchase of modern weaponry. In 1886, the Military College reopened in the former headquarters of Guadalupe School and the "Cabitos" at your local Chorrillos. Study sent to Europe and the United States and began the process to hire a military mission.
These efforts will materialize in 1896, during the government of Nicolas de Pierola, with the arrival of the first French military mission. It started well, a stage of profound change in the Army, in line with the challenges posed by the new century.
The Army began the twentieth century with renewed vigor or optimistic. It then performs a process of military regions, according to the comprehensive needs of the country, giving a renewal doctrinaire and academic military training centers. This positive action of the French military mission, in addition to contributions from Germany and Italy, as well as the contribution of Peruvian officers who had studied abroad, resulted in military victories obtained against Colombia (1911 and 1932) and Ecuador (1941).
Later, the two world wars brought rapid development of doctrine and military technology. The country winner and thus hegemonic, the United States led the continental defense. This involved the creation of the Inter-American Defense Board and the signing of the Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Treaty) in September 1947. The U.S. military mission began its work in 1944. It played an important role in the field of organization, doctrine and logistics. Since 1948, the Army is involved in activities to support national development. Since 1950, in the academic became operational on Military Training Center in Peru and Military Studies Center (now CAEN).
In 1968, the circumstances require a phased withdrawal of U.S. aid and temporarily, are given the opportunity to acquire weapons of Soviet origin. In the 70's within the reform undertaken in 1973 creating the Technical College (now Institute of Science Technology) and Army Technical School (1974). It is a singular fact in this period (1993), joining the ranks of military service to women, assimilation and income after the first contingent of women as cadets at the Military School of Chorrillos in 1997.
Demonstrating the high degree of professionalism achieved between 1973 and 1975, the Peruvian military were sent to the Middle East. Indeed, the Battalion "Peru" was part of the emergency forces of the United Nations. On the external front, respectively in 1981 and 1995, had to repel infiltration into territories proven Peruvian Ecuadorian border N and NO, successfully. Since 1982, the Armed Forces assumed the military leadership of the fight against subversion. In this fight tenacious blew themselves officers and soldiers of the army, which are called "Heroes of Peace".
What the Peruvian military tried to do for many years, usually with success, was to maintain diversity in both foreign missions and sources of equipment in order to retain as much independence as possible as an institution. Although this strategy worked in the 1920s and 1930s, it was even more successful in the 1970s and early to mid-1980s. For example, of the more than US$1 billion in military equipment Peru obtained from 1974-78, some 63 percent came from the Soviet Union, 10 percent from the United States, 7 percent from France, 6 percent from the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), 4 percent from Italy, 1 percent from Britain, and 9 percent from other countries.
This pattern continued in the 1980s, giving Peru the most diversified military in Latin America in terms of equipment, as well as making the country the largest single importer of arms in the region. One of the prices of greater independence with greater diversity, however, was the technical and logistical challenge of trying to mesh widely varied materiel into effective and efficient military operations.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
