19th century The
Peruvian Army was officially established on 18 August 1821 when the Peruvian Guard Legion was established by the government of general
José de San Martín during the
Peruvian War of Independence. San Martín would found the
Peruvian Navy months later on 8 October 1821. The first international conflict fought by the newly formed republic was the
Gran Colombia-Peru War, a maritime and terrestrial conflict against the state of the
Gran Colombia, which was formed by the current-day states of
Colombia,
Ecuador,
Panama and
Venezuela. In early 1828, an incursion of Colombian troops in Bolivia sent by
Simon Bolivar with the objective of gaining a foothold and influence in the country, forced Peru to launch a campaign against Bolivia to successfully force the Colombian expeditionary force to leave the country. Furious, Bolivar resolved to declare war against Peru on June 3, 1828, with former president of Bolivia
Antonio Jose de Sucre being appointed Commander of the Colombian Army. The Peruvian Navy immediately proceeded to occupy and establish blockades along the Gran Colombia coasts, winning the first confrontation in the
Battle of Punta Malpelo, forcing the Colombians to retreat. Victorious, the Peruvian navy set its sights on the strategic port of
Guayaquil and proceeded to attack it at the
Battle of Cruces, which saw the destruction of the Grancolombian pacific fleet and the naval blockade of the city of Guayaquil until the end of the conflict. In the land, the ties were more balanced, with the outnumbered Peruvian Army seizing the city of
Cuenca on the Battle of Saraguro on February 13, 1829, and pushing north near Guayaquil. However, Venezuelan general De Sucre inflicted a defeat on the Peruvians at the
Battle of Tarqui. The vastly outnumbered 900 Peruvian infantrymen were forced to retreat against the approaching 4,500 Grancolombian counterattack force in order to evade an encirclement. After the battle, Peru adopted a defensive strategy, establishing defensive lines along the
Jaen and
Maynas, which were claimed by the Grancolombians and one of their motivations for the war. After a series of skirmishes, the Peruvian army was able to hold those provinces, but had to end the occupation of Guayaquil. On February 28, 1829, Peruvian president La Mar and Sucre signed the La Mar-Sucre convention, which ended hostilities but left the borders on an ambiguous state. Yet, this was seen as a political win by the Peruvians, as holding these provinces opened the way of annexation, which would later be the cause of several Peruvian-Ecuadorian wars after the dissolution of the Gran Colombia in 1830. The next major conflict faced Peru against the newly independent state of Ecuador in the
Ecuadorian-Peruvian War (1857-1860), the first of the main conflicts between these two countries. The conflict originated due to the international debt Ecuador, as the Gran Colombia, had to take from European creditors, mainly British, after the war of independence from Spain. Wanting to find a source of income, finances minister Francisco de Paula gave the creditors rights to several territories in the forest, some of them over disputed lands with Peru. This caused a Peruvian protest, as the controversy of the lands, specifically of the northern half of the
Department of Loreto in Peru was a major point of contention first with the Gran Colombia, and then with Ecuador and Colombia. Ecuador reinstated its sovereign over the lands north of the Amazon, and assured British creditors of their rights over that territory. Thus, on October 26, 1858, the Peruvian congress authorized president
Ramón Castilla to command and army against Ecuador if needed to secure the national territory against European creditors. A blockade against Ecuadorian ports was also preferred. On November 1, 1858, the first Peruvian frigate arrived in Ecuadorian waters, and the start of the blockade of Guayaquil and Quito started. By this time, Ecuador was facing an internal crisis, called by Ecuadorian history books as the “Terrible Year”, in which a number of different politicians were fighting for control of the country as its coasts were in the middle of a blockade. Receiving no response from an unified Ecuadorian government, Castilla ordered 5,000 of his troops to advance into the Ecuadorian province of “Mapasingue”, near Guayaquil, in order to force Ecuador to accept the Peruvians terms and to abandon its desires on the Amazon. Force by military action, the four governments vying for control of Ecuador selected caudillo
Guillermo Franco as the sole representative of the country, signing the Treaty of Mapasingue with Castilla, thus agreeing to the Peruvian terms and stating the withdrawal of Peruvian troops from Ecuador. This angered the Ecuadorians, which called Franco as a traitor for collaborating with the Peruvians, and ousted him in the
Battle of Guayaquil. This action strengthened the Peruvian position on the Amazon, which would not be challenged until the next century. The
War of the Pacific, a conflict between the
Bolivia-Peru alliance and
Chile resulted with one of the armed forces' worst failures as Chilean troops occupied the capital of
Lima and the southern provinces, with Peru ceding the mineral-rich
Arica Province to Chile after signing the
Treaty of Ancón and later treaties. The incompetence of the government and military was so great during the War of the Pacific period that it led to an intellectual movement dedicated to restoring pride for Peru, creating modern
Peruvian nationalism.
20th century On 20 May 1929, the
Peruvian Air Force was created as the Peruvian Aviation Corps when the aviation units of the army and navy merged. Following
World War II and the
Ecuadorian–Peruvian War, the
Joint Command of the Armed Forces of Peru was created in 1957 after observations were made that the branches needed a centralized organization to coordinate the activities of the branches. When the government of
Manuel Prado Ugarteche attempted to move political power to civilians, the military became upset with the new approach. In addition, the
1962 Peruvian general election saw the rise of the
American Popular Revolutionary Alliance, with the armed forces and traditional
aristocrats viewing their platform of
land reform and the political inclusion of the
indigenous peoples of Peru as a threat. Following the
Tacnazo and subsequent overthrow of Velasco in 1975,
Francisco Morales Bermúdez would lead the Revolutionary Government until 1980, with his military government participating in the political repression of leftists during
Operation Condor. '' addendum that was created following the
election of
Alberto Fujimori During the government of
Alan García, the nation would begin to begin to experience
hyperinflation and increased the beginning of the
internal conflict in Peru with
Shining Path. The armed force's perception that President Garcia's policies were detrimental to the nation resulted with the creation of
Plan Verde, a
clandestine military operation that involved the
genocide of impoverished and indigenous Peruvians, the control or
censorship of media in the nation and the establishment of a
neoliberal economy controlled by a
military junta in Peru. A coup initially included in the plan was opposed by
Anthony C. E. Quainton, the
United States Ambassador to Peru. Military planners also decided against the coup as they expected
Mario Vargas Llosa, a neoliberal candidate, to be elected in the
1990 Peruvian general election. with Rendón writing that the United States supported Fujimori because of his relationship with
Vladimiro Montesinos, who had previously been charged with spying on the Peruvian armed forces for the CIA. and adopting many of the objectives of
Plan Verde following the
1992 Peruvian self-coup. During the Fujimori administration, Montesinos would assume control of the government and placed weak officers as branch heads in order to maintain control, with every military branch's leader being personally filled by Montesinos. During this time, the armed forces'
Grupo Colina death squad would kill dozens during various massacres in Peru and the military would participate in the
Cenepa War against
Ecuador in 1995.
21st century Following the downfall of Fujimori and Montesinos, the use of the
terruqueo in the beginning of the twenty-first century was used to influence the public instead of violence performed by the military, though its use would provide impunity to members of the armed forces who violently responded to protests in the nation. Following the
2022 Peruvian political crisis,
widespread protests occurred throughout Peru; the armed forces performed
human rights violations against demonstrators and the politicization of the armed forces created concerns about the creation of a
civilian-military government in Peru. == Service branches ==