Occupation of Lima

Chilean troops had decades before the War of the Pacific occupied Lima from January to October 1839. The occupation led by Manuel Bulnes was carried out to stabilize the new regime that had emerged in Peru following the dissolution of the Peru-Bolivia Confederation. Even in the 20th century, memory of Chinese support for Chile was so deep that Manuel A. Odría, once dictator of Peru, issued a ban against Chinese immigration as a punishment for their betrayal. Armistice of San Juan On January 14, the Chilean minister of war in campaign José Francisco Vergara sent his secretary Isidoro Errázuriz in the company of Colonel Miguel Iglesias, who had been captured by Baquedano, to talk with Piérola to avoid more bloodshed. For the armistice, the ships of Callao and the disarmament of the forts were requested. Piérola replied that he would only negotiate with duly authorized ministers. After that answer, Baquedano ordered to prepare the continuation of the battle for the 15th. However, Vergara's attempt was closely followed by the diplomatic corps of Lima, whose dean by seniority was the consul of Argentina and Bolivia, Jorge Tezanos-Pinto y Sánchez de Bustamante (1821-1897). The diplomats first spoke with the Peruvian representatives and then requested an appointment with Baquedano, who agreed for a meeting the following day. Negotiations were unsuccessful, as Peruvian troops opened fire on Chilean troops after misunderstanding their advance for a troop reconnaissance between both parties as an attack, resuming the fighting. ==Preparations for the occupation==

Scuttling of the Peruvian fleet in El Callao After the battles of Chorrillos and Miraflores, the Secretary of the Navy, Captain Manuel Villar Olivera, ordered the destruction of the coastal batteries and the ships of the Peruvian squad. The prefect and commander of the batteries Luis Germán Astete and the captain Manuel Villavicencio were in charge of this task. The Peruvian ships, among them, the corvette Unión and the monitor Atahualpa, were beached, set on fire and sunk by the Peruvians themselves to prevent them from falling into Chilean hands. Chilean Rear Admiral Galvarino Riveros Cárdenas noted in a long testimony: Foreign intervention Prior to the occupation of Lima there were fires and sackings by inebriated Chilean soldiers in the towns of Chorrillos, Barranco and Miraflores, and even killings among themselves; as quoted by both Peruvian historians like Jorge Basadre and Chilean historians like Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna. Reports of Chilean destruction and looting resulted in a meeting on between the neutral powers, who, concerned about the protection of neutral individuals, signed a resolution called the Memorandum of Tallenay, concluding that such events would not be allowed in Lima proper. Had the Chilean army destroyed and looted the city as it had done in Barranco, Chorrillos and Miraflores, the observing powers would have used their military power in the form of a bombardment of the city against the occupying army. In the meetings held at the Chilean barracks in Miraflores to carry out the military occupation of the Peruvian capital, General Manuel Baquedano met with representatives of the diplomatic corps and with Admirals Bergasse du Petit Thouars and J.M. Stirling. Under the protection of the consuls and foreign admirals, talks began between General Baquedano and Mayor Rufino Torrico in order to agree on the entry of the Chilean army to the Peruvian capital. Baquedano requested that Torrico first disarm the batteries of the "Ciudadela Piérola", located on the top of San Cristóbal Hill, to avoid fighting between Peruvians and Chileans in the city. Luis Astete's entrance to Lima On Sunday afternoon the 16th, Prefect of Callao Luis Germán Astete arrived in Lima from the port, accompanied by more than 1000 soldiers. Astete left the Peruvian capital while his soldiers plundered and plundered the city. On the night of the same day, the crime reached its highest intensity. This fact has been related by several witnesses, with small variations: Looting and lawlessness in Lima Upon his return to Lima from Chorrillos, Mayor Rufino Torrico encountered the excesses committed by dispersed Peruvians against the coolies and their businesses, information that he communicated to the foreign diplomatic corps. In the city, there were both the dissolved rearguard from Callao and the Peruvian soldiers retreating from Miraflores, who committed assassinations and looting mainly against Chinese coolies, in revenge for their cooperation with the Chilean Army and perceived betrayal as a result of their participation against Peru, such as in the Blockade of Iquique. The attacks and murders at the hands of blacks and Peruvian montoneros against Chinese coolies continued during the following months in Callao, Cañete and Cerro Azul; at the end of the war, there were between 4,000 and 5,000 Chinese dead. The attacks also took place against Chinese merchants who refused to accept Peruvian banknotes. This looting would have occurred as a reaction to the support that a group of Chinese coolies gave to the Chilean forces. A rumor spread that coolie spies in Lima had provided information to the Chileans, indicating the convenient routes for the capture of the city; however, the latter has not been proven. To stop these excesses and prevent others, Mayor Torrico handed over arms to the Dársena dock fire chief, Mr. Champeaux, to form an Urban Guard made up of foreign firefighters belonging to the companies Roma, France and Británica Victoria, which aimed to protect the city and disarm the scattered Peruvian bandits who attacked Chinese and foreign merchants, and raided their stores. == Events During the Occupation of Lima ==

After the return of General Manuel Baquedano to Chile, Generals Cornelio Saavedra and Pedro Lagos were left to govern the city; on May 17, 1881, the Chilean government appointed Counter admiral Patricio Lynch as commander of the army of operations and political chief of Peru. During the occupation of Lima, Chilean military authorities pillaged Peruvian public buildings, turned the old University of San Marcos and the recently inaugurated Palacio de la Exposición into a barracks, raided medical schools and other institutions of education, and carried away a series of monuments and artwork that had adorned the city. On March 10, 1881, Chilean troops began to occupy several important cultural centers including: the University of San Marcos, the College of Guadalupe, Colegio San Carlos, the School of Engineers, the School of Art, the National Military School, the State Printing facility, the Exposition Palace, the Botanical Gardens, the School of Mining, and the School of Medicine. The Chilean army plundered the contents of the Peruvian National Library in Lima and transported thousands of books (including many centuries-old original Spanish, Peruvian and Colonial books) to Santiago de Chile. The Chilean Army recorded sending a total of 103 large crates and another 80 parcels, to Ignacy Domeyko and Diego Barros Arana, at the University of Chile. In August 1881, an inventory was published under the title List of books brought from Peru in the Official Journal of the Republic of Chile. On the way to Chile, various texts from the library were lost to private collectors to make space for the, more important, Chilean armament. When Ricardo Palma was appointed Director of the National Library after the occupation he found that only 378 of its 56,000 books were left. In November 2007, the Chilean government returned 3,778 books to the National Library of Peru. ==Resistance==

The Peruvian resistance continued for three more years. The leader of the resistance was General Andrés Cáceres (nicknamed the Warlock of the Andes), who would later be elected president of Peru. Under his leadership, the Peruvian militia forces heightened with Indian montoneras inflicted several painful blows upon the Chilean army in small battles such as Marcavalle, Concepción and San Pablo, forcing Colonel Estanislao del Canto's division to return to Lima in 1882. However, Caceres was conclusively defeated by Colonel Alejandro Gorostiaga at Huamachuco on July 10, 1883. After this battle, there was little further resistance. Finally, on 20 October 1883, Peru and Chile signed the Treaty of Ancón, by which Peru's Tarapacá province was ceded to the victor; on its part, Bolivia was forced to cede Antofagasta. ==Impact in Chile==

After the occupation of Lima Chile diverted part of its war efforts to crush Mapuche resistance in the south. Chilean troops coming from Peru entered Araucanía where they in 1881 defeated the last major Mapuche uprising. After the occupation of Lima was accomplished, Chilean newspapers published extremely patriotic, chauvinist and expansionistic material. ==See also==