The state was proclaimed in 1921 in response to the region's perceived neglect on the part of the Peruvian government, in both trade and its
intent of ceding cerritory to Colombia, by local Peruvian captain Guillermo Cervantes Vásquez, who had participated in a
conflict against Colombia in 1911. The provisional government, headed in Iquitos, soon expanded its control to the departments of
Amazonas and
San Martin. On its second day of existence, the rebel authorities authorized the distribution of provisional banknotes made out of cardboard used by locals as currency. Martial law and a curfew were declared, and local ports were ordered shut, with local trade and navigation being tightly controlled. The revolution was quickly accepted by the local population, but was met negatively by Peru's president
Augusto Leguía, who sent a few troops to the area, and shut down trade to the region. The local guerrillas' military inferiority soon became apparent, and by early 1922, a famished Iquitos had been occupied by Peruvian troops headed by Peruvian Captain Genaro Matos, while Cervantes had escaped on January 9 and sought refuge in the
Ecuadorian jungle and his army soon became little more than an insurgency. ==See also==