Portal:Argentina/Selected article/Month 05 2009



The Army of the North (Ejército del Norte), called Army of Peru in the documents of the time, was one of the armies deployed by the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in the Hispanic American wars of independence. This army was in charge of liberating northwest Argentina and Upper Peru (present-day Bolivia) under the command of Manuel Belgrano, among others, fighting the royalist troops of the Spanish Empire.

Started in 1810 and ended in 1817, with the defeat of the forces commanded by Gregorio Aráoz de La Madrid at the battle of Sopuchay, in a last attempt to advance in Upper Peru. From that point on offensive military operations ceased, and only defensive operations remained, as the offensive had been transferred to the Army of the Andes, commanded by José de San Martín, who conceived the idea of reaching Lima Peru, the principal royalist capital, after liberating Chile. The Army of the North, under Belgrano's command, was then called to intervene in the internal strife started by the conflict between the central government in Buenos Aires and the caudillos in Argentina's northeast provinces. The Arequito Revolt (1820), caused by the recusal of the independentist veterans to fight in a civil war ended its existence...

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