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The general who'd already liberated Argentina and Chile stood in Lima's main pla
1821 Event

July 28

Peru Declares Independence: San Martin Liberates Lima

The general who'd already liberated Argentina and Chile stood in Lima's main plaza with a problem: Peru's own elite didn't want independence. José de San Martín declared it anyway on July 28, 1821, before a crowd of locals who'd lived under Spanish rule for 286 years. He'd crossed the Andes with 5,400 men two years earlier, but most of Peru's wealthy criollos preferred Spanish trade networks to revolution. Independence came from an outsider who understood something the locals didn't yet: Spain was already finished, whether Lima's merchants admitted it or not.

July 28, 1821

205 years ago

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