Upper Peru
Alto Perú is the denomination of origin from the River Plate used during the last decades of Spanish rule to refer to the geographical and social environment of the west of present-day Bolivia. The term was identified with the district of Charcas province, dissolved in 1782.
The denomination of «Alto Peru provinces», «Territories of the Alto Peru region» or simply «Alto Peru», is often mistakenly understood as a single subnational entity of the Viceroyalty of the River Plate. Like the confusion of the "province of Charcas" with the "provinces of Charcas" or "provinces of the Royal Audience of Charcas", the former gives rise to the subnational entity that emerged in 1542 until 1782; and, the second, gives rise to the provinces or dependent municipalities in judicial matters to the royal audience.
Due to its geographical, ecological, historical and -especially- ethnic characteristics (area partially inhabited by Andean peoples) the territory itself "Alto Perú" corresponded partially to the Collao. Its region corresponds in the western part to the Andean Altiplano or Puna, populated by the Colla, Aymara (mainly in La Paz and South Puno, Moquegua, Tacna and Arequipa) ethnic groups, Uru (in the Lake Titicaca basin), and other ethnic groups. Andeans who, instead of Aymara, spoke Quechua as their language when the Inca conquests took place in the areas of Cochabamba, Chuquisaca, Potosí and southern Peru.
During the colony, the corregimientos located in the province of Charcas were under the direct government of the viceroy of Peru, incorporated into the viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata since 1776, and with the regime of intendancies since 1782. With independence, in May In 1810, the revolutionary junta of Buenos Aires proclaimed itself autonomous from the monarchical government of Fernando VII, King of Spain. From its first congress in 1813, it established deputies for the provinces of Upper Peru as an integral part of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata. Three Argentine military expeditions were sent for its occupation, but each one was defeated by troops of the viceroy of Peru, who since July 1810 had decreed the incorporation of the municipalities of Upper Peru into his government. The viceroy of Peru, Abascal, in July 1810, provisionally annexed the provinces of La Paz, Potosí and Chuquisaca to the Viceroyalty of Peru. During the validity of the Spanish constitution of 1812, the provinces of Upper Peru, were based on the provisional political and military central obedience in the Royal Audience of Charcas, based on the limits of Upper Peru, constituting provisionally autonomous of the viceroyalties of the Peru and the Río de la Plata. After learning of the capitulation of the viceroy of Peru, the monarchy, in July 1825, named a Spanish leader who had already died in the battle of Tumusla, a territory limited to the provinces of Upper Peru, as viceroy of the Río de la Plata. in fact, it was liberated from royalist rule by the independence forces of regional leaders, and was later occupied by the Liberation Army under the command of Sucre, who, disobeying Simón Bolívar, proceeded to organize the deliberation meeting on the sovereignty of Upper Peru.
Origin of the term
The term Alto Perú is a late denomination to refer to the upper region of the northwestern municipalities of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, municipalities belonging in judicial matters to the Royal Audience of Charcas, already at the end of the colony, It was not used until the end of the XVIII century, until then there is not a single official document or chronicle using this name. This was already noticed in 1851 by José María Dalence, who affirmed that «The denomination Alto Perú applied exclusively to Bolivia, is new and very improper... The truth is that neither in Spanish laws nor in its historians, what is now Bolivia is given another name than Charcas». used mainly by the "Rioplatenses". "The term Upper Peru was in force for about fifty years, from the time the territory was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata until the founding of the Republic" of Bolivia.
The first official name imposed by the Spanish crown on the region that was known as Collasuyo during the Incas was Nueva Toledo, a governorship awarded to the conquistador Diego de Almagro, which, together with Nueva Castilla, was granted to Francisco Pizarro, received the globalizing name of Peru. This territorial organization was, however, short-lived, with both governorships being abolished by the Royal Decree that established the Viceroyalty of Peru in 1542 and of which the Royal Audience and Chancellery of Charcas established in 1559 was an integral part until 1776. The Spanish historian Luis Suárez Fernández points out that the term Upper Peru would not become popular until the last third of the XVIII century, partly because the higher provinces of the Peruvian Viceroyalty were dismembered to be incorporated into the Río de la Plata province. From then on until the end of the colonial era, this region would be popularly known as Upper Peru, with the name & #34;high Peruvian" It is still collected by the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, which defines it as "belonging or relative to Upper Peru, judicial territory of the Audiencia de Charcas, today the upper region of Bolivia". Upper Peru has been also a term frequently used by some historians to refer to the colonial stage of Bolivian history.
According to the Bolivian author José María Dalence, the name Alto Perú corresponds to the mountain ranges that extend from Copiapó in Chile to Quito in Ecuador.
Spanish province of Charcas
There is a main mistake when talking about the Province of Charcas, which is to confuse the Province of Charcas with the Royal Audience of Charcas (1561-1825), the former being a subdivision of the territory of the Spanish Empire that lasted only until 1782; and, while the other is an appellate court body, its judicial district varied in power during independence.
Initially, the Province of Charcas was under the administration of the Viceroyalty of Peru with headquarters in Lima, until 1776, when the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata was created with headquarters in Buenos Aires.
In 1561, the Royal Audience of Charcas, the supreme judicial authority of the province of Charcas, was established in the city of La Plata (present-day Sucre), which later extended its judicial district into what would later be part of the judicial district of La Plata. Royal Court of Buenos Aires. Addressing the need to create a new regional administrative center from where the area of greatest silver production could be controlled with due care and attention. The wealth of Potosí, the establishment of the Audiencia de Charcas, the bishopric of La Plata, later the archbishopric of La Plata and the University of San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca gave consistency to what would be known as the Province of Charcas. The Province of Charcas was dissolved in 1782 to be succeeded by the municipalities:
- Cochabamba Intendence
- Intendence of Chuquisaca (or Charcas)
- Intendence of La Paz
- Potosí Intendence
- Puno (1776-1796)
The four territories were governed by mayor governors appointed by the king and the parties by sub-delegates elected by the viceroy for a term of five years and at the proposal of the mayors. The governments of Moxos and Chiquitos were subject to special regulations, with dependency in judicial matters on the Royal Court of Charcas and in matters of the Royal Treasury. There were also municipal instances with Cabildos, Town Halls or Councils made up of mayors and aldermen in charge of public safety, ornamentation, comfort and morality.
In judicial matters, in the provincial capitals, the lieutenant governor and two mayors elected annually by the town councils were judges of first instance, and sub-delegates in the parties. The lawsuits followed in the four provinces could be brought on appeal or petition before the Audiencia de Charcas: the resolutions of the mayors on contentious points between the police and the government could also be appealed before it. The president of the Royal Court, was the supreme authority in contentious matters. The Royal Audience of Charcas was made up of a certain number of oidores appointed by the king and who lasted in their employment according to the will of the monarch, the same as the governors.
Ecclesiastical affairs continued to be subordinated to the authority of the bishops, subjected in turn, on appeal, to that of the Archbishop of La Plata. Those of finance and war were under the immediate inspection of the respective intendants.
In 1809, with the Chuquisaca Revolution and the creation of the Junta Tuitiva, the Alto-Peruvian royalists asked the viceroy of Peru for help, who responded by sending a force under the command of José Manuel de Goyeneche, in support of the viceroy del Río de la Plata, with which the monarchical government was reestablished.
In 1810, a provisional power of administration of territories was given to the Royal Audience of Charcas over its judicial district, this due to the conflicts in Buenos Aires with the authorities and adherents to the revolution from different municipalities or provinces; The judicial district of the Royal Court was reduced in the provinces that comprise the Upper Peru region, this to maintain organization and direct communication that would be used by both the royalists and the patriots.
River Plate provinces of Upper Peru
The Buenos Aires Junta, after putting an end to the Córdoba counterrevolution, advanced over the northern municipalities of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, and had elected deputies, appointed or substitutes, from its first constituent congress in 1813, as representatives of the provinces of Upper Peru in the congresses of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata:
- Cochabamba
- Chuquisaca
- Potosí
- La Paz
- Mizque
There were eight representatives from Upper Peru in the 1813 congress and six in the Tucumán congress. The effective administration of Upper Peru by Buenos Aires relied on the Army of the North (called then Ejército del Auxiliar), which focused on protecting and conquering the north in general of the viceroyalty, but its focus The official objective was to advance on the territories of Upper Peru, giving rise to the campaigns of the Auxiliary Expeditions to Upper Peru. The retreat of the patriotic armies in 1811 gave rise to the appearance in the rural environment of multiple pockets of guerrillas, called republiquetas of Alto Peru, whose Activity reached its peak in 1814. In 1816 most of the caudillos died (Ildelfonso Muñecas in Ayata, Vicente Camargo in Cinti and Manuel Ascencio Padilla in La Laguna). And after the defeat in 1817 of the Aráoz de Lamadrid expedition, José Miguel Lanza's guerrillas remained in Upper Peru in Ayopaya (Cochabamba), while Martín Miguel de Güemes was in command on the southern border of the Upper Peru region. of the militias and guerrillas of Salta. From then until the defeat of Olañeta, Upper Peru and other bordering territories with the region were under royalist control.
Counterrevolution of Upper Peru
When the May Revolution broke out on May 25, 1810, in the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata, the Peruvian Viceroy Abascal declared the incorporation of the provinces of Alto Peru to the Viceroyalty of Peru in an Edict dated May 13 July 1810, adding the province of Charcas and, in addition, Córdoba del Tucumán to the viceroyalty of Peru. On that date he also created the army of operations in Upper Peru, at the head of which he placed José Manuel de Goyeneche. However, the domain of Upper Peru by the royalists was interrupted by the troops from Buenos Aires, with the invasion of the Army of the North, which was sent by the revolutionary authorities of the River Plate to help the upper Peruvian provinces and that for four bells. These auxiliary armies were finally defeated in each of them. At the same time, the rural presence of the country's guerrillas was added, in the so-called "Republiquetas".
On February 22, 1818, the general in chief of the Royal Army of Peru appointed General Maroto interim governor and mayor of the city of La Plata and province of Charcas, as well as president of the Royal Court of Charcas where he fought against the rebel and patriot warlords, keeping the territory under control. In 1823, General Andrés de Santa Cruz, commanding an army from the Republic of Peru, came to occupy La Paz, which he subsequently abandoned in a hasty retreat.
The last president of the Audiencia was Antonio Vigil appointed by Pedro Antonio Olañeta in 1824. Olañeta died one day after the battle at Tumusla on April 2, 1825. After learning of the capitulation of the viceroy of Peru, the Spanish monarchy appointed Olañeta Viceroy of the Río de La Plata, on July 12, 1825, without knowing that he had already died.
Brazilian intervention in Upper Peru
With a feeling of great insecurity and fearing the chaos due to the wars, in June 1822, the three governors of the Spanish departments of Upper Peru, feeling threatened by the Colombian troops led by Generals Antonio José de Sucre, Simón Bolívar and José María Córdoba, met in Cuiabá, capital of the captaincy of Mato Grosso, Brazil, and asked the Governor of Mato Grosso to intercede with the Prince Regent Don Pedro (who would soon become Pedro I of Brazil and IV of Portugal), so that the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, annexed these territories of Upper Peru, in order to avoid carnage and chaos.
Immediately, the governor of Matto Grosso sent troops that were in his captaincy to Upper Peru, blocking the advance of Bolívar and Sucre, communicating by means of a letter to Don Pedro about the sending of troops and the request of the authorities of the Upper Peru. Bolívar and Sucre sent representatives to Rio de Janeiro quickly, which arrived before the letter from the Governor of Matto Grosso, in this way Pedro I decided not to annex territories of Upper Peru and ordering the troops to withdraw.
Pedro I was more concerned with overcoming the resistance of the Portuguese troops in Brazilian territory and guaranteeing the unity of Brazil than annexing territories of Upper Peru for the nascent Empire of Brazil.
The letter from the Governor of Matto Grosso was received by Pedro I only in November 1822, when Brazil was already an independent nation.
The Provinces of Upper Peru
The name Provinces of Upper Peru refers to 5 provinces: Charcas, Cochabamba, La Paz, Potosí and Santa Cruz.
The mention of these five provinces can be seen in a decree of February 9, 1825 issued by Antonio José de Sucre during the military occupation of the Liberation Army in this region:
1st.- The provinces that have been known by the name of Upper Peru will be dependent on the first authority of the liberating army, while an assembly of deputies of themselves deliberates their fate.....
18°.- The object of the General Assembly shall be to sanction a provisional regime of government, and to decide on the fate and fate of these provinces, as is more appropriate to their interests happiness; and while a final resolution, legitimate and uniform, shall be governed by Article 1Antonio José de Sucre, General in Chief of the United Army Libertador of Peru, Decree of 9 February 1825.
The mention of these five provinces as Alto Perú can also be seen in the Independence Act which was signed by their representatives:
The world knows that Alto Peru has been, on the continent of America, the ara where the first blood of the free and the land where there is the tomb of the last of the tyrants: that Charcas, Potosí, Cochabamba, La Paz and Santa Cruz, have made constant efforts to shake the peninsular yoke; and that the irretractability of their votes against the Spanish rule, their heroic opposition, have stopped a thousand timesIndependence Act, August 6, 1825.
Colombian occupation of Upper Peru
Between 1823 and 1828 Colombian troops occupied Upper Peru at the hands of Marshal Antonio José de Sucre, born in Cumaná, as a continuation of the Southern Campaigns; historiography considers the Republic of Bolívar (whose base was Upper Peru) a satellite state of Greater Colombia.
The Colombian intervention arose within a context influenced by the Interview of Guayaquil of 1822 and the victory in the Battle of Ayacucho in 1824 to conclude the total emancipation of South America. As initial causes, one could speak of the expansionism of Bolívar, who planned in the first place to establish the Federation of the Andes and continue with total control of South America, as indicated in one of his letters to Francisco de Paula Santander:
General Alvear... returns immediately to Buenos Aires with great views; he wishes to agree with me in everything and for everything; he has come to propose to me the meeting of the Argentine Republic and Bolivian... He does not abandon this project for nothing, and less of even calling me to set the fates of the Rio de la Plata; he says that without me his homeland will hesitate a long time, and that except four individuals of the government, the whole people desire me as an angel of protection... You must make the greatest efforts so that the glory of Colombia is not incomplete and I am allowed to be the regulator of the entire South America... You ask. to Congress a permit to stay for a couple of years in the villages of the south of Peru.
The General Assembly of Deputies of the Provinces of Upper Peru in 1825 resulted in the decision of the self-determination of the nascent Republic of Bolívar in opposition to the dependence on the Río de la Plata or Peru and the declaration of Bolívar as Father of the Republic and Supreme Head of State, however, the Liberator denied the presidency and handed it over to Sucre who had previously been the Supreme Military Chief of Peru and Superior Chief of the Southern District of Gran Colombia. In 1826 a constituent assembly was convened in Chuquisaca in which two Alto-Peruvian deputies demand that Sucre's troops remain in the territory until there is stability. This elite did not want, among other things, that Lima or Buenos Aires exercise control over Upper Peru and determined that the most neutral way To maintain a certain independence and stability was ratifying the presence of the Colombian army. In addition, Bolívar even hoisted the Colombian flag in Potosí along with those of Argentina, Chile and Peru.
They called Sucre a puppet of Bolívar and they criticized him for the fact that almost all the local rulers (prefects) and public employees were born in Colombia or foreigners, such as Commander Joseph León Camacho who was born in New Granada and other leaders of troops like Miguel Antonio Figueredo and Otto Philipp Braunn who was at the service of Gran Colombia.
Peruvian anti-Colombianism increased each time Peru felt the threat of Bolívar's expansionist desire closer. The Lifetime Constitution of Peru of 1827 that endorsed Bolivarianism in Upper Peru was annulled and Lima asked that Colombian troops withdraw from the territory. A tactic used by the Peruvian government to fulfill its purpose of expelling the Colombians was to convince 3,000 Bolivarian infantrymen and 400 Bolivarian horsemen to mutiny, also driven by the lack of payments. Sucre, for his part, promised to hold parliamentary elections in 1828 and the opponents of control over Bolivia and defenders of the self-determination of the upper Peruvian provinces united under the slogan "Colombians, no".
Consequently, the Treaty of Piquiza was signed by which some Colombians should leave Arica in Peruvian transports. Finally Sucre was overthrown by the Peruvian intervention in Bolivia in 1828, after which the Gran Colombo-Peruvian war broke out.
Rights claimed by Argentina and Peru over Upper Peru
Both Argentina and Peru claimed Upper Peru as an integral part of their territory for historical reasons. The provinces of Upper Peru were part of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and, previously, these provinces were a single province called Charcas that formed part of the Viceroyalty of Peru and later of the Río de la Plata, and finally the provinces were provisionally incorporated by Viceroy Abascal to the Viceroyalty of Peru –or reincorporated in allusion to the province of Charcas– with the revolution of Buenos Aires.[2] Clarifying the viceroy in the decree of annexation that he did: until the rightful command of him is reestablished. Señor Virey de Buenos-Ayres, and other legally constituted authorities, since only the royal authority could definitively dismember the territory of the Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires.
Both the new state of Peru and Argentina could claim rights to their possession for the historical reasons known to have belonged to Charcas first to the virreinate of Lima, then to Buenos Aires and finally back to Lima
In the year 1825, after the refusal of the caudillo Pedro Antonio Olañeta to unite his absolutist forces to the independence cause, the patriot army advanced under the command of Antonio José de Sucre whose troops were liberating all the upper Peruvian territory from Spanish domain.
On February 9, 1825, Sucre convened a constituent assembly of the upper Peruvian provinces to resolve their self-government or belonging to Argentina or Peru. Simón Bolívar endorsed the call after receiving authorization from the Peruvian State on February 23 and from the Argentine State on May 9. [3] Finally, the constituent assembly gave rise to the formation of the Republic of Bolívar assuming sovereignty over all the upper Peruvian territory.
The provinces of the Alto Perú region were officially established as an independent state on August 6 under the name of Estado del Alto Perú, officially annexing the municipality of Santa Cruz de la Sierra with its adjacent territories (Moxos, today Beni and Acre, and Chiquitos) on August 9; later, the following day it adopted the name of the Republic of Bolívar, and then in October as the Republic of Bolivia.