Battle of Ayacucho ends Spanish rule in South America
- Date
- 9 December 1824
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- South America (Peru)
- Era
- Modern
- Significance
On 9 December 1824, on the high plateau near Ayacucho in Peru, a patriot army of about 6,000 commanded by Antonio José de Sucre, Bolívar's most capable lieutenant, decisively defeated a larger Spanish royalist force under Viceroy José de la Serna.
A bold cavalry charge broke the royalist line, the viceroy was captured, and the surviving commanders surrendered. The victory destroyed the last major Spanish field army on the continent, secured Peruvian independence and effectively ended more than three centuries of Spanish colonial rule across mainland South America. Within months Upper Peru was constituted as the new republic of Bolivia, named in Bolívar's honour, with Sucre as its first president. Ayacucho is widely regarded as the closing battle of the Spanish American wars of independence, sealing the emergence of a constellation of independent republics from Mexico to the southern cone. It confirmed the political reordering of half a hemisphere and the collapse of Spain's vast American empire built since the sixteenth century.
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Empires active in 9 December 1824
- Russian Empire1721 CE – 1917 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Qing Dynasty1636 CE – 1912 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Mughal Empire1526 CE – 1857 CE
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- The Taiping Rebellion1850–1864
- American Civil War and the abolition of slavery1861–1865 (Emancipation Proclamation 1 January 1863; 13th Amendment ratified 6 December 1865)
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