Bernardo O'Higgins accepted the position instead, and became the leader of an independent Chile. He was granted dictatorial powers as Supreme Director on 16 February 1817. On 12 February 1818, Chile proclaimed itself an independent republic. Throughout the war with the royalists, O'Higgins had engaged in an ongoing feud with José Miguel Carrera. After their retreat in 1814, O'Higgins had fared much better than Carrera, who found little support forthcoming from San Martín, O'Higgins' political ally. Carrera was imprisoned to prevent his involvement in Chilean affairs; after his escape, he ended up taking the winning side in the Argentine Federalist war, helping
Army of the North and 9 artillery pieces could not deal with the 5,100 royalists and 23 artillery pieces and had to escape with about 1,000 casualties, while the royalists only counted 32 dead. Objectives were not met and the provinces were left surrounded by potential enemies. British and French could arrive by sea, Portuguese from the East and Spaniards from the North. Had they conquered Upper Perú, the biggest threat, the royalists, would have been ended. In January 1816, Lieutenant Colonel Gregorio Aráoz de Lamadrid was sent to the north, but on 31 January was defeated at Culpina. On 2 February he won