History of Chile the Spaniards at the Battle of Chacabuco on February 12 and marking the beginning of the "Patria Nueva". San Martín considered the liberation of Chile a strategic stepping-stone to the emancipation of Peru, which he saw as the key to hemispheric victory over the Spanish. Chile won its formal independence when San Martín defeated the last large Spanish force on Chilean soil at the Battle of Maipú on April 5, 1818. San Martín then led his Argentine and Chilean followers north to liberate Peru; and fighting continued in Chile's southern provinces, the bastion of the royalists, until 1826. A declaration
Army of the North (France) him. Jean-Baptiste Jourdan won the Battle of Wattignies in October. On 17–18 May 1794, the Army of the North won a victory at the Battle of Tourcoing while under the temporary leadership of Joseph Souham. The right wing of the army fought under Jourdan in an important victory at the Battle of Fleurus on 26 June. Soon after this, the Allied position in Flanders collapsed, leading to Austria's loss of Belgium and the extinction of the Dutch Republic in the winter of 1794-1795. During this period, the army was engaged in mopping up operations and sieges. On 25 October 1797,