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 Goyeneche and Joaquín de la Pezuela, an able and experienced soldier, had the advantage, he negotiated with Goyeneche a 40-day armistice. The Assembly in Buenos Aires and the viceroy of Peru, José Fernando de Abascal, disapproved of this agreement. The royalists attacked by surprise, disregarding the agreement, before the arrival of reinforcements at the Battle of Vilcapugio on 1 October 1813. The royalist army, commanded by brigadier Joaquín de la Pezuela and with 4,000 men and 12 pieces of artillery confronted a patriot army with a high morale composed of 3,500 men, 14 pieces of artillery and cavalry mounted mostly