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
Battle of Paraguarí Battle of Paraguarí The battle of Paraguarí took place on January 19, 1811, in Paraguarí (Paraguay), between the patriot army led by Manuel Belgrano and the Royalist army located in Paraguay led by Bernardo de Velasco. The battle would end with a Paraguayan victory; but it boosted confidence in the local population to declare themselves independent from both Buenos Aires patriots and royalists months later. At the outbreak of the May Revolution in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, the government emerged from it, called (in Spanish) "Junta Provisional Gubernativa de las Provincias del