Santa Cruz was born on 30 November 1792, in the town of Huarina, La Paz. His father was José Santa Cruz y Villavicencio, a Spaniard, and his mother Juana Basilia Calahumana, an Aymara woman from the town of Huarina. In later years, Andrés de Santa Cruz would claim that through his mother, he descended directly from Inca rulers.[3] He began his studies in his hometown at the San Francisco Convent, and continued them at the San Antonio Abad Seminary in the city of Cuzco. In 1809 he left the seminary and returned to La Paz.
Military career
After Santa Cruz's return home, his father enrolled him as an alférez in the Dragones de ApolobambaRegiment of the Spanish Army. As such, he participated in the battles of Guaqui (20 July 1811), Vilcapugio (1 October 1813) and Ayohuma (14 November 1813). The latter resulted in the defeat of the Argentine Independentist forces attempting to liberate the Upper Peru (modern day Bolivia) from Spanish rule. Santa Cruz also took part in the Spanish colonial campaigns to suppress the insurrection of Mateo Pumacahua (1814–15), further demonstrating his loyalty to the Spanish Crown. His luck ran out at the Battle of La Tablada (15 April 1817), where he was captured and taken as prisoner of war to Buenos Aires. He managed to escape, first to Rio de Janeiro and then to Lima. As a reward, he was named Commander of Chorrillos.
War of Independence
At the time of the landing of the rebel army of José de San Martín on the Peruvian coast, Santa Cruz was commander of militia forces in the region of Huarochirí. In that position, he fought against the independentist in the Battle of Pasco (6 December 1820), but the royalists were defeated and Santa Cruz captured. Taken to San Martin'sheadquarters at Huaura, he decided to switch sides and joined the Patriot Army (8 January 1821). Santa Cruz ascended rapidly, reaching the rank of Colonel later that year and that of Brigade General in 1822 for leading Peruvian troops at the Battle of Pichincha (24 May 1822).
When Simón Bolívar assumed the presidency of Peru (17 February 1824), Santa Cruz joined his army and was named Chief of Staff of the Peruvian Division. In that condition, he participated of the Battle of Junín (6 August 1824). Afterwards, he was named Prefect of Ayacucho, and then Chief of Staff of the Patriot Army during the campaign for the liberation of Bolivia. As a reward for his actions, Santa Cruz received the titles of Marshal and Prefect of Chuquisaca in April 1825.
Named President of the Government Council in Lima, he was in charge of the Peruvian Executive after Bolívar returned to Gran Colombia on 4 September 1826, until the collapse of the Bolivarian regime in Peru on January 27, 1827. Santa Cruz temporarily assumed the post of President until 9 June 1827, when José La Mar was elected by Congress.
Invested with considerable powers, Santa Cruz endeavoured to establish in Peru the same type of authoritarian order he had imposed in Bolivia. He issued a Civil Code, a Penal Code, a TradeRegulation, a CustomsRegulation and reorganized tax collection procedures allowing an increase in state revenues while restraining expenditures. The Confederation generated resistances among several groups in both countries, who resented the dilution of national identities. An important number of Peruvian politicians opposed to the idea of the Confederation fled to Chile, where they received support from the powerful MinisterDiego Portales. Together they amassed a military expedition against Santa Cruz, led by AdmiralManuel Blanco Encalada, but they were encircled by Santa Cruz and had to surrender by the Treaty of Paucarpata, signed on 17 November 1837. The Chilean Government organized a second expedition, which defeated the Supreme Protector at the Battle of Yungay (20 January 1839) and forced the dissolution of the Confederation.
After resigning from his post as Supreme Protector (20 February 1839), Santa Cruz fled to Ecuador from where he plotted unsuccessfully to regain power. On 13 October 1843, he disembarked at Camarones in the Peruvian province of Tarapacá but was captured while trying to reach Bolivia. Delivered to the Chilean Government, he was imprisoned at Chillán from 1844 until 1846 when he was freed. He was named ambassador to several European countries by Manuel Belzú (1848–55) and then ran for president of Bolivia but was defeated by GeneralJorge Córdova. After staying for a while in Argentina, he returned to France where he lived the rest of his life at Versailles. He died at Beauvoir, near Nantes on 25 September 1865. he was buried at Cemetery of Notre-Dame, Versailles, France. One hundred years later, in 1965, the remains of the old Marshal were repatriated from France by the military government of the day and reinterred ceremoniously at Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, La Paz beside the Presidential Palace in Bolivia.
^ abSanta Cruz resigned on 20 February 1839, although in fact his government had been overthrown on the 17th. Most sources place the date of his official resignation as the end of his term.[1][2]
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