Last Spanish Forces Leave South America
In January 1826 the Spanish garrison of the Real Felipe fortress at Callao, near Lima—the last royalist holdout in South America—surrendered after a prolonged siege, marking the definitive end of Spanish military presence on the continent. The fall of Callao completed the independence of Spanish South America, which had begun with the Caracas junta of 1810. Within fifteen years Spain had lost an empire that had taken three centuries to build, retaining only Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Bolívar convened the Congress of Panama in 1826 in a failed attempt to create a league of American republics.
- Year: 1826 CE
- Category: Military
