Battle of Buin - Prologue

Prologue

South America had been in turmoil since the War of the Confederation broke out on 1837. Chile, feeling threatened by Andres de Santa Cruz' growing influence in the continent and his intentions to create a Peru-Bolivian Confederacy, declared war on 1837. Chile sent an expedition under Manuel Blanco Encalada, but the latter failed in his task, and surrounded and outnumbered at Arequipa was forced to sign the Treaty of Paucarpata on November 17, compromising to resume trade relations with the Confederacy. This treaty was widely rejected by the Chilean government and public opinion, so a new expedition was sent, led this time by General Manuel Bulnes Prieto, a veteran from revolutionary wars during Jose Joaquin Prieto's Presidency.