Editing Peruvian Armed Forces (section)

=== 19th century ===
The [[Peruvian Army]] was officially established on 18 August 1821 when the Peruvian Guard Legion was established by the government of general [[José de San Martín]] during the [[Peruvian War of Independence]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=PERÚ |first=NOTICIAS EL COMERCIO |date=2020-08-18 |title=Bicentenario {{!}} Ejército del Perú reveló que la fecha de su creación fue el 18 de agosto de 1821 {{!}} coronavirus {{!}} {{!}} PERU |url=https://elcomercio.pe/peru/bicentenario-ejercito-del-peru-revela-que-la-fecha-de-su-creacion-fue-el-18-de-agosto-de-1821-coronavirus-nnpp-noticia/ |access-date=2023-03-29 |newspaper=El Comercio |language=es}}</ref> San Martín would found the [[Peruvian Navy]] months later on 8 October 1821.

The first international conflict fought by the newly formed republic was the [[Gran Colombia-Peru War]], a maritime and terrestrial conflict against the state of the [[Gran Colombia]], which was formed by the current-day states of [[Colombia]], [[Ecuador]], [[Panama]] and [[Venezuela]]. In early 1828, an incursion of Colombian troops in Bolivia sent by [[Simon Bolivar]] with the objective of gaining a foothold and influence in the country, forced Peru to launch a campaign against Bolivia to successfully force the Colombian expeditionary force to leave the country. Furious, Bolivar resolved to declare war against Peru on June 3, 1828, with former president of Bolivia [[Antonio Jose de Sucre]] being appointed Commander of the Colombian Army. The Peruvian Navy immediately proceeded to occupy and establish blockades along the Gran Colombia coasts, winning the first confrontation in the [[Battle of Punta Malpelo]], forcing the Colombians to retreat. Victorious, the Peruvian navy set its sights on the strategic port of [[Guayaquil]] and proceeded to attack it at the [[Battle of Cruces]], which saw the destruction of the Grancolombian pacific fleet and the naval blockade of the city of Guayaquil until the end of the conflict. In the land, the ties were more balanced, with the outnumbered Peruvian Army seizing the city of [[Cuenca, Ecuador|Cuenca]] on the Battle of Saraguro on February 13, 1829, and pushing north near Guayaquil. However, Venezuelan general De Sucre inflicted a defeat on the Peruvians at the [[Battle of Tarqui]]. The vastly outnumbered 900 Peruvian infantrymen were forced to retreat against the approaching 4,500 Grancolombian counterattack force in order to evade an encirclement. After the battle, Peru adopted a defensive strategy, establishing defensive lines along the [[Jaén, Peru|Jaen]] and [[Maynas Province, Peru|Maynas]], which were claimed by the Grancolombians and one of their motivations for the war. After a series of skirmishes, the Peruvian army was able to hold those provinces, but had to end the occupation of Guayaquil. On February 28, 1829, Peruvian president La Mar and Sucre signed the La Mar-Sucre convention, which ended hostilities but left the borders on an ambiguous state. Yet, this was seen as a political win by the Peruvians, as holding these provinces opened the way of annexation, which would later be the cause of several Peruvian-Ecuadorian wars after the dissolution of the Gran Colombia in 1830.

The next major conflict faced Peru against the newly independent state of Ecuador in the [[Ecuadorian-Peruvian War (1857-1860)]], the first of the main conflicts between these two countries. 
The conflict originated due to the international debt Ecuador, as the Gran Colombia, had to take from European creditors, mainly British,  after the war of independence from Spain. Wanting to find a source of income, finances minister Francisco de Paula gave the creditors rights to several territories in the forest, some of them over disputed lands with Peru. This caused a Peruvian protest, as the controversy of the lands, specifically of the northern half of the [[Department of Loreto]] in Peru was a major point of contention first with the Gran Colombia, and then with Ecuador and Colombia. Ecuador reinstated its sovereign over the lands north of the Amazon, and assured British creditors of their rights over that territory. Thus, on October 26, 1858, the Peruvian congress authorized president [[Ramón Castilla]] to command and army against Ecuador if needed to secure the national territory against European creditors. A blockade against Ecuadorian ports was also preferred. On November 1, 1858, the first Peruvian frigate arrived in Ecuadorian waters, and the start of the blockade of Guayaquil and Quito started. By this time, Ecuador was facing an internal crisis, called by Ecuadorian history books as the “Terrible Year”, in which a number of different politicians were fighting for control of the country as its coasts were in the middle of a blockade. Receiving no response from an unified Ecuadorian government, Castilla ordered 5,000 of his troops to advance into the Ecuadorian province of “Mapasingue”, near Guayaquil, in order to force Ecuador to accept the Peruvians terms and to abandon its desires on the Amazon. Force by military action, the four governments vying for control of Ecuador selected caudillo [[Guillermo Franco (Ecuadorian general)|Guillermo Franco]] as the sole representative of the country, signing the Treaty of Mapasingue with Castilla, thus agreeing to the Peruvian terms and stating the withdrawal of Peruvian troops from Ecuador. This angered the Ecuadorians, which called Franco as a traitor for collaborating with the Peruvians, and ousted him in the [[Battle of Guayaquil]]. This action strengthened the Peruvian position on the Amazon, which would not be challenged until the next century. 
 
The [[War of the Pacific]], a conflict between the [[Bolivia-Peru alliance]] and [[Chile]] resulted with one of the armed forces' worst failures as Chilean troops occupied the capital of [[Lima]] and the southern provinces, with Peru ceding the mineral-rich [[Arica Province (Peru)|Arica Province]] to Chile after signing the [[Treaty of Ancón]] and later treaties. The incompetence of the government and military was so great during the War of the Pacific period that it led to an intellectual movement dedicated to restoring pride for Peru, creating modern [[Peruvian nationalism]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chavarría |first=Jesús |date=1 May 1970 |title=The Intellectuals and the Crisis of Modern Peruvian Nationalism: 1870-1919 |journal=Hispanic American Historical Review |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=257–278|doi=10.1215/00182168-50.2.257 }}</ref>