Rancagua, Battle of
Rancagua, Battle of
Battle of Rancagua, the October 1814 conflict that temporarily derailed Chile's attempt to free itself from Spain. The Chilean independence leader Bernardo O'Higgins sought to defend the city of Rancagua, near Santiago, against advancing Spanish forces under the command of General Mariano Osorio. Outnumbered by Madrid's superior forces, O'Higgins and his men managed to hold the city, but without the assistance of Chile's other independence figure, José Miguel Carrera, who apparently resented O'Higgins's popularity, O'Higgins was defeated and put to flight. Although Osorio's victory ended Chile's period of independence (1810–1814), known as the Patria Vieja, it did not stop the Chileans from regrouping and launching a second war, which ultimately freed them from Spanish rule.
See alsoWars of Independence, South America .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Luis Galdames, A History of Chile (1941), pp. 183-184.
Simon Collier, Ideas and Politics of Chilean Independence, 1808–1833 (1967), pp. 101-102.
Additional Bibliography
Archer, Christon I., ed. The Wars of Independence in Spanish America. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2000.
Ibáñez Vergara, Jorge. O'Higgins, el Libertador. Santiago: Instituto O'Higginiano de Chile, 2001.
López Rubio, Sergio E. Los vengadores de Rancagua. Santiago: Fundación Alberto Blest Gana, 1987.
William F. Sater