The Peruvian Army is the branch of the Peruvian Armed Forces tasked with safeguarding the independence, sovereignty and integrity of national territory on land through military force. Additional missions include assistance in safeguarding internal security, conducting disaster relief operations and participating in international peacekeeping operations. It celebrates the anniversary of the Battle of Ayacucho (1824) on December 9.
Battle of Arica, July 7, 1880. Painting by Juan Lepiani
Peruvian Infantry disembarking from Infantry Fighting Vehicles in the Cruz de Hueso Exercise, 2007
Cavalry Regiment of the Chorrillos Military School.
The War of the Pacific, also known as the Nitrate War and by multiple other names, was a war between Chile and a Bolivian–Peruvian alliance from 1879 to 1884. Fought over Chilean claims on coastal Bolivian territory in the Atacama Desert, the war ended with victory for Chile, which gained a significant amount of resource-rich territory from Peru and Bolivia.
Chilean lieutenant Solo Zaldívar and two soldiers burying three Bolivian soldiers after the Battle of Tacna. The elevation behind them is also a burial ground of victims.
Martiniano Urriola, with kepi, the commander of the occupation of Ayacucho in 1883, and Marcos Maturana, with poncho, the general chief of staff chief of the Expeditionary Army during the Lima Campaign; they view the dead bodies of a Peruvian gun crew after the Battle of Chorrillos.
A metallic brass cartridge for a Fusil Gras mle 1874 and a paper cartridge for a Chassepot rifle. The brass cartridge avoided the smoke and ashes of the self-consuming paper cartridge.