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DECISIVE BATTLES SINCE WATERLOO.

CHAPTER I.

BATTLE OF AYACUCHO—1824.

Napoleonic wars that terminated with the battle of Waterloo reduced the nations of Europe to a state of exhaustion, and for a considerable period thereafter there was little occupation for the soldier. England, France, Spain, Germany, and Russia were engaged in repairing the ravages of war, and by common consent there was a truce to arms and a halt in the work of organized destruction. But the wings of Peace, outstretched over Europe, were folded on the other side of the Atlantic, throughout all the vast region known as Spanish America. Mexico, Peru, Chili, and the other trans-Atlantic provinces of Spain sought to sever their connection with the Old World; one by one they achieved their independence through a series of wars that deluged the land with blood and threatened to leave it an uninhabited waste. The final battle of the South American wars of independence was fought at Ayacucho, Peru, December 9, 1824. Let us first glance at the events which led up to that sanguinary conflict, and then consider the occurrences of the day which saw the Spanish power in America broken forever.