RAMÓN CASTILLA

Ramón Castilla

He was born on August 31, 1797 in Tarapacá province (today Chile), was the second son of don Pedro Castilla natural of Argentina and Doña Juana Marquesa de Romero, his older brother was called Leandro.

In 1807 at the age of ten he traveled to Lima to study with his brother, soon travels to Concepción (Chile) where he completed his studies and helped his brother in a business.

Castilla entered the Spanish army ranks, but in 1822 he joined the revolutionary force of José de San Martín to fight in wars for the emancipation of Latin America (1810-1824), taking part in the battle of Ayacucho. With independence, he was appointed Prefect of his home province (1824) and Chief of the General staff (1830).

In 1837, he joined the revolt against Andrés Santa Cruz, President of the Peru–Bolivian Confederation (1836-1839) and escaped to Chile, where returns with the restorative campaign led by Manuel Bulnes, to intervene successfully in the battle of Yungay, that put an end to the Confederacy. He was Minister of Guerra de el presidente Agustín Gamarra. In the period of the military anarchy, it gave its support to the constitutional President Manuel Menéndez and faced Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco on Carmen Alto, returning power to Menendez.

In 1845, was President of Peru. Strong revenues from the exploitation of guano were received under its mandate. For commercialization established the system of domestic consignees. In 1851, he was succeeded by José Rufino Echenique. Then Castilla abolished the indigenous tribute and slavery (1854) and put an end to the Government of Echenique in the battle of La Palma, being named Chairman provisional and later ratified in the Presidency by Congress.

In his second term, it fostered the railroad and nitrate derived from guano industries development. The constitutions of liberal tendency, 1856, and 1860, which remained in force until 1920 were. In 1862, he lost presidential elections to San Miguel Román, so it withdrew from politics, although he returned to it in 1865 as President of the Peruvian Senate.

Ramón Castilla died on May 30, 1867 in Tiliviche.