Battle of Miraflores

Battle context

Miraflores was the decisive engagement that broke the second and final defensive line protecting Lima. Chilean forces under Baquedano defeated the Peruvian army commanded by Piérola, and two days later Chilean troops occupied the Peruvian capital. Peru's president and his officers fled into the interior, leaving the country without a functioning government. During the occupation that followed, Peru's National Library was burned and a number of monuments were ransacked and taken as war trophies. Despite the fall of Lima, the war did not end there: Peruvian forces under Andrés Avelino Cáceres continued resistance against the Chilean occupation army for another three years, making Miraflores the opening of a prolonged occupation rather than a clean conclusion to the conflict.