In January 1817, a band of soldiers entirely unused to the cold, breathless conditions of the Andes tramped over lofty passes from western Argentina into Chile. Not only had they little or no experience of the effects of altitude, around half were not of American or European descent, but African. Yet these men, fighting under an ailing general with an audacious plan, achieved victories that swung the balance in favour of the independence of Argentina, Chile, Peru and beyond.
In the mid-1810s, the future of an independent Latin America was poised on a knife-edge. Spanish royalists had quashed patriot risings across the region. The fractious, penniless United Provinces of the Río de la Plata — roughly speaking, covering what is now Argentina and Uruguay plus parts of southern Bolivia and Brazil — headed by Buenos Aires, barely held the Spanish at bay in Upper Peru.
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