| Battle of Cepeda | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theArgentine Civil War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Federals |  Unitarians | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Estanislao López Francisco Ramírez José Miguel Carrera | José Rondeau | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 1,000–1,700 (estimate) | 2,000–3,000 (estimate) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 40 dead and wounded | 300 dead 30 prisoners 9 carriages with equipment captured | ||||||
TheBattle of Cepeda of 1820 took place on February 1 inCañada de Cepeda,Buenos Aires Province,Argentina. The conflict was the first major battle that sawUnitarians andFederals as two constituted sides. It ended with the defeat of the national government.[1]
Federal League Provinces ofSanta Fe,Entre Ríos andJosé Miguel Carrera joined forces to topple the1819centralist Constitution and theDirectorial government of theUnited Provinces of the Río de la Plata. Both provincialleaders,Estanislao López andFrancisco Ramírez, were allies ofJosé Gervasio Artigas.
Supreme DirectorJosé Rondeau called back the Armies that were fighting theArgentine War of Independence to fight the Federals. TheArmy of the Andes, commanded byJosé de San Martín refused to abandon the offensive against theroyalists inChile andPeru. TheArmy of the North, commanded byManuel Belgrano,mutinied at Arequito, as the troops and the officiality refused to fight acivil war, and asked instead to go back to thenorthern frontier to fight the royalists. Rondeau's forces were defeated in the battle.[2]
The complete victory of the Federal forces over a diminished Directorial army led to the end of the central authority established by the 1819 Constitution through the Supreme Director, and laid the foundations for a rather newFederal organization for Argentina, as the Provinces of Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and Buenos Aires signed theTreaty of Pilar on February 23.
Some provisions included in the Treaty on behalf ofBuenos Aires, proved unacceptable toArtigas (styled "Protector of theLeague of the Free Peoples", who was exiled in Entre Ríos following his defeat to theBrazilian Empire invasion of theBanda Oriental), so he ordered both López and Ramírez to renounce it. But, in one of the most important turns of Argentine history, however, bothcaudillos turned themselves against their former inspirational leader and Ramírez battled against him, destroying the remnants of his army and pushing him forward to exile inParaguay.
Then, Ramírez took on seriously his own chances as hegemonic leader, so he declared theRepublic of Entre Ríos on September 29, 1820, but the experiment would barely live as long as Ramírez himself. On July 10, 1821, he was assassinated by the forces of his former ally Estanislao López, who fought this time alongside Buenos Aires andCorrientes Provinces, fearful of Ramírez' aspirations.
The battle in 1820 initiated the so-called caudillo era.[1] The battle would later be followed by a secondBattle of Cepeda (1859), which involved clashes between the Unitarian and the Federalist forces, ending with the annexation of Buenos Aires into the union.[3][4]
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