ABSTRACT
This chapter studies the uniform code that José de San Martín established for the Protectoral Government of Peru, which he presided between the Declaration of Independence from Spain in July 1821 and his departure from Lima in September 1822. Though he was the leader of the mostly foreign forces that composed the Liberating Expedition that set sail from Chile, the uniforms he designed emphasized and helped construct the visual identity of newly independent Peru. The unusual weight military regulations placed on the use of national colors and emblems in uniforms allowed a strategic staging of a new political identity. Through the study of the few surviving uniforms of the period, this chapter in fact reveals the place uniforms held as the privileged vehicles of a highly coded and sensitive political language and as a crucial element in the material production of the new state.
