Don Ramon Castilla, a Peruvian general, born at Tarapaca, Aug. 30, 1797, died May 25, 1867. He entered the Spanish army in 1816, and was made lieutenant in 1820. Soon afterward he joined the army of independence, and was made lieutenant colonel. In 1830 he went to Lima, and was appointed by Gamarra chief of staff of the whole army. He was made brigadier general by Orbegoso, the provisional president, whom he supported until the treaty with Santa Cruz, the president of Bolivia. He then fled to Chili, and in 1837 joined the army of the Peruvian patriots who marched against Santa Cruz. Castilla was second leader of the vanguard at the attack upon Lima and defeat of Orbegoso, and made common cause with Gamarra, who was proclaimed president by the patriots, while Castilla was appointed minister of war. In 1841 he was second in command of the Peruvian army which invaded Bolivia. In 1844 he overthrew the dictator Vivanco, and in the following year he was elected president of Peru. At the expiration of his term of office in 1851 he was succeeded by Gen. Echenique. Soon after, the administration of the latter having become unpopular, Castilla began a revolution at Arequipa, overcame Echenique, and entered Lima in 1855 as supreme ruler of the country.

In this capacity he made many reforms, the most important of which was the abolition of slavery, He was reelected president in 1858, and two years afterward proclaimed a new constitution, which established universal suffrage and prohibited the exercise of every form of religion except the Catholic. In 1861 he made an unsuccessful attempt to annex Bolivia to Peru. In 1862 ho was succeeded as president by Gen. San Ramon, and he in 1863 by Pezet. Castilla, having assumed a hostile attitude toward the latter, was arrested in 1865, but soon gained his liberty, and joined the movement under Prado. In 1867 he headed an insurrection against Prado, and was on his way to Arica when he died.