Andrés de Santa Cruz y Calahumana was born in the city of La Paz in the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata in 1792 at the very end of the colonial period, when the Andes were still firmly under the control of the Spanish monarchy. He grew up in the aftermath of the greatest indigenous rebellion seen in 300 years and lived through the convulsed times that led to independence. Santa Cruz was an important participant during this time of change. He had the opportunity to lead and fought to shape the newly established republics in the Andes.

This is the story of a man, but it is also the story of a time and a place. Indeed, this life story is an entry point into the world in which this particular man lived. It is much more the story of the place he inhabited than a tale of the man as an individual. It does not attempt to reconstruct his personal life in detail; rather, it focuses on the politics of his time and the part he played in the process by which the countries we now know as Peru and Bolivia came into being.

Santa Cruz is often overlooked in history books when the wars of independence and the early national periods are studied because little attention is paid to the complicated events that took place in this region.