Admiral Mendez Núñez, very unhappy with having…

Admiral Mendez Núñez, very unhappy with having destroyed such a defenseless target as Valparaiso, and with the inconclusive result at Abtao, has decided to change his plans and attack next a heavily defended port.

As a result, the Admiral sets upon the Peruvian port city of Callao on May 2.

After the battle, both sides claims victory.

The Peruvian defenders claim that they had stopped the Spanish from asserting their demands and regaining their lost authority and prestige in South America and to have forced the Spaniards to withdraw their fleet (a correct claim, since when the Spaniards withdraw, the Peruvian cannons are still firing and are the last to shoot in the battle), while the Spaniards claim to have exercised a punishment in its former colony.

The Spaniards have only managed to cause very limited damage to a very small number of defenses, and most of the cannons and artillery, as well as the buildings and houses in El Callao, remain perfectly intact after the battle.

Whether the claim of re-colonization was a fact or an exaggeration is not really known.

For the South Americans, Spanish meddling with Latin American countries and the Chincha attack is proof of a long-range Spanish intention of reasserting their influence in their former colonies.

On the other hand, the force, which amounts to just a squadron of ships with a tiny landing force capability, might simply have been intended to seize the islands for their valuable fertilizer resources and to regain some of Spain's lost prestige.

If so, it achieved the opposite of what had been intended.

After the battle, with all the South American ports closed to them, the Spanish fleet withdraws from South American coasts, vacates the Chincha Islands and returns to Spain via the Philippines, completing a round-the-world trip in order to do so.