Melgarejo starts a formidable assault on native-held…

Melgarejo starts a formidable assault on native-held communal land, ostensibly in order to improve agricultural production.

He decrees that the indigenous people are the owners of their parcels only if they pay a large fee within sixty days.

If they fail to do so, their land will be auctioned off.

The resulting sales increase the size of the haciendas, and massive native uprisings against his rule become more violent.

Opposition against Melgarejo mounts in all sectors of society as the term melgarejismo comes to signify amoral militarism; in 1871 he is overthrown and later murdered in Lima.