The name of Military Anarchy (Spanish: Anarquía militar) is given to the period of the republican history of Peru following the death of President Agustín Gamarra during his failed invasion of Bolivia on November 18, 1841.

After Gamarra's death, he was succeeded by Manuel Menéndez as constitutional president, although a number of uprisings in different parts of the country challenged his authority, leading to civil war on May 17, 1843.

Thanks to this situation, the country entered a period of military leadership: the characters who had fought in the war of independence believed they had the right to govern Peru.

Preferring not to continue with Peru's internal wars, he resigned his command on March 15, 1843, with Justo Figuerola assuming the presidency.

His term barely lasted a few days and ended, according to popular tradition, when a crowd of Vivanquistas in front of his house demanded his resignation, he asked his daughter to throw the presidential sash out the window since his sleep was interrupted.

Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco assumed the government of Peru on April 7, 1843, establishing an ultra-conservative and aristocratic regime called the Directory, a kind of enlightened despotism, since he believed that the country would progress with the rule of order over freedom.

In Tacna and Moquegua, Domingo Nieto and Ramón Castilla revolted, in order to put an end to the Directory and restore the deposed Menéndez.

Given this, Vivanco left Lima, an action taken advantage of by his vice president Domingo Elías to proclaim himself Head of the Nation, during the Semana Magna.