Jon Warnick
Spanish 2 Semester 1 Paper.
16-Apr-10
One of the principal liberators of South America from Spanish rule was Jose de San Martin. He is also known as Argentina's liberator, and was one of the principal
revolutionary fighters against royalist forces in South America. He was a master of military strategy, a skill which led him to success. San Martin became a national
hero in many South American countries, particularly in Argentina, where he also had strong personal ties, as he was born there, and enforced his ties by later
marrying an Argentine.
Jose de San Martin was born in Yapeyu, in the Argentine province of Corrientes , beside the mighty Uruguay river on February 25th 1778.. His parents , Don Juan de San Martin(Father), was the governor of the department; Dona Gregoria Matorras(Mother), was the neice of a conqueror of the Chaco's wild forests. He had one sister, Maria Elena. In 1786 Jose de San Martin is transferred to Spain with his family, where he studies in the Noble Seminary of Madrid and, in 1789, he initiates his military career in the regiment of Murcia and Initially he fought loyally for Spain against the Moors (1791), the British (1798), and the Portuguese (1801), but in 1812 he returned to the New World to help the revolutionaries. In 1811 he resigns his military career in Spain(which lasted 22 years) and embarks in the sail ship George Canning from England to Buenos Aires, where he arrives the March 9th 1812 accompanied by other friends. The independent government of Buenos Aires accepts the services of San Martin, recognizing his degree of lieutenant colonel and orders him to create a cavalry corps that would be the regiment of Mounted Grenadiers. Some time in that same year Jose de San Martin marries Maria Remedies de Escalada, of which she belonged to a distinguished family of that country. Jose creates the Lautaro lodge, whose objective was to liberate South America of the Spanish yoke. In October of 1812, the Lautaro lodge head a movement that intends to remove some members of the first Triunvirato .The Town Hall in order to avoid fighting calls on a Segundo Triunvirato, who, soon after, calls an Assembly of Delegates of the Provinces with the purpose of writing a constitution.
On February 3rd, 1813, the Mounted Grenadiers fought and won their first combat, near the ravines of San Lorenzo, against the Spanish disembarkation army that arrived with several ships from the port of Montevideo.(Montevideo is the capital city of Uruguay, and can be found across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires). In January of 1814, San Martin takes control of the North Army, from the hands of its former general, Belgrano, that had returned defeated from the Alto Peru -today the republic of Bolivia. Soon after in Tucuman, Jose de San Martin realized that is was impossible to conquer Lima city, the capital of Peru, that was the center of the Spanish power. A disease forces him to request license and obtains from the government the nomination of Governor of the Cuyo province. He leaves Tucuman for Mendoza, capital of Cuyo, a city that stands at the foot of the mountain range of the Andes. There he recovers and begins to prepare an army to cross the Andes. In the year 1816 he sends, representing the province of Cuyo, a delegation to the congress that met in Tucuman, with express orders to insist on the declaration of independence. Because of his insistence, the declaration of the independence from the rule of Spain of the Provincias Unidas del Rio de la Plata -that was the primitive name of what now is the Argentine Republic- was acclaimed in that congress the 9 of July of that year.
His daughter Mercedes was born that year(1816). José was offered a gift of land in her honor, but he declined, saying portions of it should be reserved for men who distinguished themselves in the battle for independence. His every action was focused on independence.
From Mendoza he prepares with little means an army. All the people contributes with their work and goods to make the dangerous expedition. He insists before the government of Buenos Aires to permit to his army the crossing of the Andes to Chile.
In January of 1817 the crossing of the army begins. They were around 4000 men of infantry, cavalry and artillery and carried provisions for a month. They crossed divided into two columns by the passage of Los Patos and the one of Uspallata, and the two columns met in Santa Rosa of the Andes. On February 12, 1817 few days after the passage of the Andes, the army, that was given the name "Army of the Andes", wins the battle of Chacabuco. In the first days of 1818, a disembarked realistic army from Peru, advanced on the capital of Chile. The 19 of March, in a night attack, the Spanish army defeats the independents in the battle of Cancharrayada and general OHiggins was wounded. The way to Lima by sea was then opened, but it was necessary to create a fleet that did not exist. With some boats captured to the enemy and others bought to the United States and England, the Chilean navy was created.
On August 20, 1820 the expeditionary Argentine-Chilean army sails from the port of Valparaiso to Peru. In the month of July, 1821, San Martin enters triumphant to the city of Lima, proclaims independence, is designated Protective of Peru and exerts the government. On July 26, 1822 San Martin interviews with Simon Bolivar in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador. There they meet both liberators of South America, the one of the north and the one of the south. They talk privily by more than four hours. San Martin returns to Lima the night of the 26. On September 20 of that year meets in Lima the first Congress of Peru and there the Protective resigns to his office. The same day he embarked for Chile and months later crosses the Andes to Mendoza.
On august 3, 1823 his wife dies in Buenos Aires1. Then on the 10th of February of 1824, displeased by the civil wars in the Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata, he embarked for France with his little daughter, Mercedes. There he lived until his death, on august 17, 18502.Mercedes was 34 years old when he died. His location of death is Boulogne-sure-Mer, France. His cause of death is unkown, and his remains are buried in Catedral Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aries.
1 Then he moved to Europe with his daughter Mercedes, first to England, then to Brussels. To keep a neutral position during the 1830 Belgian Revolution he moved to Paris, where he contracted cholera
2 He always excluded himself from every possible meddling at the internecine wars of his home country, and refused several offers he had to do so. The only occasion in which he offered himself to return to Argentina was at the time of the French Blockades of 1838 and 1845. In recognition of the succesful defense of Argentine rights in those crises, he handed down his sword to Buenos Aires Province Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas through his will.