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DON
JOSÉ DE SAN MARTÍN (1778-1850)
One of the greatest heroes of South American
independence was Jose de San Martin. He
helped liberate Argentina, Chile, and
Peru from Spanish rule. A proud ruler,
at the height of his success he relinquished
his power to Simon Bolivar after a historic
meeting in 1822.
Jose
Francisco de San Martin was born on Feb.
25, 1778 in Yapeyu, an Indian settlement
in what is now northern Argentina. His
father, a Spanish army captain, was administrator
there. When Captain San Martin was called
back to Spain, he enrolled his son in
a Madrid school. When he was 11 years
old, young San Martin became a cadet in
the infantry. He was 13 when he fought
his first battle in North Africa.
For
the next 20 years he fought the Moors
and Napoleon's forces where he rose to
the rank of lieutenant colonel. San Martin's
sympathies, however, were always with
the mistreated colonials.
In
1812 he resigned and returned to Argentina
to join the revolt there. In 1814, he
had himself made governor of a district
in the foothills of the Andes. After gathering
and training an army, he led it across
the Andes Mountains into Chile where his
men routed the Spanish at Chacabuco in
1817 and entered Santiago unopposed. The
next year, San Martin's decisive victory
at Maipo set all of Chile free.
In
1820 his army landed on the southern coast
of Peru and entered Lima in 1821. San
Martin met with Bolivar in Guayaquil,
Ecuador, in July 1822 and turned over
the command to him.
On
returning to Argentina, San Martin learned
that his wife had died. He left for Europe
with his daughter and spent the rest of
his life in exile. San Martin lived in
France and Belgium until his death in
Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, on Aug. 17,
1850.
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