José de San Martín

"General San Martín" redirects here. For other uses, see General San Martín (disambiguation).

José de San Martín
Portrait of José de San Martín, by José Gil de Castro
Protector of Peru
In office August 3, 1821 – September 20, 1822
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	José de la Riva-Agüero as President of Peru
Commander-in-chief of the Pro-Independence Army of Peru
In office May 19, 1820 – September 20, 1822
General-in-chief of the Army of Chile
In office February 14, 1817 – July 20, 1820
Preceded by	José Miguel Carrera
Succeeded by	Bernardo O'Higgins
General-in-chief of the Army of the Andes
In office August 1, 1816 – September 20, 1821
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Enrique Martínez "Division of the Andes"
Governor of the Intendancy of Cuyo
In office August 10, 1814 – September 24, 1816
Preceded by	Marcos Balcarce
Succeeded by	Toribio de Luzuriaga
General-in-chief of the Army of the North
In office January 30 – April 20, 1814
Preceded by	Manuel Belgrano
Succeeded by	José Rondeau
Commander of the Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers
In office December 7, 1812 – April 1816
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	José Matías Zapiola
Personal details
Born	José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras February 25, 1778 Yapeyú, Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, Spanish Empire
Died	August 17, 1850 (aged 72) Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, France
Party	Independent
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Spouse	María de los Remedios de Escalada
Children	Mercedes Tomasa San Martín y Escalada
Parent(s)	Juan de San Martín and Gregoria Matorras
Alma mater	Royal Seminary of Nobles of Madrid
Occupation	Military officer and politician
Known for	Founding hero of Argentina, Chile and Peru
Signature
Military service
Branch/service	Pro-Independence Army of Peru Army of the Andes Army of the North Army of Chile Argentine Army Spanish Army
Battles/wars	Napoleonic Invasion of Spain Chilean War of Independence Argentine War of Independence Peruvian War of Independence

José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras (Yapeyú, February 25, 1778 – Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, France, August 17, 1850) was a military officer and politician from the Río de la Plata, whose military campaigns were decisive for the independence of extensive territories in Hispanic America, mainly the present-day countries of Argentina, Chile and Peru.

San Martín began his military career very young in the Spanish Army. He fought in the North African campaign in Melilla and Oran, against the French in the Pyrenees, against the English fleet in the Mediterranean, against the Portuguese in the War of the Oranges, and again in 1804 against the British at Gibraltar and Cádiz. He was distinguished for his actions against the French during the Napoleonic Invasion of Spain, especially at the Battle of Bailén, although his unit did not take part directly in the battle, as it was a reserve unit.

Later he continued fighting the French invaders under the orders of the English general William Carr Beresford (who two years earlier had unsuccessfully attempted to seize Buenos Aires and Montevideo during the First English Invasion). In that same setting he met James Duff, who introduced him into the secret Masonic lodges that were conspiring to achieve the independence of South America and to favor British interests.

In 1811, San Martín resigned from his military career in Spain and went to London, where he met Carlos María de Alvear, José Matías Zapiola, Andrés Bello and Tomás Guido, among other members of the Lautaro Lodge, a society of Masonic affiliations. Also in London, thanks to the efforts of various figures in the British government, he was made a participant in the Maitland Plan, a strategy designed so that Hispanic America would become independent from Spain.

After the Hispanic American wars of independence, José de San Martín would be recognized as "Father of the Fatherland" in Argentina and "Founder of Liberty" in Peru, even though no "Fatherland" as such existed (apart from Spain) before the pro-independence movements. Also strikingly noteworthy are the four months he spent in London fraternizing with agents of the British government just before embarking for his "fatherland" to fight in the pro-independence wars, or the fact that the commanders of the squadron that carried him to Peru (who later looted the Royal Treasury of Lima) were all British. All these facts have led numerous historians to ask whether San Martín was in reality a "patriot", or simply a mercenary in the service of English interests, executing a modified version of the Maitland Plan..

As happened with Simón Bolívar, San Martín received numerous forms of support, both financial and military, from the English political and military establishment, eager for revenge for the support Spain had given to the North American rebels, and interested in opening trade to their ships, besides the plundering of the resources distributed across different regions of Hispanic America. This support definitively tipped the balance in his favor, and allowed him to achieve military victories that he could not otherwise have attained, as was shown in the early phases of the insurrections.

For his English sponsors, the support for San Martín and Bolívar represented a low-risk but highly profitable investment, since with limited financial and military support they managed not only to take over a large part of the trade of Hispanic America, but also to loot the Hispanic American Treasuries. Among those looted were the funds of the Royal Treasury of Buenos Aires (some 40 tons of gold), the Royal Treasury of Lima, which constituted the largest treasure on the entire South American continent (only San Martín, who loaded it onto the fleet of the English Vice-Admiral Thomas Cochrane bound for London, could know the exact amount), the Potosí Mint, the mints of Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and other mints (some 550 thousand bars of silver), and the Royal Treasury of Santa Fe de Bogotá, Guatemala and Mexico (some 12 tons of gold in each of them). To all this must be added a long record of indiscriminate looting and robbery of the civilian and ecclesiastical population at the hands of insurgent and British paramilitary organizations.

It is estimated that, altogether, the British managed to loot in Hispanic America the equivalent of more than 2 million million dollars (2 billions on the long scale), through the appropriation of monetary funds, the looting of government and religious institutions, and the plundering of the civilian population. The former were destined mostly to sustain the public treasuries of those Viceroyalties, and their purpose was the monetary stability of each one. The result was disastrous for the fledgling republics, as they were left totally decapitalized, and were forced to sign trade treaties (such as the euphemistically named Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation between Argentina and the United Kingdom) that in practice turned them into British commercial colonies, since London kept the monopoly of imports and exports, the rights to exploit natural resources, the monopoly of loans, and borrowing from English banks and financial houses at usurious interest.

After Argentine independence, José de San Martín tried to settle in Buenos Aires, but he was accused of having become a traitor and conspirator, and had to flee to Europe, where he enjoyed a luxurious exile until the end of his days.

Early years

José de San Martín was born on February 25, 1778, in the town of Yapeyú (Corrientes), capital of its department and one of the five into which the government of the Guaraní was divided, organized by missionaries and martyrs. He was the fifth and last child of the adjutant major Juan de San Martín, lieutenant governor of the province, and of Gregoria Matorras, who had married in Buenos Aires, but were both from Palencia, Spain, he from Cervatos de la Cueza, and she from nearby Paredes de Nava.

In April 1784, when he was six years old, he arrived with his family in the Spanish city of Cádiz (after a stay in Buenos Aires) and later settled in the city of Málaga. He began his studies at the Royal Seminary of Nobles of Madrid and at the School of Temporalities of Málaga in 1786. He later joined the Spanish army and made his military career in the Murcia Regiment.

Family

Parents

From left to right, Juan de San Martín y Gómez and his wife, Gregoria Matorras, parents of José de San Martín

José de San Martín's father, Juan de San Martín, son of Andrés de San Martín and Isidora Gómez, had been born in the town of Cervatos de la Cueza, in the present-day Province of Palencia (formerly the Kingdom of León, in Spain), and was Lieutenant Governor of the department. He served the Spanish Crown as a military officer and in 1774 was appointed Governor of the Department of Yapeyú, part of the Governorate of the Guaraní Missions, created to administer the thirty Jesuit Guaraní missions after the order was expelled from America by Charles III in 1767, with its seat in the Reduction of Yapeyú.

His mother, Gregoria Matorras del Ser, daughter of Domingo Matorras and María del Ser, had also been born in the Province of Palencia, on March 12, 1738, specifically in Paredes de Nava. She was a first cousin of Jerónimo Matorras, governor and captain general of Tucumán.

Juan de San Martín married Gregoria Matorras by proxy (he was represented by the captain of dragoons Juan Francisco de Somalo) on October 1, 1770, with the blessing of the Bishop of Buenos Aires, Manuel Antonio de la Torre. Shortly afterward they moved to Calera de las Vacas (today Calera de las Huérfanas, in Uruguay), where he served as administrator of the Jesuit estate, and three of their children were born there. On leaving that post he was appointed lieutenant governor of Yapeyú, an office he assumed in 1775; their other two children were born there, José being the youngest of them. Juan de San Martín organized the military corps of native Guaraní composed of 550 men, intended to contain Portuguese advances and the raids of the Charrúa natives. In 1779, Juan de San Martín rose to the rank of captain of the royal army; shortly afterward Gregoria Matorras returned to Buenos Aires with her five children and was joined there by her husband in 1781. In April 1784, Juan de San Martín and his family arrived in Cádiz. He died on December 4, 1796, in Málaga. His remains were transferred to the La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.

After her husband's death, Gregoria Matorras received a modest pension and lived accompanied by her daughter María Elena and her granddaughter Petronila. She died in Orense (Galicia) on June 1, 1813.

Birth

He was born on February 25, 1778, in Yapeyú, a former Jesuit mission located on the banks of the Uruguay River in the Government of the Guaraní Missions of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, in the present-day Argentine province of Corrientes.

From an early age he showed great military gifts and an attitude of command; his favorite pastimes went with war songs, words of command, and the inclination to stand out in the career of his forebears.

Some authors state that at the age of six he attended a school in Buenos Aires, where he learned to read and write.

Siblings

José de San Martín was the youngest of five siblings:

• María Elena (August 18, 1771),
• Manuel Tadeo (October 28, 1772),
• Juan Fermín (February 5, 1774), born in the Real Calera de las Vacas, jurisdiction of the parish of Las Víboras; and
• Justo Rufino (1776), born in Yapeyú like his brother José Francisco.

In Spain all the brothers followed the military career and kept little contact with one another. Nevertheless, José de San Martín maintained an epistolary contact with them, as well as with María Elena. It is possible that, already in exile in Europe, San Martín did not know that his brother Juan Fermín, who died in Manila, had had children, so that he assumed that the only descendant of his siblings was Petronila González Menchaca, María Elena's daughter.

On August 18, 1793, Justo Rufino de San Martín applied to join the Spanish army and was admitted to the Royal Corps of Bodyguards (Guardias de Corps) on January 9, 1795. He later joined the Hussars of Aragon Cavalry Regiment, with the rank of captain. He took part in the War of Independence and participated in important events of it. When José de San Martín went into exile, Justo accompanied him in Brussels and in Paris on various occasions between 1824 and 1832. He died in Madrid in 1832.

Wife

Remedios de Escalada, wife of José de San Martín

María de los Remedios de Escalada was born in Buenos Aires on November 20, 1797, daughter of Antonio José de Escalada and Tomasa de la Quintana y Aoiz. Her family was wealthy and prestigious and was linked to the pro-independence cause.

She married José de San Martín in Buenos Aires on November 12, 1812, when she was 14 years old. The influence of her family was fundamental for the creation of the Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers.

Later, in Mendoza, Remedios de Escalada was the founder of the Patriotic League of Women, with the aim of collaborating with the nascent Army of the Andes. To this end, among other gestures, she donated all her jewels.

She died in Buenos Aires on August 3, 1823. Before embarking for Europe in 1824, her husband had a tomb built for her in the La Recoleta Cemetery, whose epitaph reads: "Here rests Remedios de Escalada, wife and friend of General San Martín."

Daughter

Mercedes Tomasa San Martín y Escalada was the only daughter of San Martín and his wife. She was born in Mendoza on August 24, 1816 and died in Brunoy (France) on February 28, 1875.

In the 1830s, San Martín went into permanent exile in Paris, accompanied by his daughter. Because of the revolutionary upheavals, the family decided to move to a more secluded town, Boulogne-sur-Mer. There both fell ill with cholera and were attended by the Argentine physician and diplomat Mariano Severo Balcarce, who that same year married Mercedes. She had two daughters: Josefa Dominga Balcarce and María Mercedes Balcarce.

After her father's death, and with Balcarce's retirement from diplomacy, the family moved to Brunoy, near Paris. Mercedes died there at the age of 58 years. In 1951, her body, like those of her husband and her elder daughter, was repatriated, and they lie today in the mausoleum of the Basilica of San Francisco, in Mendoza.

Stay in Europe

In 1781, when José de San Martín was three years old, the family moved from Yapeyú to Buenos Aires. They then moved to Spain, embarking for Cádiz on December 6, 1783, aboard the frigate Santa Balbina, since his father had been posted to Málaga. Other biographical sources, however, date this voyage to when San Martín was eight years old, in the year 1786.

José began his studies at the Royal Seminary of Nobles of Madrid and at the School of Temporalities of Málaga in 1786. There he studied Castilian, Latin, French, German, dance, drawing, poetics, fencing, rhetoric, mathematics, history and geography.

His brothers also followed the military career, but only José would return to America.

Military career in the Spanish Army

Painting The Surrender of Bailén, by Casado del Alisal.

On July 21, 1789, at the age of eleven, San Martín began his military career as a cadet in the Murcia Regiment, as the French Revolution was breaking out. He fought in the North African campaign against the Moors in Melilla and Oran. On June 19, 1793, he was promoted to second sub-lieutenant for his actions in the Pyrenees against the French. In August of that year his regiment, which had taken part in the naval battles against the English fleet in the Mediterranean Sea, surrendered.

His regiment then passed to the Army of Aragon, in 1793, and immediately afterward to that of Roussillon, which was fighting against the French Republic under the orders of General Ricardos, one of the most tactically skilled Spanish generals, who proved to be a true teacher for the young cadet. On the death of General Ricardos in 1794, the "Murcia" and the garrison to which it belonged capitulated to the French. In 1797 San Martín received his baptism of fire at sea, since the Murcia, which was aboard the Spanish squadron fighting against the English squadron in the Mediterranean, took part in the disaster of Cape St. Vincent. Between 1800 and 1807 San Martín took part in the Spanish actions against Portugal until, by the Treaty of Fontainebleau, France and Spain divided Portugal and its colonies between them.

On July 28, 1794, he reached the rank of first sub-lieutenant, second lieutenant on May 8, 1795, and second adjutant on December 26, 1802. That same year he was seriously wounded after being attacked by robbers while transporting a battalion's pay, for which he was sanctioned over this incident.

On November 2, 1804, he reached the rank of Captain.

During the following period he fought with the rank of second captain of light infantry in various actions, in the War of the Oranges against Portugal in 1802 and at Gibraltar and Cádiz against the British in 1804.

In 1808 the troops of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Iberian Peninsula and Ferdinand VII of Spain was taken prisoner. Shortly afterward the rebellion broke out against the Emperor and against his brother Joseph Bonaparte, who had been proclaimed King of Spain by Napoleon. A Central Governing Junta was established, which acted first in Seville and then in Cádiz. San Martín was promoted by the Junta to the post of first adjutant of the Campo Mayor Volunteers Regiment. He also served more than a year aboard the warship frigate Dorotea.

The Gold Medal of the Heroes of Bailén, granted to all members of the army that took part in the battle, including the Reserve, to which San Martín belonged, by decree of the Supreme Junta of Seville of August 11, 1808.

Although it is claimed that his performance was decisive in the victory at the Battle of Bailén, on July 19, 1808, where at the head of twenty-one men he totally defeated a much larger force, and that for this he was awarded the Medal of Distinction of Bailén, this is demonstrably false. San Martín did not fight in the battle; although the said Medal of Distinction of Bailén was initially granted only to the divisions that fought directly in the battle (in which San Martín took no part, as his position was that of captain adjutant to the Chief of the Reserve Cavalry, General Francisco María Solano), later, by a resolution of the Supreme Junta of Seville, it was granted to all the divisions of the Army of Andalusia, including the reserve to which San Martín belonged. This means that the medal was not an exclusive or "exceptional" recognition of San Martín himself, but a collective decoration honoring the participation of the entire army in the victory, including the reserve units. Nevertheless, despite not having fought directly in that battle, much less having performed any "heroic" action, for some reason San Martín was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on August 11, 1808.

In total he took part in 17 other actions of war of the Spanish army: Plaza de Orán, Port Vendres, Baterías, Coliombré, the warship frigate Dorotea in a fight with the British ship El León, Torre Batera, Cruz de Yerro, Mauboles, San Margal, Baterías de Villalonga, Bañuelos, las Alturas, Hermita de San Luc, Arrecife de Arjonilla, the Battle of Bailén, the fight at the Villa de Arjonilla, and the Battle of Albuera.

He continued fighting against Napoleon's army, the Spanish now being allied, in Roussillon, with Portugal and England. At the Battle of La Albuera he fought under the orders of the English general William Carr Beresford, the same man who two years earlier, during the First English Invasion, had unsuccessfully attempted to seize Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

In those campaigns he met James Duff, a Scottish nobleman who introduced him into the secret lodges that were conspiring to promote insurgency in the territories in South America. It was there that he made contact for the first time with circles of liberals and secessionists who were conspiring to promote the struggle for American independence.

London

On May 25, 1810, the May Revolution took place in Buenos Aires, culminating in the removal of the Viceroy in charge of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and the appointment of the Primera Junta. The pro-independence process opened new military opportunities to South American officers such as José de San Martín.

On September 6, 1811, San Martín resigned from his military career in Spain and asked his superior for a passport to travel to London. The latter granted it together with letters of recommendation, among them one for Lord Macduff, and he left on September 14 of that year to live at number 23 Park Road in the district of Westminster. There he met Carlos María de Alvear, José Matías Zapiola, Andrés Bello and Tomás Guido, among others.

According to some historians, they were part of the Great American Assembly, a society of presumed Masonic affiliations, founded by Francisco de Miranda, who together with Simón Bolívar was already fighting in America for the independence of Venezuela. It is possible that, once inside the brotherhood, he came into contact with British politicians who made him aware of the Maitland Plan, a strategy for America to become independent from Spain.

Return to the Río de la Plata

Return to Buenos Aires and recognition of his rank of lieutenant colonel by the First Triumvirate

On January 12, 1812, José de San Martín, together with other officers, embarked from London on the British frigate George Canning, which anchored in the Port of Buenos Aires on March 9 of that year.

On the ninth of this month the English frigate Jorge Canning arrived at this port, coming from London, after fifty days of navigation (…) Among other private individuals carried by the English frigate, there have arrived at this port the Lieutenant Colonel of cavalry don José de San Martín, first aide-de-camp of the general-in-chief of the army of the Island, the Marquis of Coupigny; the Captain of infantry don Francisco Vera; the Ensign of the navy don José Zapiola; the Captain of militia don Francisco Chilavert; the Ensign of the royal carabineers don Carlos Alvear y Balbastro; the Sub-lieutenant of infantry don Antonio Arellano; and the first lieutenant of the Walloon guards Baron de Holmberg. These individuals have come to offer their services to the government, and have been received with the consideration they deserve, for the sentiments they profess in favor of the interests of the fatherland.

— Gaceta de Buenos Aires, number 28, Friday, March 20, 1812

The group of officers presented themselves before the members of the First Triumvirate, who granted their request to serve the government.

Creation of the Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers

On March 16, the First Triumvirate accepted San Martín's proposal to create a cavalry corps, which he named the Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers, to guard the banks of the Paraná River. During the year 1812 he devoted himself to training the troops in the modern combat techniques he knew from his extensive European service against Napoleon's armies.

The Provisional Superior Government, etc.― In consideration of the merits and services of don José de San Martín, and of his outstanding military knowledge, has resolved to confer upon him the effective post of Lieutenant Colonel of Cavalry, with the corresponding salary, from this date, and Commander of the Squadron of Mounted Grenadiers that is to be organized, granting him the favors, exemptions and prerogatives that correspond to him by this title, etc. etc.―
Given in Buenos Aires on March 16, 1812 ―Feliciano Antonio Chiclana―Manuel de Sarratea―Bernardino Rivadavia―Nicolas de Herrera, Secretary.

Founding of the Lautaro Lodge

Together with Carlos María de Alvear, who had also recently returned, he founded in mid-1812 a branch of the Lodge of Rational Knights, which he renamed the Lautaro Lodge. The name was taken from the Mapuche lonko Lautaro who, in the 16th century, had risen up against the Spanish.

The society was formed like the Masonic lodges of Cádiz and London, similar to the one in Venezuela that had as members Francisco de Miranda, Simón Bolívar and Andrés Bello. Its aim was "to work with system and plan for the independence of America and its happiness." Its main members, besides San Martín and Alvear, were José Matías Zapiola, Bernardo Monteagudo and Juan Martín de Pueyrredón.

Revolution of October 8, 1812

Main article: Revolution of October 8, 1812

In early October 1812 the news reached Buenos Aires of the pro-independence victory of the Army of the North, commanded by General Manuel Belgrano, at the Battle of Tucumán. Taking advantage of the situation, on October 8, San Martín and Alvear led a civic-military uprising prepared by the Lautaro Lodge, known as the Revolution of October 8, 1812. The coup aimed to overthrow the government of the First Triumvirate, which they judged to be "not very committed to independence." Under pressure from the armed corps and the people, a Second Triumvirate was appointed, made up of Juan José Paso, Nicolás Rodríguez Peña and Antonio Álvarez Jonte. It was also demanded that a General Assembly of delegates from all the provinces be called, in order to declare independence and enact a constitution.

On December 7, 1812, the Second Triumvirate promoted San Martín to the rank of colonel and appointed him Commander of the Mounted Grenadiers on the basis of the three existing squadrons.

Marriage

On November 12, 1812, at the age of 34, José de San Martín married María de los Remedios de Escalada, aged 14, in the Church of La Merced in Buenos Aires.

Battle of San Lorenzo

Main article: Battle of San Lorenzo

The first military action of San Martín and his newly created Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers was aimed at stopping the raids with which the royalists of Montevideo were devastating the banks of the Paraná River, the main tributary of the Río de la Plata and a strategic communication route for the region.

Colonel San Martín established himself with his troops in the Convent of San Carlos, a post station of San Lorenzo, in the south of the present-day Santa Fe Province. On February 3, 1813, in the face of the landing of 300 royalists, the Battle of San Lorenzo was fought, almost in front of the convent, on the riverbank.

Since there were still suspicions about the loyalty of the newly arrived San Martín to the pro-independence cause, he decided to advance at the head of the small force of mounted grenadiers. As a result, his horse was mortally wounded and San Martín, pinned under his mount, was on the point of being finished off by a royalist. His life was saved by the soldier from Corrientes Juan Bautista Cabral, who put his body in the way of two bayonet thrusts. San Martín promoted him posthumously, which is why he is known as Sergeant Cabral. This battle, which given the number of combatants on both sides might seem secondary, made it possible to drive away for good the royalist fleets that prowled the Paraná River.

Chief of the Army of the North

Main article: Army of the North (United Provinces of the Río de la Plata)

Meeting of San Martín and Manuel Belgrano, which tradition places at the Posta de Yatasto

As a consequence of the defeats that Manuel Belgrano, General-in-chief of the Army of the North, suffered against the royalists at the battles of Vilcapugio and Ayohúma, and owing to the triumph at the Battle of San Lorenzo, the Second Triumvirate replaced Belgrano with San Martín as Commander of the Army of the North.

His meeting with the outgoing chief, whom he did not know personally, has been called the "embrace of Yatasto", since tradition has set it at the Posta de Yatasto, in Salta Province. The research of historian Julio Arturo Benencia maintains, however, that this meeting took place on January 17, 1814, on leaving the post station of Algarrobos, near the Juramento River and 14 leagues from Yatasto.

As Commander of the Auxiliary Army of Peru he had to reorganize an army shattered by the defeats of Vilcapugio and Ayohúma. To accomplish this he fell back to San Miguel de Tucumán, where he quartered the army in a fortress under construction, known as the Citadel, and devoted himself to reinforcing it and training it thoroughly.

Continental Plan

Shortly after arriving in Tucumán, San Martín came to the conclusion that it was impossible to reach Lima ―capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru and center of royalist power in South America― by way of Upper Peru, from where expeditions were sent to reconquer the territories lost to the pro-independence forces. Every time a royalist army descended from the Altiplano toward the valleys of the Province of Salta it was defeated, and every time a pro-independence army entered Upper Peru it was likewise annihilated. The idea of conceiving a strategy that would overcome the Upper Peruvian route had already been noted by some military chiefs who had taken part in the campaigns to Upper Peru, such as Eustoquio Díaz Vélez, Tomás Guido and Enrique Paillardell. San Martín, a skilled military strategist, quickly took this idea for himself and devised his continental plan.

To cross the Cordillera of the Andes San Martín followed to the letter the guidelines described in the Maitland Plan. To keep the northern frontier secure, San Martín assigned the irregular troops from Salta under the command of Colonel Martín Miguel de Güemes to defend it, and began preparing his future military strategy.

He briefly left command of the Army of the North to General Francisco Fernández de la Cruz, and withdrew to Saldán (Córdoba Province) to recover from a stomach ulcer. There he held conversations with his friend Tomás Guido, in which he convinced him of the need to liberate the region from Chile.

Governor of Cuyo

In 1814 the Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, appointed San Martín governor of the Intendancy of Cuyo, with its seat in Mendoza. By then, his plan was already finished and approved, and from that moment on San Martín began preparations for the campaign to Peru.

Positioning in Chilean politics

Shortly after he took office, Colonel Juan Gregorio de Las Heras arrived there; he had commanded Argentine forces in Chile and had withdrawn because of the disagreements among the Chilean pro-independence forces. San Martín sent him back to try to help them against the royalist offensive, but he arrived shortly after the Disaster of Rancagua, in which Chilean independence was lost. He only managed to protect the crossing of thousands of Chilean refugees toward Mendoza.

The Chileans came divided into two irreconcilable factions: the conservatives under the command of Bernardo O'Higgins, and the liberals under that of José Miguel Carrera.

San Martín decided that he had to take sides quickly, and chose O'Higgins. After an attempt to disregard the authority of the governor of Cuyo, General Carrera was arrested, stripped of his command and then expelled from Mendoza.

Creation of the Army of the Andes

Despite the opposition of the new supreme director, Carlos María de Alvear, whom San Martín had met in Cádiz and who had accompanied him until then, he devoted himself to organizing the Army of the Andes.

He gathered into a single army the Chilean refugees, the local militias of Cuyo, a large number of volunteers from his province and several officers of the Army of the North. He also requested and obtained that the battalions of the Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers, scattered among various posts, be sent to him in Cuyo.

The United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in 1816: in red, the League of the Free Peoples

As Alvear tried to subject him to his authority, he submitted his resignation from the post of governor. Alvear sent Colonel Gregorio Perdriel to replace him, but the people of Mendoza angrily rejected him. In this way San Martín was confirmed as governor by popular election.

Shortly after the appointment of General Juan Martín de Pueyrredón as the new supreme director, San Martín met with him in Córdoba, where they discussed at length his campaign plan for Chile and Peru. On May 20, 1816, Tomás Guido presented an official Memorandum, setting out the plan in detail, which was approved and ordered to be carried out by Director Pueyrredón.

At the same time San Martín pressured the Cuyo deputies to the Congress of Tucumán to declare the independence of the United Provinces of South America, an aim achieved on July 9, 1816.

To finance his campaign, besides the substantial contributions from Pueyrredón, he forced all merchants and landowners to pay "compulsory contributions." In exchange they were issued a voucher, which they would collect "when circumstances permit." On the other hand, he had very few scruples about confiscating the property of all Spaniards who did not stand out in helping the cause of independence.

He set up a large military camp at El Plumerillo, some seven kilometers northeast of the city of Mendoza. There he trained his soldiers and officers, manufactured weapons (sabers, rifles, cannons, ammunition and gunpowder) and uniforms. He had to see to fattening mules and horses, and to making horseshoes and shoeing them.

The head of his workshops, Friar Luis Beltrán, invented a system of pulleys to get the cannons across precipices and another of suspension bridges, both transportable. The army's health care was in the hands of the English surgeon James Paroissien. Colonel José Antonio Álvarez Condarco was in charge of drawing up the plans of the various crossings of the Cordillera of the Andes.

Letter from San Martín about the Malvinas Islands. It is kept in the Museum of the Malvinas and South Atlantic Islands in Buenos Aires.

Before starting the march, he gathered the Mapuche chiefs and asked them for permission to invade Chile through their lands. One of these chiefs passed this news on to the captain general of Chile, Casimiro Marcó del Pont, who therefore believed that the bulk of the attack would come from the south, which led him to divide his forces.

The Army of Chile recognized him with the rank of captain general.

Contrary to the wishes of Supreme Director Pueyrredón and his supporters, he entered into correspondence with the caudillo José Gervasio Artigas and refused to divert his war effort from the emancipating campaigns in Chile and Peru in order to confront the federalists in the littoral of the Río de la Plata. For this reason the directorial Unitarians ―in particular Bernardino Rivadavia― went so far as to accuse him of being a "traitor."

In a letter dated August 1816, San Martín referred to the Malvinas Islands. In the text, San Martín asked the governor of San Juan to release prisoners held in Carmen de Patagones and the Malvinas (Puerto Soledad) so that they could join the Army of the Andes.

Expedition to Chile

The passage of the pro-independence Army through the Cordillera of the Andes. Historical and Military Museum of Chile.

The Crossing of the Andes

Main articles: Crossing of the Andes, Army of the Andes, and San Martín routes

On January 12, 1817, the crossing of the Andes toward Chile began. The Army of the Andes was one of the two great military bodies that the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata deployed in the Hispanic American War of Independence; it initially counted three brigadiers, twenty-eight chiefs, two hundred and seven officers, 3778 soldiers —including some of the Chilean officers and soldiers who emigrated to Mendoza after the Battle of Rancagua—, Chilean writers such as Osvaldo Silva and Agustín Toro Dávila refer to a larger contribution of Chilean pro-independence fighters, although neither details the documentary source used for the assertion. Osvaldo Silva, in his book Atlas de la Historia de Chile 2005, states that there were one thousand two hundred Chileans in the Army of the Andes assembled in Mendoza. Agustín Toro Dávila, in his book Síntesis histórico-militar de Chile, mentions a similar number. The author writes:

Of the 209 officers on the roster, about 50 were Chilean, and the rest Argentine. The proportion of Chileans among the 3778 rank-and-file men is not exactly known. It is estimated that it would not be more than 30 %.

General Gerónimo Espejo ―in his book El paso de las Andes. Crónica histórica de las operaciones del ejército de los Andes, para la restauración de Chile en 1817 (from 1882)―, after detailing the composition of the army, referred to the subject:

From this account, which we extract from official documents that will be found further on, the reader will see that, when the Army of the Andes was organized, no corps or force whatsoever was created under the flag of Chile, for reasons which, although obvious, we shall not fail to point out for that reason―
1st Because the idea, the territory, the creating authority and the resources, everything, everything was Argentine, and it would have been absurd to form a corps under a foreign flag; and 2nd because the Chilean troops that emigrated with Carrera to Mendoza in October 1814 were all dispatched by the general to Buenos Aires with Colonel Alcázar, the general officially telling the Government "I do not wish to employ those soldiers who serve their caudillo better than the Fatherland." ―This notwithstanding, the general, with the approval of the Government, organized a cadre of émigré Chilean officers with their respective chiefs, so as to fill its complement with enemy soldiers who might come over during the campaign, with volunteers who might present themselves or with recruits who might be assigned to him. It should also be noted that not even this cadre followed the army on its march, but rather marched from Mendoza to Chile after the victory of Chacabuco.

1200 mounted militiamen (for transporting provisions and artillery), 120 mine bar-workers (to ease transit through the passes), 25 guides, 47 medical staff (for the field hospital), 16 pieces of artillery (10 6-inch cannons, 2 4 1/2-inch howitzers and 4 4-inch mountain pieces), 15 civilian employees, 1600 extra horses (for cavalry and artillery) and 9281 mules (7359 for riding and 1922 for cargo).

Border passes where the pro-independence Army crossed

With the aim of dividing the royalist troops, San Martín first ordered part of the troops to advance through the passes of Come Caballos, Guana, Portillo and Planchón. These were not the passes chosen for the main columns; rather, the first two lay to the north and the last two to the south of those actually selected, which were the ones already surveyed by José Antonio Álvarez Condarco, that is, the passes of Uspallata and Los Patos. It was an advance in several sectors, on a front of more than 2,000 kilometers, across a gigantic mountain range. The aim was to distract the royalist forces in Chile, who in the end did not know where they would arrive, forcing them to divide their forces and provoking movements favorable to the revolution in areas far from the capital, Santiago de Chile, among them the one led by Ramón Freire toward Chillán, which arrived a few days before the others and convinced the royalist governor that the main attack would come from the south.

From January 17, 1817, the Army of the Andes began the advance of its main columns through the passes of Los Patos and Uspallata. The two main columns were made up of 3500 soldiers, 100 guides, 1000 horses, 10 000 mules (of which 4000 arrived), 30 cannons, almost one million rifle cartridges, several tons of gunpowder, and food for all the men and animals for a month's march.

San Martín's column (January 17, 1817)

The bulk of the army, under the command of the expedition's own chief, General San Martín, took the route commonly called the Paso de los Patos. The corps was made up of the vanguard under the command of Brigadier Major Estanislao Soler, the center under the command of Brigadier Bernardo O'Higgins, the grenadier escort under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Mariano Necochea and the rearguard under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Regalado de la Plaza, who led the army's ordnance train. There were several days' difference between the vanguard and the rearguard. San Martín was among the last to set out, precisely because he oversaw the most important thing: the orderly departure of the army. O'Higgins, who went in the center, wrote almost daily to San Martín, who was coming one or two days behind, and informed him about his own march and that of Soler (O'Higgins's letters are one of the most precise documents for knowing the vicissitudes of the army's march through the mountains of San Juan). The corps began the march from El Plumerillo on January 19, 1817, went by way of Jagüel, Yalguaraz and the Los Patos River, and crossed the high Espinacito ridge by the pass of the same name, located at 5000 m a.s.l. On February 2 it began crossing the boundary range through the Paso de las Llaretas. This column met the greatest difficulties, since it was necessary to climb four mountain ranges. Soler ―who was going ahead― won the victories of Achupallas, on February 4, 1817, and Las Coimas, on February 7, 1817. The following day they entered San Felipe.

Las Heras's column (January 18, 1817)

The advance through the Uspallata Pass and the valley of the Mendoza River began on January 18, 1817, carrying the entire park and the artillery, whose transport was impossible through the more rugged Los Patos pass. In charge of the troops of 800 men was Brigadier Juan Gregorio de Las Heras, with Major Enrique Martínez as his second in command. Among the men accompanying him was Friar Luis Beltrán. After winning the fights of Picheuta, Potrerillos and Guardia Vieja, they were able to enter Santa Rosa de los Andes on February 8. On the same date, they joined up with the main division, which the previous day had emerged victorious in the action of Las Coimas.

Both columns were to join in the Aconcagua Valley, while smaller detachments scattered the enemy forces, deceiving them as to the advance of the main body.

The Independence of Chile

Main article: Independence of Chile

The forces of Las Heras, O'Higgins and Soler met on February 8 at the camp of Curimón. On news of the advance of the royalist chief, Colonel Rafael Maroto, toward the houses of Chacabuco, San Martín ordered the advance. On February 12 the Battle of Chacabuco was fought, in which the Army of the Andes won victory over the royalists, who mourned 500 dead and 600 prisoners, while the pro-independence forces had only 12 casualties.

Governor Casimiro Marcó del Pont fled south, but was captured by Captain José Félix Aldao, who would later have a long career.

On February 18 an open cabildo was convened, which proposed San Martín as supreme director of the nascent republic, but he rejected the offer to avoid suspicions about a possible encroachment by the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata on the autonomy of Chile. Two days later the Cabildo named O'Higgins supreme director, an appointment that San Martín endorsed.

Days later, San Martín ordered Las Heras to pursue the royalists as far as Concepción, but the latter could not prevent them from entrenching themselves in Talcahuano. O'Higgins tried to capture that fortress, but was completely defeated.

The Viceroy of Peru took advantage of that position and sent reinforcements for the royalists, under the command of the former governor Mariano Osorio. Meanwhile, San Martín traveled to Buenos Aires to ask Pueyrredón for more collaboration, who was also to form a squadron. On his return he ordered his men to fall back to the north and gathered some 8000 men on the outskirts of Talca. There, on March 19, 1818, the surprise of Cancha Rayada occurred, in which the United Army under the orders of San Martín was defeated while carrying out a night maneuver to avoid an imminent attack. In the darkness great confusion arose, and the Spanish lost 300 men, but remained masters of the field and captured the park, rifles and cannons, greatly raising the morale of their troops. The pro-independence forces had 120 casualties, but the division under Las Heras undertook an orderly retreat, withdrawing from the fight, which allowed it to begin reorganizing the remnants of the United Army.

The demoralization took effect in Santiago, and many pro-independence supporters wrote to Osorio asking for clemency, while others fled to the United Provinces. But San Martín did not give up, and within fifteen days he again put his army in condition to fight and awaited Osorio on the plains of the Maipo River.

On April 5 the Battle of Maipú took place, in which the pro-independence forces won a complete victory. The adversary left 2000 corpses on the battlefield, about 2500 prisoners, and all their weapons and war matériel. Brigadier O'Higgins, wounded at Cancha Rayada, did not take part in the battle, but appeared once the fighting was over, mounted on his horse, to embrace San Martín and call him "Savior of Chile."

The terse report of the victory reads:

We have just completely won the action. Our cavalry is pursuing them until they are finished. The fatherland is free, April 1818. San Martín.

Report in which San Martín announces to O'Higgins the victory at the Battle of Maipú

With the Battle of Maipú victory over the royalist troops was definitively obtained, which secured the independence of Chile. The pro-independence government of Chile wanted to reward him with a silver dinner service and 6000 pesos, but San Martín rejected both gifts, saying: "These are not times for so much luxury," accepting only a sword of honor.

However, San Martín had local opponents, such as the Carrera brothers, leaders of a faction opposed to O'Higgins, who differed from San Martín and O'Higgins. Juan José and Luis Carrera were arrested in Mendoza, and José Miguel fled to the Banda Oriental. Shortly before the result of the Battle of Maipú became known, Juan José and Luis Carrera were shot in Mendoza on the orders of Governor Toribio de Luzuriaga, at the instigation of Bernardo de Monteagudo, who shortly afterward returned to Chile.

Preparations for a new campaign

After Chilean emancipation, San Martín went to Buenos Aires to obtain a loan from the government to cover the expenses of the Expedition to Peru. Pueyrredón promised him 500 000 pesos, but later there were difficulties in keeping the promise owing to the internal struggles between Buenos Aires and the federalist caudillos. San Martín then resigned as head of the army. In view of this, the Directorate sent San Martín 200 000 pesos. The Chilean State contributed its squadron, under the command of Thomas Cochrane.

The Government of Chile determined that San Martín would be Commander-in-chief of the expedition, which would sail under the Chilean flag. Finally, San Martín was appointed General-in-chief and general of the Army of Chile, and two days later was conferred ad honorem the rank of captain general. As he was preparing to resume the campaign to Peru, he received the order from the Directorate to march to the Argentine littoral with his army to fight the federalists of Santa Fe and Entre Ríos. San Martín flatly refused, and in the face of insistence responded with silence. In February 1820 the victory of the Federalist Party brought about the fall of the Directorate of the United Provinces, so that the country was left without a central government. This situation left his authority without legal backing, so he resigned before the Argentine officers, but they, led by Colonel Enrique Martínez, rejected his resignation.

Finally, on August 20, 1820, San Martín set out with the expedition from Valparaíso for Peru. The expedition was made up of some 4500 men, belonging to the Pro-Independence Army of the Andes and the Army of Chile, of whom 1600 were sailors. They embarked on eight warships and sixteen transports. It cannot be stated with certainty how many Argentine and how many Chilean soldiers made up the expedition and which number prevailed, but most of the officers were Argentine and the naval chiefs were of various origins: some were British, like Cochrane, and others South American; among them was Manuel Blanco Encalada, a native of the Río de la Plata who became a Chilean national.

Independence and Protectorate of Peru

On September 8, 1820, the army under the command of José de San Martín landed on the beach of Paracas, near the port of Pisco, forcing the royalist army to fall back, which withdrew to the Sierra region.

Viceroy Pezuela had under his command some 20 000 soldiers, distributed throughout the Viceroyalty, most of whom were defending Lima. Trying to gain time to gather all his soldiers, he proposed a diplomatic solution to the conflict, and the delegates of both sides met at Miraflores (south of Lima), but in the end they reached no agreement acceptable to San Martín. The latter sent a division under the command of General Juan Antonio Álvarez de Arenales by the Sierra route, to pursue the royalist divisions located in that area and to encourage the insurrection of the towns along its path.

San Martín re-embarked on the squadron, and in the first days of November landed at the town of Huacho, where he fortified his position and began his strategy to lay definitive siege to Lima.

Act of Independence of Peru

On January 29, 1821, senior royalist officers rose up against Viceroy Pezuela, who resigned his office and was replaced by General José de la Serna, who would later be confirmed as Viceroy of Peru by the Crown. The new Viceroy proposed new diplomatic negotiations to San Martín, which ultimately failed because the general's definitive proposal was the independence of Peru. The siege of Lima dragged on for some months; in March Captain Manuel Abreu arrived in Peru, sent by the King of Spain as a peacemaking emissary, without any favorable result for the pro-independence side. San Martín decided to begin a new strategy and sent two armies, one under the command of General Guillermo Miller, to land on the southern coasts, and another under the command of General Arenales, toward the Sierra.

San Martín left Huacho and landed at Ancón, tightening the encirclement of Lima. Simultaneously he began new peace negotiations, which were held between May and June at the hacienda of Punchauca, near Lima; San Martín's delegates were Tomás Guido, Juan García del Río and José Ignacio de la Roza; on the part of Viceroy La Serna they were Manuel Abreu, Manuel de Llano and José María Galdeano. The negotiations failed once again.

A few days later one of the most outstanding regiments of the Viceroy's forces went over to his ranks: the royalist Numancia regiment, composed of Venezuelans and New Granadans, which had been formed in Venezuela in 1813 and sent to Peru three years later by Pablo Morillo. This mass desertion demoralized the rest of the royalist forces, which forced De La Serna to abandon the city on July 5 and withdraw into the Sierra. This opened the gates of Lima to San Martín.

Government in Peru

San Martín occupied Lima and convened an open cabildo on July 15, 1821. On the 28th, before a crowd in the Plaza de Armas of Lima, he declared the Independence of Peru and was named Protector of Peru with civil and military authority.

He formed his ministry with the ministers Hipólito Unanue, of Finance, Juan García del Río, of Foreign Affairs, and Bernardo de Monteagudo, of War and Navy. In October he issued a Provisional Statute of Government, which established the territorial division, the freedom of wombs, and the abolition of specific tributes on indigenous people. In legal matters, the Regulation established:

all laws, ordinances and regulations remain in full force and effect, as long as they are not repealed or abrogated by competent authority.

That year he founded the National Library of Peru, to which he donated his collection of books, and created the Order of the Sun, today called the Order of the Sun of Peru.

He founded the Patriotic Society, made up of 40 Peruvian citizens, whom he considered the most enlightened among those committed to the pro-independence cause. It became embroiled in discussions about the most suitable form of government, between the constitutional monarchy that San Martín supported and the ministers Unanue and Monteagudo defended, and the republic, defended by Manuel Pérez de Tudela and Mariano José de Arce. In support of his monarchical ideas, he sent García del Río and Diego Paroissien to Europe to obtain a Prince of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to reign in Peru. They were also to contract a loan to continue the military campaign.

Although he proclaimed that he had established freedom of trade and freedom of the press, in reality he completely censored all the commercial and publishing activities of those who did not support the pro-independence cause. He expelled thousands of Spaniards who did not actively join the pro-independence movement, and looted and confiscated all their property.

From Ancón, and later from Lima, San Martín sent a series of campaigns to incorporate the rest of Peru into the Protectorate, but some partial victories could not prevent the Viceroy from establishing himself firmly in the Sierra and fixing his capital in Cuzco; the Protector did not have the forces to confront him with a real chance of victory.

During his protectorate he received a letter from General Antonio José de Sucre, Bolívar's lieutenant, for the campaign in the territory of the Presidency of Quito (present-day Ecuador), in which he demanded that the Numancia Battalion be incorporated into it. Shortly after San Martín landed on Peruvian territory, it had gone over to his ranks. San Martín refused to lose the excellent unit, and instead sent an Auxiliary Division under the command of Andrés de Santa Cruz ―composed mostly of inexperienced troops― which took part in the battles of Riobamba and Pichincha.

Guayaquil Conference between José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar

Between July 26 and 27, 1822, the Guayaquil Conference took place, where he met with Bolívar. The most important subject was the independence of Peru, the main royalist stronghold in South America. After a private conversation, whose content can only be conjectured, he ceded to Bolívar the initiative and conclusion of the pro-independence campaign.

Shortly afterward he decided to withdraw from all his posts and return to his country.

I have convened the Congress to present my resignation before it and retire to private life with the satisfaction of having given to the cause of liberty all the honesty of my spirit and the conviction of my patriotism. God, men and history will judge my public acts.

— José de San Martín (letter to Bolívar. Lima, September 10, 1822).

His government lasted from August 3, 1821, to September 20, 1822.

Despite all the immense looting in which he had been a first-hand protagonist, San Martín returned to Argentina asserting that he had only "one hundred and twenty ounces of gold, the banner of Francisco Pizarro embroidered by Juana La Loca, and the little bell with which the Inquisition of Lima summoned the tribunals."

Retirement

Daguerreotype of San Martín at seventy years of age (1848).

After returning to Mendoza in January 1823, he asked for permission to return to Buenos Aires to be reunited with his wife, who was very ill. Bernardino Rivadavia, Minister of Government of Governor Martín Rodríguez, refused, arguing that it would not be safe for San Martín to return to the city. His support for the caudillos of the Interior, and his disobedience of an order he had received from the Government to suppress the Federalists, led the Unitarians to want to put him on trial.

As his wife's health worsened, he decided to travel to Buenos Aires. By the time he arrived, his wife had already died, on August 3, 1823.

On arriving in Buenos Aires he was accused of having become a conspirator. Disheartened by the internal struggles between Unitarians and Federalists, he decided to leave the country with his daughter, who had been in the care of her grandmother. On February 10, 1824, he departed for the port of Le Havre (France).

He was 45 years old and was Generalissimo of Peru, Captain General of the Republic of Chile, and general of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata. After a brief period in Scotland, they settled in Brussels and shortly afterward in Paris. His greatest concern was his daughter's education. In 1825 he wrote the Maxims for Merceditas, in which he summarized his educational ideals.

He offered his services to the Argentine authorities on the occasion of the War with Brazil, only after Rivadavia's resignation from the presidency, but the war was by then almost over.

In March 1829 he again tried to return to Buenos Aires, upon learning that civil war had broken out once more. He remained on board incognito, although he was discovered. His former subordinate, General Juan Lavalle, had overthrown and executed Governor Manuel Dorrego, but, unable to win the conflict, he offered San Martín the governorship of the Province of Buenos Aires; San Martín, however, judged that the situation to which the confrontation had led would only be resolved by the destruction of one of the two parties. He replied to Lavalle that: "General San Martín will never unsheathe his sword to fight his countrymen."

He moved to Montevideo, where he remained for three months before finally returning to Europe.

During the years of his exile, San Martín kept in contact with his friends in Buenos Aires, trying to stay informed about what was happening. In 1831 he settled in France, on a country estate near Paris. Around those years he met his former comrade-in-arms in the Spanish army, Alejandro Aguado, Marquis of las Marismas del Guadalquivir, who, having become a successful banker, appointed him tutor to his children, with good pay. Three years later, thanks to the money saved from this work and to the sale of the estates with which the Government of Mendoza and that of Peru had rewarded him, he moved to a house he bought in the Villa of Grand Bourg, today part of the city of Évry, in the department of Essonne, a short distance from Paris.

He received visits from American figures, generally young Romantics and liberals exiled from their country, such as Juan Bautista Alberdi (in 1843) and Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (between 1845 and 1848), who traveled to Europe on commission from the Government of Chile and met San Martín on several occasions. Until his final years he kept up a correspondence with his great friend Tomás Guido, who kept him informed of the situation in America.

Will and death

Will of San Martín

José de San Martín dated his holographic will in Paris on January 23, 1844; in it he left his daughter as his sole heir.

Among its clauses, it established:

• That Mercedes grant her aunt María Elena a pension until her death.
• That upon María Elena's death she grant a pension to María Elena's daughter, Petronila.
• That his favorite curved saber, the one from the battles of Chacabuco and Maipú, be given to the Buenos Aires governor Juan Manuel de Rosas, "as a proof of the satisfaction that, as an Argentine, I have felt at seeing the firmness with which he has upheld the honor of the Republic against the unjust pretensions of the foreigners who sought to humiliate it."
• He forbade the holding of funerals and of processions to the cemetery, "but I would indeed wish that my heart be buried in Buenos Aires."
• He declared as his first title that of Generalissimo of the Army of Peru.

In March 1848, when the revolution in Paris broke out, he moved to a rented room in the coastal city of Boulogne-sur-Mer. He died there at the age of 72, at three in the afternoon on August 17, 1850, in the company of his daughter, his son-in-law, and his grandchildren.

His remains

Mausoleum of San Martín in the Buenos Aires Cathedral

His body was placed in a chapel in the crypt of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception of Boulogne-sur-Mer and moved in 1861 to the vault of the González Balcarce family, located in the cemetery of Brunoy.

There were then several attempts to repatriate the remains, which were opposed by his daughter, who, as the wife of the ambassador in France, preferred that they remain near her residence. Upon the death of Mercedes San Martín in February 1875, the efforts were set in motion, and during the presidency of Nicolás Avellaneda the "Commission in charge of the repatriation of the remains of the Liberator" was created. The repatriation of the remains of José de San Martín took place on May 28, 1880, when they were conveyed to Buenos Aires aboard the transport steamship Villarino on its maiden voyage. It arrived amid a massive celebration, but on the eve of the outbreak of the Revolution of 1880.

An urban legend holds that the Catholic Church opposed the placing of his remains in the Buenos Aires Cathedral given his status as a Mason, which in itself entailed excommunication. According to this legend, only after long negotiations was an agreement reached, under which the coffin would rest in one of the side aisles of the cathedral, tilted with its head downward. This legend has been refuted by researchers such as Enrique Mario Mayochi, of the Instituto Nacional Sanmartiniano, who commented:

"It was the Municipality of Buenos Aires that arranged the cession of part of the cathedral precinct and (…) the due authorization was given by the ecclesiastical authority, understanding, as was said before, that it would be a glory to have and guard the remains of the Liberator. Whatever else may be said amounts to nothing more than unfounded speculation or malicious trickery."

Controversies

There are various controversies and enigmas surrounding the figure of José de San Martín that have never been unraveled, such as: what was that "call of the Homeland" that he said he felt in Spain and that drove him to go to Argentina, when it did not even exist as a "Homeland"? Or why, before embarking for America, did he spend four months in London? Or how is it to be explained that the commanders of the squadron that he took to Peru were all British? All these points have led numerous historians to ask whether San Martín was in reality a "patriot" or an English agent.

Freemasonry

There are two theories regarding San Martín's alleged Masonic affiliation, which generated controversy for several years. While various historians state that at no time did he join a regularly constituted Masonic lodge, there are others who assert the contrary. Among the former, it is argued that all the lodges with which he maintained contact throughout his life, chiefly the Lautaro, were not strictly Masonic, but would merely have been revolutionary groups that took as the basis of their organization Masonic elements and symbols that would be functional to their character as a secret society. The documents, nevertheless, show that it would have been an operative lodge, not in the literally constructive sense, as is the case of the medieval confraternities, but rather one that held revolutionary objectives.

For his part, the historian Emilio J. Corbière points out that San Martín took his first steps in Freemasonry by being initiated in the Integridad Lodge of Cádiz, and later became part of the Lodge of Rational Knights No. 3, where on May 6, 1808 he was granted the 3rd degree of symbolic Masonry, thereby attaining the title of "master mason." After resigning from his military career in Spain, he traveled to England, where he met Carlos María de Alvear, a recognized member of the Lautaro Lodge who worked with the Flor de los Americanos Lodge. At one of the tenidas (or meetings) it was decided to lower the columns and return to American soil to carry out the campaign that would have been conceived there. Meanwhile, Simón Bolívar was being initiated by Francisco de Miranda. Shortly afterward, San Martín, Alvear, and José Matías Zapiola obtained the 5th degree of the lodge.

Shortly after his arrival, in 1812, together with his Masonic brothers Alvear and Zapiola, he founded a Masonic Triangle that would form the basis of the future Lautaro Lodge. At that time the Order was already established, with the Independencia Lodge operating since 1795, since its arrival in the Río de la Plata dated from the end of the 18th century, with a significant influence from Spanish Masonry and not from English Masonry, as was once believed. Under the same name, Independencia, a new lodge was founded in 1810, also known as the Lodge of Saint John, under the orders of Doctor Julián Álvarez, who collaborated enormously in the beginnings of the Lautaro.

Following the ancient tradition of adopting symbolic or initiatory names, San Martín was known among the Lautarians as Brother Inaco.

In a letter addressed to General William Miller, answering questions concerning the Lodge of Buenos Aires, San Martín writes:

I do not think it advisable that you say the slightest thing about the lodge of Buenos Aires. These are entirely private matters, and although they have had and still have a great influence on the events of the revolution in that part of America, they could not be disclosed without my failing in the most sacred commitments. Speaking of lodges, I know beyond doubt that these societies have multiplied in Peru in an extraordinary way. This is a war of sapping that can hardly be contained, and that will alter the best-laid plans.

The Lodge of Buenos Aires, according to the words of the Masonic researcher and writer Albert Gallatin Mackey, would be intended for the Higher Degrees and would determine the political decisions that were to be implemented.

General Tomás de Iriarte stated in his memoirs that both the Lautaro Lodge and the Lodge of Julián Álvarez were Masonic. However, Bartolomé Mitre, a 33rd-degree Mason, wrote in his "Historia de San Martín y la Emancipación Sudamericana" that the Lautaro Lodge was a secret society of a purely political character, which did not belong to Freemasonry.

In 1825, in Brussels, San Martín received a Masonic medal bearing his effigy from the Belgian lodge La Parfaite Amitié (Perfect Friendship), in recognition of his work in the American revolution. This medal is often used to demonstrate San Martín's membership in Freemasonry, something that is not documentarily proven. In any case, everything seems to indicate that, although it is very likely that San Martín was initiated in Europe, his relationship with Freemasonry faded over the years.

Disputed parentage

In 2000, the writer José Ignacio García Hamilton, in his book Don José: la vida de San Martín, set out a controversial version regarding a mestizo origin of José de San Martín.

The mestizo version was based on another one by the Argentine historian Hugo Chumbita, according to which the general would be the son of the Spaniard Diego de Alvear (father of Carlos María de Alvear) and of a young Guaraní woman named Rosa Guarú. According to Chumbita, Alvear would have handed José over to the married couple formed by Juan de San Martín and Gregoria Matorras, who baptized him giving him their surname. For these claims Chumbita relied on a book of memoirs by María Joaquina de Alvear y Sáenz de Quintanilla, daughter of Carlos de Alvear, who in her writings refers to the fact as a family tradition, stating, literally: "I am the blood niece, he being the natural son of my grandfather Señor Don Diego de Alvear Ponce de León, had by an indigenous woman of Corrientes, of General José de San Martín ...".

Juan Bautista Alberdi, who dealt personally with San Martín in 1843, maintained that the frequent description of him as an "Indian" did not match his physical appearance.

The subject has been declared of interest by the Honorable Chamber of Deputies of the Nation, by resolution of October 4, 2006.

His place in the construction of Argentine national identity

The figure of San Martín occupies a central place in the version of history that has circulated in Argentine schools, through which the identity of many of the citizens of this Hispanic American state has been shaped. San Martín has been considered the "Father of the Homeland," fundamentally on the basis of the work of Bartolomé Mitre, Historia de San Martín y de la emancipación americana, and that of Ricardo Rojas, El santo de la espada.

Historians such as Rodolfo Terragno or Luis Alberto Romero maintain that he held at most an Americanist ideal and not an Argentine identity, since he could not be part of something that did not yet exist.

Monument to San Martín in front of the Argentine embassy in Bolivia (La Paz).

In popular culture

Books

Although the bibliography devoted to José de San Martín is very extensive, the following may be mentioned:

• Barcia Trelles, Augusto: Historia de San Martín, 1943.
• Chumbita, Hugo: Hijos del país: San Martín, Yrigoyen y Perón.
• Favaloro, René: ¿Usted conoce a San Martín?, 1986 ISBN 950-549-100-X.
• García Hamilton, José Ignacio: Don José. La vida de San Martín.
• Kohan, Martín: Narrar a San Martín. Buenos Aires: Adriana Hidalgo editora.
• Lynch, John: San Martín. Argentine soldier, American hero: Yale University Press: ISBN 978-0-300-12643-3.
• McDonell, Carlos S.: El misterio de San Martín.
• Mitre, Bartolomé: Historia de San Martín y de la emancipación sudamericana.
• Ornstein, Leopoldo: La guerra terrestre y la acción continental de la revolución argentina (San Martín y la independencia de Chile).
• Ruiz Moreno, Isidoro J.: Campañas militares argentinas (volume 1). Buenos Aires: Emecé, 2004.
• Terragno, Rodolfo: Maitland & San Martín: National University of Quilmes.

Films

Among the Argentine films that have portrayed the figure of José de San Martín in whole or in part, the following are cited:

• La creación del Himno, by Mario Gallo (1910).
• La batalla de San Lorenzo, by Mario Gallo (lost film)
• La batalla de Maipú, by Mario Gallo (lost film).
• Episodios de San Martín, by Mario Gallo (lost film).
• Nuestra tierra de paz, by Arturo Mom (1939).
• El santo de la espada, by Leopoldo Torre Nilsson (1970).
• Güemes, la tierra en armas, by Leopoldo Torre Nilsson (1971).
• Juan Manuel de Rosas, by Manuel Antín (1972).
• El general y la fiebre, by Jorge Coscia (1993).
• El exilio de San Martín, by Alejandro Areal Vélez (documentary, 2005).
• Belgrano, by Sebastián Pivotto (2010).
• Revolución: El cruce de los Andes, by Leandro Ipiña (2011).

Among Chilean films, there are the television films of the series Héroes, all with Daniel Muñoz playing the role of San Martín:

• O'Higgins, vivir para merecer su nombre, by Ricardo Larraín (2007).
• Carrera, el Príncipe de los caminos, by Cristián Galaz (2007)
• Rodríguez, hijo de la rebeldía, by Cristián Galaz (2007)

In Peru no films featuring the figure of San Martín have been made, although recently his character has been included as one of the protagonists of the historical television series El Último Bastión, which began in 2018 and is currently in its second season.

Games

The image of San Martín is part of the educational game Nabuko Generales y Conquistadores, a board game in which he appears among other figures of world history, such as Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Washington, among many others. In 2008 he was included in Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Colonization, a turn-based strategy video game based on the colonization of the American continent. In the game Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs, he appears as a revolutionary of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata.

Numismatics

Banknote of 100 pesos moneda nacional.

The figure of San Martín was printed on various banknotes in national circulation in Argentina. The first tribute was paid to him on the pesos moneda nacional, in their 1942–1969 issue. There he appears on the 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1,000 and 5,000 peso notes, with the appearance of the usual iconography, and on the 10,000 notes and some 500 notes with his appearance in old age. The reverse of the notes depicted events or sites of Argentine history, not all related to San Martín. On the pesos Ley 18.188, San Martín appears only in his old age, on the notes of 50, 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, 50,000, 100,000, 500,000 and 1,000,000 pesos. He is, together with Manuel Belgrano, the only Argentine national hero used in the iconography of that currency. The australes drew on a set of national heroes among whom San Martín was not included, but later the 1,000, 10,000, 50,000 and 500,000 pesos ley notes were overstamped to circulate as australes, although the first of them was assigned the value of one austral. The convertible peso, still in force, includes San Martín on the 5 peso notes.

He has also received frequent tributes on coins. In 1950, to commemorate the centenary of his death, 5, 10 and 20 centavo coins (peso moneda nacional) were issued that bore the legend "Año del Libertador General San Martín" ("Year of the Liberator General San Martín") and the image of him in old age. From 1951 to 1956 these coins continued to be minted, though with the legend replaced by the regular year of minting, and in 1952 the coin corresponding to the value of 50 centavos was added as well.

In 1978, on the bicentennial of his birth, coins with his image were issued in denominations of 50 and 100 pesos (pesos Ley 18.188), which continued to be minted until 1981. In the year 2000, 150 years after his death, a commemorative legal-tender 50 centavo coin was minted, along with a 5 peso gold coin intended for collectors with the same motif.

See also

• Revolution of October 8, 1812

Bibliography

General

• De la Fuente, Romualdo (1868). Biografía del ilustre general americano don José de San Martín resumida de documentos auténticos por Romualdo de la Fuente (in español). Paris, France: Rosa y Bouret.
• Espíndola, Adolfo (1962). San Martín en el Ejército Español en la Península (in español). Buenos Aires: Comisión Nacional Ejecutiva del 150 Aniversario de la Revolución de Mayo.
• Favaloro, René (2011). ¿Conoce usted a San Martín? (in español). Buenos Aires: Debolsillo. ISBN 9789875665071.
• Gárate Córdoba, José María (1994). Las mocedades militares de José de San Martín, en «Vida española del general San Martín» (in español). Madrid: Instituto Español Sanmartiniano.
• Mitre, Bartolomé (1990). Historia de San Martín y de la emancipación sudamericana (in español). Corrientes: El Tacurú de Corrientes. ISBN 978-950-99585-0-0.
• Navarro García, Luis (1999). José de San Martín y su tiempo (in español). Seville: Universidad de Sevilla. ISBN 84-472-0541-X.
• Olmos Zárate, Julio (2005). Las seis rutas sanmartinianas (in español). Buenos Aires: Instituto Nacional Sanmartiniano.
• Piccinalli, Héctor Juan (1977). Vida de San Martín en España (in español). Buenos Aires: Editorial Argentina.
• Villegas, Alfredo (1982). San Martín cadete. La primera injusticia y el primer galardón de su Carrera militar (in español). Buenos Aires: Academia Nacional de la Historia.
• Villegas, Alfredo (1976). San Martín en España (in español). Buenos Aires: Academia Nacional de la Historia.
• Zapatero, Juan Manuel (1961). San Martín, 22 años en el Ejército Español (in español). Buenos Aires: Academia Nacional de la Historia.

Section His remains

Monument to San Martín in the City of Buenos Aires.

• Archbishop of Buenos Aires. "Plano interno de la catedral" (in español). Buenos Aires. Archived from the original on January 17, 2007. Retrieved January 9, 2007.
• Corbière, Emilio J.: La masonería (1: Política y sociedades secretas). Buenos Aires: De Bolsillo, 2004. ISBN 987-566-010-8.
• Cuccorese, Horacio Juan. "San Martín y las sociedades secretas" (in español). Buenos Aires. Archived from the original on September 2, 2011. Retrieved January 21, 2011.
• Lappas, Alcibíades: La masonería argentina a través de sus hombres. Buenos Aires: Editorial Masónica, 2000.
• Roesler, Bárbara (2006). "La sorprendente historia del Mausoleo de San Martín en la Catedral" (in español). Buenos Aires. Archived from the original on October 6, 2007.

Section Disputed parentage

• Chumbita, Hugo (2004): Hijos del país: San Martín, Yrigoyen y Perón. Buenos Aires: Emecé. ISBN 978-950-07-1801-1.
• García Hamilton, José Ignacio (2000): Don José, la vida de San Martín. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, tenth edition, 2000. ISBN 978-950-07-1801-1.
• Paredes M., Jorge G. San Martín. En torno a sus orígenes, in Razón y palabra.

Section Numismatics

• Cunietti Ferrando, Arnaldo. J. (1987). Banco Roberets (ed.). Historia de la moneda metálica argentina (in español). Buenos Aires.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Gancedo, Rubén Horacio (2005). Catálogo de monedas de la República Argentina de 1881 a 2004 (in español). Buenos Aires: El Fortín. ISBN 987-95486-0-4.
• Janson, Héctor Carlos (2004). Héctor Carlos Janson (ed.). Amonedación de la República Argentina 1881-2004 (in español). Buenos Aires.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links

• Documentary guide to the bicentennial of the Battle of Bailén, published on the website Bicentenario Bailén.com.
• Instituto Nacional Sanmartiniano (official website of the Instituto Nacional Sanmartiniano).
• "San Martín no fue masón", research with good bibliographic sources on this point, published on the website Rodolfo Walsh.org.
• Chronology of José de San Martín, article on the website El Historiador (Buenos Aires).