José de San Martín

Biography

José de San Martín was born in Yapeyú in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, probably in 1778, the son of a Spanish officer who governed the local mission district. The family moved to Spain when he was a small boy, and in 1789 he entered the Murcia infantry regiment as a cadet. He fought for Spain in North Africa, against Britain and Portugal, and in the Peninsular War, where he was decorated and promoted after the Battle of Bailén in 1808.

He left the Spanish army in 1811 and, after meeting South American independence supporters in London, reached Buenos Aires in March 1812. There he formed the Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers, won the Battle of San Lorenzo in 1813 and briefly took over the Army of the North. Convinced that Peru should be attacked by way of Chile, he became governor of Cuyo in 1814 and built the Army of the Andes at Mendoza.

In 1817 he led the army over the Andes and defeated the royalists at Chacabuco and, in 1818, at Maipú, securing Chile's independence. He then carried the war by sea to Peru, took partial control of Lima, proclaimed Peruvian independence on 28 July 1821 and governed as Protector of Peru.

After a private meeting with Simón Bolívar at Guayaquil in July 1822 he resigned his command and office and left Peru, settling in France in 1824. He died at Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1850 and is honoured as a national hero in Argentina, Chile and Peru.