Question

PLEASE HELP THIS TEST IS TIMED!!! WILL MARK BRAINLIEST 14 points



This Argentinian served for 20 years in the Spanish army before returning to his homeland to lead the struggle for independence from Spain?

Answer 1

José Francisco de San Martín (1778-1850) was an Argentine General, governor, and patriot who led his nation during the wars of Independence from Spain. He was a lifelong soldier who fought for the Spanish in Europe before returning to Argentina to lead the struggle for Independence. Today, he is revered in Argentina, where he is considered among the founding fathers of the nation. He also led the liberation of Chile and Peru.

Answer 2

Juan de San Martín, a Spanish professional soldier, was administrator of Yapeyú, formerly a Jesuit mission station in Guaraní Indian territory, on the northern frontier of Argentina. His mother, Gregoria Matorras, was also Spanish. The family returned to Spain when José was six. From 1785 to 1789 he was educated at the Seminary of Nobles in Madrid, leaving there to begin his military career as a cadet in the Murcia infantry regiment. For the next 20 years he was a loyal officer of the Spanish monarch, fighting against the Moors in Oran (1791); against the British (1798), who held him captive for more than a year; and against the Portuguese in the War of the Oranges (1801). He was made captain in 1804.

José de San Martín

ARGENTINE REVOLUTIONARY

WRITTEN BY: John Callan James MetfordDavid Bushnell

LAST UPDATED: Feb 21, 2020 See Article History

ARTICLE CONTENTS

José de San Martín, (born February 25, 1778, Yapeyú, viceroyalty of Río de la Plata [now in Argentina]—died August 17, 1850, Boulogne-sur-Mer, France), Argentine soldier, statesman, and national hero who helped lead the revolutions against Spanish rule in Argentina (1812), Chile (1818), and Peru (1821).

José de San Martín

QUICK FACTS

José de San Martín, detail of a portrait by F. Bouchot; in the West Point Museum, New York.

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BORN

February 25, 1778

Yapeyu, Argentina

DIED

August 17, 1850 (aged 72)

Boulogne, France

ROLE IN

Napoleonic Wars

Wars Of Independence

Early Life And Career

San Martín’s father, Juan de San Martín, a Spanish professional soldier, was administrator of Yapeyú, formerly a Jesuit mission station in Guaraní Indian territory, on the northern frontier of Argentina. His mother, Gregoria Matorras, was also Spanish. The family returned to Spain when José was six. From 1785 to 1789 he was educated at the Seminary of Nobles in Madrid, leaving there to begin his military career as a cadet in the Murcia infantry regiment. For the next 20 years he was a loyal officer of the Spanish monarch, fighting against the Moors in Oran (1791); against the British (1798), who held him captive for more than a year; and against the Portuguese in the War of the Oranges (1801). He was made captain in 1804.

The turning point in San Martín’s career came in 1808, following Napoleon’s occupation of Spain and the subsequent patriotic uprising against the French there. For two years he served the Sevilla (Seville) junta that was conducting the war on behalf of the imprisoned Spanish king Ferdinand VII. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel for his conduct in the Battle of Bailén (1808) and was elevated to command of the Sagunto Dragoons after the Battle of Albuera (1811). Instead of taking up his new post, he sought permission to go to Lima, the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru, but traveled by way of London to Buenos Aires, which had become the principal centre of resistance in South America to the Sevilla junta and its successor, the Cádiz-based Council of Regency. There, in the year 1812, San Martín was given the task of organizing a corps of grenadiers against the Spanish royalists centred in Peru who threatened the revolutionary government in Argentina.