José de San Martin

February 25, 1778 marks the birthday of José de San Martín, Argentine national hero, leader of the South American War of Independence. Saint Martin was born in the family of an officer in the province of Colonets in eastern Argentina. At the age of eight he went with his father to Spain and took part in the Spanish people's war of liberation against Napoleon in 1808.

In 1912, he returned to Argentina and took part in the struggle against colonial rule and national independence in Argentina.

In 1814, in the Mendoza region in the Andes, a 5,500-member Andean legion was formed, and the Spanish invaders were eventually driven out of Argentina with the help of the struggle of the people in other parts of Argentina.

On July 9, 1816, Argentina declared its independence and he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Argentine Liberation Army. But San Martin knew that Argentina's independence would only be guaranteed when South America was liberated, and that to liberate South America, it was necessary first to destroy the Peruvian Viceroy, the center of the Spanish American colony, so he began to prepare an expedition.

In the middle of 1817, the expedition began, and he led his army to climb the Andes mountains, struggling with wind and snow for two weeks, finally completing "one of the most terrible and glorious long march in military history."

In 1818, he expelled the Spanish troops from Chilean soil.

In 1819 Chile declared independence.

In 1820 he entered Peru, took Lima on July 12 and declared independence from Peru. At the Wanda Conference, he was promoted as the new head of state of Peru, crowned with the title of "Honorary of the Nation", and in 1822 he retired with another leader of the South American independence movement to South America for disagreements on the political system established after the independence of the countries.

On September 22, 1822, he resigned from his position as "patron of the nation" at the First National Assembly of Peru, took Chile, returned to Argentina, and soon again went to Europe, and lived in France until his death.