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Argentinian Independence | 3 Minute History

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Colombia History in 5 Minutes - Animation

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Colombia effectively achieved its independence from Spain by 1819, and the country was recognized by the United States in 1822, when President Monroe received a Colombian diplomatic representative in Washington. The United States established a diplomatic mission in Colombia in 1823.

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Proclamation of the German Empire, 1871 18 January 1871. At the end of the War of 1870, France lay defeated and invaded by its enemies. Chancellor Bismarck proclaimed the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors. Following the humiliations meted out by Louis XIV and Napoleon I, Germany finally had its revenge.

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The Revolution of October 8, 1812 (Spanish: Revolución del 8 de octubre de 1812) took place during the Argentine War of Independence. Led by José de San Martín and Carlos María de Alvear, it deposed the First Triumvirate and allowed the creation of the Second Triumvirate, which called the Assembly of Year XIII.

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The unification of Germany was guided by one man: Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck was born on April 1, 1815 in Schönhausen in the Kingdom of Prussia. He was from an aristocratic family and attended several prominent German-speaking universities before beginning a career as a diplomat and politician. After years of service, Bismarck rose to the office of minister president of Prussia. This was the highest-ranking governmental office and was second only to the king. (The minister president is akin to a prime minister.)

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José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras 25 February 1778 – 17 August 1850, nicknamed "the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru", was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and central parts of South America's successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire who served as the Protector of Peru. Born in Yapeyú, Corrientes, in modern-day Argentina, he left the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata at the early age of seven to study in Málaga, Spain.

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Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan soldier and statesman who played a central role in the South American independence movement. Bolívar served as president of Gran Colombia (1819–30) and as dictator of Peru (1823–26). The country of Bolivia is named for him.

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Simón Bolívar, byname The Liberator or Spanish El Libertador, (born July 24, 1783, Caracas, Venezuela, New Granada [now in Venezuela]-died December 17, 1830, near Santa Marta, Colombia), Venezuelan soldier and statesman who led the revolutions against Spanish rule in the Viceroyalty of New Granada. He was president of Gran Colombia (1819-30) and dictator of Peru (1823-26).

Early life

The son of a Venezuelan aristocrat of Spanish descent, Bolívar was born to wealth and position. His father died when the boy was three years old, and his mother died six years later, after which his uncle administered his inheritance and provided him with tutors. One of those tutors, Simón Rodríguez, was to have a deep and lasting effect on him. Rodríguez, a disciple of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, introduced Bolívar to the world of 18th-century liberal thought.

At the age of 16, Bolívar was sent to Europe to complete his education. For three years he lived in Spain, and in 1801 he married the daughter of a Spanish nobleman, with whom he returned to Caracas. The young bride died of yellow fever less than a year after their marriage. Bolívar believed that her tragic death was the reason that he took up a political career while still a young man.

In 1804, when Napoleon I was approaching the pinnacle of his career, Bolívar returned to Europe. In Paris, under the renewed guidance of his friend and tutor Rodríguez, he steeped himself in the writings of European rationalist thinkers such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Georges-Louis Leclerc, count de Buffon, Jean le Rond d'Alembert, and Claude-Adrien Helvétius, as well as Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. The latter two had the deepest influence on his political life, but Voltaire coloured his philosophy of life. In Paris he met the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt, who had just returned from his voyage through Hispanic America and told Bolívar that he believed the Spanish colonies were ripe for independence. That idea took root in Bolívar's imagination, and, on a trip to Rome with Rodríguez, as they stood on the heights of Monte Sacro, he made a vow to liberate his country.

One other experience enriched his intellect at that time: he watched the extraordinary performance that culminated in Napoleon's coronation in 1804 as emperor of the French. Bolívar's reaction to the coronation wavered between admiration of the accomplishments of a single man and revulsion at Napoleon's betrayal of the ideals of the French Revolution. The desire for glory was one of the permanent traits in Bolívar's character, and there can be little doubt that it was stimulated by Napoleon. The example of Napoleon was, nevertheless, a warning that Bolívar heeded. In his later days he always insisted that the title of "liberator" was higher than any other and that he would not exchange it for that of king or emperor. In 1807 he returned to Venezuela by way of the United States, visiting the eastern cities.

Independence movement

The Latin American independence movement was launched a year after Bolívar's return, as Napoleon's invasion of Spain unsettled Spanish authority. Napoleon also failed completely in his attempt to gain the support of the Spanish colonies, which claimed the right to nominate their own officials. Following the example of the mother country, they wished to establish juntas to rule in the name of the deposed Spanish king. Many of the Spanish settlers, however, saw in those events an opportunity to sever their ties with Spain. Bolívar himself participated in various conspiratorial meetings, and on April 19, 1810, the Spanish governor was officially deprived of his powers and expelled from Venezuela. A junta took over. To obtain help, Bolívar was sent on a mission to London, where he arrived in July. His assignment was to explain to England the plight of the revolutionary colony, to gain recognition for it, and to obtain arms and support. Although he failed in his official negotiations, his English sojourn was in other respects a fruitful one. It gave him an opportunity to study the institutions of the United Kingdom, which remained for him models of political wisdom and stability. More important, he fostered the cause of the revolution by persuading the exiled Venezuelan Francisco de Miranda, who in 1806 had attempted to liberate his country single-handedly, to return to Caracas and assume command of the independence movement.

Venezuela was in ferment. In March 1811 a national congress met in Caracas to draft a constitution. Bolívar, though not a delegate, threw himself into the debate that aroused the country. In the first public speech of his career, he declared, "Let us lay the cornerstone of American freedom without fear. To hesitate is to perish." After long deliberation, the national assembly declared Venezuela's independence on July 5, 1811. Bolívar now entered the army of the young republic, whose commander in chief was Miranda, and was placed in charge of Puerto Cabello, a port on the Caribbean Sea west of Caracas that was vital to Venezuela. In the short time since their London meeting, he and Miranda had drifted apart. Miranda called Bolívar a "dangerous youth," and Bolívar had misgivings about the aging general's abilities. Treasonable action by one of Bolívar's officers opened the fortress to the Spanish forces, and Miranda, the commander in chief, entered into negotiations with the Spanish commander in chief. An armistice was signed (July 1812) that left the entire country at the mercy of Spain. Miranda was turned over to the Spaniards-after Bolívar and others prevented his escape from Venezuela-and spent the rest of his life in Spanish dungeons.

Determined to continue the struggle, Bolívar obtained a passport to leave the country and went to Cartagena in New Granada. There he published the first of his great political statements, El manifiesto de Cartagena ("The Cartagena Manifesto"), in which he attributed the fall of Venezuela's First Republic to the lack of strong government and called for a united revolutionary effort to destroy the power of Spain in the Americas.

With backing from the patriots of New Granada, Bolívar led an expeditionary force to retake Venezuela. In a sweeping hard-fought campaign, he vanquished the royalists in six pitched battles and on August 6, 1813, entered Caracas. He was given the title of Liberator and assumed political dictatorship. The war of independence was just beginning, however. The majority of the people of Venezuela were hostile to the forces of independence and weary of the sacrifices imposed. A cruel civil war broke out, and Bolívar himself resorted to extreme measures, such as the shooting of prisoners. His severity failed in its object. In 1814 Bolívar was once more defeated by the Spanish, who had converted the llaneros (cowboys) led by José Tomás Boves into an undisciplined but savagely effective cavalry that Bolívar was unable to repulse. Boves subjected Creole patriots to terrible atrocities, and his capture of Caracas and other principal cities ended the second Venezuelan republic. Narrowly escaping Miranda's fate, Bolívar fled to New Granada, where he was commissioned in Cartagena to oust a separatist faction from Bogotá (now in Colombia) and succeeded in doing so. He then laid siege to Cartagena but failed to unite the revolutionary forces and fled to Jamaica.

In exile, Bolívar turned his energies toward gaining support from Great Britain, and, in an effort to convince the British people of their stake in the freedom of the Spanish colonies, he wrote the greatest document of his career: La carta de Jamaica (" The Letter from Jamaica"), in which he outlined a grandiose panorama from Chile and Argentina to Mexico. "The bonds," wrote Bolívar, "that united us to Spain have been severed." He was not dismayed that the Spaniards had in certain instances won the upper hand. "A people that love freedom will in the end be free. We are," he said proudly, "a microcosm of the human race. We are a world apart, confined within two oceans, young in arts and sciences, but old as a human society. We are neither Indians nor Europeans, yet we are a part of each." He proposed constitutional republics throughout Hispanic America, and for the former Viceroyalty of New Granada he envisioned a government modeled on that of Great Britain, with a hereditary upper house, an elected lower house, and a president chosen for life. The last provision, to which Bolívar clung throughout his career, constituted the most dubious feature of his political thinking.

In "The Letter from Jamaica," Bolívar showed himself as a great internationalist. He looked forward to the day when the representatives of all Hispanic American nations would gather in a central location such as Panama.

By 1815, Spain had sent to its seditious colonies the strongest expeditionary force that had ever crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Its commander was Pablo Morillo. Since neither Great Britain nor the United States would promise aid, Bolívar turned to Haiti, which had recently freed itself from French rule. There he was given a friendly reception as well as money and weapons.

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Simon Bolivar | Accomplishments, Death, Route, Revolution, Biography, & Facts

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Simon Bolivar, Venezuelan soldier and statesman who led revolutions against Spanish rule in the Viceroyalty of New Granada (modern Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, and Venezuela). He was president of Gran Colombia (1819-30) and dictator of Peru (1823-26). He is widely regarded as Latin America's greatest genius.

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( José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras (25 February 1778 - 17 August 1850), known simply as José de San Martín ( Spanish pronunciation: [xoˈse ðe san maɾˈtin] listen )) or the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru,[1] was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and central parts of South America's successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire who served as the Protector of Peru. Born in Yapeyú, Corrientes, in modern-day Argentina, he left the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata at the early age of seven to study in Málaga, Spain.

In 1808, after taking part in the Peninsular War against France, San Martín contacted in London South American supporters of independence from Spain. In 1812, he set sail for Buenos Aires and offered his services to the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, present-day Argentina. After the Battle of San Lorenzo and time commanding the Army of the North during 1814, he organized a plan to defeat the Spanish forces that menaced the United Provinces from the north, using an alternative path to the Viceroyalty of Peru. This objective first involved the establishment of a new army, the Army of the Andes, in Cuyo Province, Argentina. From there, he led the Crossing of the Andes to Chile, and triumphed at the Battle of Chacabuco and the Battle of Maipú (1818), thus liberating Chile from royalist rule. Then he sailed to attack the Spanish stronghold of Lima, Peru.

On 12 July 1821, after seizing partial control of Lima, San Martín was appointed Protector of Peru, and Peruvian independence was officially declared on 28 July. On 26 July 1822, after a closed-door meeting with fellow libertador Simón Bolívar at Guayaquil, Ecuador, Bolívar took over the task of fully liberating Peru. San Martín unexpectedly left the country and resigned the command of his army, excluding himself from politics and the military, and moved to France in 1824. The details of that meeting would be a subject of debate by later historians.

San Martín is regarded as a national hero of Argentina, Chile and Peru, a great military commander, and one of the Liberators of Spanish South America. The Order of the Liberator General San Martín (Orden del Libertador General San Martín), created in his honor, is the highest decoration conferred by the Argentine government.

José de San Martín's father, Juan de San Martín, son of Andrés de San Martín and Isidora Gómez, was born in the town of Cervatos de la Cueza, in the current Province of Palencia (former Kingdom of León, in Spain) and was lieutenant governor of the department. He served as a military man to the Spanish Crown and in 1774 he was appointed Governor of the Yapeyú Department, part of the Government of the Guaraní Missions, created to administer the thirty Guaraní Jesuit missions, after the order was expelled from America by Carlos III in 1767. based in Yapeyú reduction, and Gregoria Matorras del Ser. He was born in Yapeyú, Corrientes, an Indian reduction of Guaraní people. The exact year of his birth is disputed, as there are no records of his baptism. Later documents formulated during his life, such as passports, military career records and wedding documentation, gave him varying ages. Most of these documents point to his year of birth as either 1777 or 1778. The family moved to Buenos Aires in 1781, when San Martín was three or four years old.

Juan requested to be transferred to Spain, leaving the Americas in 1783. The family settled in Madrid, but as Juan was unable to earn a promotion, they moved to Málaga. Once in the city, San Martín enrolled in Málaga's school of temporalities, beginning his studies in 1785. It is unlikely that he finished the six-year-long elementary education, before he enrolled in the Regiment of Murcia in 1789, when he reached the required age of 11. He began his military career as a cadet in the Murcian Infantry Unit.

San Martín took part in several Spanish campaigns in North Africa, fighting in Melilla and in Oran against the Moors in 1791, among others. His rank was raised to Sub-Lieutenant in 1793, at the age of 15. He began a naval career during the War of the Second Coalition, when Spain was allied with France against Great Britain, during the time of the French Revolution. His ship Santa Dorotea was captured by the Royal Navy, who kept him as a prisoner of war for some time. Soon afterward, he continued to fight in southern Spain, mainly in Cadiz and Gibraltar with the rank of Second Captain of light infantry. He continued to fight Portugal on the side of Spain in the War of the Oranges in 1801. He was promoted to captain in 1804. During his stay in Cádiz he was influenced by the ideas of the Spanish Enlightenment.

At the outbreak of the Peninsular War in 1808, San Martín was named adjutant of Francisco María Solano Ortiz de Rosas. Rosas, suspected of being an afrancesado, was killed by a popular uprising which overran the barracks and dragged his corpse in the streets. San Martín was appointed to the armies of Andalucía, and led a battalion of volunteers. In June 1808 his unit became incorporated into a guerrilla force led by Juan de la Cruz Mourgeón. He was nearly killed during the battle of Arjonilla, but was saved by Sergeant Juan de Dios. On 19 July 1808, Spanish and French forces engaged in the battle of Bailén, a Spanish victory that allowed the Army of Andalusia to attack and seize Madrid. For his actions during this battle, San Martín was awarded a gold medal, and his rank raised to lieutenant colonel. On 16 May 1811, he fought in the battle of Albuera under the command of general William Carr Beresford. By this time, the French armies held most of the Iberian Peninsula under their control, except for Cádiz.

San Martín was initiated in the Lodge of Rational Knights in 1811. They met at the house of Carlos María de Alvear, other members were José Miguel Carrera, Aldao, Blanco Encalada and other , American-born Spaniards. They agreed to return to their home lands and join the local revolutionary movements. San Martín asked for his retirement from the military, and moved to Britain. He stayed in the country for a short time, and met many other South Americans at a lodge held at the house of Venezuelan general Francisco de Miranda at 27 Grafton Street (now 58 Grafton Way), Bloomsbury, London (the house now has a blue plaque with Miranda's name). Then he sailed to Buenos Aires aboard the British ship George Canning, along with the South Americans Alvear, Francisco José de Vera and Matías Zapiola, and the Spaniards Francisco Chilavert and Eduardo Kailitz. They arrived on 9 March 1812, to serve under the First Triumvirate.

A few days after his arrival in Buenos Aires in the United Provinces (formally named the Argentine Republic in 1826), San Martín was interviewed by the First Triumvirate. They appointed him a lieutenant colonel of cavalry, and asked him to create a cavalry unit, as Buenos Aires did not have good cavalry. He began to organize the Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers with Alvear and Zapiola. As Buenos Aires lacked professional military leaders, San Martín was entrusted with the protection of the whole city, but kept focused in the task of building the military unit.

The lodge organized the Revolution of 8 October 1812 when the terms of office of the triumvirs Manuel de Sarratea and Feliciano Chiclana ended. Juan Martín de Pueyrredón promoted antimorenist new members, Manuel Obligado and Pedro Medrano, by preventing the vote of three deputies and thus achieving a majority. As this caused a commotion, San Martín and Alvear intervened with their military force, and the Buenos Aires Cabildo disestablished the triumvirate. It was replaced by the Second Triumvirate of Juan José Paso, Nicolás Rodríguez Peña and Antonio Álvarez Jonte. The new triumvirate called the Assembly of the Year XIII and promoted San Martín to colonel.

San Martín's horse was killed during the battle, and his leg was trapped under the corpse of the animal after the fall. A royalist, probably Zabala himself, attempted to kill San Martín while he was trapped under his dead horse where he suffered a saber injury to his face, and a bullet wound to his arm. Juan Bautista Cabral and Juan Bautista Baigorria of San Martín's regiment intervened and saved his life; Cabral was mortally wounded, and died shortly afterwards.

Although they were still allies, San Martín began to distance himself from Alvear, who controlled the Assembly and the lodge. Alvear opposed the merchants and the Uruguayan caudillo José Gervasio Artigas, San Martín thought that it was risky to open such conflicts when the royalists were still a threat. The Army of the North, which was operating at the Upper Peru, was defeated at the battles of Vilcapugio and Ayohuma, so the triumvirate appointed San Martín to head it, replacing Manuel Belgrano.

San Martín and Belgrano met at the Yatasto relay. The army was in poor condition, and San Martín initially refused to remove Belgrano from the army, as it would hurt the soldiers' morale. However, the supreme director Gervasio Posadas (who replaced the triumvirate in government) insisted, and San Martín acted as instructed. San Martín stayed only a few weeks in Tucumán, reorganizing the army and studying the terrain. He also had a positive impression of the guerrilla war waged by Martín Miguel de Güemes against the royalists, similar to the Peninsular War. It was a defensive war, and San Martín trusted that they could prevent a royalist advance in Jujuy.

San Martín had health problems in April 1814, probably caused by hematemesis. He temporarily delegated the command of the Army to colonel Francisco Fernández de la Cruz and requested leave to recover. He moved to Santiago del Estero, and then to Córdoba where he slowly recovered. During this time King Ferdinand VII returned to the throne, began the absolutist restoration and began to organize an attack on the rogue colonies. After an interview with Tomás Guido, San Martín came up with a plan: organize an army in Mendoza, cross the Andes to Chile, and move to Peru by sea; all while Güemes defended the north frontier. This would place him in Peru without crossing the harsh terrain of Upper Peru, where two campaigns had already been defeated. To advance this plan, he requested the governorship of the Cuyo province, which was accepted. He took office on 6 September.

The absolutist restoration in Spain and the growing influence of Artigas generated a political crisis in Buenos Aires, forcing Posadas to resign. Alvear became the new Supreme Director, but had to resign after three months. San Martín's plan was complicated as well by the Disaster of Rancagua, a royalist victory that restored absolutism in Chile, ending the Patria Vieja period. San Martín initially proposed a regular-sized army, simply to reinforce Chile, but changed to propose a larger one, to liberate the country from the occupation. Chileans Bernardo O'Higgins, José Miguel Carrera, Luis Carrera and Manuel Rodríguez, the leaders of the deposed Chilean rule, sought refugee in Cuyo, along with their armies. O'Higgins and Rodríguez were well received, but the Carrera brothers intended to act as a government in exile. They ignored the local laws of Cuyo, and their soldiers committed acts of vandalism. San Martín imprisoned them and sent them to Buenos Aires. They proposed a plan to liberate Chile, different to the one outlined by San Martín, who rejected it as impractical. This initiated a rivalry between the Carreras and San Martín.

The government of San Martín repeated some of the ideas outlined in the Operations plan, drafted by Mariano Moreno at the beginning of the war. A combination of incentives, confiscations and planned economy allowed the country to provision the army: gunpowder, pieces of artillery, mules and horses, food, military clothing, etc. Mining increased, with increased extraction of lead, copper, saltpeter, sulfur and borax, which had several uses and improved local finances. Hundreds of women wove clothing used by the soldiers. Father José Luis Beltrán headed a military factory of 700 men, which produced rifles and horseshoes. San Martín stayed on good terms with both the government of Buenos Aires and the provincial caudillos, without fully allying with either one. He was able to receive provisions from both. He considered that the war of independence took priority over the civil wars.

The army was not ready as of the summer of 1815, delaying the crossing. Given the harsh conditions on the mountains, the crossing could only be done in the summer season, when there is less snow. Buenos Aires did not send more provisions after the ousting of Alvear. San Martín proposed to resign and serve under Balcarce, if they would support the campaign. San Martín and Guido wrote a report in the autumn of 1816, detailing to the Supreme Director Antonio González de Balcarce the full military plan of operations.

San Martín proposed that the country declare independence immediately, before the crossing. That way, they would be acting as a sovereign nation, and not as a mere rebellion. He had great influence over the Congress of Tucumán, a Congress with deputies from the provinces, which was established in March 1816. He opposed the appointment of José Moldes, a soldier from Salta who was against the policies of Buenos Aires, as he feared Moldes would break national unity. He rejected proposals to be appointed Supreme Director himself. He supported his friend and lodge member Juan Martín de Pueyrredón for the office. Pueyrredón resumed the military aid to Cuyo. The Congress of Tucumán declared independence on 9 July 1816. Congress discussed the type of government of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (modern Argentina). General Manuel Belgrano, who had made a diplomatic mission to Europe, informed them that independence would be more easily acknowledged by the European powers if the country established a monarchy. For this purpose, Belgrano proposed a plan to crown a noble of the Inca Empire as king (the Sapa Inca dynasty had been dethroned in the 16th century). San Martín supported this proposal, as well as Güemes and most deputies, except for those from Buenos Aires, who undermined the project and prevented its approval.

Contrary to the common understanding, the crossing of the Andes was not the first time that a military expedition crossed the mountain range. The difference from previous operations was the size of the army, and that it had to be ready for combat right after the crossing. The army was divided in six columns, each taking a different path. Colonel Francisco Zelada in La Rioja took the Come-Caballos pass towards Copiapó. Juan Manuel Cabot, in San Juan, moved to Coquimbo. Ramón Freire and José León Lemos led two columns in the south. The bulk of the armies left from Mendoza. San Martín, O'Higgins and Soler led a column across the Los Patos pass, and Juan Gregorio de Las Heras another one across the Uspallata Pass.

The columns that crossed the Andes began to take military actions. The column in the north led by Cabot defeated the royalists in Salala, seized Coquimbo and then Copiapó. In the south, Ramón Freire captured Talca. Las Heras routed royalist outposts in Juncalito and Potrerillos. Bernardo O'Higgins, who came from Los Patos pass, defeated the royalists at Las Coimas. This allowed the main columns to gather at Aconcagua valley, meeting at the slopes of Chacabuco. Royalist commander Rafael Maroto converged his armies on that location as well. Maroto had 2,450 men and 5 pieces of artillery, San Martín had 3,600 men and 9 pieces of artillery. The misdirection that concealed the path of the bulk of the Army allowed San Martín this advantage, as other royalist forces were scattered in other regions of Chile.

The battle began on 12 February. San Martín organized a pincer movement, with Soler leading the west column and O'Higgins the east one. O'Higgins, eager to avenge the defeat at Rancagua, rushed to the attack, instead of coordinating with Soler. This gave the royalists a brief advantage. San Martín instructed Soler to rush the attack as well. The combined attack was successful and San Martín's column secured the final victory. The battle ended with 600 royalists dead and 500 prisoners, with only 12 deaths and 120 injuries in the Army of the Andes.

The army triumphantly entered Santiago de Chile the following day. Governor Francisco Marcó del Pont attempted to escape to Valparaíso and sail to Peru, but he was captured on 22 February and returned to Santiago. Several other officials were captured as well and sent as prisoners to San Luis, Argentina. San Martín sent Marcó del Pont prisoner to Mendoza.

Three deputies from Coquimbo, Santiago and Concepción organized a new government, and proposed San Martín as Supreme Director of Chile. He declined the offer and proposed O'Higgins in his stead: he recommended that the Supreme Director should be someone from Chile. San Martín would instead organize the navy to take the fight to Peru. He established a local chapter of the Lodge of Rational Knights, named as Logia Lautaro, in reference to Mapuche leader Lautaro.

The victory in Chacabuco did not liberate all Chile. Royalist forces still resisted in southern Chile, allied with local Mapuche chiefs. Las Heras occupied Concepción, but failed to occupy Talcahuano. The royalist resistance lasted for several months, and Talcahuano was only captured when most of the continent was already free.

San Martín requested help from British Admiral William Bowles. He wrote from Chile and expected to find him in Buenos Aires, but Bowles had embarked for Río de Janeiro. Bowles considered that San Martín was more trustworthy than Alvear, and praised his support for monarchism. San Martín did not obtain the ships and interrupted the correspondence with Bowles for some months. He returned to Chile; his wife Remedios stayed in Buenos Aires with her daughter Mercedes because of her health problems. Unable to get help from either Buenos Aires or foreign powers, San Martín promoted a more decisive commitment from Chile to finance the navy.

Despite the defeat, the soldiers were received as heroes in Santiago. Thanks to Las Heras, a potential disaster for the patriot armies turned into a minor setback. The army was reorganized again, but the deaths, injuries and desertions caused by the defeat at Cancha Rayada reduced its size to 5,000 soldiers, which was closer to the royalist forces. They took position next to the Maipo River, near Santiago.

Battle of Maipú

San Martín made a brief reconnaissance of the royalist army, and noticed several flaws in their organization. Feeling secure of victory, he claimed that "Osorio is clumsier than I thought. Today's triumph is ours. The sun as witness!". The battle began at 11:00 am. The patriot artillery on the right fired on the royalist infantry on the left. Manuel Escalada led mounted grenadiers to capture the royalist artillery, turning them against their owners. Burgos' regiment severely punished the patriot left wing, mainly composed of emancipated slaves, and took 400 lives. San Martín ordered the mounted grenadiers led by Hilarión de la Quintana to charge against the regiment. The firing suddenly ended and royalists began to fight with sword bayonets, under the cries "Long live the king!" and "Long live the homeland!" respectively. Finally, the royalists ended their cries and began to disperse.

When the regiment of Burgos realized that their line was broken, they stopped resisting, and the soldiers began to disperse. The cavalry pursued and killed most of them. At the end of the battle, the royalists had been trapped among the units of Las Heras in the west, Alvarado in the middle, Quintana in the east and the cavalries of Zapiola and Freire. Osorio tried to fall back to the hacienda "Lo Espejo" but could not reach it, so he tried to escape to Talcahuano. Ordóñez made his last stand at that hacienda, where 500 royalists died.

The battle ended in the afternoon. O'Higgins, still injured by the wound received in Cancha Rayada, arrived during the final action at the hacienda. He claimed "Glory to the savior of Chile!", in reference to San Martín, who praised him for going to the battlefield with his unhealed wound. They made an embrace on their horses, now known as the "Embrace of Maipú".

The battle of Maipú secured Chilean independence. Except for Osorio, who escaped with 200 cavalry, all top royalist military leaders were captured. All their armed forces were either killed or captured, and all their artillery, weapons, military hospitals, money and resources were lost. The victory was praised by Güemes, Bolívar and the international press.

San Martín made a new request for ships to Bowles, but received no answer. He moved again to Buenos Aires, to make a similar request. He arrived to Mendoza a few days after the execution of the Chileans Luis and Juan José Carrera, brothers of José Miguel Carrera. The specific initiative of those executions is controversial. Chilean historian Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna indicts San Martín, while J. C. Raffo de la Reta blames O'Higgins instead. Manuel Rodríguez was also imprisoned and then killed in prison; this death may have been decided by the Lautaro lodge. San Martín could not have taken part in it, as he was already on the way to Buenos Aires.

San Martín was not well received in Buenos Aires. Pueyrredón initially declined to give further help, citing the conflicts with the federal caudillos and the organization of a huge royalist army in Cádiz that would try to reconquer the La Plata basin. He thought that Chile should organize the navy against Peru, not Buenos Aires. San Martín discussed with him and finally got financing of 500,000 pesos. He returned to Mendoza with his wife and daughter and received a letter from Pueyrredón, who said that Buenos Aires could only deliver one-third of the promised funds. This complicated the project, as neither Santiago de Chile nor Mendoza had the resources needed. San Martín resigned from the Army, but it is unclear whether his decision to resign was sincere or was to apply pressure to his backers. The government of Buenos Aires still considered San Martín vital to the national defense, so Pueyrredón agreed to pay the 500,000 pesos requested, and encouraged San Martín to withdraw his resignation.

San Martín proposed to mediate between Buenos Aires and the Liga Federal led by Artigas. He thought that the civil war was counter-productive to national unity, and that an end to hostilities would free resources needed for the navy. He calculated that Artigas might condition the peace on a joint declaration of war to colonial Brazil; so San Martín proposed to defeat the royalists first and then demand the return of the Eastern Bank to the United Provinces. O'Higgins recommended caution, fearing that San Martín might be captured. Pueyrredón rejected the mediation, as he did not recognize Artigas as an equal to negotiate with him.

The navy was finally completed in Chile, and the British captain Thomas Cochrane was appointed to lead it. But it was not sent to Peru immediately: there were still rumors of an attack from Spain, and if needed the navy would move to Buenos Aires and fight the Spanish ships. The civil war resumed and San Martín attempted once more to mediate, to no effect. Rondeau again requested the return of the Army of the Andes, without success. San Martín returned to Chile and prepared to take part in the naval actions against Peru, ignoring Buenos Aires. The Army of the North refused to join the conflict as well, revolting in Arequito and disbanding. Without either reinforcements, Rondeau was defeated by federal forces in the Battle of Cepeda. The Congress of Tucumán and the office of the Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata were dissolved and the country turned into a confederation of 13 provinces, without a central state. This period is known as the Anarchy of the year XX. The rebellion of Spanish general Rafael del Riego and an outbreak of yellow fever in the punitive expedition organized in Cádiz ended the royalist threat to Buenos Aires. The Act of Rancagua invested San Martín with the full authority over the Army of the Andes, as it now lacked a national authority over it.

However, the plans did not fully work as intended. The native populations that joined Arenales could not resist the royalist counter-attacks, and the slaves did not join the army in the expected numbers. The Argentine provinces could not send the supporting army that San Martín had requested earlier, and the Army of the North no longer existed. As a result, he wrote to Simón Bolívar, trying to coordinate actions with him.

As hostilities renewed, San Martín organized several guerrilla groups in the countryside, and laid siege to Lima, but did not force his entry, as he did not want to appear as a conqueror to the local population. However, De la Serna suddenly left the city with his army, for unknown reasons. San Martín called for an open cabildo to discuss the independence of the country, which was agreed. With this approval, the authority in Lima, the support of the northern provinces and the port of El Callao under siege, San Martín declared the independence of Peru on 28 July 1821. The war, however, had not ended yet.

Unlike Chile, Peru had no local politicians of the stature of O'Higgins, so San Martín became the leader of the government, even though he did not want to. He was appointed Protector of Peru. As Peruvian society was highly conservative, San Martín did not take the liberal ideas too far immediately. The provisional statutes contained few changes and ratified several existing laws. All the types of servitude imposed on the natives, such as mita and yanaconazgo, were abolished, and the natives received citizenship. He did not abolish slavery completely, as Peru had 40,000 slaveowners, and declared " freedom of wombs" instead, which emancipated the sons of slaves; he emancipated as well the slaves of the royalists who left Lima. He also abolished the Inquisition and corporal punishment, and enacted freedom of speech. During his stay in Peru, San Martín had a romance with Rosa Campuzano, a woman from Guayaquil.

The royalist armies that stayed in the Peruvian countryside headed to Lima, led by Canterac. In a confusing episode, there was no battle, as neither one attacked. Canterac changed his path to El Callao, took resources from it, and returned to his base. There was no battle during their return either. Without resources, El Callao surrendered in a few days. Both armies took inadvisable actions: San Martín allowed Canterac to receive reinforcements, and Canterac left a key military objective incapable to resist. There is no known documentation that provides a reasonable explanation of those events.

Cochrane had several disputes with San Martín. He discussed several of his actions and tried to bypass his authority. During the blockade of El Callao, he proposed that O'Higgins take control of the mission and send any spoils of battle to Chile. As San Martín was appointed Protector of Peru, Cochrane reasoned that San Martín was no longer under Chilean command, and took the navy away. In later years Cochrane made accusations against San Martín in Chile.

Bolívar took control of Caracas with his victory at the battle of Carabobo, and the Congress of Cúcuta issued laws similar to those in Perú. Guayaquil declared independence, and Bolívar sent Antonio José de Sucre to reinforce them. Sucre's forces were not enough, and requested help from San Martín. Peru sent a military force of 1,300 men. Bolívar entered the city a month later, and claimed that for historical reasons Quito should be part of Colombia. San Martín and Bolívar sought to generate Latin American integration, but disagreed on the type of government: Bolívar proposed a republic, and San Martín a constitutional monarchy, reasoning that it would be easier to receive international recognition for the now-independent South American nations. Peru and Colombia signed a treaty of integration, to be proposed to Chile, the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and Paraguay, and at a later point to the United Provinces of Central America and the Empire of Brazil.

San Martín thought that if he joined forces with Bolívar he would be able to defeat the remnant royalist forces in Peru. Both liberators would meet in Quito, so San Martín appointed Torre Tagle to manage the government during his absence. Bolívar was unable to meet San Martín at the arranged date, so San Martín returned to Lima, but still left Tagle in government. Bolívar moved from Quito to Guayaquil, which secured its independence. There were discussions on the future of the region: some factions wanted to join Colombia, others to join Peru, and others to become a new nation. Bolívar ended the discussion by annexing Guayaquil into Colombia. There was Peruvian pressure on San Martín to do a similar thing, to annex Guayaquil to Peru.

The Guayaquil conference took place on 26 July 1822. They had two private meetings, on that day and the following one. As there were no witnesses or minutes, the content of their discussions can only be inferred from their later actions and their letters to other people. Some likely topics of discussion may have been a request of reinforcements, and an offer to combine the armies into a single one, with San Martín ranked second to Bolívar.

After his retirement, San Martín intended to live in Cuyo. Although the war of independence had ended in the region, the Argentine Civil Wars continued. The unitarians wanted to organize the country as a unitary state centered on Buenos Aires, and the federalists preferred a federation of provinces. San Martín had good relations with the federal and a personal feud with unitarian leader Bernardino Rivadavia, but tried to stay neutral. San Martín's wife, María de los Remedios de Escalada, died in 1823, so he returned to Buenos Aires. He took his daughter Mercedes Tomasa, who was living with her mother's family, and sailed to Europe.

After a failed attempt to settle in France, he moved to Britain and then to the capital of present-day Belgium, Brussels, where he settled. He intended to live there until Mercedes completed her education and then return to Argentina. Rivadavia visited Brussels and San Martín intended to challenge him to a duel, but was dissuaded by Diego Paroissien.

During the French 1848 revolution, San Martin left Paris and moved to Boulogne-sur-Mer, a small city in northern France. He was almost blind and had many health problems because of his advanced age, but continued to write letters and keep in touch with the news from South America. Shortly after receiving the news of the Argentine victory against the Anglo-French blockade, he died, three o'clock on 17 August 1850.

José de San Martín died on 17 August 1850, in his house at Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. Between 1850 and 1861, his corpse was buried in the crypt of the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Boulogne. He requested in his will to be taken to the cemetery without any funeral, and to be moved to Buenos Aires thereafter. Balcarce informed Rosas and the foreign minister Felipe Arana of San Martín's death. Balcarce oversaw the embalming of his remains and their temporary stay in a chapel of the city. He also sent San Martin's saber to Rosas.

San Martín was first acclaimed as a national hero of Argentina by the Federals, both during his life and immediately after his death. The unitarians still resented his refusal to aid the Supreme Directors with the Army of the Andes and his constant support to Rosas. The unitarian Bartolomé Mitre wrote a biography of San Martín, "Historia de San Martín y de la emancipación sudamericana" ( Spanish: History of San Martín and the South American emancipation). By that time, several accounts of San Martín were under way in many countries: Valentín Ledesma from Lima wrote in 1853 about San Martín's campaign in Peru, and Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna from Chile wrote in 1856 about the Chilean War of Independence. With Mitre's book, San Martín was universally acclaimed as the Liberator of Argentina, but his work introduced several inaccuracies to make San Martín's campaign support Mitre's political project. These inaccuracies were detected and fixed by later historians.

Statues of San Martín appear in most cities of Argentina, as well as in Santiago and Lima. José Gil de Castro made the first portrait of San Martín, and several other artists made works about him. The most important films featuring San Martín are the 1970 El Santo de la Espada and the 2010 Revolución: El cruce de los Andes.[citation needed ]

The neighbourhood of San Martín in Bogotá, Colombia's Centro Internacional area is named for the large equestrian statue of the General situated in a small plaza also named for him.[citation needed ]

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic has an avenue named Jose de San Martin in his honor that connects the colonial zone to the west of the city.[citation needed ]

An equestrian statue of the General was erected in Boulogne-sur-Mer; the statue was inaugurated on 24 October 1909, at a ceremony attended by several units from the Argentine military. The statue was erected through purely private initiative, with the support of national government of Argentina, the municipal council of Buenos Aires and a public funding campaign. The statue is 10m high, on a 4m by 6m base; it is well known to locals. Located on the beach, it was virtually untouched by the numerous bombings campaigns during both world wars.

There is a equestrian statue of General San Martín in Washington D.C. along NW Virginia Street. It is a copy of a statue in Buenos Aires. It was "presented by the Argentine people to the people of the United States (...) unveiled with appropriate ceremony on October 28, 1925."

There is also an equestrian statue of General San Martín in New York City, on the southern side of Central Park. It was dedicated in 1951 and was donated by the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

There is a memorial featuring a bust of General San Martín in Beverly Hills, CA. The bust was designed by Fernando Di Zitti and dedicated in 2001.

Documentos para la historia del Libertador General San Martín [Documents for the history of Liberator General San Martín] (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Instituto Nacional Sanmartiniano and Museo Histórico Nacional. 1953.

Crow, John (17 January 1992). The Epic of Latin America. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-07723-2.

Dellepiane, Carlos (1965). Historia militar del Perú [Military history of Peru] (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Círculo Militar.

Espíndola, Adolfo (1962). San Martín en el Ejército Español en la península [San Martín in the Spanish Army in the peninsula] (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Comisión Nacional Ejecutiva del 150 Aniversario de la Revolución de Mayo.

Harvey, Robert (2000). Liberators: Latin America's Struggle For Independence. New York: The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers. ISBN 978-1-58567-072-7.

Higgins, James (2014). The Emancipation of Peru: British Eyewitness Accounts. Online at https://sites.google.com/site/jhemanperu

Levene, Ricardo (1936). Historia de la Nación Argentina [History of the Argentine Nation] (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Editorial El Ateneo.

Montes i Bradley, Ricardo Ernesto (1952). El agricultor José de San Martín [The farmer José de San Martín] (in Spanish). Mexico: Editorial Perspectivas.

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( José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras (25 February 1778 - 17 August 1850), known simply as José de San Martín ( Spanish pronunciation: [xoˈse ðe san maɾˈtin] listen )) or the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru ,[1] was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and central parts of South America's successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire who served as the Protector of Peru.

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Otto, prince von Bismarck, (born April 1, 1815, Schönhausen, Altmark, Prussia-died July 30, 1898, Friedrichsruh, near Hamburg), Prussian statesman who founded the German Empire in 1871 and served as its chancellor for 19 years. Born into the Prussian landowning elite, Bismarck studied law and was elected to the Prussian Diet in 1849. In 1851 he was appointed Prussian representative to the federal Diet in Frankfurt. After serving as ambassador to Russia (1859-62) and France (1862), he became prime minister and foreign minister of Prussia (1862-71). When he took office, Prussia was widely considered the weakest of the five European powers, but under his leadership Prussia won a war against Denmark in 1864 ( see Schleswig-Holstein Question), the Seven Weeks' War (1866), and the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Through these wars he achieved his goal of political unification of a Prussian-dominated German Empire. Once the empire was established, he became its chancellor. The "Iron Chancellor" skillfully preserved the peace in Europe through alliances against France ( see Three Emperors' League; Reinsurance Treaty; Triple Alliance). Domestically, he introduced administrative and economic reforms but sought to preserve the status quo, opposing the Social Democratic Party and the Catholic church ( see Kulturkampf). When Bismarck left office in 1890, the map of Europe had been changed immeasurably. However, the German Empire, his greatest achievement, survived him by only 20 years because he had failed to create an internally unified people.

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Role of Otto, Prince von Bismarck in unifying Germany

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Otto, prince von Bismarck, (born April 1, 1815, Schönhausen, Altmark, Prussia-died July 30, 1898, Friedrichsruh, near Hamburg), Prussian statesman who founded the German Empire in 1871 and served as its chancellor for 19 years.