PROFILE: San Martin: military discipline for independence fight

Apr 15, 2010, 5:40 GMT

Buenos Aires - Jose de San Martin is only surpassed by Simon Bolivar among the key leaders who wrought South America's independence from Spain in the early 19th century.

Although he only spent 10 years of his adult life in South America, he is considered the founding father of Argentina.

Born on February 25, 1778 in the modern-day Argentine province of Corrientes as the son of a Spanish soldier, San Martin was only seven when he went to Spain with his family.

He entered a military career and fought for Spain's independence in the Napoleonic wars (1808-14). In 1812, however, he returned to Argentina in order to support independence efforts there.

His experience on the battlefield was the basis for a bold military career in the Americas. In Argentina, he soon took command of the Army of the North.

In order to pull the Spaniards out of their stronghold in Lima, the capital of modern-day Peru, San Martin chose to free Chile first, and to advance onto Lima on a coastal route from Chile.

In 1817, with 5,200 men, 1,000 horses and 10,000 donkeys, he crossed the snow-covered Andes into Chile. After several battles, Spanish resistance to San Martin's army and to that led by his Chilean fellow-fighter Bernardo O'Higgins definitively crumbled in 1818.

San Martin declined the presidency, which he had been offered, in favour of O'Higgins, who was Chile's first head of state.

In 1820, San Martin embarked on an expedition to Lima. A year later, following a long siege, he took the city - a very hard blow to Spain since Lima was the heart of Spain's Latin American empire. On July 28, 1821 he proclaimed Peru's independence.

Spanish forces withdrew to other parts of modern-day Peru, but were not fully defeated. At a meeting with Bolivar in 1822, San Martin gave Bolivar command of his troops and withdrew from public life. Bolivar completed the liberation of Peru.

Upon his return to Argentina, San Martin was caught in in-fighting in the young nation. Shortly afterwards, his wife died, and he went into exile in Europe in 1824. He died in the French town of Boulogne- sur-Mer in 1850.