Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are setting
our sights on a figure who occupies a really
strange space in the global consciousness. Yeah,
he's sort of hiding in plain sight. Exactly.
You know, you see his face on currency. His name
is on street signs from Paris to Buenos Aires.
And there are these huge statues of him on horseback
in Central Park, in Belgrave Square in London,
and, well, pretty much every single town square
in the southern cone of South America. But he's
not a Napoleon. He's not a Washington, at least
not in the same global... the pot culture sense.
Right. Unless you grew up in Argentina or Chile,
you might walk right past him without realizing
that this specific guy on the horse orchestrated
one of the most improbable military campaigns
in human history. It is a story that sounds like
fiction, honestly. We're talking about Jose de
San Martin and the stack of sources we have today.
Biographical records, military archives, political
correspondence. They all paint this picture of
a man who just defies the standard revolutionary
archetype. He's not a chaotic firebrand. Not
at all. He's not a demagogue. He's a chess player,
a meticulous, patient strategist. And he has
this massive title, the liberator of Argentina,
Chile and Peru. I mean, that is a lot of geography
for one man. It is huge. But the how is what
we're here to unpack, because to earn that title,
San Martin had to effectively dismantle the Spanish
empire in South America by doing the one thing
they thought was, you know, physically impossible.
He took a professional army. Complete with heavy
artillery, mind you. And marched them over the
Andes Mountains. Which, just for context, are
peaks that rival the Himalayas in terms of difficulty.
We're not talking about rolling hills here. He
crossed them to strike the empire from behind.
It's the classic Hannibal crossing the Alps comparison.
But many historians argue San Martin's feat was
actually logistically harder. Harder. Why? Because
of the specific altitude and crucially, the total
lack of resources he had to work with. He had
to build his entire supply chain from scratch.
And then the kicker. This is the part that always
gets me. After liberating half a continent at
the absolute height of his power, he just walks
away. He resigns. Leaves the continent and dies
in obscurity in France. Which is the ultimate
twist. It's the Cincinnatus moment. You know,
the Roman general who saved the Republic and
went back to his farm. Right. So our mission
today. is to understand that arc. How does a
career Spanish officer become the empire's worst
nightmare? How do you move an army over 4 ,000
-meter peaks? And why, when you have the world
at your feet, do you just walk away? It's a huge
story. Let's jump into the sources. We have to
start with the origin story because that Hispanic
officer part is genuinely confusing. He's born
in the Americas, right? Right. He is born around
1778 in a place called Yapayú. Today, that's
in the Corrientes province of Argentina, right
on the border with Brazil. Okay. But back then,
it wasn't a city. It was a former Jesuit mission
area. It is the frontier. His father was a Spanish
official, a lieutenant governor there. So he's
a Criollo born in the Americas to Spanish parents.
Exactly. But here is the first twist. San Martin
doesn't stay there. The family moves back to
Spain when he is just seven years old. Seven.
So his formative years, his education, his accent,
it's all European. Completely. They settle in
Malaga. And this is crucial for understanding
his later competence. He becomes a soldier at
age 11. 11. 11 years old. He joins the regiment
of Murcia. This isn't a ceremonial role. He's
a cadet in a world that is about to catch fire.
I mean, most kids that age are worried about
math homework. He's learning to drill with a
musket. It's a completely different world. And
he sees combat almost immediately. He fights
in North Africa, Milia, Iran fighting against
the Moors. He fights against the British for
a time when Spain is allied with France. But
the crucible, the thing that really makes him
San Martin, is the Peninsular War. Okay, so this
is the era where Napoleon is just... Taking over
everything. Precisely. In 1808, Napoleon turns
on his Spanish allies and invades Spain. The
Spanish people rise up in this brutal guerrilla
war and San Martin is right in the thick of it.
He fights at the Battle of Beilin in 1808. I
see Beilin highlighted in the notes here as a
major turning point. Why was that battle so significant?
It was huge. It was the first time the Napoleonic
Grand Army was defeated in open field combat.
Up until then, Napoleon seemed well. Invincible.
Right, the myth of invincibility. Balin shattered
that myth. And San Martin was a hero there, a
genuine hero. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel
on the battlefield and awarded a gold medal.
He is a rising star in the Spanish military establishment.
Okay, so paint the picture for me. He is 30 -something
years old. He has spent 20 years in the Spanish
military. He has bled for Spain. He has fought
for the king. He's a decorated career officer.
And then in 1812, he abruptly resigns, boards
a ship called the George Canning, and sails to
Buenos Aires to fight against the flag he just
spent two decades defending. It is the central
paradox of his life. Why? That's the big question.
Why the switch? On paper, that looks like treason.
It does. And historians have debated this for
two centuries. There are a few theories. The
first one is simply nostalgia, the call of his
native land. He was born there, after all. That
feels a bit... Romantic, doesn't it? For a guy
who left at seven? I miss the Métis. Doesn't
seem like enough to upend your entire life and
career. Agreed. It feels a bit thin for a hardened
military strategist. So Theory 2 is more cynical.
British influence. OK. We know he stopped in
London on his way back. He met with Francisco
de Miranda and other independent supporters there.
Britain had a lot to gain from South American
independence because it opened up trade routes
that Spain had kept closed for centuries. So
the argument is he was an agent or at least nudged
in that direction by the British. Right. Some
argue San Martin was, if not an agent, at least
encouraged by British interests. But looking
at your notes, you seem to favor the third theory.
I do. It's the conflict of ideas, or maybe better
put, the ideological consistency theory. This
one is the most compelling to me. Okay, unpack
that for me. You have to remember the war in
Spain against Napoleon wasn't just about territory.
It was about ideas. San Martin was fighting for
national sovereignty and against tyranny. He
was exposed to the Enlightenment ideas of constitutional
government, liberty, citizenship. He was part
of these secret societies, these Masonic style
lodges where they discussed these things. So
he was a liberal in the classic 19th century
sense. Precisely. But then. When the Spanish
monarchy was restored, King Ferdinand VII basically
tore up the liberal constitution they'd written
and reinstated absolute rule. He crushed those
values. So the very thing San Martin fought for
in Spain was betrayed by the Spanish king himself.
Exactly. So San Martin looks at Spain and sees
a lost cause. Then he looks at South America,
which is just starting to fight for independence,
and he sees the continuation of the same fight.
That is a fascinating way to frame it. He didn't
switch sides ideologically. He switched battlefields
to keep fighting for the same principles. He
was fighting against absolutism, whether the
tyrants spoke French or Spanish. Yes. He arrives
in Buenos Aires in 1812, not as a traitor to
his values, but as a man looking for a place
to plant them. The location changed, but the
enemy tyranny remained the same. So he arrives
in Buenos Aires in 1812. Is he welcomed with
open arms? Here comes the hero from Berlin. Not
exactly. It's awkward. He has a thick Spanish
accent. He looks and sounds like the enemy. The
local government, the triumvirate, is a mess
of competing factions. They don't trust him.
But his resume must have stood out. It did. They
were also desperate because their armies kept
losing against the disciplined royalists. So
they look at his resume, Battle of Balin, Lieutenant
Colonel, and say, OK, prove it. And he notices
a problem right away, doesn't he? A military
problem. He does. He realizes Buenos Aires has
plenty of enthusiasm and brave militiamen, but
no professional cavalry. In European warfare,
cavalry is the hammer. You need discipline. You
need shock troops. So he says, let me fix this.
He asks to form a new unit, the Regiment of Mounted
Grenadiers. The famous grenadiers. Yes. And he
builds this unit with obsessive detail. He selects
the officers personally. He trains them in modern
European tactics. He eats in the mess hall with
them. He creates a strict code of honor. He's
building a professional war machine in a land
of amateur militias. And he gets to test them
pretty quickly at the Battle of San Lorenzo.
The notes describe this as cinematic. And they
aren't kidding. It really is straight out of
a movie. This is February 1813. The Spanish royalists
have a stronghold in Montevideo, and they keep
sending ships up the Parana River to pillage
villages for supplies. San Martin takes his new
regiment and tracks them from the shore, moving
only at night to stay hidden. I love this image.
The colonel on the convent rooftop watching the
river at night with a spyglass. Exactly. He hides
his men inside the San Carlos convent in Santa
Fe. He waits. At dawn, about 250 royalists disembark.
They think it's just another easy raid. They
have no idea what's waiting for them. None. And
San Martin launches a pincer movement. Two columns
of cavalry sweeping in from different sides to
trap the Spanish against the river. A perfect
ambush. But it goes wrong for him personally,
right? It almost ends right there. Almost catastrophically
wrong. San Martin leads the charge himself, which
is already rispy. His horse is shot out from
under him. The horse falls on top of him, pinning
his leg. He is trapped, helpless, in the middle
of a melee. Talk about a sitting duck. A royalist
soldier rushes in to finish him off with a bayonet.
He actually injures San Martin's face with a
saber. He is seconds away from death. Wow. But
then two of his soldiers intervene. Juan Bautista
Cabral and Juan Bautista Begoria. Begoria kills
the attacker and Cabral, a man of African descent,
pulls the heavy horse off San Martin. And Cabral
pays the ultimate price. He does. Cabral was
mortally wounded in the rescue. Legend says his
dying words were, I die happy for we have beaten
the enemy. Whether that's verbatim or not, his
sacrifice saved the liberator. It gives you chills.
It also proves to the locals in blood that San
Martin isn't just some desk general from Spain.
He's in the dirt, bleeding with them. Exactly.
It secured his reputation. But San Martin isn't
just brave. He's strategic. After this, he is
sent to take command of the Army of the North.
This was the main front of the war at the time,
right? Trying to push north into Upper Peru,
what's now Bolivia, to defeat the Spanish power
center. Right. The previous general, Manuel Belgrano,
who is a brilliant patriot but not a trained
soldier, had suffered some bad defeats there.
So they send in the professional. And Sam Martin
goes up there, looks at the terrain. looks at
the royalist defenses and realizes something
crucial. What's that? He realizes it's a trap.
It's a trap. Attacking the royalist stronghold
of Lima, Peru, by marching overland through the
mountains of Upper Peru is suicide. The terrain
is too harsh, the supply lines are too long,
and the local population is not always friendly.
The royalists have it completely fortified. So
everyone has been banging their heads against
this wall for years, and he realizes they need
a totally different wall. He realizes they need
a back door. This is the aha moment. He concocts
a new radical plan. He decides, forget the north,
we're going west. West, into the Andes, the highest
part of the Andes. Yes. He decides to feign a
defensive posture in the north, take a small
army west, cross the Andes mountains into Chile,
liberate Chile from the royalists. Which is already
a huge task on its own. It is. And this is the
kicker. build a navy in the Pacific, and sail
up the coast to attack Lima from the sea where
they least expect it. That is incredibly ambitious.
It's a logistical nightmare. Let's just cross
the second highest mountain range on Earth with
cannons and then learn to be sailors. It's insane.
And to make it happen, he resigns from the prestigious
Army of the North and requests the governorship
of the Cuyo province. That's the region around
Mendoza, right at the foot of the Andes. He's
basically picking his own staging ground. Right.
So this brings us to part three, the mastermind
of Cuyo. Because he doesn't just show up in March.
He spends years preparing. From 1814 to 1817,
Sin Martin essentially turns the province of
Mendoza into a war machine. It's total mobilization.
The sources describe it like he built an entire
economy just for this campaign. What kind of
infrastructure are we talking about here? This
isn't an industrial region. No, it's an agricultural
one. But he finds the talent. He had a friar.
fray louis beltran who was a genius with mechanics
a self -taught engineer a priest a priest running
a cannon factory they built a foundry to cast
cannons and cannonballs they mined the local
mountains for lead and copper they collected
sulfur for gunpowder He had the women of Mendoza
weaving uniforms and stitching the flag for the
new army. And he had to deal with the social
structure, too. We see notes here about him drafting
slaves. That must have been controversial. Very.
This is a significant part of the social contract
he established. He offered freedom to slaves
who joined the Army of the Andes. He originally
took men aged 16 to 30, but he eventually expanded
that from 14 to 55. The local aristocracy, the
landowners, must have been furious. That was
their property. They were. But San Martin was
the governor and the military commander. He was
adamant. He said, the freedom of the country
is the supreme law. He integrated these freedmen
into the infantry battalions. A huge portion
of the Army of the Andes was of African descent.
While he's building this machine, he's also playing
politics. The Congress of Tucumán is meeting
in 1816. He is putting immense pressure on them
to declare independence. Why the rush? It's a
legal necessity. And a moral one. He writes to
the delegates basically saying, I cannot cross
these mountains as a rebel chieftain. If I do
and we are captured, we will be executed as insurgents.
But if they are a nation. I need to cross as
the general of a sovereign nation. That distinction
matters for international law, for the treatment
of prisoners, for everything. They finally declared
independence on July 9th, 1816, largely due to
his pressure. Now, here's a detail from the notes
that surprised me. The expert notes is San Martin
was actually a monarchist. That seems counterintuitive.
He was. And this surprises a lot of people today.
We assume revolutionary means Republican. But
San Martin, along with Manuel Belgrano, actually
supported the idea of a constitutional monarchy.
That feels contradictory. Why would they want
a king after fighting to get rid of one? They
looked at the chaos in France after their revolution.
They looked at the infighting and civil war already
starting in Buenos Aires. They wanted stability.
So it was a pragmatic choice. Entirely. They
believed a constitutional monarchy was the best
way to keep the peace and, crucially, to get
recognition from Europe, which was entirely monarchist
at the time. Belgrano even proposed crowning
a descendant of the Incas. An Incan king. Yes,
it was called the Inca Plan. It would have united
the indigenous populations of the Andes with
the revolutionary cause. It was a serious proposal.
It didn't happen. The elites in Buenos Aires
scoffed at it. But it shows that San Martin was
a pragmatist. He didn't care about the form of
government as much as the outcome. Independence
and order. OK, so he has the army. He has the
flag. He has the plan. Part four, the crossing
of the Andes. Let's get into the details here.
The logistics of this are, well, mind boggling.
We are talking about 5 ,000 men. But it's not
just the men. He also has 10 ,000 mules and 1
,600 horses. 10 ,000 mules. And he has to move
heavy artillery over passes that sit at 4 ,000
meters. That's 12 ,000 feet above sea level.
You have to disassemble the cannons, load them
onto mules, and reassemble them on the other
side. The survival rates were... Not great. They
were brutal. The conditions were freezing at
night, scorching sun by day. The air is so thin.
The soldiers suffered from Seroche altitude sickness,
headaches, vomiting, exhaustion. And the animals.
Of the 10 ,000 mules, less than half reached
Chile. Of the 1 ,600 horses, only about 500 arrived
in fighting condition. The rest just fell off
cliffs or died from exhaustion. The source material
mentions they ate a diet heavy in garlic and
onions. Is that true? Yes, garlic and onions.
It was part of a special ration called Valdiviano.
San Martin believed raw garlic and onions helped
combat the altitude and the cold. The army practically
smelled its way across the Andes. I hope the
royalists didn't smell them coming. Well, San
Martin made sure they didn't know where they
were coming from. This is the other side of the
crossing the intelligence warfare. He engaged
in what they called the War of Zappa. or the
War of Spies. So it wasn't just a brute force
march. No, it was a masterpiece of deception.
He used spies. He spread fake maps. He sent people
to spread rumors in Chile that he was crossing
in the south or maybe the north. He wanted to
confuse them. And he split the army. He did.
This was key. He divided his forces into six
different columns using different passes, Los
Patos, Uspalada, and four smaller ones. It forced
the enemy to divide their forces. There's a story
here about him meeting with indigenous leaders.
Yes, the Pahuanchay leaders in the south. He
held a big conference with them and asked for
permission to cross through their land, knowing
full well that they would immediately go tell
the royalists. That is clever. He feeds them
disinformation through a channel they trust.
Exactly. The royalist governor in Chile, Marco
del Ponte, panicked. He scattered his forces
to defend every possible pass, which meant he
was weak everywhere. When San Martin's main column
came down the slopes, the royalists were scrambling
to regroup. Which leads us to part five, the
liberation of Chile. The army reunites on the
slopes on the Chilean side and we get the Battle
of Chacabuco in February 1817. They come down
from the mountains, exhausted, half -starved,
and have to fight immediately. And it almost
goes wrong. How so? San Martin has a plan to
wait for all the troops to be in position. But
his ally, the Chilean Bernardo O 'Higgins, who
is brave but, you know, incredibly impulsive,
charges too early. The friction of war. It is.
O 'Higgins gets his division pinned down. He
risks getting wiped out. San Martin sees this,
draws his saber, and has to commit the reserves
earlier than planned. He risks everything to
save O 'Higgins. And it works. The move works.
The royalist line breaks. They march into Santiago
as heroes. And here is a real character moment
for San Martin. The people of Chile are ecstatic.
They offer him the position of supreme director
of Chile. Basically, you freed us, you rule us.
And he says no. Flat out no. Why? That's immense
power to turn down. Because his goal isn't Chile.
Chile is a stepping stone. His goal is Peru.
And he knows if he starts governing Chile, he'll
get bogged down in local politics. He hands the
job to O 'Higgins and says, let's get back to
work. We need a fleet. But the war in Chile wasn't
quite over. There's a twist in the script called
Concha Rayada. Yes. In 1818, the royalists regrouped
in the south and launched a surprise night attack
at Concha Rayada. It was total chaos, friendly
fire, panic in the dark. San Martin tried to
organize a defense, but they were overrun. And
the rumors start flying. Rumors spread instantly
that San Martin was dead and O 'Higgins was dead.
Imagine the morale blow. The liberator is dead.
The army is scattered. It could have been the
end of the revolution right there. It could have.
But a subordinate general, Los Harris, managed
to keep about 3 ,500 men together and retreat
in good order. San Martin survived, reunited
with them, and had to rebuild the army's morale
in record time. He famously rode into Santiago
and told the people, the army is not defeated.
And just a few weeks later, they face off again
at the Battle of Maipú. This is the turning point.
Maipu is the definitive battle for Chilean independence.
San Martin watches the royalist formation, General
Osorio is commanding them, and he spots a flaw.
He sees Osorio moving his troops clumsily across
the front, exposing a flank. The sources quote
him saying something like, Osorio is clumsy,
today's triumph is ours, the sun is witness.
That is some serious confidence. It was a brutal
fight, much bloodier than Chacabruco. The Reserve
Grenadier San Martin's elite unit that he built
from scratch had to break the elite Spanish Burgos
regiment, but they did it. And the climax of
that day is famous. The embrace of Maipú. O 'Higgins,
who had been wounded at the previous battle,
rides out to meet San Martin on the battlefield,
his arm in a sling, and they embrace. Chile is
free. So Chile is secured. Now, the final boss
level. Peru. But now the math gets really bad.
The Viceroy in Peru has something like 23 ,000
soldiers. San Martin, after all the losses, has
maybe 4 ,000 men. You can't win that fight. Not
kinetically. Not head on. No, you can't just
march in and shoot. So San Martin pivots to psychological
warfare. First, he needs that Navy he imagined
years ago. And where does that come from? Well,
Buenos Aires is broke and distracted by civil
wars, so they aren't sending money. He has to
rely on Chilean funding, and he hires a fascinating
character, Lord Thomas Cochran. Who was he? A
disgraced British admiral. A brilliant naval
commander, but a difficult, prickly mercenary.
They build a fleet and sail north. And this is
where San Martin gets really clever. He lands
in Peru, but he doesn't attack Lima directly.
No. He engages in what he called a war of opinion.
He knows he can't defeat the army, so he has
to defeat the mindset. He has to win the people
over. So what does he do? He lands his small
army and refuses to attack the city. Instead,
he sends agents to the indigenous villages to
incite rebellion. He spreads propaganda. He promises
freedom to slaves who join him. He blockades
the port to cut off food supplies to Lima. He's
starving them out and waiting for them to crumble
from the inside. He's laying siege to their will
to fight. Exactly. He wants the viceroy to leave
on his own. And it works. In July 1821, the viceroy
abandons Lima because the city is turning against
him and he's running out of food. San Martin
marches in without firing a shot and declares
independence on July 28, 1821. That is Sun Tzu
-level strategy. The supreme art of war is to
subdue the enemy without fighting. It is. He
is named protector of Peru. And he immediately
starts implementing those liberal reforms we
talked about. The freedom of wounds law. Can
you explain that one again? It was a gradual
abolition of slavery. It meant that while existing
slaves weren't automatically freed, that would
have caused immediate economic collapse and revolt
by the landowners. Any child born to a slave
mother was born free. It was a way to end slavery
over a generation. And he also gets rid of the
Inquisition. Abolish the Inquisition. Ban corporal
punishment. He abolished the Mita, which was
a system of forced indigenous labor. He was trying
to build a modern liberal state. But governing
is harder than conquering. Things start to get
sticky here. He has friction with Cochran. Major
friction. Cochran wants to attack, plunder, destroy
the Spanish fleet aggressively. San Martin is
cautious, patient. Cochran eventually gets fed
up. basically takes the fleet and leaves, so
San Martin loses his naval support. And there's
a weird military moment mentioned in the outline,
the controversial non -battle. What happened
there? Yes, the Cantorac Affair. A royalist army
led by General Cantorac marches right past Lima.
San Martin has his troops ready. His officers
are begging him, let us attack, we have them.
And San Martin does nothing. He lets them pass.
Why? That's baffling. His officers were baffled.
Some historians think San Martinian believed
attacking would cost too many lives and he could
just maneuver them into surrendering later. Others
think he lost his nerve or was suffering from
health issues. He had chronic ulcers and rheumatism.
He was physically breaking down by this point.
But the effect on his own men must have been
devastating. It severely damaged his standing
with his own army. They thought he was weak or
indecisive. And this leads us to the beginning
of the end, the Guayaquil Conference. This is
the moment. It's 1822. San Martin is in a tough
spot. He's losing support from Buenos Aires.
Cochran has left with the fleet. His army is
tired and grumbling. And from the north comes
Simon Bolivar. The other liberator. Bolivar has
just swept down through Venezuela, Colombia,
and Ecuador. He has momentum. He has a fresh
army. And he has the full support of his government
in Gran Colombia. He is at the height of his
power. So they meet in Guayaquil, Ecuador. What
happens in that room? That is the great mystery.
It was a closed -door meeting. No aides, no witnesses,
no minutes taken. They met for two days. To be
a fly on that wall. We can infer what happened
based on the outcome. San Martin likely asked
for reinforcements to finish the war in Peru.
Bolivar likely said he couldn't spare enough.
San Martin may have offered to serve under Bolivar
to be his second -in -command. The Liberator
of the South serving under the Liberator of the
North. That's a huge ego check. It is. But Bolivar
likely refused. The consensus is that Bolivar
felt that two suns could not shine in the same
sky. He knew that as long as San Martin was there,
there would be divided loyalties. So San Martin
makes a choice. He realizes that for Peru to
be fully liberated, one of them has to go. And
since Bolivar has the momentum and the resources,
San Martin decides it has to be him. He sacrifices
his glory for the cause. He resigns as protector
of Peru, leaves his army and sails away. He leaves
the final victory and all the credit to Bolivar.
That is heartbreaking, actually, to do all that
work, cross the mountains, build the fleet, and
then walk away right before the finish line because
you know it's the only way the team wins. It's
a rare moment of humility in history. Most conquerors
cling to power until they are dragged out. San
Martin walked away. So he goes into exile, part
seven. He tries to go back to Argentina first,
right? He does, but Argentina is a mess. It's
torn apart by civil wars between... Federalists
and Unitarians, they want him to lead a faction.
Of course they do. He's the biggest military
hero they have. San Martin is heartbroken. He
refuses to draw his sword against his own countrymen.
He says, my sword will never be drawn against
my fellow countrymen. So he takes his daughter,
Mercedes, and goes to Europe. And he lives a
quiet life. Brussels, Paris. Bologna, sir, mayor.
He's not living like a king. He's actually somewhat
strapped for cash at times. He just watches South
American politics from a distance. There is a
story about him almost fighting a duel. Yes,
with Bernardino Rivadavia, a political enemy
from Buenos Aires who came to Europe and slandered
him. Sam Martin was old and sick, but he was
still a soldier. He challenged him. Friends had
to talk him out of it, thankfully. And he developed
a strange friendship with Juan Manuel de Rosa,
the governor of Buenos Aires, right? He did.
Rosas was a controversial figure, a federalist
strongman, a dictator to some. But San Martin
admired how Rosas defended Argentina against
foreign interventions, specifically the French
and British blockades in the 1830s and 40s. So
he respected Rosas for protecting national sovereignty.
Exactly. In his will, San Martin bequeathed his
famous curved saber, the one he carried across
the Andes to Rosas as a sign of respect for defending
the homeland. And he finally passed away in 1850.
In Boulogne -sur -Mer, France. He was blind by
the end, age 72. He died quietly, far from the
Andes. But he didn't stay in France forever.
No. His final wish was to be buried in Buenos
Aires. It took 30 years because of the endless
civil wars, but in 1880, his remains were repatriated.
He now rests in a massive mausoleum in the Metropolitan
Cathedral in Buenos Aires. So what does this
all mean? When we look at his legacy, what's
the final takeaway? He's the Saint of the Sword.
That's the nickname he earned. And it encapsulates
his legacy perfectly. He was a soldier who fought
for liberty, not for power. The evidence is there.
He had the opportunity to be a dictator in Chile.
He said no. He had the opportunity to cling to
power in Peru. He walked away. He refused to
fight in civil wars. It's the restraint that
makes him special. Exactly. In a region that
would later be plagued by cadillos and military
dictatorships, San Martin set an example of military
subordination to the greater good, and an example
that wasn't always followed, unfortunately. It
really makes you wonder. And here's a provocative
thought to leave you with. How different would
South America look today if San Martin had stayed?
Or, even more intriguingly, what if his Inca
plan had worked? What if South America had established
constitutional monarchies instead of unstable
republics? Would the last two centuries of history
have been more stable? It's one of the great
what -ifs of history. We'll never know. If you
are ever in New York, go to Central Park South.
If you are in D .C., check Virginia Avenue. Look
up at the guy on the horse. It's not just a statue.
It's a man who crossed the impossible and then
walked away from the glory. A true deep dive.
Thanks for listening. We'll catch you on the
next one.