Historia de San Martín y de la emancipación sudamericana

History of San Martín and the South American emancipation

Author	Bartolomé Mitre
Original title	Historia de San Martín y de la emancipación sudamericana
Country	Argentina
Language	Spanish
Subject	José de San Martín
Genre	Biography
Publisher	Ediciones Peuser
Publication date	1887

Historia de San Martín y de la emancipación sudamericana (Spanish: History of San Martín and the South American emancipation) is a biography of José de San Martín, written by Bartolomé Mitre in 1869. Along with his biography of Manuel Belgrano, it is one of the earliest major works of the historiography of Argentina.

During the second half of the 19th century Argentina had left behind the War of Independence and the most harsh times of the civil war, and began to strengthen its culture. One of the pending issues was to define the Father of the Nation, which was faced by Bartolomé Mitre. The first one thus defined was Bernardino Rivadavia, who served briefly as President of Argentina in 1826. The policies implemented by Rivadavia back then were similar to those implemented by the current governments.

However, Rivadavia was a statesman without a military career. Mitre sought to create a military Father of the Nation, to complement Rivadavia, and wrote Historia de Belgrano y de la Independencia Argentina, a biography of Manuel Belgrano. This attempt did not prove completely effective, as Belgrano had provided the key victories at the battles of Tucumán and Salta, but was defeated in the Paraguay campaign and the whole second Upper Peru campaign.