In July 1822, two South American liberation heroes, Bolívar and Saint Martin, had a historic meeting in Guayaquil, and after the two heroes met, Saint Martin voluntarily gave up command of the army and entrusted the task of liberating Peru to Bolívar.
At first glance, Saint-Martin showed his own high spirit in this meeting, but returning to historical reality, it is a different look.
Sint Maarten
By attacking the Spanish colonists from south to north, San Martin had completely liberated Chile and partially liberated Peru. Bolívar attacked the Spanish colonists from north to south, and by this time had completely liberated Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, and established the Republic of Gran Colombia. On the eve of the talks, the two were still in dispute over the ownership of Guayaquil, and even threatened to break out into war, but the two decided to settle the dispute by negotiation. From the 26th to the 27th, Bolívar and Saint Martin had three secret conversations without the presence of others, and afterwards, Bolívar and Saint Martin tacitly agreed not to disclose the specific contents of the conversation to outsiders, so this far-reaching meeting was full of historical mysteries.
However, based on a careful study of the large number of subsequent letters, historians have speculated on several important issues during the secret talks between Bolívar and Saint-Martin: First, did Guayaquil belong to Gran Colombia or To Peru? Second, is Bolívar willing to send troops to support the liberation of Peru by San Martín? Third, did Peru practice a republican system or a monarchy after liberation? From The point of view of Saint-Martin, he wanted Guayaquil to belong to Peru, and he also wanted Bolívar to enter Peru to fight, and he also hoped that Peru would implement the monarchy he wanted, but Bolívar refused, that is, the negotiations between Saint-Martin and Bolívar failed, and he had to make concessions to Bolívar and eventually gave up military command.
Bolivar
Negotiations were based on strength, and The compromise at Saint-Martin had its own unavoidable grievances. The body was the capital of the Revolution, and Saint Martin suffered from severe rheumatism in his early years as a soldier in Spain, and after the Battle of San Lorenzo in 1813, his physical condition began to deteriorate: severe stomach cramps caused him to bleed and vomit blood. The pain was unbearable, St. Martin had to use opium to relieve the pain, after entering 1816, he had become deeply addicted to this drug, taking it not only to alleviate stomach pain, but also to help sleep, to calm the nerves, to calm the depression. In a letter to a friend, St. Martin wrote: "A severe hemorrhage and the ensuing weakness kept me in bed for 19 days. ”
Saint-Martin's physical health was worrisome, and to make matters worse, Saint-Martin's army was so depleted after years of fighting that it was no longer sufficient to wage a large-scale war as before. There are three reasons for this dilemma, one is that Saint-Martin has no ambitions for politics, he prefers to command the war as a soldier, so he did not participate in the struggle for the highest political power in Argentina in the rear, and chose to lead the army across the Andes Mountains, launching one war after another against the Spanish colonizers. The military is a continuation of politics, and Saint-Martin's neglect of political factors has laid the groundwork for the smooth progress of the war of liberation.
Second, Saint Martin ignored the orders of the Argentine president and refused to participate in the Argentine civil war, with the ultimate goal of defeating the Spanish colonizers, which made Saint Martin offend the Argentine president who fully supported his liberation cause, so he did not get support from Argentina in the process of liberating Peru.
Third, there was a conflict between Saint-Martin and the admiral who had cooperated with him, and just as the war entered a critical stage, the admiral led a large force to leave. To make matters worse, Peruvian hostility towards San Martin grew, and when San Martin and Bolívar negotiated, the Peruvians overthrew the aide-de-camp who had temporarily left San Martin in Peru.
In short, when Saint-Martin and Bolívar met, they did not have an advantage in all aspects. In contrast to Saint-Martin, Bolívar was in good health and a man with a desire for power, and Bolívar took the political and military grip of the Republic of Gran Colombia to ensure the smooth progress of the War of Liberation. Bolívar dared to make no concessions in the negotiations, precisely by virtue of his own strong strength.
Scene of talks between Bolívar (right) and Saint-Martin (left).
In September 1822, after resigning from all his posts in Chile, Saint-Martin left the Americas forever and moved to Europe, where he remained until his death. In fact, Saint Martin was not "high-spirited", because of the failure of the negotiations, Saint Martin was initially full of resentment towards Bolívar, but with the accumulation of time and the change of thinking, Saint Martin finally changed his view of Bolívar, and he wrote from the bottom of his heart about Bolívar: "My victory in the War of Independence is too insignificant compared to the contribution of the general to the cause of the Americas." And "it is reasonable to say that his military achievements are worthy of the fame of the most eminent figures ever made in South America."
What's even more interesting is that the insanity of Saint Martin lived a full 20 years longer than the healthy Bolívar, and perhaps it is precisely because Saint Martin saw the chaos in South America after Bolívar's death that he truly realized the greatness of Bolívar.