Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano y González (3 June 1770-20 June 1820) was an Argentine politicial and general who fought in the Argentine War of Independence and designed the country's flag.
Biography[]
Manuel Belgrano y Gonzalez was born in Buenos Aires, the son of an Italian businessman and his criollo wife. He attended university in Spain, where he came into contact with Enlightenment ideas, before returning to Buenos Aires in 1794 and becoming a lawyer. His attempts to promote new political and economic ideals were resisted by local Spaniards, causing himt o work towards a greater autonomy for the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata. He initially supported Carlota Joaquina's aspirations to become a regent ruler for the viceroyalty after the French imprisoned King Ferdinand VII of Spain during the Peninsular War, but he supported the May Revolution of 1810 and was elected as a voting member of the Primera Junta.
Belgrano in 1814
As a delegate of the Junta, Belgrano led the ill-fated Paraguay campaign of 1810-1811 and was defeated by Bernardo de Velasco at the Battle of Paraguari and the Battle of Tacuari. He was forced to retreat to Rosario, where he developed the design of the flag of Argentina. As royalist armies invaded from Upper Peru, he was forced to evacuate the entire population of Jujuy Province to San Miguel de Tucuman, and his counteroffensive at the 1812 Battle of Tucuman resulted in a key strategic victory. He soon crushed Pio Tristan's royalist army at the Battle of Salta, although his deeper incursions into Upper Peru were defeated at Vilcapugio and Ayohuma in late 1813, leading to his replacement by Jose de San Martin as commander of the Army of the North. By then, his flag was approved as the national war flag. Belgrano and Bernardino Rivadavia would be sent to Europe to seek support for the revolutionary government, and he returned home in time for the 1816 Congress of Tucuman, which declared Argentine independence. Belgrano supported the establishment of a constitutional monarchy with an Inca descendant as head of state, but the delegates from Buenos Aires strongly rejected the proposal. Belgrano went on to reassume command of the Army of the North, protecting San Miguel de Tucuman from royalist advances while San Martin led the Army of the Andes across the Andes to liberate Chile. As Jose Gervasio Artigas and Estanislao Lopez prepared to invade Buenos Aires, Belgrano moved his army northwards, but his troops mutinied in the Arequito Revolt of January 1820. Belgrano died of dropsy on 20 June 1820.