Manuel Belgrano

Belgrano was born in Buenos Aires in 1770, son of an Italian businessman, and returned from university in Spain in 1794 carrying Enlightenment ideas that the local Spanish establishment wanted nothing to do with. Frustrated, he drifted toward autonomy and backed the May Revolution that ousted the viceroy in 1810. His first command, the Paraguay campaign of 1810-1811, ended in defeat at Paraguarí and Tacuarí, though it set Paraguay on the path to independence anyway. Falling back to Rosario, he created the flag - which the government rejected, though he wouldn't know for weeks. Ordered north to Jujuy, he evacuated the entire province ahead of royalist forces, then turned and won decisively at Tucumán and Salta in 1812-1813. Defeats deeper in Upper Peru cost him the command; San Martín replaced him. He spent time on a fruitless diplomatic mission to Europe, came back for the 1816 Congress of Tucumán that declared independence and finally approved his flag, then commanded the Army of the North one last time before his troops mutinied in early 1820. He died of dropsy in June that year, last words: "Oh, my homeland!"