Why does South America have two Liberators? The brief but adequate reason is that through their separate but convergent efforts the Argentine José de San Martín and the Venezuelan Simón Bolívar liberated--in the sense of making independent--the Spanish-speaking republics of that continent from Spanish colonial rule. Bolívar began his campaigns in the north and San Martín in the south. They converged in the liberation of Perú. San Martín got there first, but it was Bolívar who finished the task of putting at end to Spanish military resistance in that country. To know why, their respective national and personal backgrounds must be taken into consideration.

Napoleon deposed the Spanish Bourbons in 1808. Juntas were formed in Spain to defend the monarchical rights of Ferdinand VII. In 1810, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as in Caracas, Venezuela, similar juntas were created, which were not recognized by the Spanish government in Cádiz and quickly evolved into independence movements.

The province of Caracas, followed by other Venezuelan provinces, declared independence on 5 July 1811. The republic was not well received by the mass of the people and it was easily overcome by irregulars loyal to Spain. Bolívar, the most ardent promoter of Venezuelan independence, fled to Nueva Granada (today's Colombia), where patriots had gained the upper hand in various provinces. He formed an army and in 1813 invaded Venezuela, but again the independentist movement was frustrated by resistance headed by loyalist caudillos (popular leaders). Bolívar took refuge in Jamaica and in Haiti. The Venezuelan independence movement was kept alive by patriot caudillos. The foremost among the royalist chieftains, Jose Tomás Boves, was killed in battle in 1815.

In 1812, the Argentine leader Manuel Belgrano defeated Spanish forces in the Battle of Tucumán and in 1816 the United Provinces of the River Plate (Provincias Unidas del Rio de la Plata) declared their independence and were later renamed Argentina ("plata", which means silver in Spanish, is "argentium" in Latin). In Paraguay Spanish colonial authorities had been deposed in 1811. In 1814 Uruguay declared itself independent of Buenos Aires.

The patriot forces in the interior of Argentina were having difficulties in subduing threatening Spanish troops in the Andean approaches to Upper Perú (today's Bolivia). In 1814, Belgrano handed command to San Martin, who had served in the Spanish army until he quit his commission to join the independence movement in 1812. San Martin devised the strategy of fighting the royalist forces at their Peruvian base. The most expeditious approach would be over the Andes to Chile and then by sea to Lima, the Peruvian capital.

In Chile the patriots had been defeated at Rancagua (1814) and were regrouping in Mendoza, Argentina. San Martin joined them and with the Chilean Bernardo O'Higgins led the patriot forces over the high Andes to Chile, where the royalists were defeated at Chacabuco (1817) and at Maipú (1818). San Martin led an expeditionary force by sea that landed in Pisco, near Lima. When the Spanish viceroy La Serna retreated to the interior, San Martín entered Lima in 1821 and independence was declared. In 1822, San Martín was proclaimed Protector of Perú.

Back in Venezuela in 1817, Bolívar, with the support of Gen. Jose Antonio Paez, unofficial reinforcements and material help from Britain (British Legion), held out in the interior against Spanish line troops brought in after Napoleon's defeat (1815). In 1819, Bolívar crossed the Andes and with Gen. Francisco de Paula Santander defeated loyalist troops at the battle of Boyacá in Nueva Granada. In 1820, Bolívar proclaimed the formation of the Republic of Great Colombia including Nueva Granada and Venezuela. After Spanish troops partially evacuated Venezuelan territory in 1820, Bolívar attacked the remaining loyalist forces and utterly defeated them in the battle of Carabobo in central Venezuela (1821).

Assisted by Gen. Antonio Jose de Sucre, Bolívar headed Colombian expeditionary troops that defeated the vestiges of Spanish forces in successive battles in Ecuador, which also joined Great Colombia. There were still significant pro-Spain forces in the interior of Perú and it was a question of who would finish them off. San Martín sailed to Guayaquil, the principal port of Ecuador, where he and Bolívar met. Subsequently, San Martín, who was not politically inclined, returned to Argentina via Chile and in 1824, with his country torn by civil strife, he left for Europe, where he died in 1850. After San Martín evacuated Lima, the Colombian forces led by Bolívar occupied the city. In 1824, Sucre defeated La Serna in Junín and in Ayacucho, thus bringing Spanish rule in South America to a close.

Bolívar was much more of a politician than San Martín. In 1825, he returned to Great Colombia, where the union he had envisioned was imperiled by political factions and crucially by separatist trends in Venezuela and in Ecuador. Bolívar tried to keep Great Colombia together, but with failure staring at him in the face he resigned as president in 1830 and went to the port of Santa Marta to die at the age of 47.

What transpired at the four-hour long meeting of Bolívar and San Martín in Guayaquil? Although strictly speaking no one knows, there is a commonsensical historical explanation. Today's Republic of Bolivia, then known as Charcas, had been a part of the viceroyalty of Perú until in 1776 it was attached to the newly created Viceroyalty of La Plata, future Argentina. Subsequently, Bolivia was re-attached to Lima as Upper Perú. Nevertheless, La Plata still had a jurisdictional case to sovereignty over Upper Perú. San Martín went to Guayaquil as representative of the United Provinces of the River Plate, so it was perhaps that, after obtaining assurances about Alto Perú, he deferred to Bolivar in Lima. Evidence for this is that Sucre was reprimanded in writing by Bolívar when, after the victory at Ayacucho, he crossed the border into Upper Perú without having received explicit instructions to do so. Bolívar might have done this to keep up appearances, but the implication was that La Plata had a legitimate claim on Upper Perú. In any event, Buenos Aires did not object and Sucre founded a republic, Bolivia, which he named after the man by then every one was calling the Liberator.  José de San Martín cannot be denied the honor of being, he too, the Liberator of his native land and Chile and of having expedited the way in Perú for his fellow Liberator, Simón Bolívar.