José Gervasio Artigas Arnal (Spanish pronunciation: [xoˈse xeɾˈβa.sjo aɾˈti.ɣas aɾˈnal]; June 19, 1764 – September 23, 1850) was a soldier and statesman who is regarded as a national hero in Uruguay and the father of Uruguayan nationhood.

He defeated the Spanish royalists at Las Piedras and laid siege to Montevideo, but was forced to withdraw in the face of Portuguese intervention.

[1] His grandparents fought in the War of the Spanish Succession and moved to the Americas to escape from poverty, settling in Buenos Aires in 1716.

His parents enrolled him in the Colegio de San Bernardino, to pursue religious studies, but Artigas refused to submit to the school's strict discipline.

The viceroy Antonio de Olaguer y Feliú negotiated a pardon with his family, on the condition that he joined the Corps of Blandengues with a hundred men, to form a battalion.

Although Artigas's unit was tasked with patrolling the frontier with Brazil, he requested to take part in the military expedition that Santiago de Liniers launched from Montevideo to drive the British out of Buenos Aires.

After the recapture of Buenos Aires, he was tasked with returning to Montevideo and informing the governor Pascual Ruiz Huidobro of the result of the battle.

[9] The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment and the outbreak of the Peninsular War (from 1807 to 1814) in Spain, along with the capture of King Ferdinand VII, generated political turbulence all across the Spanish Empire.

Spain declared Buenos Aires a rogue city, and appointed Montevideo as the new capital, with Francisco Javier de Elío, who was an experienced hard-line colonialist from Cádiz, as the new viceroy.

[11] Mariano Moreno, the Argentine secretary of war, wrote at the Operations plan that Artigas would be a decisive ally against the royalists in Montevideo, and called him for an interview.

They captured many villages in the Banda Oriental, such as Mercedes, Santo Domingo, Colla, Maldonado, Paso del Rey, Santa Teresa and San José.

Then, he sent Manuel Villagrán, a relative of Artigas, to offer him a pardon and appoint him general and military leader of the Banda Oriental if he gave up the rebellion.

Fearing a complete defeat, Buenos Aires signed a truce with Elío, recognizing him as the ruler of the Banda Oriental and half of Entre Ríos.

The Supreme Director Gervasio Antonio de Posadas offered a reward of $6.000 for the capture of Artigas, dead or alive.

Several royalist leaders, such as Vigodet or Pezuela, sought an alliance with Artigas against Buenos Aires, but he rejected them: "I may not be sold, nor do I want more reward for my efforts than to see my nation free from the Spanish rule".

[18] Despite the deep disputes, Artigas was still eager to return to good terms with Buenos Aires, but only if the city accepted a national organization based on federalist principles.

This time, the naval skills of Argentinian William Brown helped to overcome the strength of the Montevidean navy, leading to the final defeat of the royalist stronghold.

Carlos María de Alvear led the capture of Montevideo, and lured Artigas there by promising that he would turn over the city to the Oriental patriots.

[21] In 1814, Artigas organized the Liga de los Pueblos Libres (League of the Free Peoples), of which he was declared Protector.

The continued growth of influence and prestige of the Federal League frightened the governments in Buenos Aires (because of its federalism) and Portugal (because of its republicanism), and in August 1816, Portugal invaded the Eastern Province (with tacit complicity from Buenos Aires), with the intention of destroying Artigas and his revolution.

The Portuguese forces, led by Carlos Frederico Lecor, captured Artigas and his deputies and occupied Montevideo on 20 January 1817, but the struggle continued for three years in the countryside.

Some books Artigas read in his teens include Paine's Common Sense and Rousseau's The Social Contract.

Some historians such as Eugenio Petit Muñoz and Ariosto González, have shown that some paragraphs of the Artiguist documents were taken directly from "The Independence of the Mainland Justified by Thomas Paine, Thirty Years Ago" published by Paine in Philadelphia in 1811 and translated immediately into Spanish, and "Concise History of the United States" by John McCulloch.

Statues of José Artigas stand on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C.; on 6th Avenue in Spring Street Park, New York; in Plaza Artigas Salto, Uruguay; in Caracas, Venezuela; in Athens, Greece; in Mexico City; in Newark, New Jersey; in Quito, Ecuador as well as in the town centre of Montevideo, Minnesota and in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

A bust of José Gervasio Artigas can be also found at Luis Muñoz Rivera Park in San Juan, Puerto Rico.