In 1794 he returned to the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, where he became a notable member of the criollo population of Buenos Aires; he tried to promote some of the new political and economic ideals, but found severe resistance from local peninsulares.

At first he unsuccessfully promoted the aspirations of Carlota Joaquina to become a regent ruler for the Viceroyalty during the period when the French imprisoned the Spanish King Ferdinand VII during the Peninsular War (1807–1814).

However, his deeper incursions into Upper Peru ended with the defeats of Vilcapugio and Ayohuma, leading the Second Triumvirate to order his replacement as Commander of the Army of the North by the newly arrived José de San Martín.

[1] Domingo Belgrano Pérez managed a family business, and arranged for his four daughters to marry merchants who would become his trusted agents in the Banda Oriental, Misiones Province, and Spain.

Manuel Belgrano was meant to follow his father's work, but when he developed other interests, it was his brother Francisco José María de Indias who continued the family business.

He created the Commerce School to influence future merchants to work towards the best interests of the nation,[18] and the nautical and drawing ones to provide the youth with prestigious and lucrative careers.

Belgrano was appointed as captain of the urban militias in 1797 by viceroy Pedro Melo de Portugal, who was instructed by Spain to prepare defences against a possible British or Portuguese attack.

Belgrano turned down the offer, suspecting that Britain might withdraw their support if their attentions were distracted by events which could occur in Europe, and in such case the revolutionaries would be helpless against a Spanish counterattack.

[38] Manuel Belgrano was the main proponent of the Carlotist political movement in the Rio de la Plata, a response to recent developments in Europe, where Spain was at war with France.

[39] Belgrano kept a fluent mail communication with Carlota, and convinced many independentists to join him in the project, such as Castelli, Vieytes, Nicolás Rodríguez Peña, and Juan José Paso.

[55] Three months after the creation of the Primera Junta, Manuel Belgrano was appointed Chief Commander of an army sent to gather support at Corrientes, Santa Fe, Paraguay, and the Banda Oriental.

Belgrano was unaware that on 24 July a general assembly in Paraguay discussed the Junta of Buenos Aires, and decided to reject it and pledge allegiance to the Regency Council of Spain.

With his authority as speaker of the Junta he gave them full civil and political rights, granted lands, authorised commerce with the United Provinces, and lifted their restriction on taking public or religious office.

The terrain gave a clear advantage to the Paraguayan governor Velazco against Belgrano: the Paraná River, nearly 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) wide, was an effective natural barrier, and once it was crossed the patriotic army would have to move a long distance across a land without supplies.

When the barrage stopped, Belgrano requested an armistice, telling Cabañas that he had arrived to Paraguay to aid and not to conquer; considering the open hostility with which he was met, he would leave the province.

Some of the officials were Manuel Dorrego, Gregorio Aráoz de Lamadrid, Cornelio Zelaya, José María Paz, Diego Balcarce, and Eustaquio Díaz Vélez.

The Second Triumvirate called the Assembly of Year XIII soon after taking power, which was intended to declare independence and enact a national constitution but failed to do so because of political disputes between the members.

The Second Triumvirate, and later the Supreme Director Gervasio Posadas, requested Belgrano to return to Buenos Aires and be judged for the defeats at Vilcapugio and Ayohuma, but San Martín refused to send him because of his poor health.

[89] This proposal was supported by San Martín, Güemes, the deputies from the Upper Peru, and other provinces, but it found a strong rejection from Buenos Aires; they would not accept Cuzco as the capital city.

[93] In 1819 Buenos Aires was at war with José Gervasio Artigas and Estanislao López and requested San Martín and Belgrano to return with their armies to take part in the conflict.

The bones were placed on a silver plate, and the following day there was a great controversy in the press: the newspaper La Prensa announced that Joaquín V. González and Riccheri had stolen a pair of teeth.

While he was near the frontiers of Córdoba, Santa Fe, and Buenos Aires, and in a delicate state of health, he learned that María Dolores had given birth to his daughter, Manuela Mónica del Sagrado Corazón, who was born on 4 May 1819.

This allowed him to read many influential books of the Age of Enlightenment, and understand the social, economic, technical, educative, political, cultural, and religious changes that were being prompted by the new ideas.

[103] He did not share completely the ideas of the French Revolution, but instead the tempered ones of the Spanish Enlightenment: most notably, he remained a monarchist[10] and held strong religious beliefs, being Roman Catholic and a devotee of Marian theology.

This led to an increased work in cartography of the largely unpopulated areas of the territory; the maps designed during this period would later prove a great help for José de San Martín during the Crossing of the Andes.

He gave it back to the XIII year Assembly, with instructions to build primary schools at Tarija, Jujuy, San Miguel de Tucumán, and Santiago del Estero.

However, the schools were not built, and by 1823 Bernardino Rivadavia declared that the money was lost; Juan Ramón Balcarce included it in the debt of the Buenos Aires province a decade later.

In 1873 a bronze equestrian statue of Belgrano by the French sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse was erected through public subscription at the Plaza de Mayo (in front of the future Casa Rosada) in Buenos AIres, and in 1903 an expensive mausoleum that received his ashes by the Italian sculptor Ettore Ximenes at the atrium of the nearby Santo Domingo Convent, featuring larger than life angels supporting an elaborate casket flanked by the two allegorical figures of Thought and Action and reliefs depicting the battles of Tucuman and Salta (in 2023 the mausoleum underwent a thorough restoration).

[109][110] In 1910 a large monument was erected at the site of the Battle of Salta, the work of the Catalan sculptor Torquat Tasso, topped by a bronze allegory of Liberty and life-size statues of Belgrano holding the flag and his officers Dorrego, Díaz Vélez and Zelaya.

In the museum Casa de la Libertad at Sucre, Bolivia, there is an Argentine flag, protected by a glass case and in a deteriorated condition, which they claim to be the original one raised by Belgrano for first time in 1812.