General José de San Martín is a city in the north-east of the . It is named after

José de San Martín José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras (25 February 177817 August 1850), known simply as José de San Martín () or '' the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru'', was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and centr ...

, the Argentine general who played a major role in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

's fight for independence from

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

(see Argentine War of Independence).

History

The town was founded under the name of ''El Zapallar'' on 25 April 1907, although the measurement and division of the terrain was not properly finished until 2 July 1913. Its progress was slow due to the lack of communications, which began only in 1917 when Juan Godoy opened a precarious

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

line that linked El Zapallar with the provincial capital Resistencia, 120 km away. By 1924 El Zapallar had 5,000 inhabitants and was the head town of the Toba Department. It had a police station, a court, a civil registration, a social club, and mail and telegraph services. That year the El Zapallar Agricultural Cattleman Association was established. The Quijano railroad line also contributed to the growth of the town, by connecting it to Lapachito. A Development Commission was created by decree of

Hipólito Yrigoyen Juan Hipólito del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús Yrigoyen (; 12 July 1852 – 3 July 1933) was an Argentine politician of the Radical Civic Union and two-time President of Argentina, who served his first term from 1916 to 1922 and his second ...

in 1928. In 1934 the town was turned into a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

, which was renamed General José de San Martín in 1955.

Communications

The area is crossed southwest to northwest by National Route 90, asphalted, which links it to Resistencia, and also by the Provincial Routes 3 and 7, which cross it respectively from east to west and from east to southwest. The city has an airstrip of limited capacity.

External links

* Populated places in Chaco Province Cities in Argentina {{ChacoAR-geo-stub