During the years 1810-14 two men of outstanding ability appeared in the front ranks of the Republican cause: Simon Bolivar, the greatest of all South American soldiers, and José de San Martin. Bolivar had travelled widely in Europe during the heady days of the Napoleonic Wars, being present at Napoleon's coronation. San Martin, enrolled in the Seminario de Nobles in Madrid, served in the Spanish army for 20 years, seeing action in the battles of Baylen and Albuera and at the second siege of Badajoz. These two men would achieve the destruction of the southern Spanish American empire.