Rejecting his mother's proposal of sending him to study in Spain at the University of Salamanca and Alcalá de Henares, alongside his cousin Manuel Belgrano, he enrolled in jurisprudence studies in the University of Chuquisaca, in the Upper Peru (modern Bolivia). There, he learned about the ongoing French Revolution, and the new ideas of the Age of Enlightenment. He also learned about the 1782 Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II and the oppression of the indigenous peoples, which influenced his actions in his future Upper Peru campaign. Before returning to Buenos Aires, he visited Potosí and witnessed the use of slave labor in the mines.