Ambrosio de Benavides

Ambrosio de Benavides

Ambrosio de Benavides Medina Liñán y Torres (born January 20, 1718 in Granada , Spain , † April 27, 1787 in Santiago de Chile ) was a Spanish colonial official who served as governor of Puerto Rico , Charcas and Chile .

Life

Origin and youth

Ambrosio Benavides was born in Andalusia to Juan Carlos de Benavides Mesía Ponce de León and his wife María Teresa de Medina Liñán y Torres. As head of the Inquisition of the Province of Cordoba, his father was a senior official in the royal administration.

Ambrosio embarked on a military career relatively late at the age of 20, in which he rose to colonel (1761).

Administration in Puerto Rico and Charcas

In 1760 he was appointed royal governor of Puerto Rico by King Ferdinand . In 1766 he was ordered back to Spain and on February 21, 1768 he was entrusted with the governorship of Charcas. He arrived there on November 18, 1768 and held the office until September 20, 1778.

Administration in Santiago

In January 1780 he was appointed head of the General Capitol in Chile . The news reached him in Buenos Aires in May 1780 , and he set off. He spent the winter in Mendoza and reached Santiago on December 11th to take office. The arduous journey had a lasting impact on his health.

Immediately upon his arrival, the three Antonios conspired: Inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment and the founding of the United States of America , Antonio Gramusset and Antonio Berney , both French, wanted an independent republic together with José Antonio de Rojas , a native Creole erect in Chile. The plan failed and the three leaders were arrested on January 1, 1781, before any possible unrest could spread.

Benavides' tenure was overshadowed by a natural disaster in the fall of 1783. After an earthquake that shook Santiago on April 13, 1783, the Río Mapocho burst its banks on June 16, 1783 after days of rain and flooded the main artery of Alameda and large parts of the city, so that in the end the city center was like an island Floods stood out.

Under the governorate of Benavides, the Italian architect Joaquín Toesca began building the mint ( La Moneda , later and until now the presidential palace in Santiago); In addition, the first plans were drawn up to build a canal to the Río Maipo to regulate the water level . These plans were then put into practice under Luis Muñoz de Guzmán , although they were not completed until 1820.

Benavide's administration earned him respect and recognition from the local population.

Reforms under Charles III.

King Charles III ordered extensive reforms of the colonial administration to accommodate the growth of the colony. The general captaincy was divided into two intendencias : The north of the country (from Copiapó to the Río Maule ) was administered from Santiago , Benavides took over the directorship himself, supported by Alonso de Guzmán y Peralta as assistant. The southern part of the country from the Río Maule to the Río Valdivia was administered by the directorship of Concepción ; Benavides appointed Ambrosio O'Higgins as artistic director , who in turn took the young lawyer (and later leader of the independence movement) Juan Martínez de Rozas as his assistant.

The island of Chiloé was not part of the Intendencia and was also spun off from the General Capitanate and placed directly under the Viceroy of Peru .

The king reserved the appointment of the military governors of Valparaíso and Valdivia himself.

Benavides died in office at the age of 69. He is buried in the Cathedral of Santiago.

Web links

• Biography (spanish)
• José Toribio Medina: Diccionario Biográfico Colonial de Chile (Spanish) (PDF; 113 MB), p. 126ff.