Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa

Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa

Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa (born January 24, 1717 in Seville , Spain , † April 9, 1779 in Mexico City ) was a Spanish officer and colonial administrator who served as governor of Cuba and viceroy of New Spain.

Life

Origin and family

Antonio de Bucareli came from a noble family from Seville with Italian roots. His father was Luis Bucareli, his mother Ana María de Ursúa Lasso de la Vega, Countess of Gerena. Antonio had fourteen siblings, ten of them brothers.

At the age of four he was handed over to the military arm of the Order of Malta for training. At fifteen he joined the Spanish Army as a cadet. As an adult, he made the vows of a Knight of Malta and remained celibate all his life.

Careers in Europe

First he served in a cavalry regiment in Granada . But soon he took part in the war. He fought in numerous battles in the war that King Philip V waged in Italy to regain the Spanish possessions there. Bucareli rose rapidly in the hierarchy of the army: in 1730 he became a lieutenant, in 1740 a captain and in 1744 a colonel. It was mainly used in Piedmont and Lombardy . During the War of the Austrian Succession he was involved in the evacuation of Nice in 1746.

After the Peace of Aachen , he initially served as inspector general of the cavalry and dragoon regiments. He then reorganized the coastal protection of Murcia (region) and Granada and was appointed head stable master of the stables of the Infante Philip . In this function he took part in the campaign in Portugal and was a delegate of the Spaniards in the peace negotiations with the Count of Schaumburg-Lippe .

Term of office as governor of Cuba

From 1766 onwards, Bucareli was governor of Cuba. Its main task was to improve the military defense of the strategically important island, which in 1762 during the Seven Years' War was quickly taken by the English after little resistance .

Under his rule, the fortifications of Morro, Atarés and San Carlos de la Cabaña, which his predecessor, the Duke of Ricla , had begun, were completed.

Bucareli proved to be a skilful governor who carried out the extensive reforms in the colonial administration that King Charles III. had ordered, implemented with care and consideration. In June 1771 he received a letter from the Council of India that he had been appointed as the successor to Carlos Francisco de Croix as the new Viceroy of New Spain.

Tenure as Viceroy of New Spain

At the end of August 1771 he went ashore in Veracruz , reached Mexico City at the end of September and took over the official duties from his predecessor. At the end of October he made his ceremonial entry into the capital.

After the energetic reforms of his predecessors and the visitador José de Gálvez y Gallardo (who returned to Europe in 1772), Viceroy Bucareli's deliberate manner met with much approval from the population. He was reluctant to implement the reorganization of the viceroyalty in Intendencias based on the French model, while he supported other parts of the Bourbon reforms in the colonial empire.

But his main interest was finances. Here he did everything to avoid national bankruptcy; he cut costs where possible, and at the end of his tenure he managed to generate a surplus of two million pesos without charging new taxes and duties. He carried on some of the innovations of his predecessors, such as the royal tobacco monopoly .

In other areas he went his own way. So he created a separate jurisdiction for mining. In 1774 he also allowed the miners to join together in union-like interest groups. Alexander von Humboldt , who got to know the results of these reforms during his visit in 1803, expressed himself in his work on Mexico with great praise for the working conditions in the Mexican mines.

The colony's economic situation improved when, in 1774, the Spanish government first allowed direct trade in goods between the colonies of New Spain, Peru and New Granada .

In terms of foreign policy, Bucareli's term of office was favored by a phase of peace. Nevertheless, the viceroy had fortifications built in Veracruz, the port towards Europe, and renewed the fort of the Pacific port of Acapulco , which was destroyed by an earthquake.

The veteran regiments from Flanders and Savoy and the Asturian regiment returned to Europe in 1776. As compensation, the Viceroy had three standing companies set up: one in Acapulco, one in Ciudad del Carmen and one in San Blas (Nayarit) . He made up for the staff shortage by opening the army to mixed race and indigenous people and filling the ranks with pardoned people from Europe.

With the support of a committee of experts, he looked for ways to pacify the great insecure provinces in the north. This endeavor ended when the court created the Gobernación y Comandancía General de las Provincias Internas as an administrative unit in 1776 , which included the provinces of Sinaloa and Sonora , California and Nueva Vizcaya . It was subordinate to new governorates in New Mexico , Texas and Coahuila . Theodore de Croix , the nephew of the previous viceroy, became the military governor of all these new territories . The relationship between Theodor Croix and Bucareli was strained, as Croix kept calling for troops and funds.

The evangelization of California had led to disputes over competency between the Franciscan and Dominican orders , in which Bucareli arbitrated. Numerous settlements were built in California during Bucareli's tenure that followed the first research trips under José de Gálvez - including San Francisco . In 1774 he sent two more expeditions to further explore the Pacific coast to the northwest. Juan José Pérez Hernández reached Haida Gwaii and the Nootka Sound , a second expedition under Bruno de Heceta reached today's Sitka in Alaska .

In the field of economic policy, he prohibited the importation of foreign goods and reduced the amount of money in circulation, since he only bought coins with the likeness of Charles III. allowed as a means of payment. He had a pawn shop set up that was to benefit the poor in particular. During his tenure, the Mexican poor hospice was set up and several hospitals were expanded.

In Mexico City, he had the Alameda Central park beautified and the Paseos Bucareli built. At the urging of a popular initiative, the Real Audiencia of Mexico (which he himself no longer presided over after the Bourbon reforms came into force) awarded him the honorary title: Father of the People (Spanish: padre del pueblo ).

Antonio Bucareli died unexpectedly in office in April 1779 of pleurisy . The unmarried and childless Bucareli had chosen his brother José, Margrave of Vallehermoso, as heir. The affairs of state in New Spain were initially conducted by the Audiencia under the regent Francisco Romá y Rosell , until the successor Martín de Mayorga arrived in Mexico.

literature

• Juana Vázquez Gómez: Dictionary of Mexican Rulers, 1325–1997 . Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CT, USA 1997, ISBN 0-313-30049-6 , pp. 43–44 ( books.google.de [accessed July 1, 2015]).

Web links

• Biography (spanish)
• Biography (spanish)
• History of his tenure (Spanish)

predecessor	Office	successor
Carlos Francisco de Croix	Viceroy of New Spain 1771–1779	Francisco Romá y Rosell