Cornelio Saavedra (politician)

Cornelio Saavedra

Cornelio Judas Tadeo Saavedra (born September 15, 1759 in Potosí , Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata , today Bolivia , † March 29, 1829 in Buenos Aires , Argentina ) was an officer and politician during the Argentine War of Independence . After the May Revolution , he was the sole president of the Primera Junta, the first independent government of Argentina, from May to December 1810, and from December 1810 to August 1811 the first president of the Junta Grande, which was expanded by further members.

Life

Cornelio Saavedra was born in the mining town of Potosí in the Bolivian highlands, which at that time belonged to the Spanish viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata . The family soon moved to Buenos Aires, where the climatic conditions were more favorable; Cornelio's father, Santiago de Saavedra, came from Buenos Aires.

Cornelio began studying humanities at the Royal College of San Carlos, but did not graduate because he had to take care of his father's agriculture. His political career began in 1797 as Regidor of the local government of Buenos Aires, in 1799 he was appointed Procurador and in 1801 Alcalde . In 1805 he was responsible for the grain administration of Buenos Aires. He married Saturnina Otárola.

His military career began unexpectedly when the British occupied Buenos Aires under William Carr Beresford in mid-1806 and Viceroy Rafael de Sobremonte had to flee to Córdoba . Saavedra led the Regimiento de Patricios , a militia unit of Argentine volunteers, which elected him to be its officer. In 1807 he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the militia. In 1807 the British, who had initially occupied Montevideo, attacked Buenos Aires again, but were repulsed in street fighting by the local militias under Martín de Álzaga and Saavedra.

The internal political situation became more complex in the following years: Napoleonic troops occupied the motherland Spain in 1808 in order to enforce Joseph Bonaparte as king in place of Ferdinand VII , who was in French captivity. Juntas loyal to the king organized the resistance in Spain, and efforts were also made in the colonies in South America to take governance into their own hands. Viceroy Santiago de Liniers lacked legitimacy, on the one hand, because the king was incapable of acting, and on the other hand, he was attacked by the Spanish patriots because of his origins as a potential traitor and friend of the French.

Saavedra represented the interests of the Argentine upper class ( criollos ), who wanted extensive autonomy for the area on the Río de la Plata, while Álzaga belonged to the party of the Peninsulares , who wanted to maintain the previous ties to the motherland in the first place. Saavedra was one of the moderate forces of the independence movement: He delayed the uprising against the last Spanish viceroy Baltasar de Cisneros until the Cabildo Abierto (the assembly of dignitaries) deposed the capital of Cisneros on May 25, 1810 and put a government junta in his place. Cornelio Saavedra became chairman of the transitional government. Soon there were arguments with Mariano Moreno , the war minister, who wanted to push through radical changes in administration and social affairs. Saavedra had MPs from other provinces admitted to the junta, so that Moreno and his colleagues became a minority and Moreno resigned from his offices.

In the struggle against royalist Spanish troops in the highlands of Bolivia, the independence movement suffered several defeats in 1810 and 1811. Saavedra rushed north in late August 1811 to personally lead the army of the north against the Spaniards. His political opponents took the chance to oust the junta; in their place a first triumvirate ruled the province of the Río de la Plata. In Buenos Aires a civil war broke out between the forces of Moreno and those of Saavedra, which ended with the defeat of the moderate Saavedra party.

Cornelio Saavedra crossed the main cordillera to the west and stayed in Chile with his ten-year-old son Agustín . He stayed there until 1814 when he returned to Buenos Aires to face a court. In April 1815 he was stripped of his military rank and the Director Supremo Ignacio Álvarez Thomas banished him to Arrecifes .

In 1818 the Constituent Congress pardoned him and Director Juan Martín de Pueyrredón appointed him Brigadier General of the Army. At the end of the year he was named Jefe de Estado Mayor , who should lead the peace negotiations with the Ranqueles Indians.

The conflicts between the provinces and generals and the de facto dissolution of the central government pushed Saavedra to Montevideo from 1820 , where he initially supported the government of the governor Martín Rodríguez . In 1822 he took his leave from the army . During the war with Brazil he offered his active service again, but the Minister of War Marcos Balcarce did not take advantage of this in view of Saavedra's old age.

Saavedra died in Buenos Aires in March 1829.

Honors

The Bolivian province of Cornelio Saavedra and the district of Saavedra (Buenos Aires) are named after Saavedra ; a soccer cup in South America also bears his name: the Copa Cornelio Saavedra .

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• Biography (spanish)
• Biography (spanish)