Domingo Martínez de Irala

Domingo Martínez de Irala

Division of South America 1534–1539

Domingo Martínez de Irala (* presumably 1506 in Vergara , Gipuzkoa , † October 3, 1556 in Asunción , Paraguay ) was one of the leading officers of Pedro de's expedition in 1535/36, alongside Juan de Ayolas and Juan de Salazar y Espinosa Mendoza y Luján in the area of ​​the Río de la Plata and its main tributaries ( Río Paraná and Río Paraguay ). From 1538 he commanded the colony together with Juan de Salazar until the arrival of the new governor Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1542. After his overthrow and banishment in 1544, Irala headed the Spanish colony in the Río de la Plata area up to virtually unrestricted at his death, although between 1547 and 1552 he did not hold an office officially confirmed by the king.

biography

Domingo Martínez de Irala came from a small aristocratic family established in Bergara (Vergara) in the Spanish Basque Country; his parents were Martín Pérez de Irala and Marina de Albisua y Toledo. His father, a royal notary, names him in his will with the Basque name Chomin in his 1516 will . Being the oldest of six sons, he should, built by his parents Majorat inherit the Emperor Charles confirmed on February 17, 1521st In a second will, drawn up jointly by both parents in 1529, the inheritance of the family in Vergara was transferred to him while still alive . In the 1530s, the well-educated landlord, in keeping with his status, joined the Castilian campaigns of conquest, which were booming at that time, into the as yet undiscovered areas of the southern continent of the New World.

The total of around 100 soldiers and sailors with whom Irala arrived in the mouth of the Silver River in mid-January 1536 under the command of Adelantado Pedro de Mendoza y Luján, who was appointed by the king , founded the Fort Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Aire , which later became the city Buenos Aires should emerge. In 1537 Domingo de Irala accompanied his superior Juan de Ayolas on an expedition arranged by Mendoza. a. was to find a connection route between the La Plata area and the Spanish possessions in the province of New Toledo ( Peru and Bolivia ). The explorers moved along the Paraná and Paraguay rivers far north and built a small fort called Puerto de la Candelaria on the bank of the river at the extreme northern point of their journey - probably near Corumbá in what is now the border area between Brazil and Bolivia ; then Juan de Ayolas continued the journey westward through the Gran Chaco and left Domingo Martínez de Irala, who was a year younger than him, as commander of the fort. When Juan de Ayolas did not return - he was probably killed by the Chaco Indians - Irala La Candelaria gave up in 1538 and the soldiers went to Fort Nuestra Señora Santa María de la Asunción, which was further south and had meanwhile been built by Juan de Salazar y Espinosa which received city rights in 1541. The first mayor ( alcalde ) of the city of Asunción was either Irala or Espinosa. In 1541 Domingo de Irala also ordered the resettlement of the inhabitants of the fortification from Buenos Aires to Asunción (leaderless since Pedro de Mendoza's departure and death in 1537 and often harassed by hostile Indians), making it the center of the new colony in the Rio-de-la-Plata -Area advanced.

In Asunción, Adelantado Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca , who was appointed in Spain in 1540 and arrived in March 1542, soon made himself unpopular among the "long-time residents" because of his anti-Indian attitude, as he wanted to restrict the rights of possession and disposal of the Spanish settlers over their native workers and tried to push through the recently adopted Leyes Nuevas . Domingo Martínez de Irala, who had acted as interim leader of the colony before Núñez 'arrival in the absence of a royal appointed expedition leader, was instrumental in several conspiracies with the aim of his removal. In 1544 the opponents enforced the arrest and conviction of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, who was sent back to Spain that same year - together with Espinosa - and charged with alleged "tyranny" by him. Irala took over the rule in Asunción de facto in agreement with the citizenship, but was initially not recognized by the king, who instead appointed the extreme petty nobleman Juan de Sanabria as Adelantado in 1547 . Juan de Salazar y Espinosa was also awarded the office of "Treasurer of the Silver River" ( Tesorero del Río de la Plata ) and was supposed to accompany the new governor to Asunción. Juan de Sanabria died before leaving Spain, however, and Juan de Salazar was missing on the return journey and did not arrive in Asunción until the end of 1555.

Domingo Martínez de Irala undertook several expeditions to the Chaco area and as far as Upper Peru and founded the city of Ciudad de los Reyes in 1543 near the Laguna La Gaiba in what is now Bolivia . The foundation had to be given up again. In 1547 he organized an expedition consisting of 280 Spaniards and 3000 Indians, which was supposed to visit the silver mining area and the Amazon on the other side of the Gran Chaco. After successfully crossing the Chaco, however, the explorers had to realize that the area of ​​the richest silver mines in the Potosí had already been developed from Peru . On his return to Asunción in 1549, Irala learned of his removal as governor and the appointment of Sanabria. It was not until 1552 that Charles I officially elevated the de facto ruler of Paraguay to Adelantado of the province of Río de la Plata, since the Sanabria expedition was now considered lost. Domingo Martínez de Irala ignored two calls for help, which Juan de Salazar and the widow of the late Adelantado who accompanied him had conveyed through the jungle to Asunción, since they were stuck on the Brazilian coast, since the arrival of those believed to have disappeared would have endangered his position of power; instead he had the messengers of the news imprisoned. When the remnants of the Sanabria expedition finally arrived in Asunción at the end of 1555 after a five and a half year odyssey and adventurous jungle crossing, Irala left them unmolested and avoided an open conflict with the city's founder Espinosa. Feared for his tyrannical and authoritarian leadership, Irala remained the absolute commander of the colony until his death.

Before his death, Domingo Martínez de Irala undertook several shorter expedition trips, on which he was also confronted with uprisings by the Indian population. He also commissioned other expeditions to the Chaco, but they were unsuccessful and one of them never returned. He himself died in Asunción on October 3, 1556 after contracting a febrile illness while building a temple in Itá . In his will of March 13, 1556 is u. a. contain a passage on his many illegitimate children for whom he makes provisions for their future Christian marriages. He himself had seven Indian wives.

Domingo Martínez de Irala is considered a capable discoverer and skilful political tactician, who repeatedly succeeded in emerging from difficult constellations among rival leaders as a winner and asserting his interests and points of view. Despite tough and ruthless measures among the colonists, he always had a significant following. He avoided conflicts that could be dangerous for him and knew how to defuse them by giving in in good time and showing a certain willingness to compromise. At the same time, he demonstrated determination to the point of unscrupulousness towards inferior opponents and adversaries.

The political fate of Irala is also evident in his Indian policy, as he succeeded in winning over most of the leaders of the Guaraní Indians, who are considered to be relatively peaceful, while at the same time not disappointing the settlers' interests in the exploitation of Indian labor (he introduced Repartimiento system a). The alliances sealed by blood brotherhoods with Indian leaders and the associated marriage policy of Irala, which promoted connections between the mainly male colonists and Indian women and accepted children from these connections as heirs and fellow citizens of equal rank, are considered an early example of mestizaje and therefore often became very popular in Latin American historiography positively assessed as a far-sighted measure, as some indigenous peoples could see themselves involved in the development after the arrival of the Europeans. Whether Irala can actually be regarded here as the “father of Paraguay” and the founder of a Paraguayan mixed nation or simply acted out of necessity cannot be answered without further ado. In any case, the relatively good relationship between the Spaniards and the Guaraní ensured the colony's survival in the long term. However, this policy met with strict rejection by the Spanish court and the colonial authorities, which were characterized by strict moral concepts and the pro-racism of the ideology of blood purity prevailing in Spain at the time . In Spain, Asunción was sometimes mockingly referred to as the “Garden of Mohammed” and rumors spread that the settlers there owned a harem made up of Indian women who were portrayed as morally inferior, incompetent and dirty. Last but not least, these ideas motivated the Crown to send the Sanabria expedition, with which mainly (exclusively "blood-pure", i.e. not descended from Jews or Moors ) Castilian families with children, young married couples and marriageable small aristocratic girls were to be brought to the colony. to counteract the intermingling between Spaniards and indigenous peoples, which is perceived as a threat to future development.

Irala's successor as governor was his longtime collaborator Gonzalo de Mendoza , a cousin of Pedro de Mendoza.

Honors

Irala, a suburb in what is now the greater Buenos Aires area, is named after him. In addition, many streets in Argentina and Paraguay bear his name.

Web links

• Martínez de Irala, Domingo (1509-1556) - Short biography of Carlos Herraiz García at MCNBiografías (Spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Miguel Angel Elkoroberezibar: Domingo de Irala y su entorno de la villa de Bergara. Reprint of the Yearbook of the Paraguayan Academy of History, Volume 46 (2006), summary on Euskonews , accessed January 2018.