Domingo Ortiz de Rozas

Domingo Ortiz de Rozas , Conde de Poblaciones (born November 21, 1683 in Rozas, Asturias , Spain , † June 28, 1756 at sea off Cape Horn ) was a Spanish officer and colonial administrator who served as governor on the Río de la Plata (1741– 1746) and served in Chile (1746–1755).

Life

Origin and youth

Ortiz was born to Urbano Ortiz de Rozas and his wife Isabel García de Villasuso. He married Ana Felipa Ruiz de Bribiesca ( also: Briviesca) from Cádiz , with whom he had three sons and a daughter. His wife died in 1778.

At a young age he entered the service of the Spanish Crown and fought in the War of the Spanish Succession in Italy and North Africa. In 1737 he was accepted as a knight in the Order of Santiago . He rose to the rank of field marshal in the army . In 1747 he was raised to the Conde de Poblaciones .

Tenure as governor in Buenos Aires

On May 24, 1745 King Philip V appointed him captain general of the province of Río de la Plata in the viceroyalty of Peru , and he took up residence in Buenos Aires , where he began his official duties on March 25, 1746. (According to other sources, this should have already happened on June 21, 1742.) During his tenure, he oversaw trade with the province of Sacramento and drove the fortification work in Montevideo .

Term of office as governor in Chile

With a royal charter of May 24, 1745 he was appointed governor of Chile, where he took office on March 25, 1746.

He held a parliament with the indigenous Mapuche population , in which the Indians promised not to undertake any more raids beyond the main Andean ridge.

During his tenure in 1747, the approval and formal establishment of the Real Universidad de San Felipe and the appointment of its first rector, Tomás de Azúa, fell . However, teaching was only started ten years later.

In 1749 a prison island was built on the Juan Fernández Islands . In later years numerous independence fighters were to live here in exile after the defeat in the Battle of Rancagua .

Ortiz had the flood protection on the Río Mapocho rebuilt in Santiago de Chile until 1751 after devastating floods occurred in 1748 when the river overflowed its banks. In addition, several cities were founded in the south of the country during his tenure: Quirihue in 1749 , Casablanca in 1750 and Coelemu and La Florida in 1751 . La Ligua followed further north in 1754 .

When a severe earthquake largely destroyed the city of Concepción in 1751 , he had it rebuilt in a new location. This provoked fierce opposition from Bishop José de Toro y Zambrano (1674–1760). The case was ultimately made by King Ferdinand VI. decided in favor of Ortiz.

With a deed dated September 17, 1754, King Ferdinand accepted the 71-year-old's resignation and appointed Manuel d'Amat i de Junyent as his successor.

On the way back to Europe, Ortiz went overboard at Cape Horn on June 28, 1756 during a winter storm and drowned.

Web links

• Biography at Biografia de Chile (spanish)
• Biography at Icarito (Spanish)
• José Toribio Medina: Entry in the Diccionario Biográfico Colonial de Chile (Spanish) (PDF; 113 MB), p. 624.