Félix María Calleja del Rey

Félix María Calleja

Félix María Calleja del Rey , Count (Spanish: Conde) of Calderón , (born November 11, 1753 in Medina del Campo , Province of Valladolid , Spain ; † July 24, 1828 in Valencia , Spain) was a Spanish officer and general who served as Viceroy of New Spain officiated.

Life

Military career in Europe

Calleja joined the Spanish army as a cadet in 1773. He served in the Savoy infantry regiment.

He was used both in the failed punitive expedition of the Spaniards in Algiers in 1775 and in the siege of Gibraltar (1779–1783) . Before Gibraltar he served as orderly of Miguel de la Grúa Talamanca y Branciforte and got to know Juan Vicente de Güemes , who, like him, would later rule over New Spain as viceroys. Eventually he took part in the siege and conquest of Menorca in 1782. Hierarchically, he rose to the rank of captain during this active military service.

In 1784 he was appointed director of the cadet institute of El Puerto de Santa María , which he headed until it was dissolved in 1788.

Military career in New Spain

In 1789, Calleja accompanied the new viceroy Juan Vicente de Güemes to New Spain. After landing in Veracruz, he went to Puebla , where he was also active in the training of cadets, NCOs and candidate officers.

Viceroy Güemes also entrusted him with the task of inspecting and investigating the border areas in the north. He toured the area, made maps and wrote descriptions of the situation there. In 1790 the dragoon militia of Ocotlán was established as a consequence . In 1792 he placed units of border guards in Nueva Galicia (German: New Galicia) and formed the first division of the north.

In 1795, the new viceroy Miguel de la Grúa sent him to Nuevo Santander and Nuevo León to investigate settlements, missions and military facilities there. He had defense plans drawn up for the ports on the Gulf Coast and regular patrols sent out to counter the threat of British attack. Calleja led several expeditions against insurgent Indians as well as American irregulars in the territory of Texas . During this time he was also under the rank of captain Ignacio Allende , who would later become one of the leading figures of the independence movement.

Viceroy Miguel José de Azanza , who ruled Mexico from 1798, reorganized the military structure in the viceroyalty. Félix Calleja was given the rank of lieutenant colonel in command of the tenth militia brigade in San Luis Potosí , after complaining in letters to the king and the viceroy that his rank did not correspond to his achievements. By 1800 he was promoted to colonel and brigadier general.

The following years passed quietly for him. In 1807 he married Francisca de la Gándara from a wealthy Creole family .

Role during the first aspirations for independence

Napoleon Bonaparte had Spain occupied by French troops in 1808. He held King Ferdinand VII prisoner in France and appointed his brother Joseph Bonaparte as the new king. The loyal Spanish resistance tried militarily to wear down the French with a guerrilla tactic, while a junta Suprema Central took over the affairs of state in Ferdinand's absence.

In the Spanish colonies, the question arose as to what legitimation and what form of organization should the legislature and executive continue to work with. The Peninsulares sent from Spain tended to wait until King Ferdinand was able to act again. The local Creoles, however, were looking for an independent solution with more local autonomy.

Despite his social involvement in Creole circles, Calleja appeared as a determined prospective royalist. He demanded a public declaration of loyalty to King Ferdinand, collected funds for the resistance against the Bonapartists and gathered a group of volunteers called "Ferdinand VII". Viceroy José de Iturrigaray called him to the capital when the conflicts between the Peninsulares and Criollos came to a head in August 1808. In September 1815, royalist forces led by the merchant Gabriel de Yermo overthrew the supposedly Creole-friendly viceroy Iturrigaray in a coup d'état and instead raised the officer Pedro de Garibay viceroy. He temporarily appointed Calleja governor of the capital and tasked him with restoring law and order. Then Félix Calleja returned to San Luis Potosí, until Viceroy Francisco Javier Venegas arrived in the colony in September 1810 .

War of Independence

The Mexican War of Independence began on September 16, 1810 with Miguel Hidalgos Grito de Dolores . On September 17, 1810, Viceroy Venegas appointed Brigadier General Calleja to command the army brigade that was supposed to oppose the independence movement. Calleja's troop initially comprised around 4,000 men and grew through further reinforcements to almost 6,000.

The rebels very quickly captured Celaya , Guanajuato , Valladolid (today's Morelia ) and Guadalajara . On October 30, 1810, the army of the independence movement, which had grown to 80,000 men, defeated the Spanish troops at Monte de las Cruces, not far from Mexico City. As a result, the leaders of the Independistas remained divided: while Ignacio Allende wanted to move to Mexico City, Miguel Hidalgo hesitated and ordered a retreat towards Valladolid.

Calleja hurried with a cavalry division from San Luis Potosí towards the capital; on the plains of San Jerónimo Aculco , the royalists met the rebels on November 7, 1810 and clearly defeated them. Subsequently, Calleja managed to retake Guanajuato largely without a fight.

Outside Zapotlanejo , 60 kilometers east of Guadalajara, at the bridge of Calderón (Spanish: Puente de Calderón ), Calleja's Spanish brigades defeated the armed forces of the independence movement, which were far superior in numbers, on January 17, 1811 thanks to their better equipment (such as artillery) and tactical ones Discipline.

The insurgents fled north towards Zacatecas . In March, the royalists succeeded in ambushing the leaders of the movement, Ignacio Allende , Miguel Hidalgo , Juan Aldama and José Mariano Jiménez . They were executed and the independence movement lost its leaders. At the end of 1811, under José María Morelos, a new phase of the struggle that broke out in southern Mexico began.

Calleja's brigades turned south, captured Zitácuaro in January 1812 and besieged Cuautla until May 1812. Calleja then withdrew to Mexico City.

Tenure as viceroy

In 1812 the Cortes of Cadiz had passed a constitution for Spain. Viceroy Venegas, who was a staunch advocate of absolutism, rejected it and prevented its proclamation in New Spain.

At the same time, he did his best to suppress the constitutional fundamental rights to freedom of the press and freedom of expression. Against this stance, a growing opposition movement rallied among the royalists in Mexico City, which wanted Calleja to take office and the Regencia in Cádiz to replace Venegas.

Between Calleja's appointment in September 1812 and his assumption of office in February 1813 there was on the one hand the usual travel route for messages by ship across the Atlantic, which was made more difficult by the civil war. On March 4, 1813, Calleja formally took office. He wrote his first report to the government, in which he described the colony's difficult situation: the public coffers were empty, wages were outstanding, and parts of the troops were poorly equipped. He confiscated the property of the Inquisition (which had been dissolved by constitution) and consistently collected sales taxes in order to obtain the necessary funds for the war. At the same time, he addressed the population with a proclamation in which he praised the new constitution and assured that it would be observed.

Between April and June the elections for the representations in municipalities and provinces followed in accordance with the new constitution. The Constitution granted freedom of expression, and discussions and publications revived.

In the War of Independence, guns fell silent for nearly a year after the royalists took Oaxaca and Acapulco . In September 1813 the Congress of Chilpancingo met and formulated the goals of the independence movement.

At the end of 1813, Morelos failed in the attempt to take Valladolid (today: Morelia ); Calleja took the offensive and captured Chilpancingo in early 1814 ; Congress had to flee.

In 1814 King Ferdinand returned to Spain, in May 1814 he abolished the constitution and returned to absolutist rule. Viceroy Calleja proclaimed this in June 1814, forbade any criticism of the monarchical rights and proposed that all captured rebels be pardoned in celebration of the return of the king. In August 1814 he was promoted to lieutenant general.

The return to absolutism meant the end of the magistrates and local councils, the Real Audiencia of Mexico and Guadalajara resumed their work, the Jesuit order (which Charles III had driven out) was allowed to return to the country and the Inquisition returned.

These repressive measures fueled the resistance of the pro-independence advocates. In an attack on members of the Congress on November 5, 1815, the rebel leader José María Morelos was captured in their protection force, handed over to the Inquisition and, after he had been condemned as a heretic and traitor, shot at the gates of San Cristóbal Ecatepec on December 22nd.

Thanks to his tactical superiority, Calleja's troops were able to defeat the fragmented and poorly organized resistance movement again and again. Regardless of these successes, the royalist side was also divided, and influential people in Spain repeatedly pushed for the viceroy to be replaced.

At the beginning of September 1816, Juan Ruiz de Apodaca arrived in Veracruz to replace Calleja. The handover took place on September 20, 1816.

Return to Spain

After his return to Europe, King Ferdinand elevated Calleja to Count of Calderón and awarded him high medals in memory of his victorious battle of 1812. He acted in an advisory capacity at the top of the army in Madrid.

In 1819 the king made him captain general of Andalusia and governor of Cádiz . He also became commander in chief of overseas troops.

During the constitutionalist revolution and the Trienio Liberal , he withdrew to Ibiza . From 1822 he lived again in Valencia, where he died in July 1828.

literature

• Fernando Orozco: Gobernantes de México . 3. Edition. Panorama Editorial, Mexico City 2004, ISBN 968-38-0260-5 , p. 189-190 ( books.google.de ).
• Juana Vázquez Gómez: Dictionary of Mexican Rulers, 1325–1997 . Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CT, USA 1997, ISBN 0-313-30049-6 ( books.google.de [accessed July 1, 2015]).

Web links

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

Commons : Félix María Calleja del Rey  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
Francisco Javier Venegas	Viceroy of New Spain 1813–1816	Juan Ruiz de Apodaca