Francisco Antonio García Carrasco

Francisco Antonio García Carrasco

Francisco Antonio García Carrasco Díaz (born December 15, 1742 in Ceuta , Spain , † August 10, 1813 in Lima , Peru ) was a Spanish officer and governor of Chile .

Life

Army career

He was the son of Lieutenant Antonio García Carrasco and his wife Rosa Díaz. As an infantry cadet , he joined the army at the age of 15 and reached the rank of lieutenant colonel in the engineering corps.

In 1785 he was transferred to the Spanish colonies in South America and was commissioned to direct the fortifications of Montevideo . In 1796 he was sent to Santiago de Chile , where he was supposed to oversee the construction of the mint ( Palacio de La Moneda , today's presidential palace). He also oversaw the construction of the fortifications at the port of Valparaíso .

Until 1806 he was promoted to the rank of brigadier and head of the engineering corps in South America. In this role he was supposed to investigate and improve the fortification systems in southern Chile.

Governor of Chile

Assumption of office

In February 1808, the governor of the general captainate of Chile in the viceroyalty of Peru , Luis Muñoz de Guzmán, died . After a brief interim rule by Juan Rodríguez Ballesteros , García Carrasco took over the post on April 22, 1808 as the highest-ranking officer on site, in accordance with the regulations.

At that time, the Spanish government was no longer able to determine a successor in the wake of the Napoleonic wars . In August 1808, news of the capture of King Ferdinand and the attack by Napoleon reached Bonaparte .

government

In contrast to Muñoz de Guzmán, who was popular and respected by the local Creoles , the technocrat García Carrasco failed to establish a connection with the local people.

Political orientation

At the time, the political camps in Chile split up into absolutistas (absolutists) who saw the imprisoned King Ferdinand as the only legitimate ruler and who wanted to follow the representatives appointed by him unchanged. Another group, the carlotistas , placed their hopes in Charlotte Joachime of Spain (Spanish: Carlota ), the sister of King Ferdinand, who had fled to Rio de Janeiro with her husband (later King John VI of Portugal ) . The Charlottists saw in her the only capable representative of the ruling family and wanted her to build a legitimate power base in the South American colonies. Finally, there was the group of juntistas who, just like in the motherland, wanted to take over government affairs with their own bodies (government juntas) made up of proven personalities until the king had returned. The range of political ideas among the juntistas was wide - it ranged from the more moderate and conservative forces striving for a purely temporary fiduciary administration to the more radical sections who saw a junta as the first step towards regional internal self-government of the colonies. At that time there was no talk of complete independence from Spain.

García Carrasco was inclined to the Charlottists. He proceeded with just as harshness as arbitrariness against all citizens to whom he assumed junta sympathy. Arrests and deportations to Lima increased.

Scorpion affair

The little authority the governor still wielded was completely destroyed by the Scorpion affair . The whaler Scorpion brought smuggled English cloth to Chile. However, the partners on the Chilean side planned to ambush the crew when the smuggled goods were handed over and to steal the valuable cloth (worth 80,000 people). But armed men were needed for this. In return for a share of 85% of the profits, Governor García Carrasco, to whom the robbers had turned, agreed to provide a force of Dragones that were actually intended for police service. On the night of September 25, 1808, the robbery took place, the captain and eight crewmen of the Scorpion were murdered.

However, the district judge had learned of the plan and made the scandal public. But the responsible Dragones were suddenly under guarded arrest and were deprived of both the lynch-free population and criminal justice. Public anger was then directed against Governor García Carrasco and his secretary, Juan Martínez de Rozas (who would later be one of the leading figures of the independence movement). Martínez fled to Concepción.

resignation

Investigating the incident weakened the governor's position. In addition, the juntistas gained more and more weight when news from Spain reached Chile that the Junta Suprema Central had withdrawn to Cádiz and that loyal Spain was in dire straits. On July 16, 1810, Francisco García Carrosco finally resigned; The 82-year-old Creole Mateo de Toro Zambrano y Ureta followed him as the highest-ranking officer in the field.

retirement

After his resignation, García Carrasco retired to the country. After the failure of the royalist coup by Tomás Figueroa and the rapid shooting of the ringleader in early April 1811, García Carrasco was arrested and expelled from the country. He went to Lima in August 1811.

literature

• Diego Barros Arana : Historia Jeneral de la Independencia de Chile . I-IV. Imprenta del Ferrocarril, Santiago, Chile 1855 (Spanish).
• Diego Barros Arana: Historia jeneral de Chile . I-XVI (1884-1902). Rafael Jover, Santiago, Chile 1884 (Spanish, books.google.com ).
• José Toribio Medina : Diccionario Biográfico Colonial de Chile . Imprenta Elzeviriana, Santiago, Chile 1906, p. 331-332 (Spanish, 1006 pp., Memoriachilena.cl [PDF]).