Francisco Gil de Taboada y Lemos

Francisco Gil de Taboada

Francisco Gil de Taboada Lemos y Villamarin (also differently: Lemus ) (born September 24, 1733 in Santa María de Sonto Longo, Galicia , Spain , † 1810 in Madrid , Spain) was a Spanish naval officer and colonial administrator who served as Viceroy of New Granada and Peru and later served as the Spanish Naval Minister.

Life

Origin and youth in Europe

Francisco Gil came from a family of the Galician landed gentry. At the age of 16, Gil became a Knight of the Order of Malta . At the age of 19 he joined the Spanish Navy as a cadet , where he quickly made a career and rose to lieutenant general in the Navy.

Viceroy of New Granada

In 1788 King Charles III appointed him . to the Viceroy of New Granada. Gil embarked in Cádiz in the fall and reached Cartagena in January 1789. His first task was to overlook the colony's dire financial condition, burdened by the ongoing struggle against revolting Indians and insurgent settlers. He tried to improve the economic situation of the colony. So he gave up some settlements in Panama that his predecessor had founded, as they promised little income, but caused considerable administrative and defense costs.

Since the viceroy's palace in Bogotá had been destroyed by an earthquake in 1785, Gil preferred to leave his official residence in Cartagena for the time being. He made efforts against the smuggling and had to contend with further uprisings.

In March he made his way inland and settled in Bogotá. Here he continued the rigorous austerity course, reduced staff and cut wages. In July he received news of the appointment as Viceroy of Peru. He handed the office over to his successor, José de Ezpeleta .

Viceroy of Peru

Francisco Gil de Taboada left Bogotá in early August 1789 and reached Lima in March 1790. He made his ceremonial entry on May 17, 1790.

He ordered several expeditions to explore the interior, for example by the Franciscans Manuel Sobreviela and Narciso Girbal. The naturalists Thaddäus Haenke and Louis Née were supposed to sail the Pacific coast to Panama and collect material for the new Natural History Museum in Madrid .

In economic terms, the earnings situation in silver mining improved as a result of innovations introduced by a team of several Germans under the leadership of the mineralogist Fürchtegott Leberecht von Nordenflycht to examine rock samples. Nordenflycht's work was used as the basis for a mining academy ( Colegio de Minería ). Despite the efforts, silver revenues for the viceroyalty declined as the proceeds from the Potosí mines flowed into the sack of the viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata .

Francisco Gil is portrayed as a cultured, art-loving man interested in science. Under his rule, a separate anatomy lecture hall was established at the Universidad San Marcos in 1792 and a chair for botany in 1796. Gil's tenure also included the establishment of the Naval Academy in Callao in 1794. Several learned societies and numerous publications were founded in those years, including the Mercurio Peruano .

Since the Spanish colonial administration feared that republican or even revolutionary ideas would seep in in the wake of the French Revolution , the viceroy ordered the censorship to be tightened and the foreigners who lived in the colony were strictly monitored for their allegiance to the Spanish monarchy.

In June 1796 he handed over his office to Ambrosio O'Higgins and traveled back to Europe just before Christmas 1796.

Back in Europe

In 1799 he was appointed Supreme Commander of the Spanish Navy. In Spain prevailed at that time formally King Charles IV. , Of the official duties effectively on his wife's lover, Manuel de Godoy had made, who as Minister of State acted and an alliance with the France of Napoleon Bonaparte reached.

At the beginning of 1805 Gil was promoted to interim Foreign and Navy Minister. In October 1805, the Spanish and French were defeated by the English at the Battle of Trafalgar . In the personnel rochade that followed, Gil was appointed permanent minister of the navy.

Minister of State Godoy tried to end the fatal alliance with France, but Napoleon remained tough and demanded Spanish support for his campaigns. Crown Prince Ferdinand - who hated Godoy - tried secretly and on his own to arrange a marriage with the Bonaparte family. When this was discovered, his father accused him of high treason, the royal family fled to Aranjuez , French troops occupied Spain. In March 1808 the Aranjuez mutiny broke out , angry Spanish soldiers and civilians stormed the palace, forcing King Charles to dismiss Godoy and to abdicate himself in favor of his son.

Before Napoleon had Ferdinand captured on April 21, 1808 and brought him into exile in Bayonne, France , he appointed a government team ( Junta Suprema de Gobierno ), which essentially consisted of the ministers in office up to now; Among them was Francisco Gil as Minister of the Navy. The French commander-in-chief Joachim Murat demanded the extradition of Godoy and the resignation of the government in early May 1808. It took a few days for Gil to submit.

In July 1808 the loyal Spaniards defeated the French at the Battle of Bailén and forced them to give up Madrid. Gil was sworn in again on September 29, 1808 as a member of the junta in Aranjuez. When the French struck back victoriously at the beginning of 1809, they demanded from all junta members an oath of loyalty to the King Joseph Bonaparte appointed by Napoleon . Gil ostentatiously refused this oath, but Joseph let it go. Francisco Gil died the following year.

literature

• Manuel de Mendiburu (1805-1885): Diccionario histórico-biográfico del Perú . 4th volume. Imprenta J. Francisco Solis, Lima 1880, p. 69-105 ( cervantesvirtual.com [accessed March 17, 2015]).

Web links

• Short biography (Spanish)
• Biography (spanish)

predecessor	Office	successor
Antonio Caballero y Góngora	Viceroy of New Granada 1789	José de Ezpeleta
Theodor de Croix	Viceroy of Peru 1790–1796	Ambrosio O'Higgins