José Tomás Ovalle

José Tomás Ovalle Bezanilla

José Tomás Ovalle Bezanilla (* 1788 in Santiago de Chile , † March 21, 1831 ibid) was a Chilean politician . From 1830 until his death he served temporarily as president of his country .

After school studied Ovalle at the Real Universidad de San Felipe law , where in 1809 obtained the doctorate.

From 1823 he sat in the House of Representatives and in the provincial assembly for his hometown of Santiago.

In the wake of the revolution of 1829 and the subsequent civil war between liberal federalists and conservative centralists, he took part as a conservative delegate at the Congreso de Plenipotenciarios of 1830 and was elected its vice-president (and thus the representative of Fernando Errázuriz Aldunate ).

The Congress appointed Francisco Ruiz Tagle as president, who rejected the appointment due to opposition from more moderate circles. Ovalle then took over the presidency on April 1, 1830 .

Ovalle took a number of measures to enable General Ramón Freire y Serrano to effectively lead the government army, but the latter violently rose against the transitional government. It was not until General José Joaquín Prieto Vial's troops intervened and his victory at the Battle of Lircay that conditions were reasonably clear and sealed the triumph of the conservative camp.

But the civil war was not over yet. Numerous federal groups gave the government more and more skirmishes until Freire was finally forced into exile in Peru .

In the following months, José Tomás Ovalle tried to consolidate state power after the civil war. He acted with great severity against the federalists and advocated a strengthening of central power.

Surprisingly, he died of liver disease on March 21, 1831 after almost a year in office. The office of president was then taken over by his vice-president Fernando Errázuriz Aldunate until General José Joaquín Prieto Vial continued the government as elected president in the autumn of 1831.

See also: History of Chile .