José de Garro

Marcos José de Garro Senei de Artola , (* 1632 in Mondragón , Guipúzcoa in the Spanish Basque Country , † October 15, 1702 in San Sebastián in the Spanish Basque Country) was a Spanish officer , colonial administrator and governor in Tucumán , on the Río de la Plata and in Chile .

Life

Origin and youth

Garro was born to Domingo de Garro and his wife María Senei of Artola in the Basque Country. He embarked on a military career that led him to the rank of Maestre de Campo . From 1671 he was in the Order of Santiago . After an argument with an influential general who was a Spanish grandee , he went to the New World.

Tenure as governor of Tucumán and Buenos Aires

Spanish and Portuguese territories in South America around 1650

First he served as governor of Tucumán in Córdoba from March 23, 1674 to 1678 , until he was promoted from there to governor of Buenos Aires . The Portuguese, who had been granted the area east of about the 46th longitude as a sphere of influence according to the Treaty of Tordesillas , pushed for expansion to the west and landed with seven ships on the east bank of the Plata at the end of 1679 and established the colony Sacramento opposite Buenos Aires . Garro lacked the military means to repel the invasion; he sought help from the viceroy of Peru . With a small army, which was supplemented by Indians from the Jesuit reductions of Paraguay , he succeeded in storming Sacramento on August 6, 1680 and sending the Portuguese officers to Chile as prisoners of war.

At the Spanish court, the military bravado met with little approval. Here diplomacy had meanwhile made peace with France and Portugal . Sacramento was returned to the Portuguese and Garro was transferred to Chile as governor. The dispute over the Portuguese presence was not finally settled until the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

Term of office as Governor of Chile

Lengthy appointment of the successor to Governor Henríquez

The occupation of the governorship of Chile had already dragged on by then. The term of office of Governor Juan Henríquez de Villalobos lasted, and his replacement had long been decided. In December 1677 (when Garro was still governor in Tucumán) King Charles II had already appointed Antonio de Isasis as governor, but the latter died before he could travel to South America. In 1679, Marcos García Rabanal was named as Isasi's Knight of the Order of Santiago. The War Commission (Spanish: Junta de Guerra ) in the Council of India then recommended naming a replacement candidate as a precautionary measure, as García Rabanal's poor health made taking office appear unlikely. In fact, he died during the crossing at the end of 1680. Garro was named governor of Chile by royal charter on July 27, 1680.

Taking office

At the beginning of 1681 the certificate of appointment reached Buenos Aires, together with the news of García Rabanal's death. Garro informed the Audiencia in Santiago and set out a year later. He reached Santiago de Chile on April 24, 1682, took the usual oath of office before the city council (Spanish: Cabildo ) and took over the official business.

Fight against the Mapuche

At the beginning of his tenure he led several campaigns against the Mapuche , who resisted the colonial rulers in the south of the country. In 1684 Garro proposed a plan to the king to convene a parliament with the leaders and to overpower them in order to break the resistance. However, the king rejected this approach.

Fight against the privateers

The island of Mocha in 1616

The Spaniards did not have the necessary forces to effectively protect the long coast of Chile from attacks by pirates . Therefore, on March 8, 1684 , the Viceroy in Lima ordered the island of Mocha , not far from Concepción , to be evacuated in order to dry up supplies for the pirates. In addition, Garro cut off all maritime traffic so as not to offer the pirates any prey.

In 1686 the privateer Edward Davis attempted an attack on La Serena , but had to withdraw after fighting.

Beginning of goods smuggling to Chile

In addition to the predatory pirate attacks, another attack on the sovereignty of the Spanish crown began in the late 17th century. As a result of the sea embargo, high tariffs and the arduous land route over the main Andean ridge, many imported goods were simply unaffordable for the Chileans. English smugglers took advantage of this and began illegally importing goods that ignored Spanish customs regulations. French and Dutch soldiers of fortune would follow later.

Term expires

On January 5, 1692, he handed over his office to his successor Tomás Marín González de Poveda . After there were some delays until his legal discharge, he traveled back to Europe in June 1693.

Offices in Europe

Upon his return he was appointed governor of Gibraltar in 1696. He was later allowed to return to his Basque homeland in 1701, where he served as captain general of the province of Guipúzcoa and died in San Sebastián in 1702.

literature

• José Toribio Medina : Diccionario Biográfico Colonial de Chile . Imprenta Elziviriana, Santiago, Chile 1906, p. 344–345 (Spanish, memoriachilena.cl [PDF]).
• Diego Barros Arana : Historia General de Chile . tape 5 . Editorial Universitaria, Santiago de Chile 2001, p. 161–188 (Spanish, memoriachilena.cl [accessed June 24, 2010] first edition: 1886).

Web links

• Short biography at Biografías y Vidas (Spanish)
• Article about privateers and smugglers in Chile at Biografía de Chile (Spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Barros Arana, p. 162.