Juan Mackenna

Juan Mackenna

Juan Mackenna (born October 26, 1771 in Clogher , Ireland , † November 21, 1814 in Buenos Aires , Argentina ) was an Irish-Chilean military member and participant in the Chilean War of Independence.

biography

Your granddaughter
Elena Mackenna Serrano de Errázuriz
Oil on canvas
by Exequiel Plaza

Born John MacKenna (alternatively Seán Mac Cionath ) was taken to Spain by his uncle, Count Alejandro O'Reilly , so that he could study mathematics there in Barcelona . Between 1785 and 1791 Mackenna was also active at the Military Academy as a military engineer.

In 1787 he was accepted into the Irish Brigade of the Spanish Army and fought in this under Colonel Luis Urbina in Ceuta in North Africa. But only four years later he resumed his studies in Barcelona. In the following years he was promoted to officer. He fought in the Pyrenees War, a war of the First Coalition in Rosselló under General Ricardos, and there he met José de San Martín , an important person in the independence war of the colonies of Chile and Argentina for the first time . In 1795 Mackenna was promoted to captain in recognition of the acquisitions at Plaza de Rozas.

In October 1796 Mackenna traveled to the New World in Buenos Aires for the first time , from there to Mendoza and Chile . Then he crossed the Andes to get to Peru . After arriving in Lima , he immediately contacted Ambrosio O'Higgins , then Viceroy of Peru, who was also Irish. Mackenna was then endowed with the office of governor of Osorno and was commissioned to expand the city. Makenna managed to persuade the Castro family to set up a trading post in the city, after which he had a department store built. Mackenna's successful administration soon aroused the jealousy of Gabriel de Avilés , who feared that the two Irish would set up their own business and found an Irish colony at the expense of the Spanish crown. Mackenna was in contact with the viceroy's son, Bernardo O'Higgins , who was to appear as the future liberator of Chile, but Mackenna proved to be loyal to the Spanish king. After the elder O'Higgins died, Avilés was appointed Viceroy of Peru in 1801. Although he immediately set about removing Mackenna from his position, it took him eight years to make his plan a reality.

In 1809 Mackenna married Josefina Vicuña y Larraín, a young South American woman of Spanish origin who came from a family that had contacts with many pro-independent people. After the colony lost its independence in 1810, Mackenna decided to stand up for the side of the rebels and became entrusted with a governorship in the breakaway colony; he was also given the supervision of the equipment of the Chilean army. In 1811 he was appointed governor of Valparaíso . Mackenna was chosen by Bernado O'Higgins to serve as one of the key officers against the Spanish army under Antonio Pareja . He reached the climax of his military career in 1814 when he prevented a premature collapse of the Chilean army at the Battle of Membrillar.

Despite his success, Luis Carrera managed to force Mackenna out of office, so that the Irishman had to go into exile in Argentina in 1814. Mackenna then lost his life in a duel with Carrera in November 1814.

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• Diego Barros Arana : Historia Jeneral de la Independencia de Chile . Volume I-IV. Imprenta del Ferrocarril, Santiago, Chile 1855 (Spanish).
• Claudio Gay : Historia de la independencia Chilena . Volumes I and II. Imprenta de E. Thunot y Cia., Paris 1856 (Spanish, books.google.com ).
• Raúl Tellez Yañez: El General Juan Mackenna. Héroe del Membrillar (Ensayo histórico) . Editorial Alonso de Ovalle, Santiago, Chile 1952 (Spanish).
• Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna: El ostracismo de los Carreras: Los jenerales José Miguel i Juan José i el coronel Luis Carrera. Episodio de la independencia de Sud-America, by Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna . Imprenta del Ferrocarril, Santiago, Chile 1857 (Spanish, books.google.com ).
• José Zapiola: Recuerdos de treinta años (1810-1840) . Volumes I and II (1872-1876). Imprenta de El Independiente, Santiago, Chile (Spanish).
• Edmundo Murray: Juan Mackenna . In: Dictionary of Irish Latin American Biography . Retrieved October 15, 2008.