Carlos María de Alvear
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Carlos María de Alvear (born on October 25, 1789 in Santo Ángel, Misiones – died on November 3, 1852 in New York, United States) was an Argentine soldier and statesman, Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the River Plate (present-day Argentina) in 1815.
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[edit] His youth
He was born in the northern part of the Viceroyalty of the River Plate to a Spanish nobleman father, Diego de Alvear, and a criollo mother, María Balbastro and baptised Carlos Antonio del Santo Ángel Guardián. His birthplace Santo Ángel was, at that time, part of the Misiones Province, but currently belongs to the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.
While travelling in Spain, Alvear's brothers and mother died in an incident that took place on October 5, 1804, when English frigates opened fire on the Spanish ship that was transporting them. This incident was a preamble to the Battle of Trafalgar and the consequent war between both countries. The English took Alvear and his father, together with other survivors, as prisoners to England, where Diego de Alvear would later marry an Englishwoman.
Honouring his mother, Carlos de Alvear adopted the name of Carlos María de Alvear. Notwithstanding the fate of his mother and brothers at the hands of the English, 15-year-old Carlos was partially educated in the English culture, adopting, in his adult age, what some would later see as a position partial to English interests.
[edit] His career
Alvear was one of the few professional military officers to participate of the Argentine War of Independence on the side of the revolutionaries, having served in the Spanish Army during the Napoleonic Wars. While in Europe, he founded the Lautaro secret society in London. José de San Martín, with whom Alvear would always have a conflictive and contradictory relationship, would later also become a member of the Logia Lautaro.
He returned to Buenos Aires on board the English frigate George Canning, in which were also travelling San Martín, Juan Matías Zapiola, Francisco Chilavert and other soldiers. Upon his arrival, Alvear was named Lieutenant Coronel of the young Argentine army. He led the action against the Royal army under Gaspar Vigodet in Montevideo, replacing José Rondeau and making Uruguayan patriot leader José Gervasio Artigas an enemy.
Alvear was a leader of the constituent Assembly of the year 1813 and, goaded by political ambition, succeeded in establishing an Unitarian (centralizing) form of government, having his uncle Gervasio Antonio de Posadas named Supreme Director (chief executive.)
Alvear was then named commander of the Army of the North, but lack of support from Posadas, as well as his unpopularity among his troops and other disagreements, including a project for a constitutional monarchy that sent Manuel Belgrano to Spain to negotiate, made him return to Buenos Aires. On January 9, 1815, at just 25 years of age, he was chosen to replace Posadas as Supreme Director.
Having neither the support of the troops nor influence on the people of the hinterland provinces, Director Alvear then attempted to come to an alliance with Artigas, to whom he offered the independence of the Banda Oriental (current Uruguay). In exchange, Artigas would withdraw his army from the Argentine Littoral. But Artigas declined the offer and Alvear sent troops to occupy the area.
He was also said, at this time, to be in correspondence with the British ambassador in Rio de Janeiro, in order, it has been conjectured, to facilitate a British intervention. Belgrano, on returning from Europe, denounced the maneuver, and subsequent attempts by the Director to install himself as a dictator were strongly opposed by the army under general Ignacio Álvarez Thomas. As a consequence, Alvear resigned, on April 15, and left the country. He was in exile in Brasil until 1824.
It is at this point that his enmity towards San Martín, who enjoyed the universal support and admiration of the entire army, was first made manifest.
[edit] Later career
Alvear returned to Argentina in 1824, protected by an amnesty law (Ley del olvido), and in 1825 he represented the Provincias Unidas during the Convention of Bolivia, where his participation gave rise to considerable controversy.
As a leading Unitarian, president Bernardino Rivadavia made him his Minister of War and Navy between 1826 and 1827. As such, he led the army during the 1827 Argentina-Brazil War, defeating the hated Brazilians at the great Battle of Ituzaingó, easily the most important victory of his career. It was his brilliant and fearless conduct during this campaign, and the memorable victory which ended it, that has made the controversial Alvear a national hero with the Argentine people ever since.
The fall of Rivadavia brought about Alvear's retirement from public life. In a wily precautionary move, Rosas sent him far away, naming him, a Unitarian ( ! ), Argentina's first minister plenipotentiary to the United States in 1838. He spent the rest of his tumultuous life as ambassador in the U.S., dying in New York.
A typical Argentine Anglophile and the military son of a Spanish nobleman, Alvear was viscerally anti-American. According to his American biographer Thomas Davis, his diplomatic correspondence, with typical vigour, shaped age-old Argentine distrust of U.S. intentions, which Alvear felt included the unspoken desire to conquer, or at least dominate, all of Latin America.
[edit] See also
List of Presidents of Argentina
[edit] References
Davis Jr, Thomas B.: Carlos de Alvear, Man of Revolution. The Diplomatic Career of Argentina's First Minister to the United States. Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 1955
- Biography (Spanish).
- Alvear's letter to San Martín while in exile (Spanish)
