Pablo Morillo
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Pablo Morillo y Morillo, Count of Cartagena and Marquess of La Puerta, aka El Pacificador (The Pacifier) (born in Fuentesecas, Zamora, Spain on May 5, 1775 - died in Barèges, France, on July 27, 1837) was a Spanish soldier and general.
In 1791 Morillo enlisted in the Real Cuerpo de Marina (Spanish Royal Marine Corps) and participated in the Battle of Trafalgar in which he was wounded and made prisoner by the English in 1805. He also fought against Napoleon Bonaparte in 1808 during the Peninsular War (part of Napoleonic Wars) to defend his mother country Spain against the French invasion. Once the war ended and the Spanish monarchy was restored, King Ferdinand VII of Spain appointed him Expedition Commander and General Captain of the Provinces of Venezuela on August 14, 1814. He set sail with a fleet of 18 warships and 42 cargo ships and disembarked in the Isla Margarita with the mission to pacify the revolts against the Spanish monarchy in the American colonies. He travelled to Caracas, Puerto Cabello and Cartagena de Indias (United Provinces of New Granada) in a military campaign to fight Simon Bolívar's revolutionary armies.
On August 22, 1815, Morillo surrounded the walled city of Cartagena and put it under siege, preventing any supplies from going in until December 6 of this same year when the Spanish Royal Army entered the city. With control over Cartagena, Morillo returned to Venezuela to continue the fight against revolutionaries. In June 1820 Morillo ordered under Royal mandate that everyone in the colonies obeyed the Cadiz Constitution and sent delegates to negotiate with Bolivar and his followers. Bolivar and Morillo later met in the Venezuelan town of Santa Ana and signed a truce first for six months and later a second one named "War Regularization".
Morillo returned to Spain and was named General Captain of New Castile, but when King Ferdinand the VII restored the absolute regime in 1823 he went to France. A few years later, he returned to Spain and participated in some military operations during the Carlist Wars. He felt ill and went back to France where he would die on July 27, 1837.
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[edit] Quotes
When Morillo ordered the execution of the Colombian scientist Francisco José de Caldas (known as El Sabio Caldas, "Learned Caldas") and the people present at the place appealed for the life of the scientist, Morillo responded: "Spain does not need wise people." (Spanish:"España no necesita sabios")[1]. This sentence became the slogan of Spain's wars for the re-conquest of the rebel colonies.
[edit] See Also
- Spanish Invasion of New Granada
- Reconquista (Spanish America)
- Royalist (Spanish American Revolutions)
[edit] References
- ^ Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Francisco José de Caldas (1771 - 1816), retrieved on May 1, 2007
[edit] Bibliography
- Costeloe, Michael P. Response to Revolution: Imperial Spain and the Spanish American Revolutions, 1810-1840. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. ISBN 0521320836
- Earle, Rebecca. Spain and the Independence of Colombia, 1810-1825. Exter: University of Exter Press, 2000. ISBN 0859896129
- Stoan, Stephen K. Pablo Morillo and Venezuela, 1815-1820. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1959.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Juan Manuel Cajigal |
Capitan General of Venezuela 1815-1816 |
Succeeded by Salvador de Moxó |
| Preceded by Juan Bautista Pardo |
Capitan General of Venezuela 1819-1820 |
Succeeded by Miguel de La Torre |
