Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros

Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros
Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros
	Santiago de Liniers
Succeeded by	Francisco Javier de Elío
Personal details
Born	6 January 1756; Battle of Cape St Vincent, Battle of Trafalgar

Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros y de la Torre (6 January 1756 – 9 June 1829) was a Spanish naval officer born in

Javier de Elío and quelled the Chuquisaca Revolution and the La Paz revolution. An open cabildo deposed him as viceroy during the May Revolution, but he attempted to be the president of the new government junta, thus retaining power. The popular unrest in Buenos Aires

did not allow that, so he resigned. He was banished back to Spain shortly after that, and died in 1829.

Biography

Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros was born on 6 January 1756, which is the religious feast of

Battle of Cape St Vincent.^[1]

In 1803, he was in charge of the arsenal of

battle honours and on returning to Spain he was promoted to lieutenant general.^[2]

Work as viceroy

After recovering from his wounds, Hidalgo de Cisneros received further promotion and served as vice-president of the governing council ("

peninsulars against Liniers who was supported by the emerging local bourgeois, was regarded as rebellion by Liniers, influenced by French ideas but who was not a Napoleonic agent. The Junta gave Hidalgo de Cisneros orders to land in Montevideo, raise armies against Liniers, prosecute him with court-martial and return him under guard to Spain and to dissolve the local criollo militia. Cisneros also had orders to seek and punish likely Napoleonic sympathisers.^[3] The Junta created a political office to conduct direct foreign relations with colonial Brazil, to reign in the autonomy being exercised by the viceroy which was seen as potentially insubordinate and secessionist.^[3]

He arrived in Montevideo in June 1809. Manuel Belgrano proposed Liniers to resist his removal and to reject the appointment of Cisneros, on the grounds that Liniers had been confirmed as Viceroy by the authority of a Spanish king, while Cisneros would lack such legitimacy.[4] Nevertheless, Liniers accepted to give up his government to Cisneros without resistance. Noticing that Liniers was not the rebel governor that the Junta thought, he authorized him to stay in the Viceroyalty. Javier de Elío accepted as well the authority of the new Viceroy and dissolved the Junta of Montevideo, becoming once again the Governor of the city.

Cisneros tried to take a conciliating policy with the many conflicting political groups. He kept the criollo militias, and granted their commanders to achieve

peninsular military. He rearmed back the Spanish militias that were disbanded after the coup against Liniers. He also pardoned the responsibles;^[5] Álzaga was not freed, but his sentence was changed to house arrest. However, the attempts to please the criollos found resistance from the Junta, which did not approve the request to promote Cornelio Saavedra to colonel

rank.

He tried to stay in good relations with the British and the landowners by removing the laws that forbid free trade, but retailers forced Cisneros to restore such laws. Mariano Moreno, a criollo lawyer, wrote a document to request Cisneros the reopening of free trade, entitled "The Representation of the Landowners". It is considered the most comprehensive economic report of the time.^[6] Cisneros finally decided to grant an extension of free trade, which would end on 19 May 1810.^[7]

Pedro Murillo, by Joaquín Pinto

.

On 25 May 1809, a

Juan Antonio Alvarez de Arenales who, due to uncertainty as to who should be in charge of the civilian affairs, also exercised some civil powers.^[8] On 16 July, in the city of La Paz, a second revolutionary movement led by Colonel Pedro Domingo Murillo forced the governor to resign and replaced him with a Junta, the "Junta Tuitiva de los Derechos del Pueblo" ("Junta, keeper of the rights of the people"), headed by Murillo.^[8]

A quick reaction from the Spanish officials soon defeated these rebellions. An army with 1,000 men sent from Buenos Aires found no resistance at Chuquisaca, took control of the city, and deposed the Junta.

University of Saint Francis Xavier where the Syllogism of Chuquisaca was developed. This would greatly influence his position during the May week.^[10]

On 25 November 1809 Cisneros created the Political Surveillance Court with the aim of pursuing the supporters of "French ideologies", and those who encouraged the creation of political regimes that opposed the dependence on Spain.[11] However, he rejected a proposal of the economist José María Romero to banish a number of people which were considered dangerous to the Spanish regime: Saavedra, Paso, Chiclana, Vieytes, Balcarce, Castelli, Larrea, Guido, Viamonte, Moreno, Sáenz and Belgrano, among many others.^[12] All these measures, and a proclamation issued by the Viceroy to prevent the spreading of news that might be considered subversive, made the Criollos think that a formal pretext would be enough to take actions that would lead to the outbreak of a revolution. In April 1810, Cornelio Saavedra expressed his famous quote to his friends: It's not time yet, let the figs ripen and then we'll eat them.^[13]

May Revolution

The news of the fall of the Junta of Seville reached Buenos Aires in May 1810. With both the king of Spain and the Junta removed of power, many people thought that Cisneros had no legitimacy to govern, starting the

common people instead.^[14]

The open cabildo decided to end the mandate of viceroy Cisneros, and establish a government Junta instead. However, the Cabildo tweaked the will of the open cabildo, and appointed Cisneros as president of the Junta; he would remain in power, albeit under a new title. The Junta made the oath of office, but popular unrest became uncontrollable. By the end of the same day the Junta was appointed, the members resigned, and Cisneros did so as well. Initially, the Cabildo rejected his resignation, but the popular unrest was so high that the Cabildo itself was partially overrun by the rioters. Cisneros' resignation was finally accepted, and the Primera Junta was appointed instead, with members proposed by the people. Once deposed, Cisneros dispatched a messenger to Córdoba, to inform the former viceroy of the events, and bestowing on him the authority to gather an army and depose the Junta.^[15]

Return to Spain

After being deposed, Cisneros formally became a common citizen in Buenos Aires, under the protection of the Junta. A few days later, he assisted to a mass in honour of the king Ferdinand VII. However, the Junta distrusted him, so he was banished to the

Liniers counter-revolution

was completely defeated by the forces from Buenos Aires, and Liniers captured and executed.

Once in Spain, Cisneros moved to Cádiz, to submit himself to the trial of residence. The government had no complaints about his rule, and promoted him to general captain of Cádiz. He was jailed during an uprising in Spain, and liberated after the return of Ferdinand VII. He was then appointed general captain of his home city of Cartagena in 1823, and died in 1829.^[17]

References

^ ^a ^b National..., p. 130
^ ^a ^b National..., p. 131
^ ^a ^b El reemplazo de Liniers por Cisneros
^ Belgrano, p. 65
^ Pigna, p. 224 Spanish: En la Banda Oriental, Elío disolvió la Junta de Montevideo y aceptó la autoridad del nuevo virrey, que volvió a armar a las milicias españolas y decretó una amnistía que dejó en libertad a los que habían conspirado contra Liniers.
English: At the Banda Oriental, Elío dissolved the Junta of Montevideo and accepted the authority of the new viceroy, who rearmed the Spanish militias and decreed an amnesty that set free those who had conspired against Liniers.
^ Luna, ...Mariano Moreno, p. 66 Spanish: Como respuesta a la solicitud de los labradores y hacendados, Moreno escribe la 'Representación de los Hacendados', el documento sobre economía más completo que se haya redactado en el Río de la Plata.
English: Responding to the request by farmers and landlords, Moreno wrote the 'Representation of the Landlords', the most complete economic document written so far in the Río de la Plata.
^ Pigna, p. 230
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Abad de Santillán, p. 398
^ Pigna, p. 226, 227Spanish: Al difundirse la noticia de los horrores de Chuquisaca [...] creció la indignación de los criollos de todo el virreinato, que advertían claramente la conducta del nuevo virrey que premiaba a los sublevados cuando eran españoles [...] y los masacraba cuando eran insurrectos americanos [...].
English: As news of the horrors of Chuquisaca became known [...] indignation among Criollos grew in all the viceroyalty, who noticed clearly the conduct of the new viceroy that rewarded rebels when they were Spanish [...] and massacred them when they were American revolters.
^ Pacho O'Donnell. "El Silogismo de Charcas". El Grito Sagrado (in Spanish). Editorial Sudamericana. Archived from the original on 23 January 2009. Retrieved 27 January 2010.
^ Pigna, p. 227 Spanish: Ante la posibilidad de que estos sucesos se repitieran, [...] el virrey decidió crear un Juzgado de Vigilancia Política [...].
English: With the possibility of such events taking place again, [...] the viceroy decided to create a Political Surveillance Court [...].
^ Scenna, p. 26
^ Saavedra, p. 59 Spanish: No es tiempo, dejen ustedes que las brevas maduren y entonces las comeremos.
^ National..., p. 136-137
^ National..., p. 137-138
^ National..., pp. 138–139
^ National..., p. 139