Pablo Morillo y Morillo, Count of Cartagena and Marquess of La Puerta, a.k.a. ''El Pacificador'' (The Peace Maker) (5 May 1775 – 27 July 1837) was a Spanish general.

Biography

Morillo was born in Fuentesecas, Zamora, Spain. In 1791 he enlisted in the Real Cuerpo de Marina (Spanish Royal Marine Corps) and participated in the

Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1 ...

in which he was wounded and made prisoner by the English in 1805. He also fought against

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

in 1808 during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spai ...

(part of

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...

) 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 , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles IV of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Parma , birth_date = 14 October 1784 , birth_place = El Escorial, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Madrid, Spain , burial_p ...

appointed him Expedition Commander and General Captain of the Provinces of

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

on 14 August 1814. He set sail with a fleet of 18 warships and 42 cargo ships and disembarked in Carupano and Isla Margarita with the mission to pacify the revolts against the Spanish monarchy in the American colonies. He travelled to La Guaira,

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in th ...

, Puerto Cabello,

Santa Marta Santa Marta (), officially Distrito Turístico, Cultural e Histórico de Santa Marta ("Touristic, Cultural and Historic District of Santa Marta"), is a city on the coast of the Caribbean Sea in northern Colombia. It is the capital of Magdalena ...

and

Cartagena de Indias Cartagena ( , also ), known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias (), is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, bordering the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a link ...

( United Provinces of New Granada) in a military campaign to fight Simon Bolívar's revolutionary armies. Pablo Morillo, 1815

On 22 August 1815 Morillo surrounded the walled city of Cartagena and put it under siege, preventing any supplies from going in until 6 December that 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, under Royal mandate, ordered that everyone in the colonies obey the

Cadiz Constitution The Political Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy ( es, link=no, Constitución Política de la Monarquía Española), also known as the Constitution of Cádiz ( es, link=no, Constitución de Cádiz) and as ''La Pepa'', was the first Constituti ...

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 six-months'

armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the ...

followed by a second one named "War Regularization". Morillo returned to Spain, was named General Captain of New Castile, and supported the Liberal Constitution during the Liberal Triennium. He prevented a coup against the Constitution in 1822, and fought in 1823 the French invasion under Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angoulême in the north of Spain, where he was defeated. When King Ferdinand 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 The Carlist Wars () were a series of civil wars that took place in Spain during the 19th century. The contenders fought over claims to the throne, although some political differences also existed. Several times during the period from 1833 to 18 ...

. He felt ill and went back to France where he died on 27 July 1837, in Barèges.

References

Bibliography

* Costeloe, Michael P. ''Response to Revolution: Imperial Spain and the Spanish American Revolutions, 1810-1840''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. * Earle, Rebecca. ''Spain and the Independence of Colombia, 1810-1825''. Exter: University of Exter Press, 2000. * Stoan, Stephen K. ''Pablo Morillo and Venezuela, 1815-1820''. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1959.

External links

National Museum of Colombia - Pablo Morillo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morillo, Pablo 1775 births 1837 deaths People from the Province of Zamora People of the Venezuelan War of Independence Spanish soldiers Spanish generals Captains General of Venezuela Spanish commanders of the Napoleonic Wars

Biography

See also

References

Bibliography

External links