Miguel de la Torre
Encyclopedia
Miguel de la Torre y Pando, conde de Torrepando (born in Bernales
Karrantza
Karrantza in Basque or Carranza in Spanish is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. The official name is "Valle de Carranza"....

, Spain on 13 December 1786 – died in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, 1843) was a Spanish General
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....

, Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

 and Captain General
Captain General
Captain general is a high military rank and a gubernatorial title.-History:This term Captain General started to appear in the 14th century, with the meaning of commander in chief of an army in the field, probably the first usage of the term General in military settings...

, who served in Spain, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 during the Spanish American wars of independence and after.

At the age of fourteen he joined the Spanish Army as a soldier during the War of the Second Coalition
War of the Second Coalition
The "Second Coalition" was the second attempt by European monarchs, led by the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria and the Russian Empire, to contain or eliminate Revolutionary France. They formed a new alliance and attempted to roll back France's previous military conquests...

 and quickly distinguished himself and four years later he joined the Guardia de Corps
Garde du Corps (France)
The Garde du Corps was the senior formation of the King of France's Household Cavalry within the Maison du Roi.-History:The oldest company in the Garde du Corps was the Company of Scottish Archers, later just the 1st Scottish Company or Garde Écossaise, formed in 1419 from Scots that fought for...

. He fought well during the Spanish War of Independence
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...

, reaching the level of colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 by 1814. The following year he was assigned to the military expedition to South America led by Pablo Morillo
Pablo Morillo
Pablo Morillo y Morillo, Count of Cartagena and Marquess of La Puerta, aka El Pacificador was a Spanish general....

, and participated in the Spanish reconquest of New Granada.

Promoted to brigadier
Brigadier
Brigadier is a senior military rank, the meaning of which is somewhat different in different military services. The brigadier rank is generally superior to the rank of colonel, and subordinate to major general....

 after New Granada was subdued, La Torre led a royalist army into the Colombian and Venezuelan llanos
Llanos
The Llanos is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the Flooded grasslands and savannas Biome....

. There he unsuccessfully defended Angostura
Ciudad Bolívar
Ciudad Bolívar is the capital of Venezuela's southeastern Bolivar State. It was founded with the name Angostura in 1764, renamed in 1846, and, as of 2010, had an estimated population of 350,691....

 against Manuel Piar
Manuel Piar
Manuel Carlos Piar was General-in-Chief of the army fighting Spain during the Venezuelan War of Independence.-Heritage and early life:...

 in April 1817, and led the loyalist forces down the Orinoco River as they fought their way to the Atlantic Ocean. For the next three years he continued to serve in the Spanish army of Venezuela. During this period he married a Criolla
Criollo (people)
The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...

, María de la Concepción Vegas y Rodríguez del Toro, a member of the powerful Rodríguez del Toro family and cousin once removed to Bolívar's
Simón Bolívar
Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte y Yeiter, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a Venezuelan military and political leader...

 late wife, Maria Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alayza, and fourth cousin to Bolívar himself.

After the restoration of the Spanish Constitution of 1812
Spanish Constitution of 1812
The Spanish Constitution of 1812 was promulgated 19 March 1812 by the Cádiz Cortes, the national legislative assembly of Spain, while in refuge from the Peninsular War...

 in 1820, the government appointed him governor (jefe político superior) and captain-general
Captaincy
A captaincy is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. Each was governed by a captain general.-In the Portuguese Empire:...

 of Venezuela, a post he held until 1822. He participated in the negotiations between Bolívar and Morillo and the later meeting in Santa Ana, where the two signed a six-month truce and a treaty regularizing the rules of engagement
Rules of engagement
Rules of Engagement refers to those responses that are permitted in the employment of military personnel during operations or in the course of their duties. These rules of engagement are determined by the legal framework within which these duties are being carried out...

. After Morillo resigned and left Venezuela at the end of 1820, La Torre became the head of the royalist army, in addition to his other duties. As such he oversaw the loss suffered by royalist forces at the Battle of Carabobo
Battle of Carabobo
The Battle of Carabobo, 24 June 1821, was fought between independence fighters, led by Simón Bolívar, and the Royalist forces, led by Spanish Field Marshal Miguel de la Torre. Bolívar's decisive victory at Carabobo led to the independence of Venezuela....

 on 24 June 1821, which effectively ended Spanish control of Venezuela. The following year he was replaced in his offices by Francisco Tomás Morales.

In 1822, the government appointed him captain general of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, arriving on the island in December 1823. The following year he was also appointed governor of the island. In collaboration with his intendant
Intendant
The title of intendant has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office...

, Dr. José Domingo Díaz, whom he knew from his days in Venezuela, La Torre's main concern was preventing a rebellion on the island. Carefully controlling the government, he instituted a policy which he called "dance, drink and dice" (baile, botella y baraja), implying that a well entertained population will not think about revolution. Despite La Torre's wariness of the island's liberal tendencies, his long administration was key to the development of large-scale sugar production on the island, something which had been created decades earlier in Cuba. He also continued supporting from Puerto Rico the few royalist guerrilla bands that existed in Venezuela.

As governor and captain general, he oversaw the temporary restoration of the Spanish Constitution of 1812
Spanish Constitution of 1812
The Spanish Constitution of 1812 was promulgated 19 March 1812 by the Cádiz Cortes, the national legislative assembly of Spain, while in refuge from the Peninsular War...

 in 1836, while a new constitution was written. He was also made the Count of Torrepando for his services. The following year he retired from public life and settled in Madrid.

See also

  • Spanish reconquest of New Granada
  • Reconquista (Spanish America)
    Reconquista (Spanish America)
    In colonial Spanish America, the Reconquista refers to the period following the defeat of Napoleon in 1814 during which royalist armies were able to gain the upper hand in the Spanish American wars of independence...

  • Royalist (Spanish American Revolutions)
    Royalist (Spanish American Revolutions)
    The royalists were the American and European supporters of the various governing bodies of the Spanish Monarchy, during the Spanish American wars of independence, which lasted from 1808 until the king's death in 1833...

  • Captaincy General of Puerto Rico
    Captaincy General of Puerto Rico
    The Captaincy General of Puerto Rico was an administrative district of the Spanish Empire, created in 1580 to provide better military management of the island of Puerto Rico, previously under the direct rule of a simple governor and the jurisdiction of Audiencia of Santo Domingo...

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