Pablo Morillo

Lieutenant-General Pablo Morillo y Morillo, Count of Cartagena and Marquess of La Puerta (5 May 1775 – 27 July 1837), known as El Pacificador (The Pacifier), was a Spanish military officer and colonial administrator who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and Spanish American wars of independence. He fought against French forces in the Peninsular War, where he gained fame and rose to the rank of field marshal for his valiant actions. was named by King Ferdinand VII as commander-in-chief of the Expeditionary Army of Costa Firme with the goal to restore absolutism in Spain's possessions in the Americas.

Born to a peasant family in Fuentesecas, Spain, at the age of 16 he joined the Spanish Marine Infantry and fought in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent and Battle of Trafalgar; both times he would be taken prisoner. After the outbreak of the Peninsular War, Morillo left the Spanish Navy and joined the Spanish Army and fought at the Battle of Bailen under the command of General Castaños; he would also be present at the Battle of Vitoria. He rose through the ranks quickly during the war. His actions at the Battle of Puente Sanpayo won him fame, as he commanded an army that defeated Marshal Ney and forced the French army to evacuate Galicia. and later that year was wounded at the Siege of Toulon.

Following the capitulation of Vigo, Marshal Ney occupied Santiago de Compostela, and headed towards Vigo. Morillo's troops intercepted the French force, and at the Battle of Puente Sanpayo, forced it to retreat.

On February 17, 1815, Morillo, onboard the 64-gun ship of the line San Pedro Alcántara, set sail from Cádiz for Montevideo with a fleet of 18 warships and 42 troopships transporting some 10,400 troops, most of whom were veterans of the Peninsular War. Unknown to his troops in November 1814 Morillo had been secretly informed that his destination would be changed, the new orders from the Spanish Government were to sail to Costa Firme to put an end to the rebellion in New Granada and Venezuela, with this new mission the King named him Captain General of Venezuela in order to have all of the legal authority in order to reconquest that province. Morillo did not inform his troops of this decision until February 25, 1815, with the expedition well underway at sea which caused his troops to express further discontent as they had heard about how the war in Venezuela was a war to the death, Morillo would also be promoted to Lieutenant General during this journey. preventing any supplies from going in until 6 December that year, when the Spanish Royal Army entered the city. In a letter written to the Viceroy of Peru José Fernando de Abascal y Sousa dated December 7, Morillo informed the viceroy of the victory with minimal damage done to its fortifications and the capture of a large amount of artillery pieces and ample amounts of gunpowder he also described the level of starvation within the city where estimated that some 2000 Cartagenians where suffering from starvation.

The victory over the republicans in Cartagena led to the King granting Morillo the title Count of Cartagena. With control over Cartagena, Morillo continued with the Reconquest of New Granada marching south from Cartagena into the interior in tandem with Brigadier Juan de Samano's troops marching north from the Royalist strongholds of Quito and Pasto along with Colonel Sebastián de la Calzada's troops marching west from Venezuela. This campaign would culminate with the fall of the capital, Santa Fe, when his second-in-command General Miguel de la Torre assaulted the practically undefended city on May 6, 1816, Morillo himself entered the city on May 26.

Upon entering the capital an amnesty which had been granted by Brigadier de la Torre was revoked, and Morillo began a Reign of Terror in the city. The various leaders and intellectuals who had participated in the Juntas of 1810 and that were part of the Neogranadine independence movement were arrested and tried before a consejo de guerra which judged the accused of treason and rebellion, this resulted in the execution of more than a hundred notable Republican officials with many being executed in the main plaza of Santa Fe such as Camilo Torres Tenorio, Francisco Jose de Caldas, and Jorge Tadeo Lozano as well as countless others.

War in Venezuela He then returned to Venezuela to continue the fight against revolutionaries, where Simón Bolívar had just returned from his exile in Haiti in a renewed effort to liberate Venezuela from Spanish rule. The Venezuelan patriots were able to capture the city of Angostura and made it their capital establishing the Third Republic of Venezuela.

He fought Bolivar forces to a stalemate, then he managed to best him at the Third Battle of La Puerta in 1818, where he was wounded and successfully defended the capital, Caracas, from Bolivar's attack. This earned him the title of Marquess of La Puerta. After the loss of New Granada in 1819, the war shifted, and in 1820 Morillo signed an armistice with Bolivar and later also signed the treaty on "War Regularization."

In June 1820, Morillo, under Royal mandate, ordered that everyone in the colonies obey 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 six-months' armistice followed by a second one named "War Regularization".

Post-war career 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, Morillo 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 died on 27 July 1837, in Barèges.