Rafael del Riego

Captain-General Rafael del Riego y Flórez (7 April 1784 – 7 November 1823) was a Spanish Army officer and politician who played a key role in the Liberal Triennium ( in Spanish). Riego’s liberal uprising marked a turning point in the Spanish American wars of independence.

Early life

Riego was born on 7 April 1784 in Tuña, Asturias. After graduating in Law from the University of Oviedo that was being prepared to put down the Spanish American wars of independence, and later promoted to lieutenant colonel, Riego was incorporated into the Asturian Battalion, then under the command of Evaristo San Miguel, at Las Cabezas de San Juan (Seville). among others, were arrested. With the leading plotters imprisoned, Riego decided to go ahead with the mutiny and on 1 January 1820, at the head of his battalion at Cabezas de San Juan proclaimed the restoration of the Spanish Constitution of 1812, On 7 March 1820, the royal palace in Madrid was surrounded by soldiers under the command of General Francisco Ballesteros, and on 10 March, the King agreed to restore the Constitution.

The Great Overseas Expedition

The Great Overseas Expedition (Gran Expedición de Ultramar) was a large Spanish military expedition assembled at Cádiz between 1819 and 1820 to reinforce royalist forces in Spanish America and suppress the independence movements. Commanded by Enrique José O'Donnell, Count of La Bisbal, with the naval forces under Francisco Mourelle, it was the largest expeditionary force Spain prepared after the expedition of Pablo Morillo in 1815. Estimates of its strength range from 20,000 to 25,000 troops, supported by a fleet of ships of the line, frigates, corvettes and transport vessels.

The expedition was never dispatched because the uprising led by Rafael del Riego on 1 January 1820 forced King Ferdinand VII to restore the Constitution of 1812. The revolt, supported by troops assigned to the expedition, prevented its departure and deprived Spain of the reinforcements intended for the royalist armies in America. According to Anthony H. Hull, Riego's liberal uprising marked "the death knell of the Spanish Empire in mainland America".

The uprising led by Rafael del Riego began on 1 January 1820 at Las Cabezas de San Juan. Its purpose was to restore the Constitution of 1812, and it was supported by troops belonging to the army intended to suppress definitively the rebellions in Spain's American territories. This force was known as the Great Overseas Expedition (es:Gran Expedición de Ultramar), also called the Great Expedition

After the serious difficulties encountered in organising Pablo Morillo's army in 1815 to suppress the rebellions in America, conditions were even worse for sending a second army in 1820.

Morillo sailed from Cádiz on 15 February 1815. On 9 May, King Ferdinand VII announced by decree that the fleet was being sent against Costa Firme, that further reinforcements would soon be sent to Panama and Peru, and that a second expedition was being prepared against the Río de la Plata. The latter force was to consist of 20,000 infantrymen, 1,500 cavalrymen and the corresponding artillery. Until it reached Puerto Santo, near Carúpano, Venezuela, on 7 April, the expedition caused widespread alarm, particularly in Buenos Aires. Because false reports and rumours circulated continuously, it was also believed that the expedition might be directed towards Peru and the Captaincy General of Chile.

A second force began to be organised in mid-1816 under the direction of the Minister of the Navy, José Vázquez de Figueroa, but the project subsequently languished. On 2 November 1816, Brigadier Francisco Mourelle was appointed commander-in-chief of the expedition's naval forces. At the end of the colonial period, Mexican revenues represented approximately 90 per cent of all revenue remitted from Spanish America.

In 1817 only limited reinforcements were assigned to Peru and Chile, and these sailed the following year aboard ships purchased from Russia. Their acquisition under the Treaty of Madrid (1817) was controversial because no officers of the Spanish Navy had accompanied the royal clique responsible for the purchase in order to inspect the ships' condition, which proved to be poor. The vessels were described as obsolete, inefficient and unsatisfactory in both sanitary and navigational terms. By the end of 1819 its land forces assembled at Cádiz and the Isle of León consisted of 20,200 infantrymen, 2,800 cavalrymen and 1,370 artillerymen, equipped with 94 field guns, additional lighter pieces and substantial quantities of ammunition. Shortly afterwards, however, an epidemic of yellow fever broke out. The force included fourteen cavalry squadrons.

The commander of the expedition and its army was Enrique José O'Donnell, Count of La Bisbal, a Spaniard of Irish descent who was nicknamed the “viceroy of the Río de la Plata”. Some sources state that O'Donnell was subsequently replaced by Calleja. frigates, between four Estimates of the total number of men vary between 14,000,

Arguibel was assisted by another Río de la Plata merchant resident in Cádiz, Tomás Antonio de Lezica, and together they contributed to Riego's uprising with “one thousand pairs of shoes and twelve thousand pesos fuertes”. Nine years after the uprising, in 1829, Juan Martín de Pueyrredón explained in Refutation of an Atrocious Calumny that, as the leading official of the self-proclaimed United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, he had been one of the principal instigators of Riego's uprising, which had caused the failure of the Great Overseas Expedition prepared to suppress the independence rebellions in Spain's American territories. The Refutation was a reply to what Pueyrredón called an “atrocious calumny” made against him by the new United States minister to Spain, Alexander Hill Everett, who had accused him of collusion with the Spanish government.

Excerpt from the Refutation of an Atrocious Calumny, written by Juan Martín de Pueyrredón in 1829. Pueyrredón claimed that he had issued “a considerable number of letters of marque, offering a reward for every Spanish transport ship that was captured”, and had authorised Tomás de Lezica and Andrés Arguibel, on behalf of the Argentine government, to “spend whatever sums of money were necessary”.

Pueyrredón stated that, among other measures intended to prevent the expedition from reaching America, he had issued “a considerable number of letters of marque, offering a reward for every Spanish transport ship that was captured”. He also claimed that he had ultimately undertaken “the task of inciting mutiny in the very army that was intended to bring about our ruin”. To achieve this, he contacted Ambrosio de Lezica, asking him in turn to communicate with his brother Tomás de Lezica, who lived in Cádiz, “so that he might establish relations with the commanders of that army”. Pueyrredón continued:

Their replies opened a promising field to my hopes, and from that moment the means necessary to achieve this purpose were put into operation. Don Tomás Lezica and Don Andrés Arguibel, natives of Buenos Aires and reputable merchants established in Cádiz, were the agents who brought that hazardous enterprise to completion. They were authorised to spend whatever sums of money were necessary and empowered to pledge the responsibility of the government for everything they did in pursuit of the objective. The effectiveness and skill with which they acted became evident in the result. The army on the Isle of León rose in rebellion; the terrible expedition that threatened us was turned against the very power that had assembled it; and by this means the Argentine Republic found itself free and triumphant over its enemies. Eternal honour to the names of Lezica and Arguibel among the friends of liberty!

Should anyone doubt the accuracy of these events, let him read the memoir written and published by General Quiroga, one of the leading commanders of that army, and he will find confirmation of the effective cooperation provided by the government of the Republic in that uprising, as well as evidence that the financial assistance supplied by its agents facilitated the execution of the enterprise.

In 1877, the Argentine politician and historian Bartolomé Mitre, in his Historia de Belgrano y de la Independencia Argentina, repeated the claims contained in the Refutation. He added that Quiroga himself had written in the insurgents' bulletin during the first days of the uprising, when Argentine ships near Cádiz had established contact with them: “Our brothers in South America will join us in defence of our cause, and we shall receive powerful assistance from them.” Mitre also cited an official file listing the sums paid by Tomás Lezica and Andrés Arguibel, charged to Ambrosio de Lezica and subsequently reimbursed by the Argentine treasury.

The Spanish historian Demetrio Ramos Pérez also discussed the interpretation advanced by Argentine historiography, citing José León Suárez's Carácter de la revolución americana, published in 1919, and the work of José Miguel Torre Revello (1962). According to this interpretation, two agents from the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, directed and financed from Buenos Aires by Juan Martín de Pueyrredón and by his successor as head of the United Provinces, José Rondeau, made payments “to the Freemasonry of Cádiz” and “to the commanders of the units that were to go to America”. Funds from Buenos Aires reached the two agents through Gibraltar, which they frequently visited from their residence in Cádiz.

Ramos Pérez nevertheless argued that the “underlying cause” of Riego's uprising was “discontent within the army”, which was “general and affected every garrison”, principally because “the officers were not receiving their pay and arrears were accumulating”. As immediate causes, he identified the “support” received by the conspirators from Cádiz merchants whose businesses had been paralysed by the Spanish American wars of independence—including the activities of privateers—and by British commercial competition in the colonies. He also emphasised the work carried out among the troops by the officers involved in the conspiracy, citing the unpublished memoirs of Ramón de Santillán.

Some historians maintain that the expeditionary plan was to land near Montevideo and seize the city, where support for the Spanish cause probably still existed. This would have provided the expedition with a secure base in the Río de la Plata from which to begin operations and obtain the support of local royalists. A force would subsequently have advanced against Buenos Aires.

Other historians, however, maintain that the Great Expedition was in fact intended for Mexico in order to secure the most valuable part of the monarchy, and that the announced destination of the Río de la Plata was another deception similar to that used for Morillo's expedition to Venezuela.

Later life The new progressive government promoted Riego to field marshal and appointed him Captain General of Galicia, post which he did not assume

Meanwhile, in December 1822, at the Congress of Verona, the Quintuple Alliance countries had decided that a Spain bordering on republicanism was a threat to the balance of Europe, and France was chosen to force a restoring of the absolute monarchy in Spain. On 7 April 1823, the French army crossed over the Pyrennes. Riego resigned from the presidency of the Cortes