Spanish reconquest of New Grenade-Wikipedia
Spanish reconquest of New Grenade
Battles
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The Spanish reconquest of New Grenade From 1815–1816 was an episode of the War of Independence of Colombia. Shortly after the end of the Napoleonic wars in Europe, Ferdinand VII, just back on the Throne of Spain, decides to send troops in order to take up the majority of the South American colonies, which had created autonomous junts as well as independent states.
Situation in Spain [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
From 1808 to 1814, Spain was at war with France of the Emperor Napoleon I. The appointment of Joseph Bonaparte on the throne provokes chaos, whose Spanish colonies in America take advantage to emancipate. Helped by England, Spain however manages to take over the Napoleonic army, which is also entangled in a disastrous Russian campaign.
In a few weeks, from May to , Joseph Bonaparte, and the French army step back to the Pyrenees. Napoleon understands his defeat and accepts, by the Treaty of Valençay, the return of the former King of Spain, Ferdinand VII, in his kingdom. At the beginning of 1814, Catalonia was reconquered by the Spanish. The Spanish War ends.
As soon as they return to power, Ferdinand VII undertakes to win back the Spanish colonies which have seceded. In 1815, Spain sent the largest expeditionary force ever sent to the Americas at the time. Colonel Pablo Morillo, a veteran of the Spanish fight against the French, is chosen to order it. All forces is equivalent to around 10,000 men and 60 boats. Originally, they had to walk on Montevideo, in the vice-rotay of the Río de la Plata, but it is quickly decided to send these troops to the vice-rotay of New Grenade (nowadays Colombia, the Ecuador, Panama) and the General Harder of Venezuela (current Venezuela).
Situation in New Grenade [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
In 1815, the situation was tense in New Grenade between two irreconcilable ideological visions. Some want to make the newly independent country a centralized state while others would prefer a federal state. Two civil wars, in 1812 and 1814, will be necessary for the free state of Cundinamarca, directed by Antonio Nariño, joined the United Provinces of New Grenade, the Federation that the other neo provinces constituted in 1811, the other neo provinces -Agrenadines secessionist. A significant factor in disunity is the refusal of representatives of the United Kingdom and the United States to recognize these countries and provide economic and military aid to effectively resist Morillo forces. In addition, the provinces themselves do not provide each other with the necessary help.
The south of the country, as well as the Caribbean city of Santa Marta, remain in the hands of the royalists. The campaign in the south that Antonio Nariño leads between And ends with a rout of the separatists and the capture of Nariño while the following year, when Simón Bolívar, who forced Cundinamarca to join the Federation, requests the help of Cartagena of the Indies to take Santa Marta, he wiped a refusal And is forced to make the city headquarters for a month and a half. Informed of the arrival of Pablo Morillo in Venezuela and attacked by the royalists in Santa Marta, Bolívar renounces and embarks the For Jamaica.
Leaving the port of Cadiz the , the Spanish expeditionary force of Pablo Morillo initially affected the earth In Puerto Santo, near Carúpano, east of Venezuela, and having met General Francisco Tomás Morales (is) . Morillo re -embarked with 3,000 men to anchor the In Pampatar, on Margarita Island, where no resistance is encountered. After leaving the island, Morillo’s troops reinforce the royalist forces already present on Venezuelan territory, entering Cumaná, Guaira and Caracas in May. In Puerto Cabello a small part of the main body sets out towards Panamá, while the rest of the contingent heads for the neo-Grenadian coastal city of Santa Marta which is still under royalist control.
After having supplied supplies and received the support of volunteers in Santa Marta the , the Spanish expeditionary force besiege Cartagena of the Indies. At the end of a five -month -long seat, the fortified city falls the .
At the beginning of 1816, Sebastián de la Calzada arrived in New Grenade from Venezuela by the valleys of Cúcuta. After being beaten on January 8 during the first battle of Cachirí, he gathers his forces and resumed the offensive, routing the troops of Custodio García Rovira and Francisco de Paula Santander during the second battle of Cachirí. The survivors of the neo-Grenadine army flee through the Llanos of Casanare and soon after, Calzada occupied Bogota on May 6.
Independentists, whose situation becomes extremely precarious, are unable to resist only in the south of the country (Popayán and Cali). In , Brigadier Juan de Sámano (future vice-king of New Grenade) leaves Pasto in order to take Popayán. Meanwhile, independentist troops (700 men) are based in Popayán under the command of General José María Cabal; This is replaced by Lieutenant-Colonel Liborio Mejía. At the same time, José Fernández Madrid resign from the Presidency of the United Provinces of New Grenade, and it is Custodio García Rovira, only 24 years old, who is elected dictator. The rebel troop commander makes the daring decision to attack the royalist forces rather than going.
The The royalist and independence forces compete in the vicinity of El Tambo, in the current department of Cauca during the battle of the Cuchilla del Tambo. Spanish troops are positioned on a slope of the Tambo blade , height and protected by artillery. In order to remove this position, the independentist troops fight hardly for 3 hours but easily succumb to enemy fire. They are finally surrounded and forced to surrender, only Mejía and some men managing to escape [ first ] . At the end of the fighting, the battlefield was strewn with 250 dead independentists, while Sámano is 300 prisoners and recovers all the war material from the independence [ 2 ] .
The , the army of Sámano takes possession of Popayán, which puts an end to the ephemeral independent republic resulting from the uprisings initiated in 1810. The Regain is then completed, with the exception of a few areas in the province of Casanare which remain under the control of separatists led by Francisco de Paula Santander.
A permanent war council is set up to judge people accused of betrayal and rebellion, causing the execution of more than a hundred famous republican officials, notably Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Francisco José de Caldas and José María Cabal. The units of the Republican Army of New Grenade are incorporated into the royalist army and sent to Peru.
Following internal conflicts in New Grenade, Simón Bolívar, who had acted under the authority of the United Provinces, left his command , after failing to watch Cartagena in March as reprisals so as not to have provided him men and weapons. Bolívar went to Jamaica then to Haiti, a small republic which has itself freed itself from French domination, where he and other independence chiefs are cordially welcomed. The growing community in exile receives money, weapons and volunteers from Haitian President Alexandre Pétion, and takes up the struggle for independence in the distant borders of the new Grenada and Venezuela, where they establish guerrilla units with guerrilla warfare with guerrilla units the inhabitants. They constitute the base from which the struggle to establish the republics propagates towards the other regions of South America under Spanish control.
Royalist fighters [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
Independentist fighters [ modifier | Modifier and code ]
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