Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga

Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga
Born	April 6, 1717 Málaga, Andalusia, Spain
Died	June 21, 1793 (aged 75) Málaga, Andalusia, Spain
Military career
Allegiance	Spain
Rank	1st Captain General
Nickname	El Conciliador
Conflicts	Seven Years' War, Revolution of the Thirteen Colonies, War of the Asiento, Spanish conquest of Oran
Awards	Knight of Charles III

Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga (Málaga, April 6, 1717 – Ibidem, June 21, 1793) was a Spanish military officer and administrator in America, Governor of the provinces of Louisiana, Venezuela and Cuba, as well as of Galicia and the coasts of Eastern Andalusia or the former Kingdom of Granada.

As a man of the Enlightenment, Luis de Unzaga created the world's first bilingual public education system and was a pioneer in permitting freedom of trade. He stands out as the first to help the Americans achieve their birth as a country in several ways: with tons of gunpowder, flour and medicines, by permitting free trade, through his diplomatic skills with the English royalty, and with his espionage networks. He was the first to announce the end of the war, or peace, through the Spanish governors and ambassadors across the American continent and even to various cities of the U.S.

He also collaborated in the establishment of the dollar as a cross-border trade currency, before it became the official currency of the United States.

Biography

Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga was from an illustrious Málaga family with Basque, Granadan and Italian roots.

As a military officer he took part in the reconquest of Oran in 1732 and later in several missions in Italy on behalf of the future Charles III.

From 1740 he served in the Viceroyalty of New Spain; he distinguished himself on the American front of the Seven Years' War. He was Colonel of the fixed infantry regiment of Havana.

In 1763, after the end of the war, France ceded the colony of Louisiana to Spain, as established in the treaties of Fontainebleau (1762) and Paris (1763). The arrival of the new Spanish governor Antonio de Ulloa provoked a rebellion among the French colonists, who were unhappy with the cession of the territory to Spain.

In 1769 Unzaga, with the rank of Colonel, accompanied Field Marshal Alejandro O'Reilly to Louisiana with the mission of putting down the rebellion. Unlike De Ulloa, who lacked troops, O'Reilly arrived in the region with a force of two thousand men, three frigates, two brigantines, two sloops and a packet boat, ready to crush the revolt.

After O'Reilly's departure in 1770, Unzaga remained as governor and President of the cabildo of the colony. He released the leaders of the Louisiana Revolution of 1768. In 1770, after the Boston Massacre, he began laying out a network of spies to learn what was happening in the Thirteen Colonies. In 1771 he created the world's first bilingual public education system in New Orleans. He was the first to help the Thirteen Colonies militarily in their struggle against Great Britain during the War of Independence of the United States.

During his term, social peace was maintained with the French or Creole colonists of Louisiana, and freedom of trade was permitted in a pioneering manner, greatly improving the economy of New Orleans and St. Louis, which is why he was nicknamed le Conciliateur; the strengthening of the province's defenses was also begun, with the creation of forts such as the 'Puesto de Unzaga' in view of the possibility of suffering a British attack.

Map of Louisiana in 1804.

On February 20, 1775, in New Orleans, he married Elizabeth or Isabel de Saint Maxent La Roche, daughter of Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent, a wealthy merchant and military officer, French and now Spanish, in Louisiana.

Governor Luis de Unzaga attended to the requests for help from the North American colonists Patrick Henry, General Charles Lee, George Gibson, Linn, etc., between 1775 and 1776, Governor Unzaga thus being the pioneer in supplying the colonists militarily with tons of gunpowder, medicines, flour, etc., key to the first North American victories, by way of the Mississippi River, its tributary the Ohio, and with the help of Unzaga's espionage networks. He was replaced in the post of governor of the province by the man who would become his brother-in-law, also a native of Málaga, Bernardo de Gálvez, on January 10, 1777.

In 1777 Charles III ordered the provinces of Caracas, Cumaná, Maracaibo, Guayana, Trinidad and Margarita to be integrated into the newly created Captaincy General of Venezuela. Command of this captaincy was assigned to Unzaga, where he signed a Plan for its Defense and permitted free trade with the U.S.; he remained in that post until 1782.

The following year he was appointed governor of Cuba and Captain General of Havana, a post he held until 1785. In 1783 he received a visit from Prince William of England, the future William IV, with whom he reached preliminary agreements for the Peace of Paris; afterwards he continued attending to the requests for help from George Washington and Robert Morris, so as to definitively achieve the birth of the U.S.

After his retirement, he returned to his native Málaga, where as Lieutenant General he held the General Command of the coasts of the Kingdom of Granada, also presiding over the Board of Royal Works of Málaga, invigorating its economy by enlarging the port, building the Alameda Principal, planning the channeling of the Guadalmedina River and beginning the Palacio de la Aduana.

Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga died at his residence in Málaga on June 21, 1793.

Bibliography

• Cazorla Granados, Frank (2019). El gobernador Luis de Unzaga (1717-1793) Precursor en el nacimiento de los EE. UU. y en el liberalismo (in español). Fundación Málaga/Ayuntamiento de Málaga. ISBN 978-84-09-1241-07.

• Quintero Saravia, Gonzalo M (2015). Bernardo de Gálvez y América a finales del siglo XVIII (Thesis) (in español). Universidad Complutense de Madrid. OCLC 922080373. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 20, 2016. Retrieved July 31, 2016.

Link to the biographical dictionary of the Real Academia de la Historia: http://dbe.rah.es/biografias/35206/luis-de-unzaga-y-amezaga