The ill and dying King Joao IV ended the official "ransom" expeditions in 1748 and declared that all Indians should be freed. That year the new captaincies of Goias and Mato Grosso were carved out of the large captaincy of Sao Paulo. In January 1750 Portugal and Spain agreed to the Treaty of Madrid that established the borders of Brazil as nearly half of South America. During the first half of the 18th century Brazil imported 790,200 slaves from Angola and Costa da Mina in Africa. During the same period the Portuguese were immigrating at the rate of about ten thousand per year. Between 1734 and 1769 Rio de Janeiro imported 156,638 slaves from Luanda. By the middle of the 18th century the native population, which had been about 2.5 million in 1500, had been reduced to less than 1.5 million. An epidemic of measles and dysentery struck in 1749 and was followed by smallpox the next year that caused the death of 40,000 people around Belem.
The Uruguay River was recognized as the southern border of Brazil. In 1682 Spanish Jesuits had crossed the river and established missions for the Seven Peoples, which became the home for 30,000 Guaranis. To avoid promiscuity the Jesuits approved of early marriages for the Indians. After the treaty of 1750 the Spaniards insisted on the tribes moving across the river to their territory; but in 1752 the natives resisted. In 1754 the Jesuits surrendered their missions, but the Indians refused to comply during the Guarani War (1754-56). A Spanish army of 2,000 tried to force them to move but was badly supplied and had to retreat. In November 1754 some of the Indian chiefs made a treaty with the Portuguese and Gomes Freire de Andrade (Rio de Janeiro governor 1735-63), but in February 1756 a combined Spanish-Portuguese army demanded that the seven missions surrender to the Portuguese. Both armies together had about 1,800 men. After waiting one day the Europeans opened fire and killed 1,400 while suffering only three deaths. By June all seven missions had surrendered. Finally in 1758 Pedro de Cevallos, the new viceroy of La Plata, moved the remaining Indians across the Uruguay. Jose Basilio da Gama published his epic poem O Uraguai about this in 1769. He celebrated the heroism of the native chiefs Cepé and Cacambo and the Portuguese conquerors while treating the Jesuits as "ignorant, envious, hypocritical, and sowers of discord."
Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado was the step-brother of the politically powerful Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho e Mello, who was known as the Marquis of Pombal and advised the new king Jose from 1750 and was dictatorial from 1755 to 1777. Reforms began in 1751: a board was formed to oversee the inspection of the quality of sugar and tobacco, and a high court was established at Rio de Janeiro with ten judges and jurisdiction over thirteen districts. In 1754 Pombal passed legislation to provide stipends for magistrates and other officers in order to reduce corruption. Mendonça Furtado was governor from 1751 to 1759 and was given royal orders to end Indian slavery. In 1754 he went on an expedition up the Amazon and Negro rivers, and he came to believe that the mission Indians and those working on the cattle ranches of the Jesuits were virtual slaves. In 1755 Pombal persuaded King Jose to issue two laws that restored the rights of the Indians, prohibited racial discrimination against them, and encouraged marriages between the Portuguese and natives. When the Jesuits tried to avoid the emancipation law by transferring the titles of their aldeias to the Pope, the Crown took away their temporal power over the mission villages.
A commercial company for Greater Para and Maranhao was chartered in 1755, and between 1757 and 1778 they imported 25,365 African slaves. The cities of Sao Luis and Belem increased to about 10,000 inhabitants each. Tobacco in the Amazon was easily taxed and was a royal monopoly. The Crown also chartered a company for Pernambuco and Paraiba in 1759. King Jose and Pombal persuaded Pope Benedict XIV to issue a bull in 1758 that forbade Jesuits from engaging in commerce, hearing confessions, or preaching. The following year even their right to teach was removed, and another law expelled the Jesuits from all of Portugal's dominions. In 1757 the missions were put under directors, and in 1760 about six hundred Jesuits were forced to leave Brazil.
In 1761 the Treaty of Pardo cancelled the 1750 treaty between Spain and Portugal, and border skirmishes occurred in Brazil during the Seven Years War. Spanish general Pedro de Cevallos besieged Colonia in 1762 and challenged Portuguese rights in Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.
The printing press set up by Antonio Isidoro da Fonseca there in 1747 was immediately closed down by the government. Bahia founded the Brazilian Academy of the Reborn in 1759, and it met fifteen times to write a history of Portuguese America but closed within a year.
In 1754 the Portuguese and Spanish secretly agreed to push the Dutch and French colonies out of South America. The price of sugar went up during the Seven Years War (1756-63). In 1762 Berbice in Guiana had 346 Europeans, 244 Indian slaves, and 3,833 African slaves. In July of that year Governor Wolfert Simon van Hoogenheim managed to capture and punish 36 slaves who had burned the master's house and run into the bush. However, in February 1763 by the Canje River slaves revolted and began plundering and killing Europeans. A thousand rebels organized under chiefs. Europeans went into Fort Nassau and then fled from Berbice. Appeals for help brought a ship with a hundred English soldiers from Surinam. They were joined by several hundred Africans who did not like the rebel chief Coffy. The rebels attacked them in May, and after five hours of fighting retreated. Coffy lost a power struggle to Atta and shot himself. Ships arrived from Holland during the summer, and by December they were ready to go upriver. The rebels fled into the bush and began surrendering. By March 1764 a reported 2,600 had been captured or returned. Many rebels were sentenced to death by hanging, burning, or being broken on the wheel, and in July leaders of the Dutch mutineers were tortured and executed. A third of the Europeans had left, and only half the Africans remained in the ruined colony.
The capital was transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro in 1763. Severe epidemics broke out periodically and were especially bad from 1762 to 1772. Portuguese governor Jose Custodia attacked the Spaniards without authorization in 1767 in Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. Two years later Luis de Almeida, Marques do Lavradio, arrived as the new viceroy, and he sent Francisco Jose da Rocha to investigate in 1771. He found that Governor Antonio de Veiga e Andrade was giving land to favorites, but the crown would not give Lavradio permission to use military force in Rio Grande do Sul to end corruption.
In 1773 Pope Clement XIV abolished the Society of Jesus. After observing two years of Indian freedom, Mendonça Furtado decided that they must be controlled. The Tupi-Guarani language that had been used by the Jesuits was now forbidden as they were taught the Portuguese language and culture. In exchange the Portuguese took 17 percent of all gross income from sales plus ten percent tax for the government. All male Indians between the ages of 13 and 60 were required to work half of each year for the colonists. After much protest the Directorio was abolished in 1798.
After the Spanish allowed Juan Vertiz to enter the area to attack rustlers in 1773, Pombal sent reinforcements to Rio Grande. Rocha was made commander of Colonia in 1775, but he realized it was indefensible and was ordered to pull out. Cevallos took possession of Santa Catarina Island in 1777. Portugal's King Jose died on February 24. Maria I became queen, and Pombal lost his power on March 5. Spain and Portugal signed an armistice in June and the Treaty of San Ildefonso in October 1777. Spain retained Colonia and the Seven Peoples. The two state-owned commercial companies were abolished by 1779 in order to allow free trade between Portugal and northern Brazil.
In 1778 Para governor Joao Pereira Caldas organized a military campaign against the Mura and Munduruku tribes of the Tapajos. The Muru feared the hostility of the fierce Munduruku and surrendered to the Portuguese in 1785. The Munduruku with two thousand warriors moved east and threatened Maranhao, but half of them were killed by Portuguese firearms. Two captured men persuaded the Munduruku to make peace, and they settled on the lower Tapajos. Francisco de Sousa Coutinho was governor-general of Para from 1790 to 1803, and in 1797 he wrote a report on how to civilize the natives there. He blamed the directors for subjugating the Indians in order to maintain their power and wealth. The next year Prince Regent Joao abolished the directorate; but the new decree forced the natives to sell their communal land, and Indians without a "fixed occupation" had to work for the government or private settlers. Outsiders were allowed to exploit the natural resources. Worst of all, the natives were put under the military discipline of non-commissioned officers selected from chiefs and local colonists.
The sale of beef did not increase greatly until they learned how to dry it in charquis in 1780. Mixed with beans and rice, the feijoada became a standard meal. By 1800 Rio Grande do Sul was exporting an average of 600,000 arrobas (9 million kilos) of beef annually. The cowboys were called vaqueiros and the outlaws gauchos. During the last part of the 18th century cotton made Maranhao the most prosperous part of Brazil.
In 1772 Viceroy Marques do Lavradio sponsored the Scientific Academy in Rio de Janeiro. Music was popular in Brazil, especially among the mulattoes. Ouro Preto had a theater in the 1740s and an opera house by 1770. Population data from Minas Gerais showed that in 1776 Africans were 52 percent, mulattoes 26 percent, and Europeans 22 percent. Slaves could only work in the mines for about ten years, and by 1786 freed slaves made up 34 percent of all the people in Minas Gerais.
Luis de Cunha Meneses governed Minas Gerais erratically, and in July 1788 the new governor, Luis Antonio Furtado de Mendonça, ordered a head tax (derrama) to make up for the accumulated deficit of 384 arrobas of gold from back taxes owed. Gold had been diminishing, and the people were alarmed. Joachim Jose de Silva Xavier became known as Tiradentes because he could pull teeth. He lost his salary as a cavalry officer, and a mining attempt with four slaves increased his debt. Also an engineer, he went to Rio de Janeiro for a license to build water mills. There he met Jose Alvares Maciel, who had just returned from Portugal; he had studied philosophy and natural history in Coimbra and manufacturing in England. Tiradentes and Maciel talked about the possibility of a revolution in Brazil. On his way back to Ouro Preto, Tiradentes began a campaign for independence because Portugal was keeping Brazil poor. He persuaded Lt. Col. Francisco de Paula Freire de Andrada, who was second in command to the governor and Maciel's brother-in-law, that he could help lead the revolt. In December 1788 they met in Andrada's home with the influential cleric Carlos Correia de Toledo e Melo and other prominent men. They looked to the United States as their model and hoped that Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo would join. Some had read Guillaume Raynal's philosophical history on European commerce in the two Indies that described the revolt in North America. They wanted restrictions on diamond mining removed, debts to the crown forgiven, incentives for setting up factories, the permanent army replaced by citizen militia, and the freeing of all slaves born in Brazil.
However, Col. Silverio dos Reis informed Viscount de Barbacena on March 15, 1789 and got his debts canceled. Other denunciations followed in April. Tiradentes tried to escape and was arrested on May 10; others were arrested later that month. The derrama was canceled, and the agitation calmed down. The conspiracy was called "Inconfidencia Mineira," meaning the miners' failure of duty. During the trial Tiradentes took responsibility for the idea of the revolution "without inspiration from anyone." Several conspirators were given the death sentence, but all the others had their sentences commuted, some to exile for life. Tiradentes was hanged on April 21, 1792; his head was nailed to a pole, and the four quarters of his body were displayed as warning to others. Yet Tiradentes became a famous martyr, and April 21 later became a national holiday.
In 1792 Maria I was considered mentally incapacitated, and Joao began ruling Portugal as Prince Regent. Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho became secretary of state for the Navy and for the Overseas Territories in 1796. He was influenced by Adam Smith and tried to promote economic progress in Brazil by introducing hemp and developing cinnamon, pepper, cochineal, and other products. He promoted the ox-drawn plow and disseminated instruction for improving techniques for processing cotton, coffee, and sugar, though Prince Regent Joao was slow to implement his ideas. Coffee exports from Rio de Janeiro increased dramatically in the early 1800s. The farming of the salt tax was abolished in 1801. Souza Coutinho urged the Prince Regent to move to Brazil; but he did not do so until the French invaded Portugal in November 1807.
Montevideo was founded in 1729 and gained its own jurisdiction with its first governor in 1751. The Treaty of 1750 gave Colonia de Sacramento back to the Portuguese but provoked the Guarani War in 1754. When Governor Pedro Cevallos formed an army of 6,000 to besiege the Portuguese at Colonia in 1762, the comuneros of Corrientes deserted. After he tried to punish some of them in 1764, they revolted and imprisoned the lieutenant governor Manuel de Rivera, replacing him with the cabildo.
In 1767 King Carlos III ordered all Jesuits expelled from Spain and the Indies. Governor Francisco de Paula Bucareli had the Jesuits seized and taken to Buenos Aires, and they were deported in May 1768. The French had settled on the Falkland Islands in 1764 to promote fishing and whaling, but Spain claimed it and compensated the French. In 1766 the English founded the colony of Port Egmont on the Falkland Islands, but Buenos Aires governor Bucarelli forced them out. The English complained to the Spanish court and returned in 1771, but they abandoned Port Egmont three years later.
Carlos III appointed Pedro Cevallos the first viceroy of Rio de la Plata in 1776, and he sailed to South America with 116 ships and 10,000 men. In 1777 the Portuguese surrendered Santa Catalina Island in February and Colonia de Sacramento in June, but the Treaty of San Ildefonso signed in October secured Santa Catalina and large interior frontiers for the Portuguese. Cevallos proclaimed labor regulations and freedom of trade in November 1777. The officers were legally represented in the cabildo, which handled requests and complaints from the inhabitants. Peru's viceroy protested this new viceroyalty, but the royal treasury funded the intendancy of the army in March 1778 at Buenos Aires. The province of Buenos Aires already had a population of 37,000, and by the end of the century it would triple. The annual export of hides went from an average of 150,000 before 1778 to 1,400,000 in 1783.
Juan Jose Vertiz was appointed viceroy of Rio de la Plata in June 1778, and he implemented liberal reforms. He sent pioneers instead of troops into the desert and tried to protect the frontiers with new forts. Vertiz promoted tolerant education, and profits from printing and theater supported charitable hospitals. Nicolas del Campo, marquis of Loreto, was viceroy 1784-89. He promoted the cattle industry that was expanded by salting meat, and the audiencia was installed in 1785. While Nicolas de Arredondo was viceroy 1789-95, numerous ports were permitted to import African slaves without paying a duty. The tribunal of commerce was established in 1794, and he sent colonists to the Patagonian coast and promoted whaling and fishing with a company given royal privileges. Rio de la Plata had five different viceroys in the next twelve years. Manuel Belgrano was influenced by the educational doctrines of Count Campomanes and believed in free education that is practical. In 1799 Belgrano helped found schools of navigation and design, and he planned others in agriculture, commerce, and chemistry.
Lazaro Ribera Espinosa (1796-1806) was considered an especially corrupt and tyrannical governor of Paraguay. He let his favorites monopolize commerce and allowed the Creoles few rights. In 1803 King Carlos IV decreed the land between the Parana and Uruguay rivers a separate province, and the Viceroy appointed Bernardo Velasco governor of Buenos Aires. Two years later the crown made Velasco governor of Paraguay as well. In 1801 Francisco Antonio de Azcuenaga published the first periodical in Rio de la Plata, and the next year Hipolito Vieytes started publishing an agricultural weekly that continued until February 1807, when the English invaded Montevideo.
English ships brought 1,560 soldiers under General William C. Beresford and took over Buenos Aires on June 27, 1806. He immediately proclaimed that the administration of justice would protect private property, the Catholic religion, and freedom of commerce. A thousand peasants led by the Creole Juan Martin de Pueyrredon revolted, but they were defeated at Perdriel by the British troops. Santiago Liniers was given a thousand soldiers by Montevideo governor Ruiz Huidobro and was joined by the peasants. They attacked Buenos Aires on August 12 and suffered 200 casualties while killing or wounding 300 English; 1,200 British surrendered and Beresford was imprisoned. An open cabildo declared Liniers the lieutenant of the Viceroy, the Marquis of Sobremonte. Because the army of Rio de la Plata had only 2,400 men, a citizen militia was quickly formed with five battalions of Creoles and four of Spaniards in Buenos Aires. General Baird sent 1,300 men from the Cape of Good Hope to seize Maldonado, and with forces led by General Samuel Auchmuty they captured Montevideo on February 3, 1807. In May, Bradford began editing the English weekly Star of the South, which also appeared in Spanish as Estrella del Sud. General John Whitelocke left a thousand men to guard Montevideo and attacked Buenos Aires with 11,000 soldiers on June 28. Liniers left 1,600 Creole soldiers in the city and sallied forth with 7,000 Creoles, who were routed by General Gower's division. However, the people rallied, and alcalde Martin Alzaga fortified the city and defeated the forces of General Whitelocke, who surrendered and evacuated both Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
Franciscans established missions among the Campa natives in 1742; but Juan Santos, who could speak Latin, Spanish, Quechua, and Campa, proclaimed himself Atahualpa II in 1743 and led a rebellion that lasted until the 1760s. Viceroy Jose Antonio Manso de Velasco (Conde de Superunda) in 1749 protested corregidors using the repartimientos system to force Indians to buy items they did not want. After a rumor circulated that Juan Santos had been assassinated in 1749, two thousand people conspired to revolt in the Lima area; but the mestizo Jorge Gobea informed Viceroy Manso de Velasco. Many were arrested and tortured, and six leaders were hanged. Yet on September 29, 1749 in Huarochiri 20,000 revolted. They were defeated by the forces under Sebastian Francisco de Melo, and the leaders Francisco Jimenez Inca and Juan Pedro were hanged on July 6, 1750.
Manuel de Amat was viceroy of Peru from 1761 to 1776 and had a flamboyant romance with the actress Villegas Micaela, whom he called la Perricholi. He had militias formed in most of the provinces. A decree prohibiting the distillation of alcohol provoked a rebellion at Quito in 1765 as the government took over the monopoly. A mob broke into the offices of the agent, broke the containers of alcohol in the street, and burned the building. The Jesuits promised to abolish the monopoly and other duties while granting a general pardon. The insurgents held the city from May to September, when the viceroys of Peru and New Granada established a garrison. When the Jesuits were expelled from Peru in 1767, the property confiscated included 5,200 slaves and credits for 500,000 pesos in gold and 800,000 pesos in silver. In 1771 people in Lima began to converse at cafés, and two years later The Journey of a Blind Traveler from Buenos Aires to Lima was successfully published under the pseudonym of Concolorcorvo, describing the manners of the time.
In June 1777 Jose Antonio de Areche arrived in Lima as the royally appointed visitador. He increased the sales tax from four to six percent while Viceroy Manuel de Guirior imposed a 12.5% tax on liquor. Areche made charges against the Viceroy, who was replaced by Jose de Galvez in July 1780. By then revolts in Cuzco, Arequipa, and Huancavelica were being dwarfed by a widespread Inca uprising. The corregidor Antonio Aliaga in Tinta had so abused the natives that even the Church had excommunicated him. Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui proclaimed himself Tupac Amaru II and led a rebellion. On November 4 he captured Aliaga and forced him to sign a large money order that also included muskets, horses, and mules. Then he executed Aliaga by making him drink molten gold. Tupac Amaru led his rebels to Quiquijana; the corregidor had fled to Cuzco, but they plundered large quantities of cotton and woolen cloth and more firearms, giving 300 to his 6,000 men. Rebels took 700,000 pesos from Endeiza and other merchants at Oruro, and their numbers swelled to 20,000 men. Areche mustered 17,000 soldiers at Cuzco, and the Viceroy of Buenos Aires sent three detachments. In November a thousand men under Governor Tiburcio de Landa of Paucartambo took refuge in a church; but a negotiation with Tupac Amaru failed, and all but 28 wounded men were slaughtered. Tupac Amaru had three thousand armed men by the end of November.
The authorities announced they were abolishing the repartimientos and the sales tax. In January 1781 Tupac Amaru sent letters to the Cuzco cabildo and the bishop asking for moderate reforms and an end to corregidor abuses. He promised to respect priests, church property, women, and unarmed men. Another attack on Paucartambo failed in February, but the Inca chief gathered 60,000 men at Tinta. Tupac Amaru wrote to Areche, again asking for reforms; but Areche refused to negotiate. General del Valle left Cuzco with an army of 17,116 men. Tupac Amaru was betrayed and captured. General del Valle immediately hanged 67 Indian prisoners at Tinta, and on May 15 Areche sentenced Tupac Amaru to watch the execution of his family before being drawn and quartered. All aspects of Quechua culture were prohibited including dramas, musical instruments, art, costumes, and even the language. Many Indians were still armed, and a war of extermination ensued that took an estimated 80,000 lives. At Sorata only the clergy remained alive as 20,000 were killed. La Paz was besieged for six months, and the war would last two years. In 1783 Felipe Velasco, calling himself Tupac Inca Yupanqui, tried to incite rebellion in Huarochiri but failed. Viceroy Agustin de Jauregui put Huarochiri under military occupation by replacing the civilian official with a military officer. The Indians did not forget the abuses of the Spaniards, and thirty years later they sided with the Creoles in the independence struggle.
Corregidors sold merchandise to the Indians because they were able to compel them to pay their debts. This repartimiento system was legalized from 1752 to 1782. When it was abolished, Alonso Carrio de la Bandera argued that the corregidors could make about 10,000 pesos a year without injuring the Indians. Viceroy Theodoro de Croix (1784-90) decreed that all books by Montesquieu, Raynal, Machiavelli, and the Encyclopédie be burned. Reaction to the French Revolution created a secret police in Lima, and after 1790 they investigated everyone entering the kingdom. In 1792 the viceroyalty of Peru had 483 parish priests for 608,894 Indians. The number of Europeans, mestizos, and Africans in Peru was about twice that.
The government monopolized tobacco commerce in 1753. They began
building the University of San Felipe at Santiago in 1738, but
teaching (mostly law) did not begin until 1758. Crime was a major
problem, and Manuel de Amat severely punished a rebellion by prisoners
in Santiago. He then established a police force for the city that
was extended to all of Chile in 1758.
Chile experienced another major uprising in 1766. Chile expelled 300 Jesuits in 1768. The first coins used in Chile were pesos in 1750, and the mint became a royal service in 1772, the same year the crown instituted the postal service. Agustin de Jauregui became captain-general in 1773 and invited Araucanian chiefs to Santiago the next year. They agreed on peace and established a school for Indians; but they were not allowed advanced instruction, and the school was moved to Chillan in 1780. In 1776 the province of Cuyo was transferred from Chile to the new viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata.
A large demonstration in the plaza of Santiago in July 1776 persuaded the Governor to reform taxes. The "conspiracy of the three Antonios" to make Chile independent of Spain that included chemist Jose Antonio Rojas and the two French Antoines Gramuset and Berney failed in 1780. Berney had been unjustly dismissed from the Colegio Carolino, and he drafted a constitution that called for a republic based on "Love your neighbor as yourself" and "Do not to another what you do not wish him to do to you." A senate would be elected by the people, including Araucanians. The death penalty, slavery, and social classes were to be abolished, and free trade was to extend to all nations including the Chinese and Africans. The document concluded that Chileans had decided to separate themselves from Spain and become an independent republic. The lawyer Mariana Perez de Saravia supported the project and sent a letter to Tomas Alvarez de Acevedo, the regent of the audiencia. Acevedo arrested the conspirators. Berney and Gramuset were tried secretly and imprisoned; but Rojas was too well known, and so his charges were dropped. The planned revolution was unknown to most Chileans until historians discovered it much later. In 1787 a new system of intendencias was introduced with powerful officials who received annual salaries of 10,000 pesos.
Ambrosio O'Higgins was born in Ireland and came to Chile as an engineer and worked his way up to colonel in the militia, intendant of Concepcion, Chile president (1788-96), and then was viceroy of Peru until he died in 1801. He abolished encomiendas in 1791 and gave the natives small parcels of land. A Commercial Tribunal was established at Santiago in 1795. A militia had replaced the army in the last third of the century and required 250,000 pesos from the 600,000 pesos in the budget that came mostly from the tobacco monopoly, customs duties, and a sales tax. When the Spaniards first invaded Chile in 1541, the native population was estimated to be at least a half million. By the end of the 18th century Chile had about 200,000 Spaniards (including Creoles born in America) and about 300,000 mestizos, most of whom worked in the fields. Living among these Europeans were about 20,000 African slaves and mulattoes and only about two thousand Indians. At least a hundred thousand Araucanians lived in the interior not controlled by the Spaniards.
Viceroy Sebastian de Eslaba came to Cartagena in 1740 and stayed until he retired in 1749. That year Archbishop Azua forbade clergy from selling alcohol. The naval officer Jose Alfonso Pizarro became viceroy and established a monopoly on the sale of alcohol. Viceroy Jose Solis (1753-61) implemented internal improvements and had the mint at Bogota rebuilt.
Viceroy Pedro de Messia de la Cerda (1761-73) made tobacco a government monopoly. An earthquake in 1765 destroyed the mines of Concepcion that had an annual production of about 300,000 pesos. That year the people in Quito rebelled against the liquor monopoly and high customs duties, and they governed Quito for more than a year. After royal troops occupied the city, Viceroy Messia de la Cerda granted amnesty to all those involved in the insurrection. In 1767 more than 187 Jesuits were banished, and their fourteen colleges with about five thousand students were abandoned. Viceroy Manuel Guiror (1773-76) promoted missions, but an uprising of Indians in the province of Riohacha using fire-arms was suppressed. Guiror did not add any new taxes, but he was diligent in collecting them.
Manuel Antonio Florez became viceroy at Cartagena in 1776. He introduced a public printing press, and in 1777 he opened the royal library to the public. When Spain declared war on England in 1779, Carlos III gave Juan Francisco Gutierrez de Piñeres as visitador-regente the authority to raise more money. He doubled the price of tobacco and rum, and he imposed a tax of two pesos on each white man and one peso on each man of color. The high taxes and corruption of those collecting them that took half the revenues caused resentment and rebellion in October 1780. Many Indians heard about the revolt of Tupac Amaru in Peru and joined. On March 16, 1781 Jose Delgadillo led a group of protestors to the house of the alcalde Jose de Angulo at Socorro, saying they would not pay the imposts and shouting, "Long live the King and death to the bad government!" The Socorro cabildo that day suspended the new taxes, but at San Gil a mob burned the tobacco in the storehouse. At Simacota tobacco was burned, and brandy was poured out. The regent Gutierrez de Piñeres recalled some of the taxes in this area. Ciriaco de Archila sent verses from Bogota that were read aloud to a crowd of four thousand. Then the mob broke into the offices and destroyed taxable items such as liquor, playing cards, stamped paper, and tobacco. Yet reports indicated little or no looting for personal gain nor was anyone killed.
In April 1781 six thousand rebels assembled in Socorro and elected a comun of four leaders. The chief Juan Francisco Berbeo organized a force of four thousand men, and the outnumbered local soldiers surrendered. Other towns did likewise, and about 20,000 comuneros marched toward Bogota. The leaders Berbeo, Monsalve, Rosillo, and Estevez wrote to Viceroy Florez that they wanted to secure prudently the "tranquility of these republics" without loss of life or property. Oidor (Judge) Osorio marched out of Bogota with fifty men, but they were overwhelmed and captured. The insurgents declared their independence and aimed to govern themselves democratically as a republic.
Gutierrez de Piñeres convened the audiencia (law court) at Bogota, appointed commissioners to negotiate, appealed to Archbishop Antonio Caballero, decreed a reduction in the sales and war taxes, and organized the militia. However, the insurgents next attacked the house of an administrator at Zipaquira. Berbeo sent Juan Bautista Morales to England to ask for military aid. The town of Giron opposed the revolution and gathered a company of 200 lances; but they fled when four thousand rebels arrived. Ambrosio Pisco was a descendant of the zipas, and in May 1781 he put himself under Berbeo's command. Indians at Silos published the proclamation of Tupac Amaru and swore obedience to him as emperor of America. The insurgents presented their demands for the abolition of monopolies and most taxes. The Archbishop, the commissioners, and the audiencia approved the demands, and their oaths were solemnized with Church rituals; but the commissioners secretly declared that they would not be bound by the agreement. The revolutionaries returned to their towns with the document they called the charter of their liberties. Berbeo went to Bogota and was appointed corregidor and chief justice of Socorro and San Gil.
Spaniards from Spain often discriminated against those born in America they called Creoles, but Archbishop Caballero also promised that Creoles would be preferred over peninsulares (Spaniards) for office appointments. However, Viceroy Florez immediately rejected the agreement and sent additional troops. In August 1781 five hundred soldiers from Cartagena arrived at Bogota. Most of the leaders gave in, but others resisted. The Indians would not fight trained troops and fled to the mountains. The educated mestizo Jose Antonio Galan and a few others were sentenced in January 1782 and hanged. Pisco was imprisoned in Cartagena for fourteen years. Regent Gutierrez de Piñeres returned to Bogota and annulled the agreement. The comuneros had controlled about a third of New Granada, and some tax officials were killed. After this rebellion, the Spanish officials reduced the local militia and increased the imperial army. Spain also held back from New Granada the intendant system that gave more local authority. In 1782 Archbishop Caballero became viceroy and issued a general amnesty to those involved in the comuneros uprising. Before resigning in 1788 he promoted education, missions, mining techniques, and the botanical expedition led by Jose Celestino Mutis. Viceroy Jose de Ezpeleta (1789-96) continued the efforts in science, industry, and the arts.
Antonio Nariño was a prosperous merchant and intellectual
with a library of 2,000 books. He admired Socrates, Plato, Montesquieu,
Rousseau, Franklin, and Washington. He also owned a printing press,
and in 1793 he printed a few copies of the Declaration of the
Rights of Man from the French revolution. After selling only
one copy and giving away one other, he changed his mind and tried
to get them back. Word got out, and they found subversive books
in his library. Nariño's property was confiscated, and
he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in North Africa and
permanently banned from America. Even his defense attorney was
sentenced to ten years. Nariño escaped at Cadiz and went
to Madrid, Paris, and London, where he asked for help for the
Spanish colonies from a member of the British cabinet. Eventually
he went back to New Granada and turned himself in to the new viceroy
in 1797. He spent six years in prison, but later he was arrested
again; he was in a Cartagena prison when the independence movement
reached fruition in 1810. By the end of the colonial period the
Catholic Church had 1,850 men and women in holy orders for the
1,400,000 inhabitants of New Granada.
In 1749 Juan Francisco de Leon led an effort to abolish the monopoly of the Caracas Company, and they marched to Caracas. The authorities made an agreement, but nothing really changed. When Leon gathered his forces again, Spain sent a new governor with 1,500 troops to crush the rebellion; Leon was captured and imprisoned in Spain for the rest of his life. Gradually some reforms were made, but the Company became less profitable.
The Intendancy of New Granada put the six provinces of Venezuela under an administrator at Caracas in 1776, and the next year Venezuela became a captaincy-general with its capital at Caracas. In 1783 immigration was opened to anyone of the Catholic faith. The Audiencia of Caracas established judicial administration over Venezuela in 1786. In 1789 the Company's monopoly was abolished as free trade was announced. Venezuela became an archbishopric in 1804. By then Caracas was a city of about 40,000.
Francisco de Miranda was born in Caracas on March 28, 1750, and he attended the Royal University. He developed revolutionary ideas and became an aide to General Juan Manuel de Cagigal in Cuba. Miranda was arrested in Havana by Captain-General Bernardo Galvez in 1783 and was sentenced to ten years, but Cagigal got him released. Miranda went north and met George Washington and criticized the Congress. In 1785 he went to England and then toured Europe, collecting books. According to his diary he had an extraordinary number of lovers, including Empress Catherine of Russia in 1787. In 1790 Miranda asked British prime minister William Pitt to support an effort for South American independence. He became a general in France's revolutionary army under General Dumouriez in 1793 and won some important battles. During the reign of terror in 1794 Miranda was investigated, but he was acquitted and released in 1795. He returned to London and conspired with Bernardo O'Higgins, Andres Bello, and Antonio Nariño. In December 1797 Miranda claimed to be part of the junta from the provinces of Spanish America, and he asked Britain for ships and soldiers. In the United States he met with Rufus King; but Alexander Hamilton called Miranda "an intriguing adventurer," and President Adams opposed him.
In 1797 Jose Maria España and Manuel Gral led a revolutionary plot in Venezuela that was discovered before they could raise arms from other countries. In June 1799 ninety revolutionaries were hanged or imprisoned. Miranda appealed to the United States Government again in 1805. President Jefferson gave no official support but allowed private persons to back him. Miranda managed to raise a "Columbian army" of 180 men, and they gained a few ships at Trinidad; but when they landed at Coro in April 1806, instead of a popular uprising, the inhabitants fled. Miranda lost British support and returned to Trinidad. He went back to London in 1808 and was treated as a popular hero. Edmund Burke published a pamphlet advocating South American emancipation. When Napoleon's army took over Spain that year, his envoys in Caracas had to escape from a mob that still supported the Spanish crown.
Captain Edward Vernon and Captain Anson did not fare well along the Mosquito Coast. In 1745 Panama governor Dionisio de Alcedo had Fort San Rafael de Terable built by the river and bay of Darien, and natives attacked it six years later, killing all but two or three men in the garrison. In 1756 the Chucunaques massacred the Yavisa, who were friendly with the Europeans.
In Panama the Chucunaques slaughtered and plundered the garrison at Port Ypelisa in 1768. Andrés de Ariza became governor in 1774, and he made special efforts to control the Indians.
In 1779 the English twice attacked Fort San Fernando de Omoa in Honduras and took four hundred prisoners and booty worth three million pesos.
The first archbishop of Guatemala arrived in 1745. The 1763 Treaty of Paris obliged the English to withdraw their military forces from Guatemala, but the settlers remained. Hodgson was replaced by Col. Lawrie in 1776. In the first half of the 18th century the Bourbon kings of Spain taxed the economy and built defense infrastructure in order to drive the English from the Atlantic coast. In 1774 the diocese of Guatemala that included El Salvador had 122 curates and a patrimony of about 300,000 pesos with 50,000 cattle. Two years after an earthquake devastated Santiago in 1773, a new Guatemala City was built, and the old Santiago came to be called Antigua. The Spaniards built Fort Imaculada Concepcion at the outlet of Lake Nicaragua. After the commander Jose de Herrera died in 1769, his daughter Rafaela led the defense that defeated an English siege. In 1780 an English expedition from Jamaica came back for revenge and captured the fort. Guatemala captain-general Matias de Galvez led a flotilla in 1782 that caused the British to retreat to Cape Gracias a Dios. In the 1783 peace treaty England agreed to evacuate the Mosquito Coast, but they were allowed to cut dyewood in Belize on the Yucatan coast.
In 1785 the Ordenanza de Intendente decentralized government by authorizing local intendants in San Salvador, Chiapas, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The captain-general of Guatemala ruled over the thirteen provinces of Soconusco, Chiapas, Suchitepec, Vera Paz, Honduras, Izalcos, San Salvador, San Miguel, Nicaragua, Jerez de la Choluteca, Tegucigalpa, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. Also Guatemala City asserted its power in 1793 with a commercial consulate. In the last two decades of the 18th century and the first in the 19th century military expenditures caused major deficits in Guatemala's fiscal situation. Trade with neutral countries was allowed in 1797, and smuggling was tolerated.
Coins from the Guatemala mint helped trade with Peru and Mexico,
and indigo grown on the Pacific slopes replaced cocoa in the mid-18th
century. The indigo trade increased and reached the height of
its prosperity in 1790. The mercantile economy decreased the tribute
collected from 73% of state income in the late 17th century to
18% in the early 19th century. The secularization of Guatemala's
missions began in 1754. Prohibiting the sale of some liquors in
1756 provoked a riot, which was suppressed. The state imposed
monopolies on liquor in 1758 and tobacco in 1765, but protests
got the price of tobacco lowered. The monopolies on gunpowder
and playing cards moved from Mexico to Guatemala. Much revenue
was also collected from sales and port taxes. Commercial indigo
and cattle caused a labor shortage and increased the price of
food, and locusts devastated crops in 1769, 1773, 1800, and 1805.
Competition from Venezuela, India, and the Dutch Antilles caused
the price of indigo to collapse at the turn of the century. An
ordinance tried to equalize tributes in 1806, and the Parliament
of Cadiz abolished them in 1811.
The English settlers by the Belize River were harassed by Spaniards in 1745, 1747, and 1754. Logwood imports to Britain increased from 3,471 tons in 1717 to 18,000 tons in 1756, but in the second half of the 18th century mahogany became more popular than logwood. In 1765 William Burnaby called a meeting at Belize of the European settlers, and they agreed on twelve regulations that included penalties for cursing, theft, harboring a deserter, hiring a servant without a written agreement, and kidnapping anyone to act as a servant. They also established a court of seven elected magistrates, and all future legislation and taxes were to be approved by a majority of the inhabitants. However, when Burnaby returned at the end of the year, he found such "anarchy and confusion" that he suggested the English government appoint a superintendent with a salary of 1,000 pounds a year. Two years later Admiral Pavey in Jamaica reported that the Spaniards were still destroying log-cutters' houses, taking their Africans, and imprisoning settlers. In 1773 an African slave revolt broke out on the upper reaches of the Belize River that killed six Europeans. In 1779 Yucatan governor Roberto Rivas Vetancur led 800 Spanish forces and captured about 140 prisoners and 250 slaves at St. George's Cay, and they were not released until 1782. The treaty of 1783 fixed the British territory between the Belize and Hondo rivers, and this was qualified three years later in the Treaty of London. In 1796 a superintendent was established at the Bay of Honduras, and two years later the British fought off an attack led by Yucatan governor-general Arturo O'Neil without one defender being killed.
When war threatened along the gulf coast in 1746, the popular Jose de Escandon was able to raise 750 expeditionary forces and settle 2,500 families of Spaniards and converted Indians in the last part of the coast to be pacified. His judgment and skill attracted natives to the missions. Viceroy Revilla Gigedo (1746-55) extended protection to Escandon. Commerce made Revilla rich, but he also increased the prosperity of Mexico and the royal revenue. In contrast, his successor, the Marques de la Amarillas, was poor because of his honesty and generosity. Spain declared war on the British in 1762, and Viceroy Cruillas reinforced defenses.
The Marques de Croix became viceroy in 1766, and he supported the visitador Jose de Galvez. Jacinto Martinez de la Concha and Manuel Antonio de Santa Maria (1782-1808) effectively presided over the tribunal of the Sacred Brotherhood.
In February 1767 King Carlos III ordered all members of the Society of Jesus expelled from his dominions in Europe, America, and Asia; priests were granted an annual pension of 100 pesos and lay brothers 90 pesos. On June 24 Viceroy Croix ordered all the Jesuits arrested; their papers and property were seized. At that time New Spain had 418 priests out of a total of 678 Jesuits; of these 464 were born in America, 153 were Spaniards, and 61 were foreigners. They had 23 colleges and 103 missions. They were accused of complicity with treasonous attempts, sedition, greed, fanaticism, disobedience, and pride. Yet many believed they served God, spread education, and helped natives earn a living. The Jesuits were confined in their colleges and sent to Vera Cruz. From there they were shipped to Havana, Cadiz, Corsica, Genoa, and finally to the papal states. Francisco Javier Clavijero was one of the Jesuits expelled, and he wrote his famous Historia antigua de Mexico in Italy.
Viceroy Bucarelli (1771-79) attended to military defense, promoted settlements in California, increased revenue without extra taxes, and developed education and hospitals for the poor; he died of pleurisy and was loved for the peace of his government. Martin Mayorga was also a liberal viceroy, and he was recalled in 1783, when Matias de Galvez became the last viceroy to enter Mexico City on horseback. He died of illness seven months later and was eventually succeeded by his son Bernardo de Galvez in 1785. He once encountered three prisoners on the way to the scaffold and pardoned them, but he died of illness too in 1786. Viceroy Croix and Visitador Galvez had recommended in 1768 that the corrupt corregidores and alcaldes be replaced, and in 1786 New Spain and New Galicia were divided into the twelve intendencias of Mexico, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, Durango, Sonora, Puebla, Vera Cruz, Merida, Oaxaca, Valladolid, Guanajuato, and San Luis Potosi. New Spain had about six million people, of which about one-fifth were Europeans, two-fifths were native, and two-fifths were mixed. The number of African slaves in Mexico was less than ten thousand, and they were mostly in Vera Cruz and Acapulco. Laws regulated their treatment, protecting the sick and those under seventeen or over seventy from forced labor. The could purchase their freedom but still had to pay tribute. In 1784 branding was abolished. In 1778 the crown attempted to extend its decree against miscegenation to the colonies. Minors of Europeans had to get permission from their parents or guardians to marry. Dowries were increasingly used to get better marriages for Spanish women.
When the younger Revilla Gigedo became viceroy in 1789, the intendencia of Mexico had more than a million and a half people. He implemented many reforms including regulation of market-places, street lights, paved streets, better fire brigades, eliminating some of the feast days, reducing the militia, and making the police and justice systems more effective. He had a letter box placed in the palace so that he could receive direct criticism, which irritated some officials. Gardens were laid out; city drainage was improved; mills manufactured cotton, silk, hemp, and linen; bridges and roads were constructed and repaired; and mining and agriculture were promoted. The annual coinage went up more than twenty percent to 24 million pesos. To suppress the ideas of the French revolution Revilla Gigedo prohibited books, pamphlets, and papers on religious or political freedom. In 1794 the marques de Branciforte arrived to be viceroy with goods exempt from customs duties so that he could enrich himself. He confiscated all the possessions of the French in New Spain and Louisiana. In October 1795 he signed a friendship treaty with the United States that prohibited North Americans from entering New Spain. When Spain declared war on England the next year, the English residents of New Spain suffered the same treatment as the French. In May 1798 Branciforte left for Spain with nearly five million pesos in gold and silver.
Viceroy Azanza began his administration by working on the cases of 1,500 prisoners awaiting trial. He dismissed the military camps established by Branciforte that were costing more than 60,000 pesos per month. Many people resented how the Spanish officials exploited Mexico for Spain and for their own selfish interests. Less than ten percent of the Spaniards in Mexico were female. Juan Guerrero and others were arrested for treason in 1799, and after eight years of investigation they were exiled. Pedro Portilla and a dozen relatives and friends were imprisoned for the "machete conspiracy." Some died in prison, and the others were released by Azanza's successor. Viceroy Marquina arrived in 1800; but he had been captured by the English during his voyage from Spain and was suspected of having made them promises. He had the English prisoners at Vera Cruz released. He was kind-hearted and forbade bull fights during his reception, which made him unpopular. Marquina discovered a conspiracy of natives in New Galicia that was led by Mariano, the son of Tlaxcala's governor, who claimed to be Aztec royalty. More than a hundred people were arrested; but none were convicted, and many died in the hospital. The English fleet blockaded Vera Cruz, but one effect of the European wars was that New Spain became more independent. A papal bull granting indulgence from fasting during lent raised gold for Spain.
Jose de Iturrigaray became the 56th viceroy of Mexico in 1803. He too brought cargo to sell at a profit, and he developed a system of selling offices and employment. Despite his enormous wealth his extravagant expenses exceeded his salary of 60,000 pesos. The smallpox vaccine invented by Jenner began reducing that disease in Mexico in 1804. In December a royal order sequestered all real estate owned by benevolent institutions that were mostly operated by clergy, and ten million pesos were raised this way before the order was rescinded in 1809. Spain's neutrality ended in 1805 after Nelson captured four treasure ships headed from America to Cadiz. To meet the crisis Iturrigaray raised eighteen million pesos from corporations, clergy, and private persons. In time of war unmarried men between the ages of 14 and 40 were the first to be conscripted, followed by the married men. The viceroy had about 28,000 troops he could put in the field. By 1808 the annual military budget was $4,000,000.
Jose Antonio Alzate edited the monthly Gaceta de Literature
from 1788 to 1795. The Creoles were better educated in America
than the Spaniards were in Europe, and the writings of Rousseau
and others were spread secretly. The Inquisition tried to suppress
the libertinism of the romantic era, and Juan Antonio Olavarrieta
was prosecuted and deported for having written Man and Beast
that depicted a tyrant king, but he escaped during the voyage.
In 1807 Jose Roxas was imprisoned for several years by the holy
office for having a volume of Rousseau. From 1690 through 1807
the coined gold and silver shipped to Spain amounted to $1,052,579,000,
and of this $767,000,000 went into the royal treasury. Even as
late as 1808 only one bishop in New Spain was not European. In
March 1808 King Carlos IV abdicated in favor of Fernando VII,
and Mexicans rejoiced at the fall of the powerful and avaricious
Godoy. Three months later news reached Mexico that Fernando also
had abdicated as Joseph Bonaparte assumed the crown of Spain.
In 1744 padres Carlos Delgado and Irigoyen visited the Navahos,
and the next year they went to Moqui towns and counted more than
ten thousand, bringing back 441 converts. Their report persuaded
King Felipe V to tell the Viceroy to support the Franciscans.
In 1746 the Viceroy authorized four missions in Navaho country,
but by 1750 this attempted conversion was considered a failure.
Meanwhile in 1747 Governor Joaquin Codallos with a force of 500
that included Ute allies attacked raiding Comanches and killed
107, capturing 206. The next year 600 Comanches, who had not participated
in the war, were received at Taos. In 1751 Governor Tomas Velez
Cachupin marched against Comanches and killed 101. Another revolt
in the Upper Pimas was led by the ambitious Luis Oacpicagigua
in 1751. In 1755 missionaries went to convert Moquis, but they
were countered by arguments against being enslaved to the alcaldes.
Governor Manuel Portillo Urrisola led an attack that killed 400
Comanches at Taos in 1761.
The missions declined after the Jesuits were expelled in 1767. Francisco Joaquin Valdez worked through the church at Torim for 23 years and promoted crafts, manufacturing, technical assistance, sheep raising, and cotton and indigo farming. He secured loans in 1774 and established a stocking factory at Potam. Only thirty of the fifty Jesuits expelled from Sonora reached Spain alive in 1769. Most of the missions in Sinaloa and Ostimuri were secularized, and those in Sonora were turned over to Franciscan friars. The Querétaro college provided fourteen friars to the missions in the Pimerias. In 1781 a royal decree made Sonora a bishopric that included Sinaloa and the Californias.
Governor Pedro Fermin de Mendinueta (1767-78) made a treaty with the Comanches in 1771. The new Regulation of 1772 called for constant warfare against hostile natives, although the goal was to bring peace to the frontier by converting the tribes. Indians who made peace were given provisions worth fifteen to twenty pesos.
When Juan Bautista de Anza became governor in 1778, he led 645 men north and killed the Comanche chief Cuerno Verde and other prominent leaders. Comanches and other tribes had an annual summer fair on the plains of Taos, and hundreds of New Mexicans bartered for deer and buffalo skins that they could trade in the January fair at Chihuahua. Most of the pueblo Indians suffered under debt peonage to the settlers, who in turn were usually in debt to the merchants in Chihuahua. In 1779 Commandant-General Teodoro de Croix ratified a peace treaty with four bands of Apache Mescaleros, but he still intended to destroy hostile Apaches. In the winter of 1781-82 eight Mescalero chiefs led raids that killed eighty people. Governor Anza with a display of soldiers persuaded the Navahos to make peace, and in 1785 the Navahos agreed to be allies in the campaign against the Gileños. That year Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola was appointed comandante general. In November 1785 the three top chiefs of the Comanches attended a council by the Arkansas River and decided to negotiate peace with Governor Anza. Chief Ecueracapa traveled to Santa Fe, and in February 1786 he made a peace pact with Anza that included reconciliation with the Utes. The Comanches agreed to restore all the captives from tribes friendly to the Spaniards. Anza made a preliminary peace alliance with the Navaho chiefs in March, and they agreed to submit to one elected chief. Later that year the Comanche nation elected Ecueracapa. Ugarte authorized Anza to make peace with the Comanches, Utes, Navahos, and Jicarilla Apaches but not with any other Apaches.
Before he died in November 1786, Viceroy Bernardo de Galvez instructed General Jacobo Ugarte to implement a new policy toward the Indians. In March 1787 Captain Domingo Diaz reported that eight Mescalero chiefs had brought their bands to El Norte, and they accepted eleven conditions for peace; but the next month Governor Juan de Ugalde attacked these Mescalero bands. After Governor Anza met with the Jupe, Yamparica, and Chuchantica chiefs, the final agreement with the Comanche nations was made in April 1787. Already the Comanches had been fighting the enemy Apaches for a year. Ugarte urged Governor Fernando de la Concha to provide the cooperating Comanches with conveniences. The next month hundreds of Mimbreños revolted from the settlements at San Buenaventura, and in June most of the Chiricahuas deserted Bacoachi.
In April 1788 Mescaleros abandoned their reservation, killed soldiers, and raided ranches. The same month Viceroy Manuel Antonio Flores ordered General Ugarte to nullify the Mescalero peace and expel them from New Vizcaya. While governing Rio de la Plata and New Granada, Flores had become convinced him that he could not trust peace pacts with savages, and he urged Ugarte to wage war against all the Apaches. When the Compa and others surrendered, Ugarte told Anza to make an exception to the Viceroy's policy so as not to alienate the Chiricahuas. Flores put Ugalde in charge of the eastern provinces in October, leaving Ugarte only the western half. Later that month Ugalde accepted the capitulation of eight Mescalero chiefs by the Sabine River. Ugarte disagreed with the policies of Flores and wrote a memorial to the King in May 1789. He hoped to gain the Mescalero Apaches in the east as allies to help fight the Gila Apaches and the Mimbreños. Flores became ill and retired in October 1789. Viceroy Revilla Gigedo II ordered Ugalde to return from his offensive campaign and surrender his command of the eastern provinces to Ugarte. General Ugarte sent Captain Diaz to negotiate with the Mescaleros in June, and they agreed to fight with the Spaniards against the hostile Gila Apaches. Ugarte renewed the Mescalero peace in June 1790, and peace was nearly concluded with the alienated Lipanes by the time Ugarte had turned over his command to Pedro de Nava at the end of the year. Ugarte also maintained the alliance with the Comanches, improved relations with the Chiricahuas, and accepted the surrender of several hundred Mimbreños.
Zunis refused to revolt against the missionaries in 1702, and four years later Moquis (Hopis) attacked Christian Zunis. Franciscans continued their efforts to convert Moquis, but Carlos Delgado's claim that he baptized 5,000 by 1744 turned out to be Navahos. The Navahos remained at peace with the Spaniards until 1796 when they joined the Gileños in some raids. Some hostile Navahos tried to survive in the canyon of Chelly in 1803, but Governor Jose Chacon's expeditions persuaded them to submit in 1805.
Texas had many wild cattle, and the early settlers had more influence than the missionaries with the government. France ceded Louisiana to Spain in 1762 to keep it from the British, but in 1800 they ceded it back to France in exchange for Tuscany. After Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in 1803, its western border was in dispute. Viceroy Iturrigaray fortified Nacogdoches and planned to defend the Arroyo Hondo as the border. By 1800 San Antonio de Béjar was the largest town in Texas with about two thousand people, and the first port at Bahia de San Bernardo opened in 1805. The next year Governor Juan Bautista Guazabal was succeeded by Antonio Cordero. One of the first settlers from the northeast was the Irishman Philip Nolan who had been trying to engage in illegal trade between San Antonio and Natchez since 1785. He and twenty others in 1800 left Natchez to capture wild horses and built an enclosure by the Brazos River. In March 1801 they were attacked by 150 Spanish soldiers, and Nolan was killed. The Americans signed a treaty, but they were put in irons and taken to San Luis Potosi. Nine men were tried, and after five years one was hanged. In 1806 Simon Herrerra led 1,300 troops across the Sabine River. The United States considered this the temporary border, and Governor Claiborne called out the Louisiana militia. General James Wilkinson negotiated, and the agreement recognized the territory between the Sabine and the Arroyo Hondo as neutral ground. Both governments agreed, but as a result this territory was used by outlaws and marauders.
When the sixteen Jesuits were expelled from Baja California in 1768, some Spaniards expected to find great wealth in their missions; but they were disappointed. Junipero Serra planned the distribution of Franciscans to the abandoned missions. Concerned about Russians coming from the northwest, King Carlos III ordered Viceroy Croix to occupy and fortify Alta California from San Diego to Monterey. Visitador general Jose de Galvez came to the northwest to settle the Indian problems in Sonora. He organized the occupation of California from San Diego to Monterey, and he decreed that crown lands could be separated from the missions and offered to Spaniards of good character. He also prohibited trade with the Manila ships. Galvez sent four expeditions to meet at San Diego in 1769 under the command of Governor Gaspar de Portola. In 1772 the Franciscan Rafael Verger and the Dominican Juan Pedro Iriarte signed an agreement that gave the Dominicans the California peninsula south of San Diego. In 1804 a royal decree made Baja California and Alta California separate provinces.
Junipero Serra was president of the missions in Alta California and founded the first mission at San Diego in 1769. Serra had a lame foot from his walk from Vera Cruz to Mexico City in 1749. While going from Loreto to San Diego in 1769 he had a muleteer treat an abscess on his leg. He stayed behind in San Diego to collect church utensils while Portola and Padre Juan Crespi marched north to Monterey. They did not recognize Monterey Bay but saw Point Reyes and the San Francisco Bay before returning. In August the Spaniards in San Diego were attacked by the natives, and one Spaniard was killed; but after the assault the surgeon Pedro Prat healed several of the wounded natives, and this improved relations. Serra's gifts induced a young Indian to live with the Spaniards and learn the language, but Serra was deeply disappointed that no natives would be baptized for some time. In 1770 Serra founded a mission at San Carlos in Monterey, and a presidio for the soldiers was built. Later the mission was moved to Carmel because Serra believed the soldiers were a bad influence. Portola retired and was replaced by Lt. Pedro Fages.
In 1771 the San Antonio and San Gabriel missions were established. Serra criticized the soldiers for refusing to work, alienating natives with their insolence, and abusing their women. The raping of native women caused some Indians to attack two soldiers at San Gabriel, and a chief was killed with a musket. Serra went to Mexico City and gained a military force of eighty men under Captain Fernando de Rivera y Moncada, who was selected because Serra was at odds with Lt. Fages. Only transport ships from San Blas in Mexico and from the Philippines were allowed in California ports, and no trade was permitted. In 1772 Serra founded the mission at San Luis Obispo. By 1773 the Franciscans reported that they had baptized 491 natives; the number was small because they provided the neophytes with food and had little. In 1774 San Diego became a presidio. That year they baptized 342 natives, and the number of marriages doubled. In November 1775 nearly a thousand natives burned the San Diego mission, and Padre Jaume and a blacksmith were killed. They relocated the mission six miles from the bay.
In the next two years missions were founded at San Francisco, San Juan Capistrano, and Santa Clara. They also built a presidio at San Francisco. Monterey became the capital, and San Jose was the first pueblo for a few colonists. Jose Ortega became concerned that some Indians in the San Diego area were making arrows to use against Spaniards. Chief Aaaran replied to a warning that the soldiers could come and be slain. Ortega sent Sergeant Cabrillo, whose forces killed two, burned others who refused to come out of a hut, flogged those who surrendered, and took four chiefs to San Diego. Ortega had no right to inflict capital punishment, but nonetheless the four chiefs died in the first public execution in California on April 11, 1778. That year Serra received the authority to confirm Christians, and he confirmed 5,309 before he died in 1784. The Manila galleon stopped at Monterey in 1779. That year Spain declared war on England, and Commandant General Teodoro de Croix passed on the royal order for Governor Neve to collect a war tax of two pesos from every Spaniard and one peso from Indians and other adults. Serra objected to the missionaries having to collect the money from the sale of produce, alms, and soldiers' debts without even telling the converts.
Padre Francisco Garces traveled much in the region of the Colorado River in the late 1770s, visiting all the natives except the Moquis (Hopis). Yuma chief Ignacio Palma was friendly to Spaniards, was baptized Salvador, and requested missionary services in 1777. Garces and Juan Diaz were sent in 1779; but they brought only a few trinkets, and the Yumas were disappointed. New instructions were issued in March 1780 which allowed converts to live in pueblos with the Spaniards. The pueblos founded were called La Purisima Concepcion and San Pedro y San Pablo, and they were both west of the mouth of the Colorado River. The land was distributed with little regard for the rights of the natives, whose crops were often ruined by the Spaniards' livestock. Hatred grew among the Yumas and the other tribes, and Palma helped organize the resistance. Commander Alferez Santiago de Islas appointed Ignacio Palma governor of the Yumas territory around San Pedro y San Pablo; but later he arrested Palma and put him in the stocks. Captain Fernando Rivera arrived with a dozen soldiers; but he distributed few gifts, and their livestock destroyed the mesquite plants. On July 17, 1781 the Yumas attacked both pueblos, killed four priests and a total of 46 men, including Garces, Diaz, and Rivera. The women and children were captured and made to work but were not violated. Lt. Col. Pedro Fages led a hundred soldiers and native allies to the Colorado and ransomed the captives, but the Yumas had left the area.
In 1781 Governor Felipe de Neve increased the military force to two hundred men, and Los Angeles became a pueblo. In the new regulations the Spanish government gave up its 150% profit, and supplies were provided at their cost in San Blas, Mexico. The soldiers' pay was reduced by forty percent. Settlers were required to sell their surplus produce to the presidios at fair prices fixed by the government. Each colonist had to be ready with horses and a musket for military service in emergencies. They were not allowed to kill their livestock, and one person could not own more than fifty animals. In 1782 Santa Barbara gained a presidio and San Buenaventura a mission. Serra was expecting the arrival of six friars and went with Pedro Benito Cambon to serve the two new missions. The soldiers were forbidden to visit the natives and were not allowed to own cattle. The priests were forbidden to engage in temporal management but were to focus on instructing the Indians. However, without the agricultural and mechanical implements the priests had little control over the natives. The six new friars refused to be missionaries under these new conditions. If the priests were not supported by the civil and military authorities, they believed the natives would lose respect for them with disastrous results. In 1782 the nine missions had only eighteen padres and Serra.
Pedro Fages was governor 1782-90. He toured the missions in October 1782, urging neophytes to behave well and promising to pardon returning runaways while threatening to punish others severely. The number of converts living in missionary communities grew from 4,000 in 1783 to 7,500 in 1790 while the livestock quadrupled. After Serra's death his friend Francisco Palou wrote a biography of him and served as interim president until Fermin Francisco de Lasuen was installed in 1785. He was given episcopal authority to confirm in 1790, and in the next five years Lasuen confirmed 10,139 Christians. He founded missions at Santa Barbara in 1786, La Purisima Concepcion in 1787, and Santa Cruz and Soledad in 1791.
News of Captain Cook's voyage to the northwest coast in 1778-79 stimulated the Spaniards to try fur trading in California. Vicente Basadre y Vega was sent as a commissioner and purchased skins collected from the natives by the missionaries at set prices for the government monopoly. He collected 1,600 otter-skins in 1786 and nearly ten thousand by 1790, when they decided to leave the trade to private enterprise because the monopoly could not compete with the northwest coast. The French explorer Jean François Galaup de La Pérouse visited Monterey for ten days in September 1786. Spanish authorities ordered a welcome for the French, and they were provided with cattle, vegetables, and milk. La Pérouse introduced potatoes from Chili and a hand-mill for grinding barley. He studied the mission system and commented that the neophytes seemed like children or slaves more than men and that ignorance was not much dispelled because the emphasis was more on the next life than on this one. To prevent the British from occupying Nootka, the Spanish sent Martinez in 1789, and he captured several English ships. This nearly provoked a war, but in a 1790 treaty both nations were given the right of navigation, fishing, and settlement on the northwest coast. In November 1792 Captain George Vancouver visited San Francisco and went on horseback to the Santa Clara mission. Governor Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga (1792-94) was alarmed by the visit and urged the strengthening of defenses. Vancouver visited Monterey at the end of 1794 and obtained supplies; he was surprised the Spaniards had so few soldiers to protect the colony from natives and foreign invasion.
Governor Diego de Borica (1794-1800) issued orders in 1796 to keep out foreign vessels. However, that year Spain and the United States made a friendship treaty, and the first ship from the United States was allowed to anchor at Monterey. The Otter from Boston commanded by Ebenezer Dorr had a passport from President Washington signed by the Spanish consul in Charleston. Dorr's request to land some convicts who had escaped from Botany Bay was denied, but he secretly forced the ten men and a woman to land at night. Governor Borica had the carpenters and blacksmiths put to work for nineteen cents a day building a launch, a mill, and better wagons until they were deported to Spain. Problems with local tribes occurred when the missionaries sent converts after neophytes who had run away. In 1795 eight or ten neophytes were killed north of San Francisco Bay. When thirty neophytes were sent after fugitives cross the bay from San Francisco in June 1797, the Viceroy prohibited the practice. The next month Sergeant Amador captured 83 fugitives and nine of the Cuchillones and the Sacalanes, the tribes involved in the 1795 killings. The natives dug pits to prevent the use of horses, and in the battle Amador had seven or eight men killed. Commandant Jose Dario Arguello then forbade such expeditions by the missionaries.
The laws required each mission to elect annually an alcalde and regidores, but these elections were not held after 1792. When Governor Borica and the Viceroy insisted in 1796, President Lasuen obeyed but told the friars that the elections were only formalities to instruct the natives. In 1796 Padre Martin de Landaeta wrote a letter to Governor Borica protesting abusive treatment of the natives. Borica then wrote to Lasuen complaining about their treatment, work, and food. In 1795 two hundred neophytes had fled from San Francisco. In 1797 Padre Antonio de la Concepcion Horra came to California and was so critical of how the friars treated the natives that Lasuen deemed him insane and sent him back to Mexico the same year. Such offenses as neglecting work, not attending mass, returning late from a leave of absence, sexual improprieties, theft, and quarrelling were punished by up to 25 lashes (per day) or confinement in stocks or shackles.
Also in 1797 Lasuen founded missions at San Jose, San Juan Bautista, San Miguel, and San Fernando. The mission started at San Luis Rey in 1798 made eighteen, each with two padres. President Lasuen and three other supernumeries were not paid. Lasuen died in 1803. The historian Hubert Bancroft judged Lasuen more capable than the great Junipero Serra, and he was considered more diplomatic. Santa Ines mission was founded in 1804, fulfilling Serra's goal of missions separated by only one day's walking distance. That year Nueva California became a separate province from Antigua (Baja) California that was run by the Dominicans. Arrillaga became governor again in Monterey and was paid $4,000 a year.
In 1803 Captain William Shaler came to San Diego to purchase skins; but the comandante seized them, and they fired upon Shaler's ship. The next year he returned from China, visited Santa Catalina island, and got supplies at San Pedro. In 1808 Shaler published the first account of California in the United States and predicted that with good government it would become affluent. He suggested that the conquest of California would not require much effort. Shaler wrote in his journal,
The plan of civilization in the missions is to instruct the Indians
in the Catholic religion, the Spanish language,
the necessary arts, agriculture, etc.;
but the notion of private property is not admitted among them;
so that each mission forms an indivisible society,
of which the fathers are the kings and pontiffs.1
In 1806 Russians led by Nikolay Petrovich Rezanov were graciously received by Governor Arrillaga at Monterey. Rezanov fell in love with Concepcion, the daughter of Commandant Arguello, and they agreed to marry. Rezanov went to get permission in Russia and Madrid for this and for trading; but he died in Siberia, and his treaty was never ratified. Concepcion waited and then chose a religious life.
In 1805 a group led by Padre Pedro Cuevas was attacked by natives near San Jose, and several were killed. Sergeant Luis Peralta with eighteen soldiers and as many volunteers went out and killed a dozen Indians while capturing twice as many. Yet under the mission system during these years hostile confrontations with the natives were very few, and those who chose to become Christians and live in the mission communities found new opportunities for improving their way of life by farming and learning other skills as well as the new religion.
In 1744 France declared war on England. In 1745 Admiral Isaac Townsend captured thirty French ships on their way to Martinique, and two years later Captain George Pocock captured forty such prizes. In the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la Chapelle the Windward islands of Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Tobago were declared neutral. At the conclusion of the Seven Years War in 1763 the British annexed Dominica, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Tobago while restoring Guadalupe, Martinique, and St. Lucia to the French. The Sugar Duties Act of 1764 enforced the heavy duties on trade to help pay for the Seven Years War. In 1777 Grenada had 27 slaves per European.
The British West Indies suffered economically during the American war of independence. The duty on sugar practically doubled between 1776 and 1782. In 1778 three hundred Europeans fled from St. Kitts to escape prosecution for debts. That year the French captured Dominica, and a British fleet led by Byron took St. Lucia; but they could not stop France from taking St. Vincent and Grenada the next year. In 1781 the French captured St. Eustatius, Demerara, Essequibo, Berbice, and Tobago, and they took St. Kitts the next year. In the Versailles Treaty the English recovered Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Kitts, Montserrat, Nevis, and Dominica; Spain's possession of Florida was recognized, and Tobago was ceded to France, which established a naval base at Martinique in 1784. During the 1780s several hundred slaves died of famine in Nevis and Antigua. In 1783 British Navigation Laws regulated commerce with the United States.
In the 18th century the British West Indies imported goods worth more than twice as much as they exported. The population of the British West Indies in 1787 was 461,864 African slaves, 58,353 Europeans, and 7,706 free Africans. The population of the French West Indies in 1780 was 437,738 African slaves, 63,682 Europeans, and 13,429 free Africans.
In 1792 a General Congress of representatives from Guadeloupe,
Martinique, St. Lucia, and Tobago met in Martinique and limited
the rights of mulattoes, and the next year the Martinique Assembly
considered itself independent of the revolutionary French administration.
The British captured Tobago, and in 1794 they took over Martinique,
Guadeloupe, and St. Lucia. In 1795 Fedon led a rebellion in Grenada
that lasted two years while a French squadron of seven ships led
by the mulatto Victor Hugues invaded Guadaloupe in the Second
Black Carib (Maroon) War or Brigand's War. He raised African troops
and moved on to St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada. After these
raids, the British regained control while seizing Demerara and
Essequibo in 1796 and Trinidad the next year. In the 1801 Peace
of Amiens the British gave their conquests back to France but
reoccupied them in 1803 when hostilities broke out again.
The Jamaica Assembly asserted in 1766 that it had all the rights
and privileges of the House of Commons and that neither the king
nor his representatives could overrule these. In 1768 Jamaica
had 369 cattle mills, 235 water mills, and 44 windmills. Because
Jamaica had so many slaves, they were punished severely for even
trivial offenses. To prevent famine, the ackee tree was introduced
in 1778 and the mango in 1782, but between 1780 and 1787 about
15,000 slaves died of famine in Jamaica. In 1788 a law was passed
so that anyone mutilating a slave could be fined 100 pounds and
imprisoned for one year, and three years later a European who
had killed a slave committed suicide to avoid being hanged; but
in 1792 the Consolidated Slave Act freed a slave from a master
only for the most atrocious mutilation. Jamaica had a Second Maroon
War in 1795.
The Bahamas prospered in the mid-18th century. In 1776 Commodore
Hopkins of the new American navy abducted the governor of the
Bahamas from Nassau. Many loyalists fled from the United States
to the Bahamas, which tripled its population between 1783 and
1788 while the portion of slaves increased from half to three-quarters.
John Murray, Earl of Dunmore, was a land speculator and became
governor in 1787. He wasted money building massive forts, but
the Assembly finally gained control over the budget in 1793. The
Act of 1799 limited voting to free white men, but in 1807 the
franchise was extended to free African men. That year the British
government abolished the slave trade and made it illegal as of
the first day of 1808.
In 1740 the Royal Commerce Company was formed in Cuba to control all imports and exports. In the next twenty years they imported about 5,000 slaves, mostly from Jamaica. A general post office was established in 1755. In March 1762 George Albemarle commanded 63 English ships that left Portsmouth with 4,000 troops. At Barbados they picked up a thousand gallons of rum, 900 casks of wine, and beef. After being joined by 700 Africans from Jamaica with nine of Rodney's ships under Commodore Douglas, they landed troops fifteen miles east of Havana in June. The Spaniards had 3,000 soldiers but only 2,000 muskets for about 3,000 militia. Many of Albemarle's men came down with malaria and dysentery, and they did not storm El Morro until the end of July. Soon after the English began using their batteries surrounding Havana on August 11, the captain-general surrendered Havana and western Cuba. The English commanders and soldiers divided up about £440,000 plus about £310,000 in goods with Albemarle and Admiral George Pocock getting £122,697 each. Santiago governor Lorenzo de Madariaga acted as captain-general in the east. The English had 746 men killed in battle but lost six thousand to sickness. During their eleven months of occupation the British imported nearly four thousand slaves. Albemarle announced in November that large contributions to the governor would no longer win lawsuits. The French persuaded Spain's King Carlos III to give up Florida to make peace in February 1763, and the English left Havana in July.
The French persuaded Spain's King Carlos III to give up Florida to make peace in February 1763, and the English left Havana in July. Cuba's new governor, Conde de Ricla, imposed new taxes and tripled government revenue. The sugar industry increased dramatically. In 1762 they had 10,000 acres in cane, but by 1792 more than 160,000. By 1768 Cuba had more Europeans than Africans, and 22,740 of the Africans were free. El Teatro Principal began performing at Havana in 1776. That year the Spanish crown allowed American rebels to purchase supplies for cash, bills of exchange, or slaves. However, in 1784 Spain banned legal trade with other nations again. In 1789 the asiento (license) system of slave trading was abolished so that Spaniards and others could bring slaves to the West Indies. That year Spain developed a liberal Code Noir, but it was not even promulgated in Cuba. Because of the revolution in St. Domingue the price of sugar doubled in seven years.
The Creole planter Francisco de Arango wanted to make Cuba a sugar colony, and he persuaded Captain-General Luis de las Casas (1790-96) to support La Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais and an agricultural development board. The first newspaper Papel Periodico was a weekly in 1791 but became semi-weekly two years later. The Economical Society's library was the first to be opened to the public. The Society began promoting education in 1794, and two free schools were founded. Arango bought the first steam-powered mill in London that was tried in 1797. Water mills were improved, and Arango began using lime. Near Havana 179 new mills were installed. The average sugar mill in 1782 produced 55 tons a year, but by 1804 this had gone up to 130. Under Las Casas they built schools, roads, bridges, an aqueduct, hospitals, and asylums. Arango and his friends also imported more slaves, and by 1792 Africans and mulattoes outnumbered Europeans and natives. In 1795 Nicolas Morales, a free African, led a slave revolt that started in Bayamo, spread to eastern Cuba, and was joined by liberal Europeans. They demanded equality, abolition of taxes, and giving plantations to the slaves, but the Spanish army suppressed the revolt.
Many Cuban planters went into debt to buy slaves and plant
their crops, and most of the mills stopped paying tithes to the
Church. Increasing the slave trade made merchants rich. Between
1791 and 1805 Havana received 91,211 slaves. Cuba's imports rose
from 2,285,798 pesos in 1774 to 12,319,997 pesos
in 1803, and their exports increased from 1,197,979 pesos
in 1774 to 8,165,735 pesos in 1804. About thirty percent
of the import trade and almost twenty percent of the export trade
were in foreign ships. The Spanish as well as the French and British
were giving up their mercantile monopolies. The 1801 Peace of
Amiens facilitated the importation of nearly 14,000 slaves in
one year, but war broke out again in 1803. England's abolition
of the slave trade in 1807 made slaves much less available.
Fernando VI chartered the Royal Company of Barcelona in 1755
to regulate commerce in Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, and Margarita.
In 1765 the Aguirre & Aristegui Company was authorized to
supply slaves for Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Margarita. In 1797 sixty
British frigates with 7,000 men led by Ralph Abercromby and Henry
Harvey besieged San Juan, but they withdrew after two weeks.
Port-au-Prince became the capital of St. Domingue in 1749. François Macandal led a major slave revolt during the 1750s that caused the death of about 6,000 people before he was captured and burned at the stake in 1758. After that, hommes de couleur were prohibited from carrying side-arms. Many Jesuits were sympathetic to the slaves, and in 1763 they were expelled from the colony. The conflicts continued in the St. Domingue colony until they signed a treaty in 1764 for the free trade of cattle. Trade was further facilitated by the treaty of 1777. The Spanish also agreed to return runaway slaves to St. Domingue. Many Jesuits were sympathetic to the slaves, and in 1763 they were expelled from the colony. In 1764 the Gazette de St. Domingue became the first newspaper on the island. In 1766 people of color were forbidden from many professions, and they were subject to the corvée labor on highways from which Europeans were exempt. In 1779 curfew regulations were imposed on them. Escaped slaves fled into the mountains, and in the 18th century the numbers of these marrons increased. In 1782 the French officer Saint-Larry initiated a political settlement with the French and Spanish authorities that gave the marrons their own territory under royal authority; there they kept alive African traditions.
St. Domingue imported 800,000 African slaves between 1680 and 1776. Most of the plantation owners lived in France. By 1783 St. Domingue accounted for more than one third of France's foreign trade. Their sugar plantations had profits from eight to twelve percent compared to four to six percent for most other islands; according to Jamaicans, St. Domingue had better soil. In 1789 St. Domingue imported 40,000 slaves. In 1791 it had 7,466 plantations-792 in sugar, 2,180 in coffee, 705 in cotton, 3,097 in indigo, 69 in cocoa, and 632 in subsistence crops. About 40,000 Europeans discriminated against 28,000 free Africans (affranchis) while controlling 452,000 slaves. The census of 1774 recorded that 5,000 of the 7,000 female affranchis were the mistresses of Europeans.
On July 4, 1789 the French National Assembly seated six delegates from St. Domingue; but Mirabeau wanted to know why only white settlers were speaking for the mostly black population, and in October the Assembly seated a mulatre (mulatto) delegation. Vincent Ogé went to London and asked for money from the abolitionist Thomas Clarkson and bought arms. Ogé landed on the north coast of St. Domingue in October 1790 and petitioned Governor Comte de Peynier for the right to vote for all taxpayers as passed by the French National Assembly in March. When this was denied, Ogé gathered 300 mulatres and disarmed all the Europeans in the parish. He refused to arm slaves and marched with Jean-Baptiste Chavanne to the Cap Haitien. They were defeated by 1,500 white militia and fled east but were returned by the Spaniards. Ogé and Chavannes were broken on a rack, and 22 others were hanged. After news of this reached France, in May 1791 the National Assembly decreed that people of color born to free parents could be elected to colonial assemblies. The colonial delegates stalked out, and in August colonists elected only whites to the colonial assembly at Léogane. Meanwhile French revolutionaries took control at Port-au-Prince.
In the summer of 1791 the slave Boukman held meetings at night, and some slaves burned houses. After Boukman prayed for vengeance, slaves began killing men, drinking rum, raping women, and burning estates. About 2,000 French and an estimated 10,000 slaves were killed in the fighting. In September the National Assembly revoked their May decree that had granted rights to the mulatres. In reaction mulatre troops attacked the Europeans at Port-au-Prince in November. In 1792 Spaniards on the frontier began promising fugitive slaves their freedom. Santo Domingo gained some territory, but they soon lost it to former slaves led by Toussaint of Bréda. Toussaint was born about 1743, the son of an educated slave, and he was legally freed in 1777.
In April 1792 Louis XVI approved the Jacobin decree that granted equal rights to all people of color and free Africans, and three commissioners were sent with 6,000 soldiers to enforce it. Commissioner Léger-Félicité Sonthonax was an abolitionist, and with gens de couleur as allies he and Etienne Polverel subdued resistance in the north and west. General Etienne-Maynard Laveaux asked for reinforcements, and the National Assembly sent Thomas-François Galbaud to govern; but Sonthonax and Polverel canceled his efforts on behalf of the colonists and arrested him. On a ship Galbaud joined with the navy and 800 loyalist deportees to attack the government house. The Jacobins promised Africans that those taking up arms for the republic would be freed. Thousands of Africans swarmed into the Cap Français in June 1793, and Galbaud had to flee with 10,000 émigrés. The newly freed slaves were organized into three battalions called Liberté, Egalité, and Convention Nationale. In August 1793 Sonthonax proclaimed the Declaration of the Rights of Man for the north, and the next month Polverel liberated the slaves in the south and west.
After plundering the Cap Français in July 1793 Macaya joined the Spaniards to fight for their king, the king of France, and the king of the Congo. More than a thousand French deserted to the Spaniards also. In September a British force from Jamaica occupied Jérémie, and they moved from the south to the northwest. In the north Toussaint took the name L'Ouverture announced that he was fighting for liberty and equality; but he also fought for Spain against the French until he learned that the French National Convention had freed all slaves. Then in May 1794 he raised the French flag and murdered the Spanish officers who opposed him. While he reconquered the central Artibonite, the English took Port-au-Prince in June. Sonthonax and Polverel were recalled and yielded to the mulatre general André Rigaud and the noir Toussaint. Rigaud expelled the royalist French from Léogane in September. In 1795 Spain made a treaty with France and agreed to evacuate the island of Española within a year. This stimulated the British to send troops there, but Toussaint defeated them too. Some Spanish families emigrated to Cuba, but they did not like the land they were given. Many in the religious communities did not want to leave Española because of their financial holdings.
Rigaud supported the mulatre Villatte and Pierre Pinchinat, and they arrested Laveaux. Col. Pierre Michel sent Henry Christophe to release Laveaux. Toussaint marched into the Cap, and the grateful Laveaux appointed him lieutenant governor of St. Domingue. Toussaint used military discipline to make ex-slaves work; but they were legally free and equal and shared in the profits. He sought reconciliation and urged Africans to learn from European civilization. Three more commissioners arrived in May 1796, and Philippe Roume was sent to govern Santo Domingo. The slaves in the Spanish colony of Española were to be freed, and 200 slaves of the Boca de Nigua ingenio burned the cane fields and the buildings and killed the livestock in October 1796. Laveaux and Sonthonax were elected delegates to Paris, but Sonthonax stayed and sent General Kerverseau to curb Rigaud, who was re-enslaving noirs (blacks) in the south. However, the noirs supported Rigaud and put Kerverseau and his emissaries in jail. In August 1797 Toussaint marched on the Cap and deported Sonthonax to Paris. The Directory sent the commissioner Hédouville with only 200 men to establish republican laws. Toussaint had 20,000 troops and Rigaud 12,000 to fight the English, who attacked and occupied some Spanish towns in March 1797; but the next month Toussaint defeated them. General Thomas Maitland offered to evacuate the west, and Toussaint agreed to a truce. Maitland got a secret promise from Toussaint that he would not invade Jamaica. By the time they withdrew from the island in October 1798 the British had lost about 25,000 men, mostly to yellow fever and malaria.
Hédouville sent some black regiments to work in the fields, and fear that he would restore slavery provoked a rebellion. He appealed to Toussaint, who marched toward the Cap killing whites. On October 22, 1798 Hédouville sailed for France with 1,800 refugees. Before he left, Hédouville promoted Rigaud to equal rank with Toussaint, but Roume realized that Toussaint was supported by 90% of the people. Rigaud quarreled with Toussaint, and Roume declared Rigaud a rebel. Toussaint had 30,000 troops to Rigaud's 2,500, and so the civil war did not last long. Toussaint promised President John Adams of the United States that he would stop French privateering, and he received 2,680 muskets and ammunition. The Directorate named Toussaint governor-general in 1799. By threatening to kill the Europeans, Toussaint persuaded French commissioner Roume to sign a decree for the occupation of Española in April 1800; but Governor Joaquin Garcia was being pressured to fight by the people in the interior towns, and Roume annulled his decree on June 26. In July 1800 Rigaud fled to Guadaloupe and France while 700 of his mulatre troops went to Cuba. Toussaint preached forgiveness in the cathedral and then had 300 prisoners and fifty of Rigaud's officers executed. At St. Marc 600 rebels were slaughtered. Toussaint made Dessalines governor in the south, and he is said to have slaughtered thousands of people of color.
Toussaint triumphantly entered the Cap in November 1800 and arrested Roume. Toussaint marched into Santo Domingo with his troops in January 1801, terminating the Spanish colony of Española. In the next month 2,000 residents fled to Venezuela and neighboring islands. Toussaint proclaimed that slavery was abolished. He opened the ports to free trade and began rehabilitating highways and plantations.
In 1801 St. Domingue became a self-governing colony with a central assembly and Toussaint as governor. Slavery was abolished forever, and color discrimination was banned in the civil service. In March, Toussaint convened the central assembly of seven whites and three men of color to write a constitution, which was completed in May and centralized authority. Rumors that Toussaint was going to restore slavery provoked another rebellion, but forces led by Henry Christophe crushed the insurgency.
The constitution was promulgated at Santo Domingo in August 1801. Napoleon Bonaparte was offended by the constitution, restored the slave trade in 1802, and sent his brother-in-law Victor-Emmanuel Leclerc to end the slave rebellion. He landed with 11,900 troops, and Christophe's army retreated to the mountains. In the east the Spaniards and Creoles joined the French and expelled Toussaint's troops. French generals occupied Santo Domingo in February 1802 and re-instituted slavery as Leclerc proclaimed Toussaint an outlaw. Christophe released 2,000 white hostages in April, and Leclerc confirmed his rank. Leclerc got French general Brunet to invite Toussaint to a conference in June and arrested him. The French shipped him to France, where Toussaint was found dead in prison on April 27, 1803.
In June and July 1802 Leclerc was losing a hundred men a day to disease, and the Africans still had 140,000 muskets. Hearing that the French had killed 1,200 disarmed black soldiers, Christophe rebelled. Leclerc wrote to Napoleon that of the 28,000 troops sent to him, only 10,500 remained alive. As Christophe, Clervaux, and other generals besieged the Cap in October, Leclerc died of yellow fever. He was succeeded by Rochambeau, who had 500 prisoners shot and buried in a pit they dug. Jean-Jacques Dessalines organized forces in the north and northwest while Alexandre Sabes Pétion commanded in the west. In May 1803 British cruisers blockaded Rochambeau off Cap Français. The French at St. Marc capitulated to the British navy in October and went to Santo Domingo. Rochambeau surrendered in November, and Dessalines had 800 of the sick and wounded drowned at sea. The French army lost 50,000 men to the war, mostly because of yellow fever and malaria; about 100,000 Africans also died. On the first day of 1804 the generals (23 mulatres and 11 noirs) met and proclaimed the independent republic of Haiti, the original name of the island that means "mountains" in Taino. They had accomplished the most successful slave revolt in history since Moses took the Hebrews out of Egypt.
Dessalines canceled all French titles to property issued during the recent occupation. At Jérémie in March 1804 Dessalines selected five doctors and a few merchants. Then 400 men of property were ransomed before being beheaded. All the rest of the 1,436 French were also killed, though a Polish legion was incorporated into the brigades. At Port-au-Prince 800 more were murdered. At the Cap nearly two thousand French were killed, but Christophe got the English, Americans, doctors, and priests spared. At Cayes the merchant Duncan MacIntosh from Baltimore managed to bribe officials and smuggle out families and was credited by French refugees with saving 2,400 people. Finally Dessalines offered safe conduct to the remaining French survivors, but those who came forward were killed. The army of 52,000 was put to work building fortifications. Dessalines divided Haiti into four districts commanded by the generals Christophe in the North, Gabart in the Artibonite, Pétion in the West, and Geffrard in the South. On October 8, 1804 Dessalines was crowned Emperor Jacques I.
When the French capitulated to the British naval commanders in November 1803, General Jean Louis Ferrand refused to surrender and gathered a force of 1,800 at Santo Domingo. In January 1804 he confiscated the property of Spaniards who had fled without passports. To encourage some to return he canceled all debts to the government. In May his troops captured Santiago, but the inhabitants feared retaliation by Dessalines and evacuated. In January 1805 Ferrand announced armed incursions into Haiti would hunt African children and sell them as slaves. Christophe commanded 2,000 men who sacked Santiago and beheaded prisoners. Then his forces joined Dessalines' army of 21,000 that besieged Ferrand's 2,000 troops at Santo Domingo in March, but they did not have artillery. A French naval squadron under Admiral Comte de Missiessy appeared to be moving west, and the Haitians decided to return to defend their own country. On the way home they attacked and burned several towns; at Santiago they burned the cathedral and four churches while killing all the clergy. Ferrand tried to reconstruct the colony while prohibiting trade with Haiti.
In May 1805 Dessalines ratified Haiti's constitution that barred whites from owning property and defined all Haitians as noirs. Dessalines retained dictatorial power and had mistresses of all colors. In October 1806 rebellion broke out in the South and spread to Port-au-Prince, where Pétion joined the revolt. Dessalines marched his army south. His advance guard changed sides, and Dessalines was trapped and killed. Pétion proclaimed Christophe until a new constitution could be written; but his draft gave himself as leader of the Senate more power than Christophe the President. Christophe marched on Port-au-Prince, and the Senate outlawed him. Christophe had 10,000 troops to Pétion's 3,000. Pétion escaped during the battle as a captain wearing his hat was killed. Christophe did not have artillery with him to besiege Port-au-Prince and returned to the Cap in the north. His advisors drew up a new constitution giving the president the most power. Pétion in the Senate got the 25 percent share of every crop repealed, but Etienne-Elie Gérin organized an opposition in the Senate. Finally in 1808 Pétion adjourned the Senate, and it stayed adjourned for three years.
Juan Sanchez Ramirez in Santo Domingo traded with Puerto Rico and gathered an army of 2,000 men. They annihilated most of Ferrand's 600 troops at El Seibo in November 1808, and Ferrand committed suicide. This began the Dominican War of Reconquest, and the British navy helped them besiege the French at Santo Domingo. The blockade lasted until the end of the war when the French surrendered to the British commanders in July 1809. In twenty years the Spanish population of Santo Domingo had been reduced in half from 180,000 by a slave revolt, two Haitian invasions, emigration, British occupation, and the destruction of almost all the cattle and sugar mills. The university and most schools had been closed for several years, and of all the clergy only about a dozen priests remained.
1. "Journal of a Voyage from China to the Northwestern
Coast of America Made in 1804" by William Shaler quoted in
California Heritage, p. 106.