Mariano Ricafort Palacin y Abarca

Mariano Ricafort Palacin
61st Governor-General of the Philippines
In office October 14, 1825 – December 23, 1830
Preceded by	Juan Antonio Martinez
Succeeded by	Pasqual Enrile y Alcedo
Governor of Cuba
In office 1832 – March 1834
Preceded by	Francisco Dionisio Vives
Succeeded by	Miguel Tacon
Intendant of La Paz
In office 1816–1817
Preceded by	José María Laudavere
Succeeded by	Juan Sánchez Lima
Personal details
Born	February 20, 1776 Huesca, Spain
Died	October 16, 1846 Madrid, Spain
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Military service
Allegiance	Kingdom of Spain
Rank
Battles/wars	Peninsular War
Awards	Order of Isabella the Catholic, Order of Saint Ferdinand and of Merit, Royal and Military Order of Saint Hermenegild, Order of St. Anna

Mariano Ricafort Palacin y Abarca (1776–1846) was Governor of Cuba, Intendant of La Paz, part of Rio de la Plata, and the 61st Governor-General of the Philippines. He was a kind and able administrator, a governor of good judgment and much energy.

Early Life and Career

He was son of Jose Ricafort y Abarca, Advocate of the Royal Council, and Juana Palacin y Aysa, a member of a noble family in Huesca. He was baptized at the Cathredal of Huesca. He was made regidor for life of his hometown, Huesca.

He enlisted in 1793 and was an infantry cadet during the campaign in Roussillon. In October of 1799, he was promoted into first lieutenant. He was a military officer in the expedition of Spain against Portugal during the War of the Oranges in 1801. He also participated in the Peninsular War in which he was taken prisoner in October 1811. He was appointed by the Duke of Wellington as military governor of Badajoz in 1812. He was colonel of the reunited Regiment of Extremadura at the end of the war in 1815.^[1]

South America

He was promoted into a brigadier in 1816 after the campaign in Alto Peru. He was in Peru then, under the expedition of General Pablo Morillo. He received missions to pacify the colonies of Spain in the area. Ricafort was seriously wounded by a rifle shot in the bottom of the right leg, the bullet broke his tibia and fibula and left some shrapnel embedded in the skin.^[2] He was appointed Minister of the Tribunal Supremo de Guerra y Marina at Cusco, Peru before being Intendant of La Paz, capital of the intendancies of Rio de la Plata. He was perpetual ambassador of the City of Paz in Peru and he later returned to Spain, participating in no other active service until 1825.^[3]

Philippines

He went back to Spain before the end of the conquest of the South American colonies due to ill health. In 1825, he was named Governor-General of the Philippines, arriving at Manila in October 1825, and by royal orders also took possession of the intendancy of exchequer. The government bought the Malacañan Palace in 1825, after being an idle property at the death of Colonel Jose Miguel.^[4] The first task of Ricafort was to consolidate the absolutist system after the liberal phase 1820-1823, and to that end in April 1826 issued a Good Government Ordinance. It was designed to ensure strict compliance with the laws, thus avoid any attempt of liberals.^[5] In 1826 also, order was given to return estates to the religious and what was declared to them by the decree of 1776; and that the secularization of any estate should not be proceeded except by express order of the king.^[6] Ricafort had to promote the development of agriculture and local trade. To meet this ends, the governor encouraged private trade by removing legal obstacles for doing so, he introduced modern farming tools, and exempted from paying taxes to Filipino farmers who should first make large plantations of coffee, cacao, cinnamon, and cloves; and also to those who should make the most progress in the plantations of Chinese cinnamon, tea, and mulberry trees, and in raising silk, etc. During his term, he started the first Filipino insurance company in February 1827 and promoted the work of the Sociedad Económica de los Amigos del País or the Economic Society of Friends of the Country, which made the Philippines have its first papermill.^[7] In 1827, Ricafort sent an expedition against Jolo, which was kept off by the valor of its natives; but the Spaniards burned the settlements on the shore, doing the Moros much damage. In that same year, the Spanish government reestablished the naval bureau at Manila, now independent of the captain-general, and Pasqual Enrile y Alcedo was appointed as its chief. He proceeded to reorganize all branches of the service, including the campaign against the pirates, whom he was able to restrain to a great extent. He constructed many cruisers and other naval vessels, one of which remained in active service for the next forty years.^[8] During his term, the Real Compania de Filipinas, a company established in 1780 to promote ships from Spain to pass the Cape of Good Hope, collapsed.^[9]

Guam and the Marianas

In 1828, he received orders from Madrid that an improvement in the colonial administration of Guam and the Marianas be made. Several plans were debated, but the cheapest plan was chosen, that of Ganga Herrero. It only cost an annual expense of 6,424 pesos, as compared to the 8,000 peso budget. Ricafort appointed a new governor in the said colony, as the plan was applied on December 17, 1828. A rebellion, however, occurred in 1829. Ricafort then sent Captain Francisco Ramon de Villalobos to improve the colony's defenses and economy. In 1831, Villalobos succeeded as the governor of the colony. The Ricafort plan, however, failed mainly because Manila gave no new subsidy to Guam and the Marianas.^[10]

Dagohoy Rebellion

Upon Ricafort's order, Alcade-mayor Jose Lazaro Cairo, at the head of 2,200 Filipino-Spanish troops, equivalent to two armed regiments, and several batteries, invaded Bohol on May 7, 1827. The Boholanos resisted fiercely, Cairo eventually failed. In April 1828, another Spanish expedition under Captain Manuel Sanz landed in Bohol. After more than a year of hard campaign, he finally subdued the patriots. By August 31, 1829, the rebellion had ceased. Ricafort, with chivalric magnanimity, pardoned 19,420 survivors and permitted them to live in new villages at the Bohol lowlands. It ended the longest revolt in the Philippines.^[11]

Cuba

On his return to Spain in 1831, he requested the Captaincy General of Mallorca, the Canary Islands or any entity that is vacant.^[12] From 1832 to 1834, he served as captain general of Cuba, as appointed by Ferdinand VII. His administration had to face a cholera epidemic that decimated the population^[13] and the return of exiled liberals. He was dismissed on March 7, 1834.

Later work

He was senator from 1837 to 1838 and moved to A Coruna to be Captain General of Galicia at the same time. In November 1840, he was appointed Minister of War. By December of the same year, he was made commanding general of the Canary Islands. By May 1841, he was made Captain General of Aragon, and Captain General of Andalusia by November of the same year.^[14] He continued serving in office until March 24, 1843, when he was appointed Captain General of Extremadura. The region ceased to exist by the same year, so Ricafort moved to Madrid.^[15]

Personal life

In 1803, he married Paula Antonia Sanchez of Lima, Peru, daughter of Ricafort's successor as Intendant of La Paz, Juan Sánchez Lima. She died in Madrid on June 1, 1854. They were parents of Mariana, Asunción, Ricardo y Mariano Ricafort and Sanchez. Ricafort died on October 16, 1846 in Madrid, Spain.^[16]

Preceded by Juan Antonio Martínez

Spanish Governor - Captain General of the Philippines 1825-1830

Succeeded by Pasqual Enrile y Alcedo

References

1. ^ "Ricafort Palacín y Abarca, Mariano". http://www.mcnbiografias.com/app-bio/do/show?key=ricafort-palacin-y-abarca-mariano. Retrieved 2011-10-28. 
2. ^ "La batalla de Quiapata". http://www.carabayllo.net/distritos/canta/3533-la-batalla-de-quiapata.html. Retrieved 2011-10-31. 
3. ^ "MARIANO DE RICAFOR Y PALACIN". http://www.jorgederosyvalverde.es/biografias%20familia/Mariano%20de%20Ricafort%20y%20Palacin.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-28. 
4. ^ "10 Things You May Not Know About Malacañan Palace". 2010-08-23. http://www.spot.ph/print_article.php?id=46357&post_name=. Retrieved 2011-10-28. 
5. ^ "Ricafort Palacín y Abarca, Mariano". http://www.mcnbiografias.com/app-bio/do/show?key=ricafort-palacin-y-abarca-mariano. Retrieved 2011-10-28. 
6. ^ "The ecclesiastical estate". 1843. http://www.philippinehistory.net/1843mas.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-28. 
7. ^ "Ricafort Palacín y Abarca, Mariano". http://www.mcnbiografias.com/app-bio/do/show?key=ricafort-palacin-y-abarca-mariano. Retrieved 2011-10-28. 
8. ^ "TH£ PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 1493-1898". http://www.archive.org/stream/philippineislan124bourgoog/philippineislan124bourgoog_djvu.txt. Retrieved 2011-10-31. 
9. ^ "TH£ PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 1493-1898". http://www.archive.org/stream/philippineislan124bourgoog/philippineislan124bourgoog_djvu.txt. Retrieved 2011-11-14. 
10. ^ Rogers, Robert F.. Destiny's landfall: a history of Guam. pp. 96–97. http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=AEn9J3tXFS8C&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&dq=Mariano+Ricafort+Palac%C3%ADn&source=bl&ots=LEFU_dzFcH&sig=QSJRni5Gp4n824_ltiGtFqKu_FQ&hl=tl&ei=iCWqTtaGLdDzmAXg5JX7Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=Mariano%20Ricafort%20Palac%C3%ADn&f=false. 
11. ^ "An Unauthorized History of the Philippines(Seventh of a series)". 2010-06-10. http://www.baguionews.net/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2660:-an-unauthorized-history-of-the-philippines-7th-in-a-series&catid=6:features&Itemid=13. Retrieved 2011-10-28. 
12. ^ "Ricafort Palacín y Abarca, Mariano". http://www.mcnbiografias.com/app-bio/do/show?key=ricafort-palacin-y-abarca-mariano. Retrieved 2011-10-28. 
13. ^ "Worldwide Epidemics". 2011-10-21. http://www.terms.n2genealogy.com/epidemics.html. Retrieved 2011-10-31. 
14. ^ "MARIANO DE RICAFOR Y PALACIN". http://www.jorgederosyvalverde.es/biografias%20familia/Mariano%20de%20Ricafort%20y%20Palacin.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-28. 
15. ^ "Ricafort Palacín y Abarca, Mariano". http://www.mcnbiografias.com/app-bio/do/show?key=ricafort-palacin-y-abarca-mariano. Retrieved 2011-10-28. 
16. ^ "Ricafort Palacín y Abarca, Mariano". http://www.mcnbiografias.com/app-bio/do/show?key=ricafort-palacin-y-abarca-mariano. Retrieved 2011-10-28. 

Persondata
Name	Ricafort Palacin Y Abarca, Mariano
Alternative names
Short description	Spanish colonial governor of Cuba
Date of birth	February 20, 1776
Place of birth	Huesca, Spain
Date of death	October 16, 1846
Place of death	Madrid, Spain