List of Governors of The Province of Cartagena - Peninsular War, Revolution and Independence (1810-1820)

Peninsular War, Revolution and Independence (1810-1820)

The events of the peninsular war and the convocation of Juntas throughout Spain transformed the traditional order. Although everything remained the same, the instability of this period makes almost impossible to state what was the precise status of the province.

• 78. Don Blas de Soria Santacruz, assumed as chief of the Junta of Cartagena de Indias with two vocals: Don Antonio de Narváez y de la Torre and Don Tomás De Andrés Torres. (1810-1810)

This triumvirate was fragile and was replaced by a "Supreme Junta" where the locals had more power, this could be regarded as a sort of fight between the virtually nonexistent royal power and the city councils.

• 79. Dr. Don Jose Maria Garcia de Toledo y De Madariaga Marquis of Valdehoyos (1810-1810) under the title of President of the Junta.
• 80. Gen. Don Antonio de Narváez y de la Torre Marquis of Santa Coa (1810-1810) with the title of President-Governor

By this time the chaos dominated the political scene, many reclaimed independence of the viceroyalty, others of the province, others the return of the Ancien regime and others keeping the status quo during this time, being the governor, or whatever the title had the office, was always a short victory of each faction.

• 81. Don Jose Davila (1810–1811) with the title of Governor
• 82. Dr. Don José María Del Real y Mirandela (1811-1811) with the title of General Supreme Governor
• 83. Don José Ignacio de Cavero y Cárdenas (1811-1811) with the title of President of the Junta
• 84. Dr. Don José María Del Real y Mirandela (1811-1811) Second time
• 85. Don Manuel Rodriguez de Torices (1811-1811) as Prefect of the Constituent Assembly of Cartagena de Indias

In 11 November 1811, the Assembly declared Cartagena de Indias an independent nation, from Spain, and also of any type of control from Bogotá and proceeded to elect his first president. The majority of historians regard this as very important but, in practice, those who voted against independence adhered to the Cádiz Cortes, Napoleon I, Charles IV or even an ethereal absolutism in name of Ferdinand VII of Spain. Again, the office of governor with all the men under its command was in the service of the faction in power, making the province switching from absolutist, to pan-Hispanic liberal, to independent, to absolutist again.

Between 1811 and 1814 the original province annexed through war the neighboring province of Santa Marta, unifying for the first time the eastern Caribbean Coast of South America. This expansion of and consolidation of the Cartagena Republic was short-lived, the pan-Hispanic liberals adhering to the Cádiz Cortes took office again and stopped hostilities against the royalists in Santa Marta but kept the lands gained by the revolutionaries.

• 86. Don Gabriel Gutierrez de Piñeres (1811–1814) During his period the capital lived one of its darkest periods, full of disorder, anarchy and civil strife in the name of liberty. He finally lost his post due to the disorder that he fomented, the city lived 2 months without government in 1814 and was severely impoverished and damaged. Many pamphlets of enemies of his time described him as a Tropical Robbespierre and that was not far from truth.
• 87. Don Juan De Dios Amador y Lopez de Lozanarubias (1815-1815) Endured the siege of Pablo Morillo of the royalist faction, that doomed the city to utter destruction and left it almost as a ghost town.
• 88. Don Juan Elias López-Tagle y de Madariaga, cousin of ex-governor García de Toledo, was delegated by Amador to give up the city keys to Pablo Morillo because he declared himself "morally incapable".

After the city and its province returned to the hands of the absolutist royalists in 1815 the Ancien regime so longed by most of the capital and its inhabitants proved to be anachronous, because the problems created by the revolution and the new times that came with it overturned the old system, and the representatives of the absolutism were just that: representatives, they followed orders, and restoration was harsh without concessions, almost all historians coincide that that was the sign of the failure of the restoration.

The holocaust of Cartagena, the failure of the restoration and the growing radicalism of the second reign of the recently restored Ferdinand VII fed the Spanish Americas with the real desire of independence for the first time, after the dramatic but lets say educational experience of home rule. The campaign of reconquista of Pablo Morillo from Cartagena became harder and harder because popular sentiment began to shift from the first time for full union of the provinces and independence of Spain.

• 89. Field Marshal Don Pablo Morillo Count of Cartagena de Indias (1815-1815)
• 90. Field Marshal Captain General Don Francisco de Montalvo y Ambulodi (1816-1815)
• 91. Don Gabriel De Torres y Velasco (1815–1820) known for his descriptions of the city after was handed out to Morillo in 1815, only testimony left of the destruction.