Ramón Blanco y Erenas
Encyclopedia
Ramón Blanco y Erenas, marqués de Peña Plata (1833–1906) was a Spanish
brigadier
and colonial
administrator. Born in San Sebastián
, he was sent to the Caribbean
in 1858 and governed Cuba
and Santo Domingo
. In 1861, he returned to Spain but was then sent to the Philippines
(1866–1871).
Afterwards, he returned to Spain and served in the Third Carlist War
, where he attained the rank of brigadier. He served as captain-general of Navarre
after taking part in the 1876 offensive in the valley of Baztan
; he acquired his marquisate during this time. He was sent to Cuba as captain-general in April 1879, and was involved in the Little War
. He returned to Spain in November 1881 and served as captain-general of Catalonia
and Extremadura
.
sent him to the Philippines, where Blanco remained until December 13, 1896. Electricity had come to Manila
in 1893. In 1895, Blanco announced in the 1895 Philippine Exposition that a great future is predestined for the archipelago. Blanco was forced to deal with the independence movement led by Katipunan
. On the whole, Blanco adopted a conciliatory stance, seeking to improve Spain’s image in the face of world opinion. Nevertheless, he placed eight provinces under martial law. These were Manila
, Bulacan
, Cavite
, Pampanga
, Tarlac
, Laguna, Batangas
, and Nueva Ecija
. They would later be represented in the eight rays of the sun in the Filipino flag
. Arrests and interrogations were intensified and many Filipinos died from torture.
When the revolution broke out, José Rizal
was living as a political exile in Dapitan and had just volunteered to serve as a doctor in Cuba, where a similar revolution
was taking place. Blanco permitted Rizal, who wished to dissociate himself from the Philippine Revolution, to serve in Cuba to minister to victims of yellow fever
. Rizal nevertheless was arrested en route. Blanco could do nothing about it, for he had been forced out of office on December 13. The governor had been attacked by conservative forces (which included the so-called frailocracia --the Dominican
friars exercising more power than the civilian government) for being too conciliatory towards the Filipinos
who sought independence; these parties had sent a complaint to Madrid
. Blanco was replaced by Camilo Polavieja (r. 1896–1897) as governor.
Rizal was executed on December 30, an act to which Blanco objected. Blanco later was to present his sash and sword to the Rizal family as an apology.
Blanco had been defended by liberals such as Ramiro de Maeztu
, who in an article dated July 24, 1898, declared: "But...Blanco, who in the Philippines, in the face of the opinion of the Junta of Authorities and the most illustrious and noble journalists, kept his troops in the capital for a long time, judging it more preferable to prudently remain in this position rather than die a glorious but pointless death...”
to send him to Cuba, where he replaced the decidedly inflammatory Valeriano Weyler
as Captain General of Cuba. By the end of 1897, Weyler had relocated more than 300,000 Cubans into "reconcentration camps," where he failed to provide for them adequately. Consequently, these areas became cesspools of hunger and disease, where many hundreds of thousands died.
Blanco was forced to reverse the harsh policy of Weyler towards the Cubans while at the same time defending the island after the outbreak of the Spanish-American War
. After the sinking of the Maine
on February 15, 1898, Charles Dwight Sigsbee
had written that "many Spanish officers, including representatives of General Blanco, now with us to express sympathy." In a cable, the Spanish Minister of Colonies, Segismundo Moret
, had advised Blanco “to gather every fact you can to prove the Maine catastrophe cannot be attributed to us.” Blanco proposed a joint Spanish-American investigation of the sinking.
On March 5, 1898, Blanco proposed to Máximo Gómez
that the Cuban generalissimo and troops join him and the Spanish army in repelling the United States
in the face of the Spanish-American War. Blanco appealed to the shared heritage of the Cubans and Spanish, and promised the island autonomy if the Cubans would help fight the Americans. Blanco had declared: "As Spaniards and Cubans we find ourselves opposed to foreigners of a different race, who are of a grasping nature... The supreme moment has come in which we should forget past differences and, with Spaniards and Cubans united for the sake of their own defense, repel the invader. Spain will not forget the noble help of its Cuban sons, and once the foreign enemy is expelled from the island, she will, like an affectionate mother, embrace in her arms a new daughter amongst the nations of the New World, who speaks the same language, practices the same faith, and feels the same noble Spanish blood run through her veins." Gómez refused to adhere to Blanco's plan.
Blanco believed it better to fight than surrender to the Americans
. He ordered Pascual Cervera y Topete
to break the American blockade, leading to the Battle of Santiago de Cuba
.
During Blanco's governorship, the remains of Christoper Columbus were moved back to the Cathedral of Seville in Spain, where they were placed on an elaborate catafalque
.
Blanco returned to Spain after the end of the Spanish-American War.
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
brigadier
Brigadier
Brigadier is a senior military rank, the meaning of which is somewhat different in different military services. The brigadier rank is generally superior to the rank of colonel, and subordinate to major general....
and colonial
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
administrator. Born in San Sebastián
San Sebastián
Donostia-San Sebastián is a city and municipality located in the north of Spain, in the coast of the Bay of Biscay and 20 km away from the French border. The city is the capital of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. The municipality’s population is 186,122 , and its...
, he was sent to the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
in 1858 and governed Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and Santo Domingo
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
. In 1861, he returned to Spain but was then sent to the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
(1866–1871).
Afterwards, he returned to Spain and served in the Third Carlist War
Third Carlist War
The Third Carlist War was the last Carlist War in Spain. It is very often referred to as the Second Carlist War, as the 'second' had been small in scale and almost trivial in political consequence....
, where he attained the rank of brigadier. He served as captain-general of Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...
after taking part in the 1876 offensive in the valley of Baztan
Baztan
Baztan is a municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain. It is located from Pamplona, the capital of Navarre. It is the largest municipality in Navarre, with some 376.8 km2 and just over 8,000 inhabitants....
; he acquired his marquisate during this time. He was sent to Cuba as captain-general in April 1879, and was involved in the Little War
Little War (Cuba)
The Little War or Small War , was the second of three conflicts in the Cuban War of Independence. It followed the Ten Years' War of 1868–1878 and preceded the War of '95, itself sometimes called the Cuban War of Independence, which bled into the Spanish-American War, ultimately resulting in...
. He returned to Spain in November 1881 and served as captain-general of Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
and Extremadura
Extremadura
Extremadura is an autonomous community of western Spain whose capital city is Mérida. Its component provinces are Cáceres and Badajoz. It is bordered by Portugal to the west...
.
Governor-General of the Philippines (1893 – December 13, 1896)
In 1893, Antonio Cánovas del CastilloAntonio Cánovas del Castillo
Antonio Cánovas del Castillo was a Spanish politician and historian known principally for his role in supporting the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy to the Spanish throne and for his death at the hands of an anarchist assassin, Michele Angiolillo.-Early career:Born in Málaga as the son of...
sent him to the Philippines, where Blanco remained until December 13, 1896. Electricity had come to Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
in 1893. In 1895, Blanco announced in the 1895 Philippine Exposition that a great future is predestined for the archipelago. Blanco was forced to deal with the independence movement led by Katipunan
Katipunan
The Katipunan was a Philippine revolutionary society founded by anti-Spanish Filipinos in Manila in 1892, whose primary aim was to gain independence from Spain through revolution. The society was initiated by Filipino patriots Andrés Bonifacio, Teodoro Plata, Ladislao Diwa, and others on the night...
. On the whole, Blanco adopted a conciliatory stance, seeking to improve Spain’s image in the face of world opinion. Nevertheless, he placed eight provinces under martial law. These were Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
, Bulacan
Bulacan
Bulacan , officially called the Province of Bulacan or simply Bulacan Province, is a first class province of the Republic of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon Region in the island of Luzon, north of Manila , and part of the Metro...
, Cavite
Cavite
Cavite is a province of the Philippines located on the southern shores of Manila Bay in the CALABARZON region in Luzon, just 30 kilometers south of Manila. Cavite is surrounded by Laguna to the east, Metro Manila to the northeast, and Batangas to the south...
, Pampanga
Pampanga
Pampanga is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the City of San Fernando, Pampanga. Pampanga is bordered by the provinces of Bataan and Zambales to the west, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija to the north, and Bulacan to the southeast...
, Tarlac
Tarlac
Tarlac is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the Luzon Island. Its capital is Tarlac City. Tarlac borders Pampanga to the south, Nueva Ecija to the east, Pangasinan to the north, and Zambales to the west...
, Laguna, Batangas
Batangas
Batangas is a first class province of the Philippines located on the southwestern part of Luzon in the CALABARZON region. Its capital is Batangas City and it is bordered by the provinces of Cavite and Laguna to the north and Quezon to the east. Across the Verde Island Passages to the south is the...
, and Nueva Ecija
Nueva Ecija
Nueva Ecija is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is Palayan City...
. They would later be represented in the eight rays of the sun in the Filipino flag
Flag of the Philippines
The national flag of the Philippines is a horizontal flag bicolor with equal bands of royal blue and scarlet red, and with a white equilateral triangle at the hoist; in the center of the triangle is a golden yellow sun with eight primary rays, each containing three individual rays, which represent...
. Arrests and interrogations were intensified and many Filipinos died from torture.
When the revolution broke out, José Rizal
José Rizal
José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda , was a Filipino polymath, patriot and the most prominent advocate for reform in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is regarded as the foremost Filipino patriot and is listed as one of the national heroes of the Philippines by...
was living as a political exile in Dapitan and had just volunteered to serve as a doctor in Cuba, where a similar revolution
Cuban War of Independence
Cuban War of Independence was the last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Ten Years' War and the Little War...
was taking place. Blanco permitted Rizal, who wished to dissociate himself from the Philippine Revolution, to serve in Cuba to minister to victims of yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
. Rizal nevertheless was arrested en route. Blanco could do nothing about it, for he had been forced out of office on December 13. The governor had been attacked by conservative forces (which included the so-called frailocracia --the Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
friars exercising more power than the civilian government) for being too conciliatory towards the Filipinos
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
who sought independence; these parties had sent a complaint to Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
. Blanco was replaced by Camilo Polavieja (r. 1896–1897) as governor.
Rizal was executed on December 30, an act to which Blanco objected. Blanco later was to present his sash and sword to the Rizal family as an apology.
Blanco had been defended by liberals such as Ramiro de Maeztu
Ramiro de Maeztu
Ramiro de Maeztu y Whitney was a Spanish political theorist, journalist, literary critic, occasional diplomat and member of the Generation of '98....
, who in an article dated July 24, 1898, declared: "But...Blanco, who in the Philippines, in the face of the opinion of the Junta of Authorities and the most illustrious and noble journalists, kept his troops in the capital for a long time, judging it more preferable to prudently remain in this position rather than die a glorious but pointless death...”
Captain-General of Cuba (1897–1898)
However, Blanco’s reputation as a conciliatory figure led the government of Práxedes Mateo SagastaPráxedes Mateo Sagasta
Práxedes Mariano Mateo Sagasta y Escolar was a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister on eight occasions between 1870 and 1902—always in charge of the Liberal Party—as part of the turno pacifico, alternating with the Liberal-Conservative leader Antonio Cánovas...
to send him to Cuba, where he replaced the decidedly inflammatory Valeriano Weyler
Valeriano Weyler
Don Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, 1st Duke of Rubí and 1st Marquis of Tenerife Don Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, 1st Duke of Rubí and 1st Marquis of Tenerife Don Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau, 1st Duke of Rubí and 1st Marquis of Tenerife (Seed in Ambos Camarines.-Philippines:In 1888, he was sent out as...
as Captain General of Cuba. By the end of 1897, Weyler had relocated more than 300,000 Cubans into "reconcentration camps," where he failed to provide for them adequately. Consequently, these areas became cesspools of hunger and disease, where many hundreds of thousands died.
Blanco was forced to reverse the harsh policy of Weyler towards the Cubans while at the same time defending the island after the outbreak of the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
. After the sinking of the Maine
USS Maine (ACR-1)
USS Maine was the United States Navy's second commissioned pre-dreadnought battleship, although she was originally classified as an armored cruiser. She is best known for her catastrophic loss in Havana harbor. Maine had been sent to Havana, Cuba to protect U.S. interests during the Cuban revolt...
on February 15, 1898, Charles Dwight Sigsbee
Charles Dwight Sigsbee
Charles Dwight Sigsbee was a Rear Admiral inthe United States Navy. In his earlier career he was a pioneering oceanographer and hydrographer. He is best remembered as the captain of the USS Maine, which exploded in Havana harbor, Cuba, in 1898...
had written that "many Spanish officers, including representatives of General Blanco, now with us to express sympathy." In a cable, the Spanish Minister of Colonies, Segismundo Moret
Segismundo Moret
Segismundo Moret y Prendergast was a Spanish politician and writer.-Biography:He was born in Cádiz on 2 June 1833...
, had advised Blanco “to gather every fact you can to prove the Maine catastrophe cannot be attributed to us.” Blanco proposed a joint Spanish-American investigation of the sinking.
On March 5, 1898, Blanco proposed to Máximo Gómez
Máximo Gómez
Máximo Gómez y Báez was a Major General in the Ten Years' War and Cuba's military commander in that country's War of Independence ....
that the Cuban generalissimo and troops join him and the Spanish army in repelling the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the face of the Spanish-American War. Blanco appealed to the shared heritage of the Cubans and Spanish, and promised the island autonomy if the Cubans would help fight the Americans. Blanco had declared: "As Spaniards and Cubans we find ourselves opposed to foreigners of a different race, who are of a grasping nature... The supreme moment has come in which we should forget past differences and, with Spaniards and Cubans united for the sake of their own defense, repel the invader. Spain will not forget the noble help of its Cuban sons, and once the foreign enemy is expelled from the island, she will, like an affectionate mother, embrace in her arms a new daughter amongst the nations of the New World, who speaks the same language, practices the same faith, and feels the same noble Spanish blood run through her veins." Gómez refused to adhere to Blanco's plan.
Blanco believed it better to fight than surrender to the Americans
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He ordered Pascual Cervera y Topete
Pascual Cervera y Topete
Pascual Cervera y Topete served as an admiral of the Spanish Caribbean Squadron during the Spanish-American War, and prior to this served his country in a variety of military and political roles....
to break the American blockade, leading to the Battle of Santiago de Cuba
Battle of Santiago de Cuba
The Battle of Santiago de Cuba, fought between Spain and the United States on 3 July 1898, was the largest naval engagement of the Spanish-American War and resulted in the destruction of the Spanish Navy's Caribbean Squadron.-Spanish Fleet:...
.
During Blanco's governorship, the remains of Christoper Columbus were moved back to the Cathedral of Seville in Spain, where they were placed on an elaborate catafalque
Catafalque
A catafalque is a raised bier, soapbox, or similar platform, often movable, that is used to support the casket, coffin, or body of the deceased during a funeral or memorial service. Following a Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, a catafalque may be used to stand in place of the body at the Absolution of...
.
Blanco returned to Spain after the end of the Spanish-American War.