Francisco Javier de Elío y Olóndriz (5 March 1767 – 4 September 1822) was a Spanish Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Montevideo . He was instrumental in the Absolutist repression after the restoration of Ferdinand VII as King of Spain. For this, he was executed during the Trienio Liberal .
26-454: Puerto Soledad ( Puerto de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad , English: Port Solitude ) was a Spanish military outpost and penal colony on the Falkland Islands , situated at an inner cove of Berkeley Sound ( French : Baie Accaron , Spanish : Bahía Anunciación ). The settlement was established as a French colony under the name Port Saint Louis in 1764, and within a year reached
52-408: A decision by Viceroy Francisco Javier Elío , on February 13, 1811 all the troops and settlers of Puerto Soledad were evacuated on board the brigantine Galvez to Montevideo in order to fight his Buenos Airean adversaries. A lead plaque was left at the chapel of Puerto Soledad pleading possession of the island and the settlement for King Fernando VII of Spain . During the subsequent 17 years,
78-531: A population of 75 (most of them Acadians ), with three marriages and two births recorded (one of the births was François Benoit in 1764, son of Agustin Benoit and Françoise Thériault – apparently the first ever in the islands' history). After three years of French possession the settlement was ceded to Spain , and all the French settlers left to be replaced by Spaniards . Acting on personal instructions by King Carlos III ,
104-495: A second chance at life, learning trades and working off their debts. The success of Oglethorpe's vision is debated. When routes to the Americas closed after the outbreak of American Revolutionary War in 1776, British prisons started to become overcrowded . Since immediate stopgap measures proved themselves ineffective, in 1785 Britain decided to use parts of what is now known as Australia as de jure penal settlements , becoming
130-581: A state's (usually colonial) territories, and on a far larger scale than a prison farm . With the passage of the Transportation Act 1717 , the British government initiated the penal transportation of indentured servants to Britain's colonies in the Americas , although none of the North American colonies were solely penal colonies. British merchants would be in charge of transporting the convicts across
156-507: Is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general population by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory . Although the term can be used to refer to a correctional facility located in a remote location, it is more commonly used to refer to communities of prisoners overseen by wardens or governors having absolute authority. Historically, penal colonies have often been used for penal labour in an economically underdeveloped part of
182-551: The British . Port Louis remained the sole settlement and administrative centre of the islands until the capital was moved to the newly established Stanley in 1845. After this, following a 17-year eventful and occasionally turbulent existence, the settlement declined in importance, eventually becoming a sheep farm. 51°31′44″S 58°07′40″W / 51.528878°S 58.127718°W / -51.528878; -58.127718 Penal colony A penal colony or exile colony
208-679: The Cape Colony a penal colony was deeply unpopular with local residents, sparking the Convict crisis of 1849. Bermuda , off the North American continent, was also used during the Victorian period. Convicts housed in hulks were used to build the Royal Naval Dockyard there, and during the Second Boer War (1899–1902), Boer prisoners-of-war were sent to the archipelago and imprisoned on one of
234-484: The Atlantic to the colonies where they would be auctioned off to planters. Many of the indentured servants were sentenced to seven year terms, which gave rise to the colloquial term "His Majesty's Seven-Year Passengers". It is estimated that between 1718 and 1776 about 30,000 convicts were transported to at least nine of the continental colonies, whereas between 1700 and 1775 about 250,000 to 300,000 white immigrants came to
260-509: The Australian colonies. Without the allocation of the available convict labour to farmers, to pastoral squatters , and to government projects such as roadbuilding, colonisation of Australia may not have been possible, especially considering the considerable drain on non-convict labor caused by several gold rushes that took place in the second half of the 19th century after the flow of convicts had dwindled and (in 1868) ceased. A proposal to make
286-458: The British occupation of Montevideo in 1807, causing considerable hardship to the Puerto Soledad residents. An indispensable source of subsistence for the small colony – as well as for the numerous English and American sealers operating on the islands – was the feral cattle introduced by the French in 1764. There were 2,180 head of cattle and 166 horses in 1778. On festive occasions
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#1732869446700312-632: The Río de la Plata . This failed because Liniers was supported by Cornelio Saavedra and criollo militias. In May 1810, Liniers' successor Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros was deposed by the May Revolution . Elío remained in control of Montevideo and the Banda Oriental and declared himself Viceroy of Río de la Plata, which was confirmed as Political Chief by the Cortes of Cádiz on January 19, 1811. One month later
338-567: The Spaniards even had their favourite corridas de toro , such as during the three-day event organized by governor Ramón Clairac y Villalonga (1787–88, 1789–90) to celebrate King Carlos IV 's accession to the throne when, along with allegiance formally sworn to the new monarch comedies were performed, and twelve bulls were fought. Spain governed Puerto Soledad through its colonial administration in Buenos Aires . During its 44 years of existence
364-660: The Spanish Government reimbursed the founder of Port St. Louis, Louis Antoine de Bougainville , 618,108 French livres . Bougainville himself sailed to Port Saint Louis on board the Boudeuse , accompanied by the Spanish ships Esmeralda and Liebre to hand the settlement over to Felipe Ruíz Puente, the first Spanish governor (1767–1773) of Puerto Soledad, as the settlement would become known. The ceremony took place on April 1, 1767, and from Puerto Soledad Bougainville set sail to make
390-818: The early 18th century. Devil's Island in French Guiana, 1852–1939, received forgers and other criminals. New Caledonia and its Isle of Pines in Melanesia (in the South Sea ) received transported dissidents like the Communards , Kabyles rebels and convicted criminals between the 1860s and 1897. Francisco Javier El%C3%ADo Francisco Javier de Elío was born in Pamplona in 1767. He served as governor of Montevideo between 1807 and 1809, when he plotted with Martín de Álzaga against his superior Santiago de Liniers , Viceroy of
416-421: The first French circumnavigation of the world. Puerto Soledad had 103 residents in 1781: the governor, two priests, a treasury official, three officers, one surgeon, 50 soldiers, 43 convicts, one mason, and one baker. They occupied some 20 buildings including dwellings , barracks for officers , seamen , convicts and troops , chapel , hospital , kiln , blacksmith and carpenter shops, etc. Eventually
442-888: The first colonies in the British Empire founded solely to house convicts. Leaving Portsmouth, England on 13 May 1787, the First Fleet transported the first ~800 convicts and ~250 marines to Botany Bay. Between 1788 and 1868, about 162,000 convicts were transported from Great Britain and Ireland to various penal colonies in Australia . Australian penal colonies in late 18th century included Norfolk Island and New South Wales , and in early 19th century also Van Diemen's Land ( Tasmania ) and Moreton Bay (Queensland). Advocates of Irish Home Rule or trade unionism (the Tolpuddle Martyrs ) sometimes received sentences of deportation to
468-542: The mainland of North America as a whole. More than two-thirds of these felons were transported to the Chesapeake to work for Southern landowners ; in Maryland, during the thirty years before 1776, convicts composed more than one-quarter of all immigrants. However, it is commonly maintained that the vast majority of felons taken to America were political criminals , not those guilty of social crimes such as theft; for example, it
494-452: The number of buildings increased to about 30 in 1811, with the population dropping to 46. The settlement was protected by three batteries : San Carlos (later renamed San Marcos ), Santiago , and San Felipe Batteries. Supply ships came from Montevideo to Puerto Soledad on an annual basis during the summer, bringing relief and supplies. That supply line was temporarily severed during the war waged by Spain against Britain in 1805–1808, and
520-663: The rural population of the Banda Oriental under José Gervasio Artigas also rebelled against Spain, and in May the troops of Elío were beaten in the Battle of Las Piedras . Only left in control of Colonia del Sacramento and Montevideo, Elío returned to Spain on November 18, 1811, and resigned as Political Chief in January 1812. When King Ferdinand VII of Spain returned in 1814 from exile in France, he
546-469: The settlement had 21 governors ( Spanish : gobernador y comandante marítimo ) serving a total of 31 terms, mainly Spaniards excepting two South American criollos : Jacinto de Antolaguirre (1781–1783) born in Buenos Aires , and Francisco Javier de Viana y Alzaibár (1798–99, 1800–01) born in Montevideo . The governors were mainly naval officers with the exception of one drawn from the army. Following
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#1732869446700572-497: The settlement, while frequented by sealers, had remained largely derelict, until Louis Vernet brought some settlers under the authority of Buenos Aires Province in 1828. Vernet, aware of British claims to the Falklands, had also sought permission for his expedition from the British consulate. That new settlement existed under the name Puerto Luis until 1833 when it was renamed first Anson's Harbour and eventually " Port Louis " by
598-476: The smaller islands. In British India , the colonial government established various penal colonies. Two of the largest ones were on the Andaman Islands and Hijli . In the early days of settlement, Singapore Island was the recipient of Indian convicts, who were tasked with clearing the jungles for settlement and early public works. France sent criminals to tropical penal colonies including Louisiana in
624-696: The supporters of the Constitution of 1812. For this, he was arrested during the Trienio Liberal and executed in Valencia in 1822. The Official Chronicler of the City of Madrid from 1966 to 1983, Federico Carlos Sáinz de Robles , mentions in his essay Autobiography of Madrid (1957), a popular copla in Madrid in 1814 and 1815 about Elío and two other generals, Joaquín Ibáñez, 3rd Baron de Eroles and Francisco de Eguía ,
650-432: Was noted of Virginia that "the crimes of which they were convicted were chiefly political, and the number transported for social crimes was never considerable." The colony of Georgia , by contrast, was planned by James Oglethorpe specifically to take in debtors and other social criminals. Oglethorpe referred to them as "the worthy poor" in a philanthropic effort to create a rehabilitative colony where prisoners could earn
676-458: Was requested by the Cortes to respect the liberal Spanish Constitution of 1812 , which seriously limited the royal powers. Ferdinand refused and went to Valencia instead of Madrid. Here, on April 17, General Elío invited the king to reclaim his absolute rights and put his troops at the king's disposition. A fervent follower of the absolutist cause, Elío played an important role in the repression of
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