Francisco Aguilar y Leal (1776–1840) was a soldier and Spanish merchant, who became one of the main leaders of Uruguayan independence.

Life and the military

Francisco Aguilar y Leal was born in 1776 in

Santa Cruz de Tenerife Santa Cruz de Tenerife, commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz (), is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and capital of the Canary Islands. Santa Cruz has a population of 206,593 (2013) within its admi ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

, Spain. Later, he moved to

Arrecife Arrecife (; ; ) is the capital city and a municipality of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. It was made the island's capital in 1852. The city owes its name to the rock reef ("arrecife" being Spanish for "reef") which covers its local beach. It als ...

, in the island of

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the i ...

, where, in the early nineteenth century, he chartered an expedition of 200 people from the island bound for

Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, Uruguay, starting the Canarian emigration from the eastern islands to that place (after the Canary emigration that took place in Uruguay in the first half of the eighteenth century), which basically will not terminate until 1900, emigrating more than 10,000 people in this period.Hernández González, Manuel. ''La emigración canaria a América'' (''emigration of Canarian people to the Americas''). Pages: 67 and 70. First edition: January 2005. He worked as a Merchant in the Canary Island. Later, he moved to Maldonado, Uruguay, arriving with a lot of money from the Canary island. Here, he continued working as a trader and cemented a fortune in the agricultural businesses, commercial and industrial: His ships performed the traffic in goods imports and exports, with trade contacts with London, Brazil and the United States. He also won the concession of the exploitation of seals and whales, whose leather in the first case, and oils have a strong demand abroad. He served this office for twelve years. On the other hand, he was one of people those most fought for the release of Uruguay, presenting important services to the struggle for independence: He supported the Revolution of 1811 and be revealed in 1812 against the Luso-Brazilian domination. He paid the company of the Treinta y Tres (Thirty-Threean) and he led an army that participated in it. Later, between 1835 and 1840, he was Minister of Finance of the Republic. During these moments he fought in all the progressives works of Maldonado of his time, which promoted their port, agriculture and industry. He died in Montevideo in 1840.

Personal life

In regard to their productive activities in Uruguayan territory, he excelled in the creation of a factory of tile and ceramics and in the introduction of new crops in Maldonado. He had also salt and brick factories for construction factories. In his vast property he cultivated cereal, vegetables and vines. He had also farms of cows, horses and merino sheep.

References

External links

* http://www.redargentina.com/comun/efemerides/UruguayIndependencia.asp. Independencia de Uruguay (Independence of Uruguay). {{DEFAULTSORT:Aguilar Y Leal, Francisco Uruguayan independence activists People from Santa Cruz de Tenerife Spanish emigrants to Uruguay Uruguayan people of Canarian descent 1776 births 1840 deaths 19th-century Spanish businesspeople