Ramón Dionisio José de la Sagra y Peris (8 April 179823 May 1871) was a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

anarchist, politician, writer, and botanist who founded the world's first anarchist journal, ''El Porvenir'' (Spanish for "The Future").

Biography

Ramón de la Sagra was born on 8 April 1798 in

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

, a province of Spain. His father Lorenzo Martínez de la Sagra came from a noble merchant family, which became wealthy through trade with the Spanish colonies in America. His mother was Antonia Rodríguez Perís, who met his father in Saint Augustine. His brother migrated to

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

to start a business there, when Sagra was three years old. Ramón de la Sagra studied physics for one year in Nautical School of A Coruña. Afterwards he attended the military college of Santiago de Compostela until reaching adulthood. Afterwards he joined the local university, where he studied anatomy, medicine, mathematics and pharmaceuticals. There he started spreading liberal ideas. For these actions the

Inquisition The Inquisition was a Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...

started threatening him, until he was transferred at the University of Madrid. There he contributed to the liberal newspaper ''El Conservador'', the name being a case of

antiphrasis Antiphrasis is the rhetorical device of saying the opposite of what is actually meant in such a way that it is obvious what the true intention is. Some authors treat and use antiphrasis just as irony, euphemism or litotes. When the antiphrasal ...

. In 1821 he migrated to

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

as an assistant of Agustìn Rodriguez. One year later he was appointed to the position of Professor of Natural History of Cuba. In 1822 he married Manuela Turnes del Rìo. For the next ten years he would travel in the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

, until settling in Paris in 1835. He traveled to the United States from April 20 to September 23 of 1835 and the following year published ''Five Monthes in the United States of North America'' in Paris based on his experiences there. He also accumulated several volumes of pamphlets and economic and scientific reports while traveling in the United States. In Paris he became a disciple of

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, ; ; 1809 – 19 January 1865) was a French anarchist, socialist, philosopher, and economist who founded mutualist philosophy and is considered by many to be the "father of anarchism". He was the first person to ca ...

. He returned to Spain in 1837 and was elected a member of the parliament four times (1838, 1840, 1845, 1854) as a representative of the Liberal Party. At the same time he began publishing a thirteen volume history on the political and natural history of Cuba which he would complete in 1857. In 1839 he published ''Voyage en Hollande et en Belgique sous le rapport de l’instruction primaire, des établissements de bien faisance et des prisons, dans les deux pays'' (published in Paris, 1839 in French and in Spanish in 1844). In 1845 he founded the world's first anarchist journal ''El Porvenir'', which was closed by

Ramón María Narváez Ramón María Narváez y Campos, 1st Duke of Valencia (5 August 180023 April 1868) was a Spanish general and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Spain, Prime Minister on several occasions during the Reign of Isabella II of Spain, reign of ...

, Duke of Galicia. After the

French Revolution of 1848 The French Revolution of 1848 (), also known as the February Revolution (), was a period of civil unrest in France, in February 1848, that led to the collapse of the July Monarchy and the foundation of the French Second Republic. It sparked t ...

, he created with Proudhon the Peoples' Bank of France. In Brussels he met Heinrich Ahrens, disciple of Krause, whose doctrines he proclaimed in Spain before Julian Sanz del Rio. He continued to publish economic, geographic, political, social, and prison reform studies. In 1849 he was expelled from France, because he was spreading Socialist ideas. In 1856 he was expelled from Spain to France by Ramón María Narváez, because he was spreading radical ideas. In Paris he met

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

and

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

in 1870 he went to Switzerland, where he died on 23 May 1871 at the age of seventy-three.

Legacy

Ramón de la Sagra is commemorated in the

scientific name In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

of two species of Cuban lizards, '' Anolis sagrei'' and '' Diploglossus delasagra''. Also, in 1828 botanist DC. published '' Sagraea'', a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s from the Caribbean belonging to the family

Melastomataceae Melastomataceae () is a family of dicotyledonous flowering plants found mostly in the tropics (two-thirds of the genera are from the New World tropics) comprising c. 175 genera and c. 5115 known species. Melastomes are annual or perennial herbs ...

, and named in Ramón de la Sagra's honor. Although it is now listed as a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

Miconia ''Miconia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the glory bush family, Melastomataceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas. The species are mostly shrubs and small to medium-sized trees up to 15 m tall. The generic name ...

Then in 1862 botanist Ernst Stizenberger published '' Ramonia'', which is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a hybrid colony (biology), colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among hypha, filaments of multiple fungus species, along with yeasts and bacteria embedded in the cortex or "skin", in a mutualism (biology), m ...

ized

fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...

in the family Gyalectaceae.

Books

*''Principios fundamentales para servir de introducción a la Escuela Botánica Agrícola del Jardín Botánico'', La Habana, 1824 *''Anales de Ciencias, Agricultura, Comercio y Artes'', La Habana, 1827-1830 *''Contestación al número séptimo del Mensagero Semanal de New York'', La Habana, 1829 *''Relación de las fiestas... enlace... Fernando VII con María Cristina...'', La Habana, 1830 *''Reglas para el cultivo... del añil'', Madrid, 1831 *''Mouvement de la population de la Havane de 1825 á 1830'' *''Historia económica-política y estadística de la Isla de Cuba'', La Habana 1831, edición previa de su monumental ''Historia física, política y natural de la Isla de Cuba'', París, 1832–1861, aparecida en francés, París, 1838-1857 *''Memorias de la Institución Agrónoma de La Habana'', La Habana, 1834 *''Cinco meses en los Estados-Unidos de la América del Norte'', París, 1836 *''Breve idea de la administración del comercio y de las rentas de la Isla de Cuba durante los años de 1826 a 1834'', París, 1836 *''Apuntes destinados a ilustrar la discusión del artículo adicional al proyecto de Constitución que dice: «Las provincias de Ultramar serán gobernadas por leyes especiales”'', 1837 *''Voyage en Hollande et en Bilbao, Belgique sous le rapport de l’instruction primaire, des établissements de bien faisance et des prisons, dans les deux pays'', París, 1839, con edición española en 1844 *''Banque du Peuple. Théorie et pratique de cette institution, fondée sur la théorie rationelle'' *''Lecciones de economía social'', Madrid, 1840 *''Investigaciones para enriquecer las fincas del Real Patrimonio'', Madrid, 1841 *''Álbum de aves cubanas'', París, 1842 *''Informe sobre el estado actual de la industria belga con aplicación a España'', Madrid, 1842 *''La industria algodonera y los obreros en Cataluña'', Madrid, 1842 *''Reflexiones sobre la industria española'', Madrid, 1842 *''Mapa geográfico de la Isla de Cuba'', 1842 *''Carta a Don Carlos Groizard'', s.a. *''Análisis del censo de la población de la Isla de Cuba en 1841'', id. 1843 *''Atlas carcelario'', id. 1843 *''Discurso... para la mejora del sistema carcelario, correccional y penal de España'', Barcelona, 1843? *''Informe sobre el estado de la industria fabril en Alemania'', Madrid, 1843 *''La reforma de la Constitución de 1837, innecesaria, inoportuna y peligrosa'', Madrid, 1844 *''Estudios estadísticos sobre Madrid'', Madrid, 1844 *''Industria algodonera'', Madrid, 1844 *''Notas de viaje escritas durante una corta excursión a Francia, Bélgica y Alemania en el otoño de 1843'', Madrid, 1844 *''Revista de los intereses materiales y morales. Periódico de doctrinas progresivas en favor la Humanidad'', id. id, dos tomos *''Relación de los viajes hechos en Europa bajo el punto de vista de la instrucción y beneficencia pública, la represión, el castigo y la reforma de los delincuentes, los progresos agrícolas e industriales y su influencia en la moralidad'', id. íd. *''Noticia sobre el estado actual de la Economía política en España'', id, id. *''Estudios coloniales con aplicación a la Isla de Cuba (De los efectos de la supresión en el tráfico negrero)'', id. 1845. *''Empresa del Canal Dalias.. entre Adra y Almería'', id. id. *''Carta a M. Blanqui'', id. id. *''Informe sobre el cultivo de la caña y fabricación del azúcar en las costas de Andalucía'', id. id. *''El Azucarero. Periódico industrial'', Madrid-Málaga, noviembre de 1846 a marzo de 1847 *''Sur l’inexactitude des principes economiques... dans les colleges'', París, 1848 *''Le probléme de l’organisation du Travail devant le Congrés des Economistes de Bruxelles'', id. id. *''Aforismos sociales'', Madrid, 1848 *''Mon contingent á l’Academie'', Paris, 1849 *''Utopie de la Paix'', id. id. *''Apuntes para una Biblioteca de escritores económicos españoles'', Madrid, 1849 *''Mis debates contra la anarquía de la época y en favor del orden social racional'', id. id. *''Révolution économique, causes et moyens'', París, 1849 *''Sur les conditions de l’ordre et des reformes sociales'', París, 1849 *''Notas para la historia de la prostitución en España'', Madrid, 1850 *''Sur les produits espagnoles envoyés á l’exposition de Londres'', London, 1851 *''Memoria sobre los objetos estudiados en la Exposición Universal de Londres'', London, 1853 *''El problema de los bosques bajo el doble punto de vista, físico y social'', London, 1854 *''Catálogo de escritores económicos españoles'', London, 1855 *''Vindicación de una apreciación injusta de un proyecto de ley'', id. id. *''Remedio contra los efectos funestos de las crisis políticas y de las paralizaciones comerciales'', id. íd. *''Relación de los trabajos físicos y meteorológicos hechos por Don Andrés Poey'', París, 1858 *''Artículos varios sobre las malas doctrinas, comunicadas a la verdad católica'', La Habana, 1859 *''Le mal et le remède'', París, 1859 *''El guano del Perú'', La Habana, 1860 *''Noción del poder'', Madrid, 1861 *''Lettres á M. Sainte-Beuve au sujet de ses idées philosophiques'', París, 1867 *''L’Ame. Démonstration de la realité deduite de l’etude des effets du chioroforme et du curare sur l’economie animale'', París, 1868 *''Les partis d'Espagne'', París, s. a.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sagra, Ramon de la 1798 births 1871 deaths Spanish anarchists 19th-century Spanish botanists Mutualists People from A Coruña Scientists from Galicia (Spain) Writers from Galicia (Spain)