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Dámaso Berenguer y Fusté, 1st Count of Xauen (4 August 1873 – 19 May 1953) was a Spanish general and politician. He served as
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
during the last thirteen months of the reign of
Alfonso XIII Alfonso XIII (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Alfonso León Fernando María Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena''; French language, French: ''Alphonse Léon Ferdinand Marie Jacques Isidore Pascal Antoine de Bourbon''; 17 May ...
.


Biography

Berenguer was born in San Juan de los Remedios, Cuba, while the island was a Spanish administrative division. He enlisted in the army in 1889, served in Cuba and
Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
. He served in the Second Melillan campaign, taking part in the action of the ''Barranco del Lobo'' (1909). He founded the '' Fuerzas Regulares Indígenas'' on 30 June 1911 and fought in the ensuing
Kert campaign The Kert campaign () was a conflict in northern Morocco between Spain and insurgent Riffian '' harkas'' led by Mohammed Ameziane, who had called for a ''jihad'' against the Spanish occupation in the eastern Rif. It took place between 1911 and 1 ...
, leading the action that killed Riffian leader
Mohamed Ameziane Mohammed ben al-Hajj Amezian (; 1859 – 15 May 1912), also known as El Mizzian by the Spanish, was a Moroccan sharif who served as the main leader of the Rifians, Rifian resistance against Spanish protectorate in Morocco, Spanish rule in nort ...
in 1912, bringing the end of the campaign. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1916, and, in 1918, to division general. In 1918, he was appointed
Minister of War A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...
under Prime Minister Manuel García Prieto. He was appointed January 1919 as High Commissioner of Spain in Morocco. He proceeded to occupy
Chaouen Chefchaouen (, ) is a city in northwest Morocco. It is the chief town of the Chefchaouen Province, province of the same name and is noted for its buildings in shades of blue, for which it is nicknamed the "Blue City". It is situated in a mountaino ...
on 14 October 1920, and Berenguer, one of the leading ''protegees'' of
Alfonso XIII Alfonso XIII (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Alfonso León Fernando María Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena''; French language, French: ''Alphonse Léon Ferdinand Marie Jacques Isidore Pascal Antoine de Bourbon''; 17 May ...
in Africa along
Manuel Fernández Silvestre Manuel Fernández Silvestre (December 16, 1871 – July 22, 1921) was a Military of Spain, Spanish general. Manuel Fernández Silvestre was the son of a lieutenant colonel of artillery, Victor Fernández and Eleuteria Silvestre. In 1889, he enr ...
, was granted the noble title of Count of Xauen in reward. The disaster for the Spanish Army in Morocco in the summer of 1921, which included the defeat at the
Battle of Annual The Battle of Annual was fought on 22 July 1921 at Annual, Morocco, Annual, in northeastern Morocco, between the Spanish Army and Rifians, Rifian Berbers during the Rif War. The Spanish suffered a major military defeat, which is almost always ref ...
and the ensuing slaughter of about 2,000 Spanish soldiers in Monte Arruit, murdered by the Riffians after their surrender, delivered a ''
coup de grâce A coup de grâce (; ) is an act of mercy killing in which a person or animal is struck with a melee weapon or shot with a projectile to end their suffering from mortal wounds with or without their consent. Its meaning has extended to refer to ...
'' to the regime of the Restoration. The armed forces was deeply divided between ''africanistas'' vs. ''junteros'' and ''responsibilists'' vs. ''impunists''. Berenguer sanctioned the use of chemical weapons against civilians during the
Rif War The Rif War (, , ) was an armed conflict fought from 1921 to 1926 between Spain (joined by France in 1924) and the Berber tribes of the mountainous Rif region of northern Morocco. Led by Abd el-Krim, the Riffians at first inflicted several ...
, stating in a telegram to the War Minister in August 1921 that "I have been obstinately refractary to the use of suffocating gases against these indigenous peoples but after what they have done, and of their treacherous and deceptive conduct, I have to use them with true joy." After three previous rejected attempts to hand in his resignation as High Commissioner, he finally did so by mid 1922. An official investigation carried out by General Juan Picasso González had already been opened to determine responsibility for the disastrous military strategy ''vis-à-vis'' the 1921 collapse, and Berenguer, in his capacity as High Commissioner, found himself among those martialled. Amid the structural collapse of the Restoration regime, by the summer of 1923, plotting took place in the military. In September 1923 a ''pronunciamiento'' by
Miguel Primo de Rivera Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, Grandee, GE (8 January 1870 – 16 March 1930), was a Spanish dictator and military officer who ruled as prime minister of Spain from 1923 to 1930 during the last years of the Resto ...
took place in Barcelona, bringing the
dictatorship of Primo de Rivera General Miguel Primo de Rivera's dictatorship over Spain began with a coup on 13 September 1923 and ended with his resignation on 28 January 1930. It took place during the wider reign of King Alfonso XIII. In establishing his dictatorship, ...
, as the King appointed the former as Prime Minister after the success of the coup d'état. Primo de Rivera, previously associated with pro-abandonment (''abandonista'') stances vis-à-vis Morocco had been counterintuitively supported in his coup by the , a quad of '' Africanist'' generals in Madrid vying for stronger interventionism in Morocco that included , the brother of Dámaso. Yet, ultimately, despite their differences, they shared the same contempt for what they thought to be persecution of the military by the government due to Annual. Despite attempts to bring the process to a halt by Primo de Rivera (he even attempted to confiscate the report), the trial on the performance of Berenguer and Navarro began on 16 June 1924. Attempting to pander to the military, Primo de Rivera amnestied Berenguer. In 1926, Berenguer became Chief of Staff of the Military House of the King, a post conventionally destined to burned-out generals liked by King Alfonso XIII in order to move them away from the spotlight for a time. In January 1930, following the forced resignation of Primo de Rivera, Alfonso XIII tasked Berenguer with the formation of a government seeking to restore the country to its pre-1923 state, as if nothing had happened in between. During his mandate as prime minister, Berenguer repealed some of the harsher measures introduced by Primo de Rivera, earning his regime the nickname '' dictablanda'' (the toothless dictatorship, ''blanda'' meaning soft, as opposed to the preceding ''dictadura'', ''dura'' being the Spanish word for hard). He also faced a number of problems, such as increasing demands for the abolition of the monarchy, disorganisation among the country's political parties after seven years of repression making the calling of prompt elections an impossible task, labour unrest, and at least one military uprising. One of the last straws nailing the coffin of the monarchist regime was an article titled "el error Berenguer" (the Berenguer mistake), authored by Jose Ortega y Gasset in ''El Sol'', which famously ended with "''Delenda est monarchia''". Berenguer resigned as prime minister on 14 February 1931; he was replaced by Admiral Juan Bautista Aznar-Cabañas, under whom he served as Minister of War. Two months later, King Alfonso XIII fled the country and the
Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...
was declared. Berenguer was tried on his performance in Morocco and irregularities in the repression of the 1930 Jaca uprising. He was cleared in 1935 and retired from public life. He played no relevant role in the July 1936 uprising that led to the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
. Berenguer died in
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
in 1953.


References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berenguer, Damaso 1873 births 1953 deaths Counts of Spain People from Remedios, Cuba Prime ministers of Spain Spanish generals Spanish military personnel of the Rif War Spanish military personnel of the Second Melillan campaign Spanish military personnel of the Kert campaign Spanish people in Spanish Cuba Spanish war criminals Ministers of defence of Spain