O'Higgins, Ambrosio (1720–1801)

Ambrosio O'Higgins (b. 1720; d. 18 March 1801), viceroy of Peru (1796–1801). Although best known as the father of Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile's first president, Ambrosio was an important figure in his own right, particularly as captain-general of Chile from 1789 until his promotion to Peru.

The details of O'Higgins's early career are obscure. Born in Ireland, he was taken to Spain as a child and initially pursued a commercial career—in Cádiz, Lima, Buenos Aires, and Santiago—before making a name for himself in the 1760s as an officer leading campaigns against the Araucanians on Chile's southern frontier. He secured rapid promotion, becoming intendant of Concepción in 1786 and field marshal in 1789. His term as viceroy of Peru was complicated by the financial and commercial difficulties arising from Spain's declaration of war against Britain in 1796, but he was able to undertake a number of major public works, including the improvement of the Callao-Lima road, before dying in office.

See alsoChile: Foundations Through Independence; O'Higgins, Bernardo; Peru: From the Conquest Through Independence.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ricardo Donoso, El marqués de Osorno, don Ambrosio O'Higgins (1941).

Rubén Vargas Ugarte, Historia del Perú: Virreinato (Siglo XVIII) (1957), esp. pp. 49-74.

Additional Bibliography

Edwards, David Hugh. "Economic Effects of the Intendancy System in Chile: Captain-General Ambrosio O'Higgins as Reformer." Ph.D. diss., University of Virginia, 1973.

González Santis, Aurelio. El gobernador Ambrosio O'Higgins. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Salesiana, 1980.

                                           John R. Fisher