Villalonga, Jorge (c. 1665–?)

Jorge Villalonga (Conde de la Cueva; b. c. 1665; active late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries), viceroy of the New Kingdom of Granada (1719–1724). Philip V named Villalonga the first viceroy of the newly established Viceroyalty of New Granada in June 1717. Promoted from his position as governor of the Callao presidio, Villalonga was to effect the political reform program established by Antonio de la Pedrosa y Guerrero at the king's behest (1718–1719). Specifically, metropolitan officials expected Villalonga to solidify the Caribbean defenses of New Granada, curb smuggling, quell political infighting, promote economic development and so increase crown revenues, and project royal authority. From his very arrival in Santa Fe in November 1719 with demands for pomp, however, Villalonga provoked much internal opposition to his policies and demeanor. While Villalonga's residencia (end-of-tenure review) generally praised him, the king and his ministers judged his rule to be ineffective at best, for in late 1723 they decided to extinguish the viceroyalty and return the colony to audiencia rule. Villalonga returned to Spain in 1724 and became minister of war.

See alsoAudiencia; Viceroyalty, Viceroy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The best surveys of Villalonga's rule and the first attempt to establish the Viceroyalty of New Granada are in Spanish and include María Teresa Garrido Conde, La primera creación del virreinato de Nueva Granada (1717–1723) (1965); and Sergio Elías Ortiz, Nuevo Reino de Granada: El virreynato, 1719–1753, in Historia extensa de Colombia, vol. 4 (1970), pp. 29-58.

Additional Bibliography

Fisher, John Robert and Allan J. Keuthe. Reform and Insurrection in Bourbon New Granada and Peru. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1990.

McFarlane, Anthony. Colombia before Independence: Economy, Society, and Politics under Bourbon Rule. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Silva, Renán. Saber, cultura, y sociedad en el Nuevo Reino de Granada, siglos XVII y XVIII. Medellín, Colombia: La Carreta Editores, 2004.

                                            Lance R. Grahn