Arsenio Martínez Campos

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The Most Excellent Arsenio Martínez-Campos
Portrait of General Martínez-Campos, c. 1889
Prime Minister of Spain
In office 7 March – 9 December 1879
Monarch	Alfonso XII
Preceded by	Antonio Cánovas del Castillo
Succeeded by	Antonio Cánovas del Castillo
President of the Senate of Spain
In office 23 December 1885 – 8 March 1886
Monarch	Alfonso XIII
Preceded by	Count of Puñonrrostro
Succeeded by	Marquess of Havana
In office 27 February 1891 – 4 February 1893
Monarch	Alfonso XIII
Preceded by	Marquess of Habana
Succeeded by	Marquess of Habana
In office 30 May 1899 – 18 October 1900
Monarch	Alfonso XIII
Preceded by	Eugenio Montero Ríos
Succeeded by	Marcelo Azcárraga Palmero
Minister of War of Spain
In office 7 March – 9 December 1879
Monarch	Alfonso XII
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Francisco de Ceballos y Vargas
Succeeded by	José Ignacio de Echavarría
In office 8 February 1881 – 13 October 1883
Monarch	Alfonso XII
Prime Minister	Práxedes Mateo Sagasta
Preceded by	José Ignacio de Echavarría
Succeeded by	José López Domínguez
Minister of the Navy of Spain
In office 9 January – 13 January 1883
Monarch	Alfonso XII
Prime Minister	Práxedes Mateo Sagasta
Preceded by	Rafael Rodríguez Arias
Succeeded by	Francisco de Paula Pavía
Captain General of Cuba
In office 16 April 1895 – 20 January 1896
Monarch	Alfonso XIII
Preceded by	Emilio Calleja
Succeeded by	Sabas Marín
In office 18 June 1878 – 5 February 1879
Monarch	Alfonso XII
Preceded by	Joaquín Jovellar
Succeeded by	Cayetano Figueroa
Captain General of Catalonia
In office 5 December 1873 – 19 January 1874
President	Francisco Serrano
Preceded by	José Turón y Prats
Succeeded by	Rafael Izquierdo y Gutiérrez
In office 31 December 1874 – 10 October 1876
Monarch	Alfonso XII
Preceded by	José López Domínguez
Succeeded by	Marquess of Peña Plata
In office 23 July – 14 November 1890
Monarch	Alfonso XII
Preceded by	Marquess of Peña Plata
Succeeded by	Marquess of Peña Plata
In office 9 March – 29 November 1873
Monarch	Alfonso XII
Preceded by	Marquess of Peña Plata
Succeeded by	Valeriano Weyler
Captain General of Valencia
In office 18 July – 5 December 1873
President	Francisco Serrano
Preceded by	José García y Velarde
Succeeded by	Francisco de Ceballos y Vargas
Personal details
Born	Arsenio Martínez y Campos 14 December 1831 Segovia, Spain
Died	23 September 1900 Zarauz, Spain
Political party	Liberal Party (from 1880)
Other political affiliations	Conservative Party (until 1880)
Profession	Spanish Armed Forces
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Spain
Branch/service	Spanish Army
Years of service	1860 – 1896
Rank	General de ejército
Battles/wars	Tetuán War Glorious Revolution Ten Years' War Third Carlist War Cuban War of Independence First Eastern Campaign Battle of Peralejo Invasion from East to West in Cuba Lanzadera Campaign

Arsenio Martínez-Campos y Antón, born Martínez y Campos (14 December 1831 – 23 September 1900), was a Spanish officer who rose against the First Spanish Republic in a military revolution in 1874 and restored Spain's Bourbon dynasty. Later, he became Captain-General of Cuba. Martínez Campos took part in wars in Africa, Mexico and Cuba and in the Third Carlist War.^[1]

In 1860, he was sent to Africa to take part in the Tetuán War in Morocco, and he distinguished himself in 16 actions, obtaining the Cross of San Fernando and the rank of lieutenant colonel.^[2] He also took part in the second French intervention in Mexico under General Juan Prim in a joint expedition along with France and Britain.^[1]

After the Revolution of 1868, Martínez Campos requested a posting to Cuba, where he fought against the rebels in 1869 in the Ten Years' War, gaining the rank of brigadier general.^[3] Success in this war was often a matter of perception. The Spanish Army, after taking massive losses, would take the field in bayonet charges.

Despite technically winning, the Spanish losses against the Cuban rebels would make the Cubans consider the action to be a victory for the body count and then withdraw. The Cubans also knew that movements of Spanish in the field raised the exposure of the Spanish forces to yellow fever and other tropical diseases, which would hurt the enemy even further. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4210 Perceived as too soft to win, he was displaced by the ruthless Blas Villate, Count of Balmaceda,^[4] who proceeded with a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing, "The Rising Flood of Valmaseda."

In 1872, Martínez Campos returned to Spain, where he backed the coup d'état led by Manuel Pavía. There, he took charge of several brigades to fight the Carlist uprisings with little success. Then, he was put in charge of the Valencian army, fighting independent forces in Alicante and Cartagena.

The chaotic situation in Spain caused him to plot against the Republic and for Alfonso XII, son of the exiled Isabel II.

Though Martínez Campos made no secret of his designs, Marshal Serrano in 1874 appointed him to the command of a division, which took part in the relief of Bilbao on 2 May and in the operations around Estella-Lizarra in June. On both occasions, Martínez Campos tried in vain to induce the other commanders to proclaim Alfonso XII. He was quartered in Ávila under surveillance but managed to escape and hid in Madrid.^[2]

On 29 December 1874, Martínez Campos led a coup d'état in Sagunto to restore the throne to Alfonso XII. Later, he was named Captain General of Catalonia after defeating the Carlists there, ending the civil war,^[3] and in Navarre in the Restoration.

He was made captain general (governor) of Cuba in 1876. His reputation as a noble warrior allowed him to arrange a peace treaty (Paz de Zanjón) with the war-weary Cuban rebels in 1878. The treaty granted more autonomy to Cuba and freedom to rebels who had been slaves, and, a few years afterward, it led to the complete abolition of slavery on the island.

Returning to Spain, after presiding over a conservative government in 1879 as Cánovas's puppet, he was forced to leave the Conservative Party since he favoured granting total freedom to all races in Spain.

He turned to the Liberals. As Minister for War under Sagasta, he founded the General Military Academy. After the death of King Alfonso in 1885, Martínez Campos steadily supported the regency of Queen Maria Christina and held high commands but declined to take office.^[2]

Two years later at age 53, he was sent to Cuba as the first general to face down a Cuban attempt at independence. The campaign faced difficulties from the very beginning, with much of the imperial force suffering from malaria and yellow fever during the first summer in the swamps. Moreover, the insurgents' use of dynamite and ambush proved effective in pushing back against the superior numbers of the Spanish force. After months of rebels executing effective raids and capturing undefended towns, Campos attempted to provoke a decisive fight in July.

However, superior tactics by the rebels led his side to flee the field, a major humiliation for the Spanish. With increasing pressure from both the rebels and his own government, Campos began considering more extreme measures. Facing an incorrectly perceived need to toughen measures against the rebels, he refused to order ethnic cleansing and resigned his post and was replaced by Valeriano Weyler.^[5]

Days after the defeat, Campos sent a letter to the Spanish prime minister that outlined a strategy by which hundreds of thousands of rural Cubans could be "reconcentrated" behind trenches and barbed wire in Spanish-held towns to isolate the insurgents in the countryside and cut the support to the rebels that was given throughout the war by the rural population. However, Campos refused to implement the tactic himself and to raise the stakes of an already-brutal campaign. He offered to hand over his imperial post.^[5]

Martínez Campos returned to Spain,^[6] where he was named president of the Supreme War and Navy Council but resigned after a month within office.^[7] He died on September 23, 1900, at Zarauz.^[8]

• Anon. (1906) Monumento al general Martínez Campos, Madrid : Establecimiento Tipografico "El Trabajo", 580 p.
• Navarro Martin, Antonio (1878) Opúsculo sobre la Pacificacion de Cuba, acompañado ... de los festejos de la paz y biografía ... de su ilustre pacificador ... D. Arsenio Martinez de Campos, México, 78 p.
• Tone, John Lawrence (2006) War and genocide in Cuba, 1895–1898, Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 0-8078-3006-2

• Media related to Arsenio Martínez-Campos at Wikimedia Commons