Redirection

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Men Behind The New World Order

Under The New World Order I don't mean masonic conspiraties or any such thing, but the change which happened in the 18th and 19th centuries from Throne and Altar to popular democracies. Those behind the change were overwhelmingly men, some of them supported feminism, others didn't but they all believed in   fraternite, egalite, liberte at least to a certain degree.

Among those men there were some interesting characters which deserve a closer look. Last year I did a Wiki research on the origin of the story of Zorro for a film review and got immersed in a rather bloody history of Latin America that in the beginning of the 19th century was chiefly under the Spanish rule. I found out that the character of Zorro was probably partly based on Manuel Rodriguez (I may write about him when I have time, in the meanwhile you can check the Wikipedia article if you are interested), a school friend of Jose Miguel Carrera, a much more colourful person and a real life example of what they call an "alpha male".

Jose Miguel was born in Chile in 1785 to a prominent family, got educated at the best school of the country and was sent to Spain where he began his military career. He fought against Napoleon and received the command of a regiment. In 1810 he returned to Chile and together with his brothers took part in a coup d'état which made him the sole ruler of Chile at the age of 26.

Carrera was a nationalist which caused a conflict between him and other revolutionaries who were planning to create a Latin American Union (sounds familiar). He improved the life of the common citizens by abolishing slavery, introducing newspapers and public schooling. At this point, Spaniards decided to retake Chile so Jose Miguel went back to war and at first was successful. He also married somewhere around this time. However, his luck temporarily left him and he was surrounded by the enemy troops, but escaped through the river.

He was relieved of his command and it went to a man who became an evil genius of his life, Bernardo O'Higgins. Carrera was taken prisoner by the Spanish, escaped from prison and made another coup. He and his brothers then had to fight the forces of O'Higgins during which time the Spaniards started advancing towards the capital. The rebels had to unite their forces but O'Higgins lost a very important battle and they all had to run for their lives, but Carrera still managed to have another quarell with O'Higgins during which he slapped him, which naturally didn't make O'Higgins love him any more than he already did.

They all landed safely in Argentina, but soon the power there was taken by the globalist friends of O'Higgins and so Jose Miguel had to leave. He went to the USA where he managed to raise enough money for a small fleet but when he returned to Argentina his ships were confiscated and he himself thrown into prison. His wife during his American adventures was living in abject poverty with her two or three children who were all girls.

With the help of an American diplomat, Carrera escaped from prison and went to Brazil where he reunited with his wife who was living there during his imprisonment under the protection of a Brazilian general. His brothers, however, stayed in Argentina, which was not really wise, especially after one of them had killed a close friend of O'Higgins during a duel. With Jose Miguel out of the way, O'Higgins got his chance to revenge and both were executed on the charge of treason.

Jose Miguel learned about their death from his wife and since that moment he becamed obsessed with the desire for revenge. He went back to Argentina, started the war against the government, won it and got enough money and troops from the new government to march on Chile to finally settle his account with O'Higgins who by that time also had managed to assassinate his best school friend Rodriguez.

Carrera's wife at the moment was pregnant with another child. She begged him not to go but he wouldn't listen. The campaign proved disastrous, Jose Miguel was betrayed by one of his captains, taken prisoner by the enemy forces, tried and found guilty of war crimes and made to face a firing squad.

He died a month short of his 36th birthday, never having a chance to see his son who was born after his death. However, Jose Miguel still managed to triumph over his enemies. According to Wikipedia, 
his children all married well, and as of now the upper class of Chile primarily consists of his descendants (there is a positive side to marrying early in life).

Carrera is considered one of the national heroes of Chile and they made a TV film about him which can be watched on YouTube. It was a low budget production so one shouldn't expect any Hollywood scale battle scenes and such but it was quite informative and the actor they chose looks very much like Carrera who was remarkably handsome. The negative point is that the film is in Spanish.

Since Wiki doesn't mention a lot of details, I had to rely on the information in the film, and according to it, Jose Miguel's participation in family life was chiefly restricted to occasionally coming home from another war and knocking his wife up. Despite this, his never being home, and the fact that she had married the sole ruler of Chile but spent most of her married love in poverty and exile, she was madly in love with him and never thought about other men.

One scene in the film especially is telling, when his wife, heavily pregnant, is trying to persuade Jose Miguel not to leave on the campaign which became fatal to him. He very calmly listens to her, then says something along the lines: "if you get a son, call him Jose Miguel," and continues to pack. The film ends with his widow bringing her newborn son to the church to be baptised. According to Wikipedia, they had five children together, but only three were shown in the film.

Carrera was obviously not a feminist, he was against globalism and for the nation-states, and he was a warrior who spent his whole life in the saddle and took part in some forty battles and I find him a sympathetic character, but I still don't understand how could a man of his education and abilities believe in equality and universal brotherhood. 

5 comments:

  1. Interesting stuff. I find Latin American history very interesting, esp. conflicts between secularism and the faith, esp. in Mexico.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I liked how they showed Jose Miguel's interaction with his wife in the film. It's so totally different from what we see in the Western movies. In one scene he comes home from war and just sits there and then his wife removes his boots and washes his feet and he comes back to life:) I can't imagine anything similar in an American or a British movie.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Indeed; that would be unthinkable!

    ReplyDelete
  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwjDkPmLrtA

    WARNING: contains graphic scenes

    ReplyDelete