Bat bi hiru lau
Watch your back, watch your back
Ertzaintza's gonna get you
Watch your back, watch your back
Ertzaintza's gonna get you
Watch your back, watch your back
Oh, there's a crime here
It's a coming from the Euskal Herria
Gotta wash those red hands
It's the crimes of the basquelands
Welcome everybody to crimes of the basque lands
It's a true crime show
With connections to anything basque
In the whole of history
In all of history
Because we are going a little bit back in history today
So we're gonna talk today about Martin de Alsaga
Ola varia, his surname Alsaga
Which is actually a place name as well
Well, Alsaga today has about 150 people
Oh, thriving
So it's a tiny little place
Okay, where is it?
It's a 40k southish or southwestish
From San Sebastian, Donostia
Okay, so it's Cipusqua
It's Cipusqua, yep
I mean, however, he was born in Alva
Born in 1755
1755, okay
A long time ago
Born to Francisco de Alsaga and Manuela de Ola varia
And he emigrated to Buenos Aires
He arrived there at 11 years old
Only spoke Basque
He eventually became one of the richest people in Buenos Aires
In the whole of Argentina
Wow
Well, Argentina was not a thing back then
Right, it wasn't known as
This is part of the story
Okay, it wasn't known as Argentina at the time
Yes, it was el bien reinado del rio de la plata
So Spain basically owned all the Americas
Apart from Brazil
One was Lima
Still Lima, the capital
Which is now Peru
And then the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata
Which is the river plate
Oh, I don't know
I think it is the river where Buenos Aires
Familiar with rivers down in South America
The Amazon I've heard of, yes
That's a big one
It's about the only one I could name in South America
It's great, you're doing great
It is, well, yeah
Unfortunately, I'm going to say
He was not a nice businessman
Yeah, not a lot of them are
If you're making all the, if you're one of the richest
In the 1700s
He's probably kind of an asshole
His business was slaves
Oh
And cloth and arms
Oh, God
So he's in everything
What a combo
He's in everything
Jesus
He can't be the nicest person
No, he cannot
He married in 1780
He married Maria Magdalena Carrera
And they together had 13 children
Oh, my God, that poor woman
Typical number, I guess, for those times
I get, not really
They all survived or they just
It doesn't say, but he was rich
So we can assume a lot of it is
Yeah, but still, in those times
13 survived
In 1783 he travels to Spain
When he returns to Buenos Aires
He starts working in government
First he was protector of the poor
That was his title
Mm-hmm
During this time, oddly enough
I think you will agree with me
All exports to Spain were done through Lima, Peru
Well, which is now Peru
Or I forget the name of the port on Mexico
So it was through those two ports
All of North and South America goods
Had to go through those ports
So from Argentina they had to cross the Andes
Oh, my God
So it was totally, totally inefficient
Totally inefficient
And what else? Yeah
Yeah, it's a mess
There's no other way
No, apart from that
There's no other way to do it
Apart from that
Those cities and people
Were not officially allowed to buy from anyone else but Spain
So they're all like their own captive markets
The name of this economic system is mercantilism
And it doesn't work
Mercantilism
Basically, yeah, all the empires were
That was their
They figured out if they prohibited their colonies from
Kind of buying and selling with other countries
They would have to buy and sell from the capital
And that was going to give money to the capital
Which it did
But it kind of put all the colonies in very difficult situations
Because there weren't enough goods
And they were way too expensive
They weren't good quality
So there was a ton of contraband the whole time
Of course
Tons of contraband
So he started in government
He was eventually elected mayor
Of Buenos Aires
Alcalde, yeah, mayor of Buenos Aires
During this time he was not a good guy
He went after the Italian and the French
Because they were spreading ideas about enlightenment
Even the French and Italian citizens of Buenos Aires?
Yeah, yeah
Okay
Well, citizens
French descendants
Italian descendants, okay
And they're spreading ideas about the French Revolution
Oh
That's what he said
Well, it's true, but that's, you know
That's their thing, you know
Is that right?
So, yeah
And he
He wanted to squash that
People, yeah, people were happy with
The establishment was happy with how he was dealing with things
A little bit of context in the world
This is 1804, okay?
So in 1804 we have the first independence of a colony in the world
Which was Haiti
So they declared independence from France
Because they were convinced by the ideas of the French Revolution
That everyone is equal
Yeah, alright, Haiti
So they got their medicine nice and quick
In a way
It's a very sad story because they're
I know
They're paying for their debt today
But, you know, US, 1776
Boom, in your face
They're also, you know
The context is of colonies thinking about kind of their rights
Yeah
And how to go forwards
Napoleon comes to power
Okay
In 1807, Napoleon starts the Peninsular War
What's that?
Yeah, so he supposedly wanted to invade Portugal
The thing was that on paper
Napoleon had signed an agreement with the king in Spain
Asking the king of Spain to let them go through Spain to attack Portugal
Okay
They started attacking Spain
Not Portugal
They're like, well, tricked ya
Here we are
Yeah
So the king was taken away by Napoleon
The king of Spain
So, you know, the colonies are like
What do we do? What do we do?
You know, they kind of
Are we French now?
Exactly
And then England is turning up and saying
Well, if France has got Spain
That's not fair
I'm going to take over Spanish territory
The US
So this is one of the first times
Well, a time where Martin de Alcaga is going to shine a little bit
Okay
So he, because he's trading in arms
That's right
And he's the richest person in town
He organizes to fight back against the English
The English actually managed to take Buenos Aires
Damn, so they showed up all the way
Yeah, a couple of ships and some soldiers
And they just
Mine
Go up to the office
And we're in power now
So easy those days
Yep
They go around and confiscate everybody's weapons
But of course, Martin de Alcaga
He rents various houses around the main central plaza
In Buenos Aires
And he sets up workshops to fix and clean up guns
And smuggles people in and out
And they're cleaning and setting up
And he's creating an army
Oh
Well, what did he call it?
It was
Sounds more like a militia, guerrilla
It was a good, I looked up the name
I forget these military terms
It was about 800 people
Okay
Finance from his own pockets
Oh, wow
There were some Viscaian fighters
Then there was some Catalan fighters
Okay
And there was a group of Galicians
Okay, so all these very independent minded
They are today, but they're all fighting for the crown
That's true
Well
Well, just against the English
Against the English
Basically
Yeah, and this is actually
It's an interesting point
Are they fighting for the king of Spain?
Or are they fighting for the colonies?
Right?
To self-determination
Well, we can't have another fucking crown take us over
So the attempts of the English to kind of clear Buenos Aires
With a lot of guns didn't really work
Because Alcaga had enough stash
Mm-hmm
And they defeat the English in like a day
Wow
So I think it was a day, it might be two
But you know, it was very fast
They just, they won
Wow
So as you can imagine, Mr. Alcaga
A hero
He's in a nice place right now
Mm-hmm
So there, he goes into government again
And we're going to take a break
And we're back
We're back
So where are we here?
The English have been kicked out
He's kind of a hero
So in 1808, there's a cabildo
So it's like this meeting who's the government
Is presided by Alcaga
So he's kind of the president of the cabildo
And he also recognizes the Junta de Sevilla
The Junta de Sevilla
Junta is at this point is basically the government of Spain
So he does recognize the junta
And he says they are, you know, the legitimate
Rulers
Rulers of the colony, yeah
Okay
They create a junta, the first junta of Buenos Aires now
And this is considered kind of like
And they what, like are supposed to be like who speaks for the crown?
The junta
The juntas
Well, the junta of Sevilla speaks for the king of Spain
But by making a junta in Buenos Aires is almost like creating a government in Buenos Aires
So they're kind of separating
Oh, okay, all right
They still swear loyalty to the king
But you know, it's just a line
So how loyal are they, right?
Yeah
There's no direct orders from anyone saying what they should do
So they just kind of go with what they want to go
Okay
So one of the things that the junta is doing is now fighting against royalists
Who are like, you don't have a right to make a junta, just follow Sevilla
Follow Sevilla
Okay
And so basically it's where Peru and Bolivia are right now
Where these royalists are
Mm-hmm
And it is a bit confusing because he did swear loyalty to the king as well
Yeah
He's not like clearly against the king
But they don't like the idea that there's a junta
Okay
So it's the revolution of January the 1st, 1809
Liniers, L-I-N-I-E-R-S and the Alsagas became the heroes of the day
But soon they had a mutual conflict
One of the problems was that Liniers was French
Ah
And yeah, Spain had declared war on Napoleon when it parts France
Mm-hmm
So on January 1st, Alsaga organized a revolution to depose Liniers
Who had been, because he was the hero of the kind of kicking out the French
Oh sorry, the English
English, uh-huh
And because he was the hero of kicking out the English, he was elected the leader of the junta or something
He was just the leader
Okay
And Alsaga did not like this, so he took his regiment
Oh, so the military leader that was French was appointed as the leader of the junta
Mm-hmm
Okay
Yeah, I think he was leader of the junta
He was in power in any case to depose him
And he took his gallegos, his mignones de Catalunya and the biscanos, all Spaniards
And that's important because the Spaniards have interest in Spanish things and keeping things as they are, let's say
Yeah
And then they kind of, they call them criollos, the criollos, that's everybody who's born in
In the colonies
In the colonies, yeah
And they would like to be able to commerce with the whole world and buy and sell freely
Mm-hmm
Amongst other things
So Alsaga organized a protest against the viceroy, so yeah, Linié became the viceroy
Okay
Which is the top, so it's not even, yeah, he can convene a junta, but he's above the junta
He tried to force Linié to resign and in his place he would name a junta managed by the Spaniards
Alsaga was sent to prison
On the 1st of July 1812 the government discovered a plot of Spaniards against the first triumvirate
Although Alsaga tried to take down Linié, Linié won
Sent him to prison
Sent to prison
But Alsaga eventually got pardoned
Mm-hmm
Perhaps also because he is a Spaniard, like as in he was born in Spain
Right
This guy Rivadavia, who is now the government, was rejected by Alsaga for one of the times he formed a junta or something
Oh
So he holds resentment
So they thought on the fifth anniversary of the defense against the British that Alsaga was going to try and overthrow the government
But there's no proof this ever existed
This is, you know
Oh, they accused him of plotting the overthrow
Yeah, it was just really Rivadavia, you know
Those are the criminal charges levied against him
Yeah, the only proof was one slave who said he heard his master plotting against
Oh my god
Right
Yeah, flimsy
Because he could have just threatened a slave
Yeah
Like say this
Yeah
So during this investigation, Secretary Rivadavia, based on dubious proof and confessions, extended to the accusations against Alsaga and his co-conspirators
Alsaga was arrested, tried and condemned to death along with other people
Mm-hmm
Forty people were executed
Well, here it says more than thirty
Another place I read forty, but
And he was executed on the 6th of July 1812 in Buenos Aires
The bodies were then hanged and left in Plaza de la Victoria for three days
So gross back then
I mean 1812
Like look what can happen to you
And well, yeah, basically that's the end of his life
And I still, you know, I'm still conflicted like he's clearly a terrible person but he also, you know
I mean when you get involved with these kind of things
It's kind of the bargain you make with it, right?
Like if you're gonna get involved in all of this mess
Somebody might betray you or, you know
If you're
Yeah, politics, right?
Right
And in these days, I mean
Anybody can fall at any time
Yeah, I mean, yeah
He wasn't a very good guy
I mean there's when he was in government
There was instances of him just like, you know, basically
Beating people up
Like not him personally just telling people this, you know
The police to beat people up
To get them to behave better and stuff like that
He didn't have great
He's not a moral guy
Yeah
One of the interesting things is you kind of think
Well, maybe
Maybe we can learn after death what he thought, right?
Like maybe through his family
Yeah
What happened to his 13 children?
So this was, it's a tiny little after note
But what is interesting is that Felix de Alsaga
Became a military person
That's his son
Yeah, and very much pro-independence for Argentina
Okay
And self-government Argentina
However, Cecilio, a great defender of the crown
To the last day
That's his other child
Another child, yeah
But I think it's such an interesting story of a person
Who didn't even speak Castilian when he got there
That's true
Right
He only showed up speaking Basque
Became the richest man in Argentina
Boom
I mean it wasn't Argentina, but
Right
Definitely
When did Argentina become Argentina?
Do you know?
Yes, I wrote it down
They declared independence in 1816
On the 9th of July
Oh, not too long after
He died
Yeah, he died in 1812, sorry
So do you think he would have been, oh, 1916
18, no
Sorry, sorry
1816
So four years after he died
Yep
Yeah
And that's what he, yeah
So you don't know if he really would have wanted that
Or if he would have wanted to stay as a colony
Exactly
On the crown
It was very ambiguous
Yeah
It was very ambiguous
It was like, yeah, we swear a lot to the king
But at the same time
There's no way to know
Yeah, they were very independent minded
I mean, I hope it's been an interesting kind of look at a Basque
Yeah
In the world
You were going to tell me the etymology of his surname
True, I kind of like it
Because Alcaga in Basque is the name of the town today
It was a Tz
Not just a Z
Tz is Tz, saga, that makes that sound
Saga, alcaga
And alca is, let me, I wrote it here, it's an older, it's a kind of tree
So
Older
Older, older with an al
Older, older, okay
So, based, aga, every aga means place of
Okay
So, alcaga
Place of sand
No
No, what was it?
Arby as in stones, stones, place of stones
Okay
Stony place
A lot of work to do
So, yeah, alcaga, the place of olders, which is in a birch family
Which is a bit more of a known plant, I think
Yeah, I've never heard of an older tree, but
The birch with the whites
Birch, yeah
A lot of the olders also have kind of white bark, not all of them though
Depending on the age, maybe younger ones have white and then it becomes
There's no way to know, I'm just kidding
Yeah, I know what it is
I mean
Well, you can tell, you know, he was the richest man in Argentina
Yeah
So, there's actually a lot of descendants that did different things
Mmm
Like, you know, racer or
Do you have any info on that?
Just one, the one that I took out, and I can't remember his first name, but
He was known as the richest man in the US
What?
Yeah, he lived in California
These guys
Classic playboy
These guys
Classic playboy
Ruining lives everywhere
Could be a fun future story
Yeah, yeah, for sure, you should
So I'm gonna call out
A playboy, eh?
Yeah
In California
Yeah
Oh my god
Classic, in the 40s
Ooh, nice, good period too
There should be some interesting stories there
Did you enjoy the beginning of the birth of Argentina?
I did, I had no idea, I had no idea
It was a basco
I didn't even know there was a basco involved
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, he was important
I mean, this podcast, folks, is gonna be shedding some serious light on
How the Basques are really truly taking over the world
Yeah
And have been for a long time
They've been central, they've been central to a lot of things
So I have a mini crime time
You do?
For this week
Nice, you tell
Well, one of which we found last night, remember, Douglas and I were out
We mentioned at the beginning of the episode
We went out last night
And we were in
Don't remember any crimes right now
One of our favorite bars, Nervion
And we had put stickers in the bathrooms
That's the mini crime
Because there's lots of stickers all over the, you know, we weren't vandalizing anything
No
And we put our podcast stickers on the doors of the bathrooms
With other stickers
With all this, yeah
And I go into the women's bathroom and it was peeled off
Like they had peeled off the part that said Basque lands
Oh
So I think because it was in English
All it said was crime and then at the bottom podcast
Okay
So you didn't know what the name of the podcast was
And it was like somebody tried to scrape it off
Interesting
So I just stuck a new one over the old one
And then in the men's bathroom they took it off completely, right?
Yeah
I was like
So I'm curious like if it's because it's in English
But I kind of, I'm like
And it's kind of like, you know, very Basque bar
Yeah
And things that are, there's all the other stickers are like pretty political
Feminists
Yeah
So
But I was like
I wonder if that's why
I almost was like proud, I was like
Oh, I think they might have wanted it
Maybe they liked it
Maybe they thought it was cute
Maybe
Maybe they put it on their like folder
And they're going around uni with crimes and mass mans in their folder the whole day
Well, if anybody wants us to send you some stickers
We can do that
Absolutely, absolutely
Then you can put them all over wherever you want
Cute
Well, that was this podcast today
Thanks for listening
Hope you guys enjoyed
Send us an email if you want to
Send us story ideas
Or your recordings
Very mini crime time
So, yeah, we're at
Crimesofthebaskelands.com
No
Well, that's our website
Crimesofthebaskelands.com
Where you can find links to episodes
And the email is
Crimesofthebaskelands.gmail.com
And we're on Instagram
We're not really on Facebook right now
But we're thinking about going back up
So, yeah
Thank you for joining us today
We are very grateful
We just had Thanksgiving
So we're grateful for your
Very grateful
For listening to us
Yes, thank you
Ramblin'
Everybody for tuning in
Yeah
Thank you for encouraging us to tell more stories
Yes
It's a lot of fun for us
It is lovely
And we're really happy to have anyone listen
So, thanks for listening
Living and learning
Yeah
Alright, Dougal
Well, I guess now it's time to bid you
A gooooore