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 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 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 A gooooore