Flores Maldonado Martínez y Bodquín, Manuel Antonio (1723–1799)

Manuel Antonio Flores Maldonado Martínez y Bodquín (b. 27 May 1723; d. 20 March 1799), viceroy of New Granada (1776–1782) and of New Spain (1787–1789).

Born in Seville, Flores pursued a naval career, holding the rank of lieutenant general of the Royal Armada at the time of his assignment to New Granada in 1776. An enlightened man, strongly interested in science, he was an efficient, perceptive administrator. He urged Regent Visitor Gutiérrez De Piñeres to show restraint when imposing administrative and fiscal reforms, at least until the armed forces could be readied to discourage potential unrest, but his warnings went unheeded. While Flores was on the coast commanding the viceregal defenses during the War of the American Revolution, the Comunero Revolt (1781) swept the interior, compelling him to order nearly a battalion of coastal troops to Santa Fe to bolster royal authority.

Becoming severely ill with arthritis, he resigned and was replaced by Cartagena's governor, Juan Pimienta. Flores later brought enlightened rule to New Spain, but, his health again failing him, he was soon replaced by the Segundo Conde de Revillagigedo. He died in Madrid.

See alsoSpanish Empire; Viceroyalty, Viceroy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Calderón Quijano, José Antonio ed., Los virreyes de Nueva España en el reinado de Carlos IV, vol. I. Sevilla: Publicaciones de la Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos de la Universidad de Sevilla, 1972.

Kuethe, Allan J. Military Reform and Society in New Granada, 1773–1808. Gainesville: University Presses of Florida, 1978.

Phelan, John Leddy The People and the King: The Comunero Revolution in Colombia, 1781. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978.

                                                      Allan J. Kuethe