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Tomas Cipriano de Mosquera

Tomas Cipriano de Mosquera (26 September 1798-7 October 1878) was President of New Granada from 1 April 1845 to 1 April 1849 (succeeding Pedro Alcantara Herran and preceding Jose Hilario Lopez), of the Granadine Confederation from 18 July 1861 to 4 February 1863 (succeeding Bartolome Calvo), and of the United States of Colombia from 14 May 1863 to 8 April 1864 (preceding Manuel Murillo Toro) and from 22 May 1866 to 12 May 1867 (succeeding Jose Maria Rojas Garrido and preceding Joaquin Riascos).

Biography[]

Tomas Cipriano de Mosquera was born in Popayan, Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1798, the brother of Joaquin Mosquera. Mosquera joined the independence movement in 1814 and served under Simon Bolivar during the Colombian War of Independence, becoming a lieutenant-colonel in 1824. During the Pasto Campaign, a gunshot broke his jaw and impaired his speech, forcing him to wear a metal prosthesis in his jaw that made him speak with blowing and whistling sounds. Mosquera was promoted to general in 1829, and he served as ambassador to the United States from 1830 to 1833. He later served as a congressman from 1834 to 1837, as Secretary of War under Jose Ignacio de Marquez, as a general in the War of the Supremes, as a diplomat to Peru, Chile, and Bolivia from 1842 to 1845, and as President from 1845 to 1849. The ministerial sector formed the Colombian Conservative Party in support of Mosquera, and he signed an 1846 treaty with the United States that gave the USA transit rights over the Panamanian isthmus and enabled them to help suppress peasant guerrillas and liberal secessionists. He also oversaw the separation of church and state, reinvigorated the tobacco industry, promoted steam navigation over the Magdalena River, and soon drifted close to the liberal camp. In 1854, he suppressed a revolution of artisans led by Jose Maria Melo, and he lost re-election to the presidency in 1857. In 1860, he declared the secession of Cauca State from the Granadine Confederation, and he eventually seized power in 1861 and promoted the creation of the United States of Colombia. Mosquera returned to the presidency from 1861 to 1863, selling off many of the church's properties and redistributing them to the poor. He also banned the Jesuits due to their support for the Conservatives, and he fought a war against Ecuador in 1863. After briefly serving as ambassador to France, he returned to the presidency from 1866 to 1867, when he was overthrown in a coup. He failed in his 1871 presidential bid, but he was elected President of Cauca State in 1873 and a senator in 1876. He died in 1878.

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