Antonio Arcos

Antonio Arcos y Arjona (Málaga, 1762-Paris, 1851) was a Spanish military engineer and banker based in Chile.

Biography

Arcos and the independence of Chile

Arcos deserted from the Spanish army to join the Napoleonic troops. With their defeat, he flees first to England and later to the United States. Decided to join the fight for American independence, he arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina at the end of 1814. At the beginning of the following year he was summoned to Mendoza by José de San Martín, who was planning the crossing of the Andes to liberate Chile. of the Spanish domain. She was his field assistant with the rank of Sergeant Major and collaborated in the geographical survey prior to crossing the mountain range.

On February 4, 1817, the 200 men under his command (among whom is Juan Lavalle) defeated the Spanish in the battle of Achupallas. He also fought in the battle of Chacabuco (February 12, 1817). There is a letter dated April 22, 1817, where General Bernardo O'Higgins writes to Juan Gregorio de Las Heras ordering the reinstatement of Arcos to the army. Together with Jorge Beauchef, he created the Military School, of which he was the first director.

He is especially remembered for having designed the flag of Chile, based on an idea by José Ignacio Zenteno (although some authors assign its design to Gregorio de Andía y Varela).

On the eve of the Cancha Rayada disaster (March 19, 1818), San Martín commissioned Arcos to alert the divisions near Talca. Arcos abandons his position and escapes to Valparaíso, where he is captured and taken to Santiago de Chile, where he is imprisoned as a deserter. San Martín commutes his sentence and he is demoted to a simple soldier of the Horse Grenadier Regiment.

After the consolidation of the independence victory, he took charge of the Chilean Army Supply Office and dedicated himself to private businesses. He marries Isabel Arlegui, from an aristocratic but run-down family, and quickly becomes rich.

The enemies of the then Supreme Director of Chile O'Higgins accuse Minister José Antonio Rodríguez Aldea and Arcos himself of having benefited from contracts with the Army. Arcos, for example, was accused of adulterating gunpowder during the War to the Death.

María Graham says, in her Diary of my residence in Chile¹:
[The sailors and officers] are given promissory notes for twenty-five pesos, of which they only receive four in money; They are obliged to invest the rest in the warehouses that Arcos has established in the port for this purpose.

When O'Higgins falls (1823), Arcos goes into exile, first in Mendoza and, after looking for his wife and 4 children, in Brazil, where he alternates with the court and manages the decoration of the mansions and, finally, in France, where he became involved with Marshal Jourdain, Napoleon's former officer, and, thanks to him, with the banker Jacobo Lafitte. Arcos is successfully dedicated to financial businesses.

Founder of the first bank in Chile

At the beginning of 1849, driven by the revolution, he followed in the footsteps of his son Santiago and returned to Chile. On July 26 of that year, he obtained a license from the government to open the first Chilean bank in Valparaíso: Banco de Chile de Arcos y Cía, whose modern commercial approach—takes deposits, gives credit to 3 and 6 months, discounts documents and issues paper money—puts the business of Creole lenders at risk. However, these soon involve the government, whose excessive demands force Arcos to close the bank in April 1850. Disillusioned, he returns to Paris, where he dies the following year, bequeathing important sums of money.

A street in the Belgrano neighborhood, in Buenos Aires, and a street in the Kennedy neighborhood in Quito, Ecuador, remember him. Also a hill in the Province of Mendoza