1. Alejandro O'Reilly served as the second Spanish governor of colonial Louisiana, and is the first Spanish official to exercise power in the Louisiana territory after France ceded it to Spain following defeat by Great Britain in the Seven Years' War.
Alejandro O'Reilly fell out of favour after his calamitous failed attempt at the Invasion of Algiers.
Alexander Alejandro O'Reilly was born in Baltrasna, County Meath, in the Kingdom of Ireland in 1723.
Alejandro O'Reilly joined Spanish forces fighting in Italy against the Austrians.
Alejandro O'Reilly swore allegiance to Spain and rose to become a brigadier general.
Alejandro O'Reilly served with the Count of Ricla in Havana, Cuba, acting as his adjutant and second-in-command.
Alejandro O'Reilly analyzed what had gone wrong with Cuban defenses during the successful British siege of Havana.
Alejandro O'Reilly recommended sweeping reforms to improve the fortifications, training, practices, and troop organization, which were quickly approved by the Spanish Crown.
Alejandro O'Reilly, known today as the "father of the Puerto Rican militia," took a complete census of the island and recommended numerous reforms, including instilling strict military discipline among the local troops.
Alejandro O'Reilly insisted that the men serving the defense of the realm receive their pay regularly and directly, rather than indirectly from their commanding officers, a long-standing practice that had led to abuses.
Some of Alejandro O'Reilly's recommendations resulted in a massive 20-year program of building up the Castle of Old San Juan, now a World Heritage Site.
Alejandro O'Reilly was an uncle of Juan MacKenna, a hero of the Chilean War of Independence, as well as a cousin of Hugo Oconor, the founder of Tucson, Arizona, governor of Spanish Texas in the late 1760s and then governor of Yucatan in 1778.
Alejandro O'Reilly held trials and severely punished those French Creoles who were responsible for the expulsion of Spain's first colonial Governor Antonio de Ulloa, from the colony.
Alejandro O'Reilly concentrated on organizing Louisiana's administration and on stabilizing the food supply.
Alejandro O'Reilly reformed many French bureaucratic practices which were in place before Spanish rule.
Alejandro O'Reilly allowed slaves to purchase their freedom and enabled slave owners to more easily manumit slaves.
Alejandro O'Reilly banned the trade of Native American slaves and abolished Indian slavery.
Alejandro O'Reilly regularized the weights and measurements used in marketplaces, regulated doctors and surgeons, and improved public safety by funding bridge and levee maintenance.
In 1775, Alejandro O'Reilly was given command of a major Spanish expedition attacking Algiers.
Alejandro O'Reilly died in the city of Cadiz in 1794, aged 72, while on his way to take command of an army in the Eastern Pyrenees that had been ordered to oppose invading French revolutionary forces, just after the beheading of Louis XVI.
Alejandro O'Reilly is buried in the parish church in Bonete in Castile-La Mancha, Spain.