Captain GeneralValeriano Weyler y Nicolau, 1st Duke of Rubí, 1st Marquess of Tenerife (17 September 1838 – 20 October 1930) was aSpanish Army officer and colonial administrator who served as theGovernor-General of the Philippines and theGovernor-General of Cuba,^[2] and later as the Minister for War.

Valeriano Weyler
Governor-General of Cuba
In office 11 February 1896 – 31 October 1897 (1896-02-11 –1897-10-31)[1]
Monarch	Alfonso XIII
Regent	Maria Christina of Austria
Prime Minister	Antonio Cánovas del Castillo Marcelo Azcárraga Palmero Práxedes Mateo Sagasta
Minister of Overseas	Tomás Castellano y Villarroya Segismundo Moret
Preceded by	Sabas Marín y González
Succeeded by	Ramón Blanco y Erenas
Governor-General of the Philippines
In office 5 June 1888 – 17 November 1891 (1888-06-05 –1891-11-17)
Monarch	Alfonso XIII
Regent	Maria Christina of Austria
Prime Minister	Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Antonio Cánovas del Castillo
Minister of Overseas	Trinitario Ruiz Capdepón Manuel Becerra y Bermúdez Antonio María Fabié
Preceded by	Emilio Terrero y Perinat
Succeeded by	Eulogio Despujol y Dusay
Other offices Minister of War of Spain In office 4 December 1906 – 25 January 1907 (1906-12-04 –1907-01-25); 1 month and 21 days Monarch Alfonso XIII Prime Minister Antonio Aguilar y Correa Preceded by Agustín de Luque y Coca Succeeded by Francisco Loño y Pérez In office 23 June – 1 December 1905 (1905-06-23 –1905-12-01); 5 months and 8 days Monarch Alfonso XIII Prime Minister Práxedes Mateo Sagasta Preceded by Vicente Martitegui Succeeded by Agustín de Luque y Coca In office 6 March 1901 – 6 December 1902 (1901-03-06 –1902-12-06); 1 year and 9 months Monarch Alfonso XIII Prime Minister Eugenio Montero Ríos Preceded by Arsenio Linares y Pombo Succeeded by Arsenio Linares y Pombo Minister of the Navy of Spain In office 31 October – 1 December 1905 (1905-10-31 –1905-12-01); 1 month and 1 day Monarch Alfonso XIII Prime Minister Eugenio Montero Ríos Preceded by Miguel Villanueva y Gómez Succeeded by Víctor María Concas Chief of Staff of the Army of Spain In office 14 January 1916 – 5 January 1922 (1916-01-14 –1922-01-05); 5 years, 11 months and 22 days Monarch Alfonso XIII Prime Minister Count of Romanones Manuel García Prieto Eduardo Dato Antonio Maura Joaquín Sánchez de Toca Manuel Allendesalazar Minister of War Agustín de Luque y Coca Francisco Aguilera y Egea Fernando Primo de Rivera José Marina Vega Juan de la Cierva y Peñafiel Dámaso Berenguer Diego Múñoz Cobos Luis de Santiago y Aguirrevengoa Antonio Tovar y Marcoleta José Villalba Riquelme Luis de Marichalar y Monreal Preceded by Julián González Parrado Succeeded by Luis Aizpuru y Mondéjar In office 28 July 1923 – 6 October 1925 (1923-07-28 –1925-10-06); 2 years, 2 months and 8 days Monarch Alfonso XIII Prime Minister Manuel García Prieto Miguel Primo de Rivera Minister of War Luis Bermúdez de Castro Juan O'Donnell Preceded by Luis Aizpuru y Mondéjar Succeeded by Manuel Goded Llopis
Personal details
Born	Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau (1838-09-17)17 September 1838 Palma de Mallorca,Balearic Islands, Spain
Died	20 October 1930(1930-10-20) (aged 92) Madrid, Spain
Political party	Liberal Party
Military service
Allegiance	Spain
Branch	Spanish Army
Rank	Captain General
Commands	6th Army Corps
Wars	Ten Years' War Third Carlist War Cuban War of Independence Spanish–American War

Weyler was born in 1838 inPalma de Mallorca, Spain. His distant paternal ancestors were originallyPrussians and served in the Spanish army for several generations.^[3] He was educated in his place of birth and inGranada.^[4] Weyler decided to enter the Spanish army, being influenced by his father, a military doctor.

He graduated from the Infantry School ofToledo at the age of 16.^[4] At 20, Weyler had achieved the rank of lieutenant,^[4] and he was appointed the rank of captain in 1861.^[5] In 1863, he was transferred to Cuba, and his participation in the campaign of Santo Domingo earned him theLaureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand.^[5] During theTen Years' War that was fought between 1868 and 1878, he served as a colonel^[5] under GeneralArsenio Martínez Campos, but he returned to Spain before the end of the war to fight againstCarlists in theThird Carlist War in 1873.^[2] In 1878, he was made general.^[4]

From 1878 to 1883, Weyler served as Captain-General ofCanary Islands. In 1888, Weyler was madeGovernor-General of the Philippines.^[2] Weyler granted the petitions of 20 young women ofMalolos,Bulacan, to receive education and to have a night school. The women became known as the Women of Malolos. The original petition was denied by the parish priest of Malolos, who argued that women should always stay at home and take care of the family.

Weyler happened to visit Malolos afterward and granted the petition on account of the persistence the women displayed for their petition.José Rizal wrote a letter to the women, upon request byMarcelo H. del Pilar, praising their initiative and sensibility on their high hopes for women's education and progress. In 1895, he earned theGrand Cross of Maria Christina for his command of troops in the Philippines^[2] in which he fought an uprising of Tagalogs^[6] and conducted an offensive against the Moros in Mindanao.

On his return to Spain in 1892, he was appointed to command the 6th Army Corps in theBasque Provinces andNavarre, where he soon quelled agitations. He was then made captain-general atBarcelona, where he remained until January 1896. InCatalonia, with a state of siege, he made himself the terror of theanarchists andcommunists.^[3]

AfterArsenio Martínez Campos proved unable to defeat theCuban Liberation Army, the government ofAntonio Cánovas del Castillo sent Weyler to Cuba to replace him. This decision met the approval of the Spanish public, who perceived Weyler as the right man to suppress therebellion in Cuba. Weyler was madeGovernor-General of Cuba and was granted full powers to suppress the rebellion and restore Spanish rule alongside Cuba's sugar industry. Initially, he was frustrated by the same factors which had stymied his predecessors; while Spanish troops were trained inconventional warfare tactics and required substantial supplies to operate, their Cuban opponents engaged inhit-and-run tactics,lived off the land and blended in with the general population to avoid detection.^[3]

Weyler responded by implementing thereconcentration policy, which was intended to separate the rebels from the civilian Cuban populace by confining the latter toconcentration camps guarded by Spanish troops. Under the policy, rural Cubans had eight days to relocate to concentration camps in fortified towns, and all who failed to do so were to be shot. The quality of the camps was abysmal, with the housing being in poor condition and the camp rations insufficient and of poor quality; disease also quickly spread through the camps. By the end of 1897, Weyler and his troops had divided Cuba into different sectors and forced more than 300,000 Cubans into the camps. Spanish forces also destroyed crops and drove away livestock as part of ascorched earth strategy to make the Cuban countryside inhospitable to the insurgents.^[7]

The reconcentration policy weakened the rebel position but resulted in the deaths of between 170,000 and 400,000 Cubans, causing widespread international outrage, particularly in theUnited States, where Weyler became known as "The Butcher".^[8] This wave of Americananti-Spanish sentiment contributed to theUnited States declaration of war on Spain in 1898. Cánovas's government supported Weyler's tactics wholeheartedly, but theLiberal Party vigorously denounced them for their toll on the Cuban people.^[9][10] The term "reconcentration" is thought to have given rise to the term "concentration camp". Academic Andrea Pitzer considered Weyler's camps to be the world's first concentration camps.^[11] Weyler's strategy was successful only in completely alienating the Cuban populace from the Spanish as well as galvanizing international opinion against Spain. After Cánovas was assassinated on 8 August 1897 and a new Liberal Party government led byPráxedes Mateo Sagasta took over, Weyler was recalled from Cuba and replaced by the more conciliatoryRamón Blanco, 1st Marquess of Peña Plata.^[12]

He served asMinister of War three separate times (1901–1902, 1905, 1906–1907)^[4] and asChief of Staff of the Army in two separate terms (1916–1922, 1923–1925).

After his return to Spain, Weyler's reputation as a strong and ambitious soldier made him one of those who, in case of any constitutional disturbance, might be expected to play an important role, and his political position was nationally affected by this consideration; his appointment in 1900 as captain-general ofMadrid resulted indeed in great success in the defense of the constitutional order. He was minister of war for a short time at the end of 1901, and again in 1905. At the end of October 1909, he was appointed captain-general at Barcelona, where the disturbances connected with the execution ofFrancisco Ferrer were quelled by him without bloodshed.^[3]

Valeriano Weyler, the Marquess of Tenerife, was made Duke of Rubí and Grandee of Spain by royal decree in 1920.^[13]

He was charged and imprisoned for opposing the military dictatorMiguel Primo de Rivera in the 1920s. He died in Madrid on 20 October 1930. He was buried the next day in a simple casket without state ceremony, as he himself requested.^{[citation needed]}

• Navarro García, L. (1998)."1898, la incierta victoria de Cuba".Anuario de Estudios Americanos.55 (1).University of Sevilla:165–187.doi:10.3989/aeamer.1998.v55.i1.370.