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Alessandro MalaspinaAlessandro Malaspina (1754-1810) was a Spanish naval officer and explorer. Alessandro or Alexandro Malaspina was born on November 5, 1754 in Mulazzo, modern-day Tuscany, which at the time was part of the Holy Roman Empire. His parents were Marquis Carlo Morello and Caterina Meli Lupi di Soragna. 1762-1765 his family lived in Palermo with his uncle, the viceroy of Sicily. In 1765-1773 he was in Clementine College in Rome. He was accepted into the Order of Malta and learned sailing. In 1774 he joined the Royal Navy of Spain. In January 1775 Malaspina took part of the expedition to help Medilla, which was under siege by Moroccans and later participated the siege of Algiers. In 1777-1779 he made a voyage to the Philippines and back aboard the frigate Astrea. In January 1780 he was in the battle of Cape Santa Maria. In 1782 he was denounced to the Spanish inquisition suspected of heresy but was not apprehended. The same September he was in the attempt to take Gibraltar and in December in the fighting in Cape Espartel. In 1783-1784 he undertook a second voyage to the Philippines. In 1785 Malaspina turned to hydrographic surveys on some areas of the Spanish coast. From 1786 to May 1788 he made a commercial circumnavigation on behalf of the Royal Philippine Company. In September 1788 he joined forces with Jos de Bustamante y Guerra and together they approached the Spanish government to organize a expedition to visit the Spanish possessions in America and Asia. The expeditions of two specifically built corvettes, Descubierta and Atrevida, sailed from Cdiz on July 30, 1789. In 1791 the king of Spain gave Malaspina an order to search for Northwest Passage. He surveyed the Alaska coast to the Prince William Sound and spent a month at the Spanish outpost in Nootka Sound on the Vancouver Island before he returned to Mexico. In 1792 he went with two schooners to explore the straits of Juan de Fuca and of Georgia. On September 21 1794 his expedition returned to Cdiz. Malaspina examined the political situation in the Spanish colonies in the Pacific Ocean. He decided that Spain should form a confederation of states bound by international trade. In September 1795 he sent Spanish government his proposals to influence government police. Because he criticized Prime Minister Manuel Godoy, Godoy had Malaspina arrested on November 23 accused of plotting against the state. After an inconclusive trail on April 20 1796 Charles IV of Spain demoted Malaspina and sent him to prison in La Corua, Calicia. During his incarceration, Malaspina wrote essays in aesthetics, economics and literature. Francesco Melzi d'Eril and Napoleon campaigned for Malaspina's release and he was freed at the end of 1802 but exiled from Spain. He left for Mulazzo through Genoa and settled in Pontremoli. He got involved with local politics. In December he was entrusted to organize a quarantine between Italian Republic and the Kingdom of Etruria during a yellow fever epidemic in Livorno. In 1805 he received a title of Advising Auditor of the Council of State of the Kingdom of Italy. The queen of Etruria received him at court in December 1806. Shortly he was admitted to the Columban Society in Florence. Alessandro Malaspina died April 9 1810. External links Malassina, Alessandro Malassina, Alessandro Malassina, Alessandro
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