Antonio de Ulloa

Antonio de Ulloa y de la Torre-Guiral (12 January 1716 – 3 July 1795) was a <a href="/facts/Spanish_Navy/SY6dM5rE">Spanish Navy</a> officer. He spent much of his career in the <a href="/facts/Americas/hEuUTL4K">Americas</a>, where he carried out important scientific work. He also served the <a href="/facts/Spanish_Empire/RaWWgnQS">Spanish Empire</a> as an administrator in the <a href="/facts/Viceroyalty_of_Peru/tYU3NF2X">Viceroyalty of Peru</a> and in <a href="/facts/Louisiana_(New_Spain)/32XzBhz0">Spanish Louisiana</a>.
At the age of nineteen, Ulloa joined the <a href="/facts/French_Geodesic_Mission_to_the_Equator/DD0U4IVe">French Geodesic Mission to the Equator</a>, which established that the <a href="/facts/Shape_of_the_Earth/z1LvpVgd">shape of the Earth</a> is an oblate <a href="/facts/Spheroid/GJyyLxQ7">spheroid</a>, flattened at the poles, as predicted by <a href="/facts/Isaac_Newton/4L7gTncN">Isaac Newton</a>. The mission took more than eight years to complete its work, during which time Ulloa, in close collaboration with his fellow naval officer <a href="/facts/Jorge_Juan_y_Santacilia/mgBqA60e">Jorge Juan</a>, made many astronomical, natural, and social observations in <a href="/facts/South_America/PhrFEMk7">South America</a>. Ulloa and Juan also helped to organize the defense of the Peruvian coast against the English squadron of <a href="/facts/George_Anson,_1st_Baron_Anson/jGzsKEXf">Commodore Anson</a>, after the outbreak of the <a href="/facts/War_of_Jenkins%27_Ear/Xc7EAlYF">War of Jenkins' Ear</a> in 1739.
The reports of Ulloa's scientific findings during his time in South America earned him an international reputation. Notably, Ulloa published the first detailed observations of the metal <a href="/facts/Platinum/qJC6lQf7">platinum</a>, later identified as a new chemical element. Ulloa returned to Europe in 1745. He was elected as a <a href="/facts/Fellow_of_the_Royal_Society/cWs8TdC5">fellow of the Royal Society</a> of London in 1746, and as a foreign member of the <a href="/facts/Royal_Swedish_Academy_of_Sciences/QazgtP1n">Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences</a> in 1751.
From 1758 to 1764, Ulloa served as governor of <a href="/facts/Huancavelica/TjwycEmy">Huancavelica</a>, in Peru, and as superintendent of the <a href="/facts/Mercury_(element)/WlxfoHva">mercury</a> mines of the region. There he fought unsuccessfully against the corruption of the local administration. Following the <a href="/facts/Seven_Years%27_War/fVDINs8P">Seven Years' War</a>, Ulloa became the first governor of Spanish Louisiana in 1766. His rule was strongly resisted by the <a href="/facts/Louisiana_Creole_people/2bPrs37m">French Creoles</a> of <a href="/facts/New_Orleans/IgCn61KH">New Orleans</a>, who expelled him from the city during the <a href="/facts/Louisiana_Rebellion_of_1768/jTXQYMSq">Rebellion of 1768</a>. Ulloa continued to serve in the Spanish Navy, achieving the rank of <a href="/facts/Vice_admiral/9yQh7pbU">vice admiral</a> and becoming its chief of operations.

Antonio de Ulloa open-in-new

Antonio de Ulloa