Gervasio Antonio de Posadas y Dávila (18 June 1757 â 2 July 1833) was an Argentine lawyer and statesman who served as the first Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the RÃÂo de la Plata from 31 January 1814 to 9 January 1815, after having been a member of the Second Triumvirate in 1813âÂÂ1814.
Posadas studied at the Franciscan convent school in Buenos Aires and later trained in law under Manuel José de Lavardén. In 1789 he was appointed escribano mayor (notary general) of the bishopric, a post he held until the events of May 1810. He briefly served as procurador (solicitor) of Buenos Aires in mid-1810.
On 19 August 1813 Posadas joined the Second Triumvirate, replacing Antonio ÃÂlvarez Jonte; he served until the Assembly concentrated executive power in a single person in January 1814. On 31 January 1814 he took office as Supreme Director of the United Provinces.
Under Posadas, the revolutionary fleet commanded by Guillermo Brown won decisive actions in 1814 (notably the Battle of Buceo), which led to the capitulation of Montevideo on 23 June 1814 and the end of royalist control of the principal naval base in the estuary.
Shortly after assuming office Posadas issued a decree on 11 February 1814 declaring José Gervasio Artigas "infamous, deprived of his posts, outside the law and an enemy of the fatherland", and offering a reward of 6,000 pesos for his capture, dead or alive. The measure deepened the conflict between the central government and the Liga Federal.
On 10 September 1814 Posadas decreed the separation of the territories of Entre RÃÂos and Corrientes from the Buenos Aires intendancy, establishing them as provinces of the state and fixing their boundaries (including the annexation of the Misiones pueblos to Corrientes). The full text of the decree survives.
During his one-year term Posadas appointed José de San MartÃÂn Governor-Intendant of Cuyo (10 August 1814), a post from which San MartÃÂn organized the Army of the Andes. He also promoted the creation and equipping of a riverine fleet, a key factor in the 1814 campaign.
In Europe Ferdinand VII of Spain was restored to the throne in 1814, returning to Madrid in May and re-establishing absolutist rule, developments that reshaped metropolitan policy toward Spanish America.
Amid military tensions with the Ejército del Norte and intensifying internal conflict in the Littoral, Posadas resigned on 9 January 1815; he was succeeded by his nephew Carlos MarÃÂa de Alvear.
After Alvear's fall in April 1815 Posadas was imprisoned and confined in multiple locations. In his AutobiografÃÂa he recalled having occupied "22 different jails" over six years before being released around mid-1821. He began drafting his memoirs in 1829; a later edition of his Memorias was published in 1920. Posadas died in Buenos Aires on 2 July 1833.
In 1879 the city of Posadas was named in his honor.