Colonial Venezuela

Spanish expeditions led byColumbusandAlonso de Ojedareached the coast of present-dayVenezuelain 1498 and 1499. The firstcolonialexploitation was of thepearl oystersof the "Pearl Islands". Spain established its first permanent South American settlement in the present-day city ofCumanáin 1502, and in 1577Caracasbecame the capital of theProvince of Venezuela.There was also for a few years a German colony atKlein-Venedig.

The 16th- and 17th-century colonial economy was centered ongold miningandlivestockfarming. The relatively small number of colonists employed indigenous farmers on theirhaciendas,andenslavedother indigenous people and, later, Africans to work in the mines. The Venezuelan territories were governed at different times from the distant capitals of the Viceroyalties ofNew SpainandPeru.

In the 18th century,cocoaplantations grew up along the coast, worked by further importations of African slaves.Cacao beansbecame Venezuela's principal export, monopolized by theCompañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas.Most of the surviving indigenous people had by then migrated to the south, where Spanishfriarswere active. Intellectual activity increased among the whiteCreoleelite, centered on the university at Caracas. The Province of Venezuela was included in theViceroyalty of New Granadain 1717, and became theCaptaincy General of Venezuelain 1777.

The independence struggle began in 1810 while Spain was engaged in thePeninsular War.TheVenezuelan War of Independenceensued. The Republic ofGran Colombiabecame independent from Spain in 1821 under the leadership ofSimón Bolívar,and Venezuela separated from that Republic in 1830.

Exploration

Christopher Columbussailed along the eastern coast of Venezuela on histhird voyagein 1498, the only one of his four voyages to reach the South American mainland. This expedition discovered the so-called "Pearl Islands" ofCubaguaandMargaritaoff the northeastern coast of Venezuela. Later Spanish expeditions returned to exploit these islands' once abundant pearl oysters, enslaving the indigenous people of the islands and harvesting the pearls so intensively that they became one of the most valuable resources of the incipient Spanish Empire in the Americas between 1508 and 1531, by which time both the local indigenous population and the pearl oysters had become devastated.

The Spanish expedition led byAlonso de Ojeda,sailing along the length of the northern coast of South America in 1499, gave the nameVenezuela( "little Venice" in Spanish) to theGulf of Venezuela— because of its imagined similarity to theItalian city.

Early colonization

The Natives ofCumanáattack the mission after Gonzalo de Ocampo's slaving raid. Colored copperplate byTheodor de Bry,published in the "Relación brevissima de las indias".

Spain'scolonizationof mainland Venezuela started in 1502 when it established its first permanent South American settlement in the present-day city ofCumaná(then called Nueva Toledo), which was founded officially in 1515 byFranciscanfriars.

Apalafitolike the ones seen byAmerigo Vespucci

At the time of the Spanish arrival (Pre-Columbian period in Venezuela),indigenous peoplelived mainly in groups as agriculturists and hunters: along the coast, in the Andean mountain range, and along theOrinoco River.

In 1527Santa Ana de Corowas founded byJuan de Ampíes,the first governor of theSpanish Empire'sVenezuela Province.Coro would be the Province's capital until 1546 followed byEl Tocuyo(1546 - 1577), until the capital was moved toCaracasin 1577byJuan de Pimentel.

Klein-Venedig(Little Venice) was the most significant part of theGerman colonization of the Americas,from 1528 to 1546, in which theAugsburg-basedWelserbanking family obtained colonial rights inVenezuela Provincein return for debts owed byCharles Iof Spain. The primary motivation was the search for the legendary golden city ofEl Dorado.The venture was initially led byAmbrosius Ehinger,who foundedMaracaiboin 1529. After the deaths of first Ehinger (1533) and then his successorNikolaus Federmann,Georg von Speyer(1540),Philipp von Huttencontinued exploration in the interior, and in his absence from the capital of the province the crown of Spain claimed the right to appoint the governor. On Hutten's return to the capital,Santa Ana de Coro,in 1546, the Spanish governorJuan de Carvajalhad Hutten andBartholomeus Welserexecuted. Subsequently, Charles I revoked Welser's charter.

By the middle of the 16th century not many more than 2,000 Europeans lived in present-day Venezuela. The opening of gold mines atYaracuyled to the introduction ofslavery,at first involving the indigenous population, then imported Africans. The first real economic success of the colony involved the raising of livestock, much helped by the grassy plains known asLlanos.The society that developed as a result – a handful of Spanish landowners and widely dispersed Indian herdsmen on Spanish-introduced horses – recalls primitivefeudalism,certainly a powerful concept in the 16th-century Spanish imagination, and (perhaps more fruitfully) bears comparison in economic terms with thelatifundiaof antiquity.

During the 16th and 17th centuries the cities which constitute today's Venezuela suffered relative neglect. TheViceroyalties of New SpainandPeru(located on the sites formerly occupied by the capital cities of theAztecsandIncasrespectively) showed more interest in their nearby gold- and silver-mines than in the remote agricultural societies of Venezuela. Responsibility for the Venezuelan territories shifted to and fro between the two Viceroyalties.

New Granada and Captaincy General (1717 - 1812)

Historia de la conquista y población de la Provincia de Venezuela(1723), byJosé de Oviedo y Baños

TheProvince of Venezuelacame under the jurisdiction of theViceroyalty of New Granada(established in 1717). The Province became theCaptaincy General of Venezuelain 1777.

In the 18th century a second Venezuelan society formed along the coast with the establishment ofcocoaplantations manned by much larger importations of African slaves. Quite a number of black slaves also worked in thehaciendasof the grassy llanos. Most of the Amerindians who still survived had perforce migrated to the plains and jungles to the south, where only Spanishfriarstook an interest in them — especially theFranciscansorCapucins,who compiled grammars and smalllexiconsfor some of their languages. The most important friarmisión(the name for an area of friar activity) developed in San Tomé in theGuayana Region.

TheCompañía Guipuzcoana de Caracasheld a close monopoly on trade with Europe. The Guipuzcoana company stimulated the Venezuelan economy, especially in fostering the cultivation ofcacao beans,which became Venezuela's principal export.It opened Venezuelan ports to foreign commerce, but this recognized afait accompli.Like no other Spanish American dependency, Venezuela had more contacts with Europe through the British and French islands in the Caribbean. In an almost surreptitious, though legal, manner, Caracas itself had become an intellectual powerhouse. From 1721 it had its own university (Central University of Venezuela), which taught Latin, medicine and engineering, apart (of course) from the humanities. Its most illustrious graduate,Andrés Bello(1781–1865), became the greatest Spanish Americanpolymathof his time. InChacao,a town to the east of Caracas, there flourished a school of music whose directorJosé Ángel Lamas(1775–1814) produced a few but impressive compositions according with the strictest 18th-century Europeancanons.

Independence

The 19th of April, 1810.Painting byJuan Lovera(1835)

Some Venezuelans began to grow resistant to colonial control towards the end of the eighteenth century. Spain's neglect of its Venezuelan colony contributed to Venezuelan intellectuals' increased zeal for learning.The colony had more external sources of information than other more "important" Spanish dependencies, not excluding the viceroyalties, although one should not belabor this point, for only themantuanos(a Venezuelan name for the whiteCreoleelite) had access to a solid education. (Another name for themantuanosclass,grandes cacaos,reflected the source of their wealth. To this day in Venezuela the term can apply to a presumptuous person.) Themantuanosshowed themselves presumptuous, overbearing and zealous in affirming their privileges against thepardo(mixed-race) majority of the population.

The first organized conspiracy against the colonial regime in Venezuela occurred in 1797, organized by Manuel Gual and José María España. It took direct inspiration from theFrench Revolution,but was put down with the collaboration of the "mantuanos" because it promoted radical social changes. The generalFrancisco de Mirandahero of French Revolution has long been associated with the struggle of the Spanish colonies in Latin America for independence. Miranda envisioned an independent empire consisting of all the territories that had been under Spanish and Portuguese rule, stretching from the Mississippi River to Cape Horn. This empire was to be under the leadership of a hereditary emperor called the "Inca", in honor of the great Inca Empire, and would have a bicameral legislature. He conceived the name Colombia for this empire, after the explorer Christopher Columbus.

With informal British help, general Miranda led an attempted invasion of the Captaincy General of Venezuela in 1804. At the time, Britain was at war with Spain, an ally of Napoleon. In November 1805, Miranda travelled to New York, where privately began organizing a filibustering expedition to liberate Venezuela. Miranda hired a ship of 20 guns, which he rebaptizedLeanderin honor of his oldest son, and set sail to Venezuela on 2 February 1806 but failed in an attempt of landing in Ocumare de la Costa.

Miranda spent the next year in the British Caribbean waiting for reinforcements that never came. On his return to Britain, he was met with better support for his plans from the British government. In 1808 a large military force to attack Venezuela was assembled and placed under the command ofArthur Wellesley,but Napoleon's invasion of Spain suddenly transformed Spain into an ally of Britain, and the force instead went there to fight in the Peninsular War.

European events sowed the seeds of Venezuela's declaration of independence. TheNapoleonic Warsin Europe not only weakened Spain's imperial power, but also put Britain (unofficially) on the side of the independence movement. In May 1808,Napoleondemanded and received the abdication ofFerdinand VII of Spainand the confirmation of the abdication of Ferdinand's fatherCharles IV.Napoleon then appointed as King of Spain his own brotherJoseph Bonaparte.That marked the beginning of Spain's ownWar of Independencefrom French hegemony and partial occupation, before the Spanish American wars of independence even began. The focal point of Spanish political resistance, theSupreme Central Junta,formed to govern in the name of Ferdinand. The first major defeat that Napoleonic France suffered occurred at theBattle of Bailén,inAndalusia(July 1808). (At this battlePablo Morillo,future commander of the army that invaded New Granada and Venezuela; Emeterio Ureña, an anti-independence officer in Venezuela; andJosé de San Martín,the future Liberator of Argentina and Chile, fought side by side against the French GeneralPierre Dupont.) Despite this Spanish victory, the French soon regained the initiative and advanced into southern Spain. The Spanish government had to retreat to the island redoubt ofCádiz.Here the Supreme Central Junta dissolved itself and set up a five-person regency to handle the affairs of state until the fullCortes of Cádizcould convene.

Word of these events soon reached Caracas, but only on 19 April 1810 did its "cabildo"(city council) decide to follow the example set by the Spanish provinces two years earlier, declaring theFirst Republic of Venezuela.Other provincial capitals asBarcelona,Cumaná,Mérida,La Asuncion,BarinasandTrujillo,followed suit. Although the newJunta Suprema de Caracashad self-appointed élite members who claimed to represent thepardos(free blacks and even slaves), the new government eventually faced the challenge of maintaining the alliance with thepardos.Given recent history these groups still had grievances against themantuanos.A segment of themantuanos(among them a 27-year-oldSimón Bolívar,the future Liberator) saw the setting up of the Junta as a step toward outright independence.

TheVenezuelan War of Independenceensued. It ran concurrently with that of New Granada.On 17 December 1819 theCongress of AngosturadeclaredGran Colombiaan independent country. After two more years of war, the country achieved independence from Spain in 1821 under the leadership of its most famous son,Simón Bolívar.Venezuela, along with the present-daycountries ofColombia,Panama,andEcuador,formed part of theRepublic of Gran Colombiauntil 1830, when Venezuela separated and became a separate sovereign country.

Further reading

• Acosta Saignes, Miguel. Historia de los portugueses en Venezuela. Caracas: Universidad Central, 1959.