It had up to 600 members in Caracas alone and branches in Barcelona, Barinas, Valencia and Puerto Cabello. As expressed by the Libertador, it was created as a response to several crimes and massacres carried out by Spanish soldiers after the fall of the First Republic, against thousands of republicans. The independence of Venezuela was the juridical-political process with the purpose of breaking the ties that existed between the Captaincy General of Venezuela and the Spanish Empire. In Valles del Tuy, Campo Elas arrives at Ocumare del Tuy on August 26 and in a short time achieves the pacification of the region after which he returns to Caracas. That day is celebrated in Venezuela as its national day. Their incursions ended in failures due to the religious preaching against them and the indifference of the population. By July of 1812, leaders such as Bolvar had gone into exile and Miranda was in the hands of the Spanish. From there, and with the support of those countries, especially Haiti, they resumed the struggle. ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/independence-from-spain-in-venezuela-2136397. In one of those battles, near Barquisimeto, the republicans faced the royalists led by Jos Ceballos on November 10. [7], The deputies agreed to call the new republic as Confederacin Americana de Venezuela and appointed a commission to decide on the flag and the drafting of a constitution. Unable to return to Venezuela, Luisa arrives in Cadiz. The royalist troops were numerically superior to the patriot troops. Cuman is liberated on August 3, 1813, by Mario; Bolvar enters Caracas on August 6. The Conjuracin de los Mantuanos was a movement that broke out in Caracas in 1808. Bolivar took advantage of the momentary disorder that occurred among the attackers and launched a counterattack, with which he recaptured the "high house". The economy was mostly agricultural and a handful of extremely wealthy families had complete control over the region. Venezuela was ripe for Independence long before other South American regions. "[7], Francisco de Miranda and other members of the Patriotic Society led a mass of people through the streets and squares of Caracas, acclaiming independence and freedom. Colonel Atanasio Girardot joined Simn Bolvar in the so-called Admirable Campaign of the Libertador and fought gallantly at the head of several battalions that managed to occupy the cities of Trujillo and Mrida. It also implied the replacement of the absolute monarchy by the republic as the form of government in Venezuela. An opposition movement began to develop in 1840, however, when Antonio Leocadio Guzmn, the leading spokesman for dissident merchants and professional men, founded the Liberal Party. On August 5, the last officer in the service of the King of Spain left Venezuelan territory: the freedom of Venezuela was decided. In these encounters the Battle of Araure stands out, in which Simn Bolvar defeated Jos Ceballos. Venezuelas Declaration of Independence in 1810. All over Venezuela, cities and towns decided either to follow Caracas' lead or not: many cities chose to remain under Spanish rule. Then, with the permission of the secretary general, Francisco Isnardi, Mendoza and Roscio presented the document to Congress for discussion. In 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain and put his brother Joseph on the throne, throwing Spain and its colonies into chaos. The government then began to reconstruct the war-torn economy by putting finances in order, establishing firm lines of foreign credit, and amortizing the national debt. It also implied the replacement of the absolute monarchy by the republic as the form of government in Venezuela. The new president took to the field himself and subjugated the country in less than two years; he thereupon launched a broad program of reform and development. In the disorder that followed, the patriots embarked hastily, leaving on the beach most of the park they had, as well as 600 men under the command of Gregor MacGregor. Alarmed Spanish officers in Venezuela called for a cease-fire, which was agreed to and lasted until April of 1821. Guzmn Blanco came back again in 1886 to serve a final two years in the face of growing popular opposition to his policies. At this moment, Ribas ordered the Rompelneas columns to attack the enemy right column, which was successfully executed. Morillo informs Bolivar about the unilateral ceasefire of the Spanish army and the invitation to confer an agreement to regularize the war. He was told to harass the Spanish along the Magdalena River. [7] On July 3, the debate began in Congress. Herring, Hubert. In this research paper, I will attempt to connect the . The separatists were in favor of Venezuela's independence, while the fidelists were loyal to King Ferdinand VII. The independence of Venezuela produced the armed conflict known as the Venezuelan War of Independence between the independence army or Patriotas ("patriots") and the royalist army or Realistas ("royalists"). Introduction. The first of the military dictators was General Jos Antonio Pez, who gave the country better government than it would see again for nearly a century. Seven out of the ten provinces that belonged to the Captaincy General of Venezuela declared their independence and provided justifications for doing so, among them that it was undesirable that a small European nation ruled the vast swaths of the New World and that Spanish America regained its right to self-government. [26], The accuracy of the date is disputed since although all reports indicate that the date of the military action was April 2, Paez himself quotes in his autobiography that it occurred on April 3, 1819, in the current state of, Declaration of Independence of the United States, Supreme Conservative Junta of the Rights of Fernando VII, Supreme Central and Governing Junta of Spain and the Indies, Federal Constitution of the States of Venezuela of 1811, Campaign for the Liberation of New Granada, "5 de julio 1811 - Da de la Independencia", "Decreto de guerra a muerte de Simn Bolvar", "Campaas terrestres de la guerra de independencia de Venezuela", "Participacin de Bolvar en la gesta emancipadora. The impossibility of establishing a permanent army. Wealthy young nobleman Simn Bolvar financed the mission to London. Although elected president as a Conservative in 1846, he soon gravitated toward the Liberals. Colonel Florencio Jimnez, commander of the Caracas, was designated as the commander of the Batalln sin nombre ("Battalion without a name.") But so bravely behaved in action, that Bolivar told the soldiers the next day: "Your courage has won yesterday on the battlefield, a name for your corps, and even in the midst of the fire, when I saw you triumphant, I proclaimed it of the Victor Battalion of Araure. Rafael Mara Baralt describes him as cruel and bloodthirsty for the application of the law of talion with which he responded to Bolvar's actions. In the capital, he receives orders to go to Calabozo to support Montilla, which results in the defeat of Boves in Mosquiteros on October 14. She is presented before the captain general of Andalusia, who protests against the arbitrary decision of the Spanish authorities in America and gives her the category of confined, after she pays a bond and commits herself to appear monthly before the judge. Boves commanded the royalists in the Battle of rica that had as outcome, the death of the fearsome commander. Thus was born the First Venezuelan Republic, doomed to die in 1812 after a disastrous earthquake and relentless military pressure from royalist forces. The last of the royalist forces surrendered at Puerto Cabello on October 9, 1823. The army of the east, led by Jos Francisco Bermdez made a distraction maneuver advancing on Caracas, La Guaira and the Valles de Aragua that forced La Torre to send about 1000 men against him to recover the positions and secure his rear. [25] However, the figure of slavery was maintained until 1854 when President Jos Gregorio Monagas eliminated it. "Venezuelas Declaration of Independence in 1810." That same afternoon the cabildo constituted itself as the Supreme Conservative Junta of the Rights of Fernando VII. Emparn was stripped of authority and sent back to Spain. Venezuela celebrates itsindependence day(an official holiday) with parades,speeches,and parties. During the royalist attack, Francisco Toms Morales took possession of the sugar mill while one of his columnsgoing down the Los Cucharos rowtook the "high house". Venezuela was under the control of the patriots in the middle of 1813, except for the provinces of Guayana and Maracaibo. The Cuban movement for independence from Spain in 1895 garnered considerable American support. April 19 is known as "Firma Acta de la Independencia" or "Signing of the Act of Independence." Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. The provinces were represented as follows: Caracas 24 deputies; Barinas 9; Cuman 4; Barcelona 3; Mrida 2; Trujillo 1; Margarita 1. This occurred between 1819 and 1830, in which Venezuela, New Granada and Ecuador were united as a single Republic called Gran Colombia. Led by visionary radicals such as Simn Bolvar and Francisco de Miranda, Venezuela was the first of the South American Republics to formally break away from Spain. Morillo administered the region in a heavy-handed fashion, however, and many of the Creole elites who had initially supported him soon conspired for his defeat. On January 8, 1813, he occupied the city of Ocaathe second in importance in Norte de Santander, after Ccutaafter having left the free passage in the Magdalena Medio, thus obtaining the navigation between Bogot and Cartagena. Once the day was over, Admiral Padilla ordered the squadron to stay where it had fought. In September 1815, Arismendi is ordered to be arrested, he escapes and hides with one of his sons in the Montaas de Copey. After returning to Haiti and organizing a new expedition, Bolvar set sail from the port of Jacmel and arrived at Juan Griego on December 28, 1816, and at Barcelona on the 31st where he established his headquarters and planned a campaign on Caracas with the concentration of the forces operating in Apure, Guayana and Oriente but after a series of inconveniences he abandoned the plan and moved to Guayana to take command of the operations against the royalists in the region. Under the Spanish colonial system, Venezuela was a bit of a backwater. The Republican forces marched that day to Aparicin de la Corteza, where Bolvar fixed his provisional headquarters. Consequently, he ordered the divisions to modify their march on the left and go to the royalist right flank, which was uncovered; that is to say, Bolivar conceived a maneuver tending to overflow the enemy right wing, operation executed by the divisions of Jos Antonio Pez and Cedeo, while the Plaza division followed the road towards the center of the defensive position. He marched unopposed into Bogota, and the volunteers and resources he found there allowed him to recruit and equip a much larger army, and he once again marched on Venezuela. On April 17, 1810, however, news reached Caracas that the government loyal to Ferdinand had been crushed by Napoleon. To further humiliation, the battalion received spears instead of rifles as combat weapons. The original Book of Minutes of the first Congress of Venezuela is in the Federal Legislative Palace in Caracas. This first successful rebellion in Venezuelas national history set off five years of revolutionary turmoil between the Liberals and Conservatives. From Caracas, he sent lieutenant colonels Toms Montilla to the plains of Calabozo that were threatened by Boves and Vicente Campo Elas to pacify Valles del Tuy, where a rebellion had broken out. The document is kept at the museo de la Casa de las Primeras Letras Simn Rodrguez. [7] Independence was approved with 40 votes in favor. As president in 186468, Falcn appeared content to allow subordinates, many of them irresponsible, to rule at both the state and national levels. Colonel Manuel Villapol was placed on the right; Colonel Florencio Palacios in the center and Lieutenant Colonel Vicente Campo Elas, with the Barlovento battalion, on the left. The losses of the Republicans were 8 officers and 36 crew and troops killed, 14 of the former and 150 of the latter wounded and one officer wounded, while those of the royalists were greater, without counting the 69 officers and 368 soldiers and sailors who were taken prisoner. You can find out more about our use, change your default settings, and withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by visiting Cookies Settings, which can also be found in the footer of the site. The defeat at Lake Maracaibo made Morales' position untenable and he capitulated on August 3. The decade or so that followed was extremely bloody, with unspeakable atrocities on both sides and several important battles, but in the end, the patriots prevailed, finally securing Venezuelan independence in 1821. The concentration of the independence troops took place in the city of San Carlos, where the armies of Bolivar, Paez and the division of Colonel Cruz Carrillo converged. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Venezuelan_independence&oldid=1138131080. The republic of Venezuela celebrates its independence from Spain on two different dates: April 19, when an initial declaration of semi-independence from Spain was signed in 1810, and July 5, when a more definitive break was signed in 1811. On March 26, 1812, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, an earthquake destroyed Caracas causing great damage and the death of about 20,000 people. When Miranda went to embark in La Guaira, he was arrestedalong with 8 other chiefsby his former comrades, among whom was the young Simn Bolvar. Hours later the soldiers took her out of her prison to walk her on the esplanade of the barracks, where the prisoners had been shot. Still, they made some quick decisions: they outlawed enslavement, exempted Indigenous People from paying tribute, reduced or removed trade barriers, and decided to send envoys to the United States and Britain. The Capital of Venezuela would be Caracas. Francisco de Miranda was a Venezuelan soldier who had gone to Europe and had become a General during the French Revolution. The church lost its tax immunity and its educational monopoly, and the army was shorn of its autonomy; thus, state supremacy was achieved. On August 26, 1813, Bolvar personally took charge of the siege against the Puerto Cabello square. The anniversary of this declaration is celebrated as Independence Day. This virtually uninhabited wilderness territory, in which gold was discovered in 1877, had been the object of alternating claims and counterclaims between Venezuela and Great Britain for more than half a century. The elections were held between October and November 1810. On the 28th of the same month took place what today is known as the Battle of Ccuta, which gave independence to this city. "The Complete Story of Venezuela's Revolution for Independence." However, the dissolution of this republic had been germinating since the early days of its creation. Young firebrand leaders like Simn Bolvar and Jos Flix Ribas were actively speaking of making a clean break from Spain. He established a nationwide system of public primary education and promoted state support for secondary and higher education. Minster, Christopher. The Spanish American Revolutions 1808-1826New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1986. Simn Bolvar, byname The Liberator or Spanish El Libertador, (born July 24, 1783, Caracas, Venezuela, New Granada [now in Venezuela]died December 17, 1830, near Santa Marta, Colombia), Venezuelan soldier and statesman who led the revolutions against Spanish rule in the Viceroyalty of New Granada. The republic lasted until about1830when it fell apart into Colombia,Venezuela, and Ecuador (Panama was part of Colombia at the time). Patriots who favored full independence and royalists loyal to Ferdinand could agree on one thing: they would not tolerate French rule. In October 1892 Crespo seized power. In this single clash, passionate and violent, more than 500 horsemen of Yez, the aa of the llaneros, were killed. "Our division and not the Spanish arms turned us to slavery," he had written in his famous Cartagena Manifesto, taking stock of those years. Thus, between 1815 and 1817, several distinguished citizens of New Granada were killed at the hands of the Spanish, and in February 1814, several Spanish prisoners were executed in Caracas and La Guaira on Bolvar's orders. After Pez is promoted in San Juan de Payara by the Libertador to major general, he fought the Apure campaign together with Bolvar against Morillo's troops that had invaded Apure. The Libertador requested help from the neo-Granadian government through the Cartagena Manifesto, which was conceived for the actions he had already carried out in that country. Minster, Christopher. On July 13, 1811, the flag of Venezuela was approved, which was based on the design made by Francisco de Miranda in 1806. Bolvar established his headquarters in the city and from there planned an offensive on Caracas that would be executed after a concentration of troops coming from the regions occupied by the patriots: Apure, Guayana and Cuman. On that date formally, through the document "Acta de Declaracin de Independencia", Venezuela separates from Spain. Principales documentos de Bolvar", "Tratado de Armisticio (Santa Ana de Trujillo 1820)", "Ahora no podrn con nosotros, porque estamos juntos y estaremos juntos para siempre", "Tu Zulia - Batalla naval del lago de Maracaibo", "Fue la independencia una revolucin social?