Francisco de Miranda
Sebastián Francisco de Miranda y Rodríguez Espinoza (Caracas, March 28, 1750-San Fernando, July 14, 1816), known as Francisco de Miranda, was a politician, Venezuelan soldier, diplomat, writer, humanist and ideologue, considered the precursor of American emancipation against the Spanish empire. Known as the first universal Venezuelan and the most universal American, he participated in the independence of the United States and in the French Revolution, an event in which he was a notable protagonist due to what he he was awarded the title of hero of the revolution. Later he was the leader of the patriot side in the independence of Venezuela.
He stood out in politics as a staunch defender of the independence and sovereignty of nations in the international arena. He was a member of the Girondins in France, was a signatory of the Act of the Declaration of Independence of Venezuela and promoter and leader of the Patriotic Society. He was also the creator of the geopolitical project known as Gran Colombia, which Simón Bolívar would try to carry out in 1826 after the liberation of the territories that today make up Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Venezuela; aspiring to unify them into a single nation.
The soldier in the ranks of the Spanish and French armies reached the ranks of colonel and marshal, respectively. In addition, he obtained the rank of colonel in the Russian army, granted by Catherine II the Great, and was the first commander-in-chief of the Venezuelan armies, holding the title of generalissimo. His military career includes his participation in four wars: the siege of Melilla (1774-1775) and the Spanish invasion of Algiers in 1775 in North Africa, the American war of independence, the French revolutionary wars and the war of Venezuelan independence. Among his military feats, his actions in the siege of Melilla, the battle of Pensacola in the United States and the battle of Valmy in France stand out. Miranda was a prominent combatant on three continents: Africa, America and Europe.
Despite having been part of so many revolutionary and governmental processes in the international arena, he failed to put his projects into practice in his own country, Venezuela. However, his political ideals endured over time and served as the basis for the founding of Gran Colombia, while his independence ideas influenced prominent leaders of American emancipation such as Simón Bolívar in Venezuela and Bernardo O& # 39 Higgins in Chile.
His name is engraved on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, his portrait is part of the Gallery of Characters in the Palace of Versailles, and his statue stands opposite that of General Kellerman in the Champ de Valmy, France.
Childhood and family life
Francisco de Miranda's origins were relatively humble. His father, Sebastián de Miranda Ravelo, was born on September 12, 1721 in Puerto de la Cruz, a town in the La Orotava valley, in Tenerife (Canary Islands). He was baptized in the parish of Nuestra Señora de la Peña ten days later. He was the son of Gabriel de Miranda, also born in Puerto de la Cruz on November 6, 1686, and María de la Concepción Ravelo de León, daughter of Domingo de Sosa de León and Catalina Ravelo.
Sebastián de Miranda, for reasons of birth, when he was suspected of being a Guanche mestizo, belonged to the social category of shore whites, considered inferior to Spanish whites and the Creoles. It is known that the Cabildo de Caracas accused him of "mulatto, merchant, adventurer and unworthy due to many records of holding a high-ranking position". pure" in order to obtain greater social privileges. In an alternative hypothesis to his Guanche origin, José Chocrón Cohen has pointed out that, according to his research, Sebastián de Miranda was rejected because of his possible Jewish origin and his status as a converted pig. The Canary Islands were an important settlement for Jews who fled from other regions of Spain. Finally, Sebastián de Miranda settled in Venezuela. At that time, it was more difficult for the Jew to change his profession than his homeland and surname. The economic activity of the Miranda family was related to the Jewish people and not to the Catholics. According to this hypothesis, although Miranda was not a Jew, at least there were reasons to believe that he was of Jewish descent.
In Caracas, Sebastián de Miranda Ravelo, father of Francisco de Miranda, established himself as a linen merchant (an economic activity related to the Crypto-Jews) and, eventually, married on April 24, 1749 in the Cathedral Church with Francisca Antonia Rodríguez de Espinosa from Caracas (of possible Hebrew-Jewish origin), also of Canarian origin and necessarily white; otherwise, the wedding would not have appeared in the marriage registry and their children would never have been able to go to university. The eldest of ten sons and daughters of the couple, Sebastián Francisco de Miranda, was born on March 28, 1750 in Caracas. His siblings were Ana Antonia, Rosa Agustina, Micaela Antonia, Miguel Francisco, Javier, Francisco Antonio, Ignacio José, Josefa María and Josefa Antonia.
On April 5, 1750, he was baptized in the cathedral church by the teacher Juan de Rada, his godfather being Tomás Bautista de Melo. On December 27 of the same year, he was administered the sacrament of confirmation by the Bishop of Caracas, Manuel Machado y Luna. In its beginnings, the Miranda family was financially modest and lived within the socially discriminated group of Canarian settlers without title of nobility or shore whites who arrived in Caracas who, in customs, treatment and level, they formed a nucleus apart from the Creole or Mantuan whites, the Spanish whites and the browns.
Over time, the family's situation improved remarkably and Sebastián de Miranda managed to make a fortune as a merchant in Caracas, becoming the owner of various properties in the city. Already in those times there were frictions and social conflicts that began to create a governance problem for the colonial authorities, who also had to alleviate the negative consequences of the presence of the Real Compañía Guipuzcoana that monopolized commercial transactions in the province of Venezuela.
In La Orotava, the Miranda family was considered distinguished and illustrious people, unlike what happened in Caracas. His father made a fortune with his work and managed to be appointed captain of the Caracas White Militia Battalion, but because his origin was in question, his appointment produced a strong rejection of the social class known as Mantuano, a society made up of Creole whites, descendants of Spaniards, but born as Sebastián Francisco in American territory, a reflection of latent social and racial conflicts and one of the causes of Independence. There was a certain amount of contempt from the Mantuanos towards his father for being a merchant, an occupation that in his eyes made him unfit to be a captain of the Militia.
Serious, truly serious, was the confrontation between Miranda Sr., with two strong Mantuanos, such as Nicolás de Ponte and Martín Tovar Blanco, whose descendants ended up being among the Republicans, a confrontation that was only resolved when King Carlos III ordered to the people of Caracas that Miranda be allowed to use the uniform and cane because he was considered a nobleman, which occurred in 1772, when his son Sebastián Francisco had already been out of Venezuela for a year.
Education
Despite the rejection of the Mantuanos, his father Sebastián always persevered in his efforts to improve the situation of the family, so that, in addition to accumulating wealth and important positions, his children received a university education.
Thus, on January 10, 1762, Miranda began his studies at the University of Caracas under the regency of Dr. Antonio Monserrate, and for two years he studied Latin, the beginnings of Nebrija's Grammar and Ripalda's Catechism.
From 1764 to 1766, Miranda studied in the Senior Class of the same University, where she deepened her knowledge of Latin by studying the classic writings of Cicero and Virgil, completed her studies of Nebrija's Grammar, notions of sacred and profane history, religion, arithmetic and geography. Finally, he completed the Arts course at the University of Caracas studying Logic, Physics and Metaphysics and obtained a bachelor's degree that allowed access to Theology, Jurisprudence or Medicine. It is not reliably known if Miranda obtained the title of doctor and there is only his personal testimony stating that he received it in 1767 (at the age of 17). Through Miranda's personal testimony, it is known that some of his teachers were doctors Domingo Velázquez, Francisco José de Urbina and Gabriel Lindo.
Starting in 1767, there was an interruption in Miranda's studies, which were possibly affected by the circumstances experienced by his father. Being named captain of the White Militia of Caracas , being an island merchant, was something that bothered the Mantuanos, since he had achieved an important social distinction by becoming a figure of some influence. It seems as if they began to create intrigues to discredit him and nullify him in public life. This triggered a series of circumstances in which, after a royal sentence, Francisco's father was victorious and his rights were recognized, but they created an irreconcilable enmity with the Mantuans who never forgot the conflict or forgave him the challenge. which inevitably influenced Miranda's subsequent decisions.
After his father's judicial victory, the difficulties in developing future plans in a society as limited as Caracas influenced his decision, at just over 20 years of age, to go to Spain. He embarked, then, on January 25, 1771, from the port of La Guaira, in a Swedish frigate called Príncipe Federico , to serve in the Spanish Royal Army.
First trips
In 1771, Miranda began a long journey around the world that lasted most of his life. He also then began the elaboration of a meticulous record with which he made his personal file, which reached 63 bound volumes and which he always carried with him. He participated in the three great historical and political movements of his time: the United States War of Independence, the French Revolution, and the Spanish-American Wars of Independence.
He disembarked in the Port of Cádiz 35 days later, on March 1, 1771, staying at the house of José de Añino, who would be a faithful intermediary between him and his relatives to provide him with subsistence resources, acquiring the necessary clothing for continue his journey between March 1 and 13, 1771, when he left Cádiz for Madrid.
Since then, he has matured his ideas, conceiving Hispanic-American unity in his travels around the world and in his relationship with the most influential personalities of the time. He fought bravely in America, Europe and Africa, except in Oceania and Asia —although he thought of bringing Sepoys from India—, he toured and scrutinized Spain and the entire European continent, including Great Britain, Russia and Scandinavia; Asia Minor, North America, South America and the Antilles. He was the only man who had personal and direct contact with figures such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Catherine the Great, Frederick II of Prussia, the Duke of Wellington, Robert Peel, La Fayette, Stanislaus II Poniatowski, William Pitt, Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin, Samuel Adams and Johann Caspar Lavater.
He held fruitful meetings with other prominent Spanish-American figures, such as Simón Bolívar, José Francisco San Martín, Andrés Bello, Bernardo O'Higgins, Carlos Montúfar, Carlos María de Alvear, Fray Servando Teresa de Mier, Domingo José Martins, Manuel Palacio Fajardo, Juan Germán Roscio, Manuel Gual and Pedro Gual, Hipólito Costa, José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva, José de Antepara, Matías de Irigoyen and Nicolás Rodríguez Peña.
In Madrid
On March 27, 1771, Miranda arrived in Madrid and began to be aware of realities that he was unaware of until then and that greatly impressed him, such as a large library, the abundance of works of art, the majesty of the buildings and the spectacle of snow and crops decorating the landscape, which seemed fabulous to him.
During his first days he was staying at an inn until he managed to move to a private home, where he settled carefully and began his first studies in the city with lessons in Mathematics, Geography and English and French languages, thus beginning an apprenticeship that not only included academic training, but also detailed tours of the city and its surroundings.
Miranda's arrival in Madrid coincided with a stage of urban transformation of the city initiated by King Carlos III, which directly and indirectly covered all aspects of the life of its inhabitants, which gave a beneficial boost to renewal For the city.
Thus, Miranda contemplated emblematic buildings and monuments of Madrid at the time, such as the Neptune Fountain, La Cibeles, the Paseo del Prado, the Buen Retiro Palace, and neighboring towns, such as El Escorial or Segovia.
Socially, Madrid at that time concentrated its literary life in the Fonda de San Sebastián, a place frequented by illustrious writers, and a thriving cultural activity to which the work of the Royal Academy, economic societies and the rise of printing presses contributed significantly.
The Plaza de Toros and the popular theaters were the daily entertainment centers in which the Nobility could not avoid contact with "the common people" and popular customs were intermingled with courtesans. And it was also the Madrid in which the Holy Inquisition watched everywhere as a cultural and political police.[citation required]
It is in the Madrid of this time that Miranda has his first impressions outside of Venezuela and also begins to create his personal library, in which he even began to have books that were prohibited by the Inquisition and of which he kept a detailed list in your personnel file.
The nature and number of books purchased in Madrid are a precise indication that a very broad intellectual environment existed in the city. Mathematics books, military art, history, religion, philosophy and literature were part of his readings.
Many of these books constituted definitive teachings for Miranda, which he kept close to him for the rest of his life, among which the works of Machiavelli stand out; The Destruction of the Indies, by Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas; works by Lord Bolingbroke, Burke and Locke; The principles of military art, by Frederick of Sweden; The Philosophical History, by Abate Reynal; The principles of natural politics, by Burlamaqui; the Commentaries, by Julius Caesar; The Art of War, by Puyssegur; Guibert's Tactics; as well as works by Pope and Virgil.
He sought to broaden his scientific and literary knowledge by studying trigonometry, geometry, algebra, physics, optics, grammar, poetry, and comedy. He also supplemented his general knowledge with readings on religion and history and improved his knowledge of the Italian, English and French languages.
Lastly, he acquired a flute to exercise in the art of music, reading the Reflections on music of Abbé Dubos.
He also practiced geography by using maps and globes, and because he wanted to apply for the rank of Captain in the Royal Army, he insisted on studying tactics, military art, military architecture, military engineering, artillery, fortification and attack of squares.
After conscientious preparation and payment of 85,000 reales of fleece, he obtained a Captain's Patent according to the corresponding administrative procedure, which was granted on January 7, 1773 by notarial deed.
First campaigns
After being granted the patent, the now Captain Francisco de Miranda was assigned to the Infantry Regiment of the Princess, commanded by Field Marshal Juan Manuel de Cajigal y Monserrat, thus beginning his career military.
From 1773 to 1780, Miranda was intermittently assigned to the military plazas in Madrid, Granada, Melilla and Cádiz and had an intense social life in which his first two lovers appeared.
He had to combine his social life with his military activity, which was no longer study, but combat. He faced disciplinary problems within the Royal Army and his character evolved so that he continued to cultivate himself intellectually with books that inevitably made the Inquisition begin to monitor his activities.
At this time his first military feat took place during the siege of Melilla, carried out from December 9, 1774 to March 19, 1775, in which the Spanish forces managed to repel those of the Sultan of Morocco Sidi Muhammad ben Abdullah.
In this action, Miranda presented to the Spanish commander Juan Sherlock a plan to disable the enemy artillery through a kind of commando-type operation that he himself was willing to direct.
Later, in July 1775, Miranda was sent with the Spanish troops destined to conquer Algiers in a military action that failed and from which he miraculously managed to escape despite being wounded in the legs and the fact that his musket had been smashed by an enemy bullet.
Despite the actions carried out and the danger faced, Miranda did not obtain any decoration or promotion and was assigned to the garrison of Cádiz.
There, Count O'Reilly placed an arrest on him for failing to wear his uniform and soon after his situation became even more complicated in Madrid. After the intervention of the inspector general and his former commander Cajigal, the king himself ordered that he be transferred to the Aragon Battalion in Cádiz as an Aide-de-camp under the orders of Cajigal.
Missions in North America and the Antilles
Spain became involved in the American War of Independence with the aim of expanding its territories in Louisiana, recovering Florida and forcing Great Britain to maintain several war fronts simultaneously and trying, incidentally, to recover Gibraltar. The Captain General of Spanish Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez, attacked the British at Baton Rouge and Natchez in 1779, managing to free the lower Mississippi River from hostile forces that might threaten his capital, New Orleans.
To reinforce the Spanish contingent, an expeditionary fleet was organized in Cádiz at the beginning of 1780 under the command of Admiral José Solano y Bote, in which Miranda participated as a member of the Cajigal infantry troops. The fleet left Cádiz on April 28, 1780 and arrived in Havana on August 4 of the same year.
In 1781 an attack was prepared against Pensacola in Florida in a joint action involving the Spanish forces from Louisiana and the expeditionary fleet.
Miranda traveled with Cajigal's forces that left Havana on April 9, 1781 to participate in the Battle of Pensacola, a military action that culminated on May 8, 1781 with the victory of the Spanish forces. Miranda was promoted to lieutenant colonel for his work in planning and surveying the terrain.
Miranda remained stationed for a time in Pensacola, continuing to acquire books to add to his personal library and purchasing four black slaves for domestic service. Shortly thereafter, he was commissioned by Cajigal to secretly uncover the British military situation in Jamaica under the formal pretense of being a Spanish commissioner tasked with negotiating a prisoner exchange agreement. After receiving the official dispatch entrusting him with the mission, Miranda embarked towards Jamaica, via Batabanó, and arrived in Kingston on September 20, 1781.
At first his presence caused a natural distrust in the English, but despite this he managed to successfully carry out his reconnaissance mission and, in addition, he negotiated an agreement, dated November 18, 1781, which regulated the exchange of prisoners Spanish and English of the same rank.
With the information obtained, Miranda returned to Cuba and, after landing in Batabanó, sent a report to the Captain General of Cuba with very precise details on the operations and capacity of the British troops in the sector.
However, what was to culminate as an outstanding action in Miranda's military career, ended up being marred as a result of a Summary of 155 pages that the Inquisition had sent against him in Seville on November 11, 1778 for crimes of propositions, possession of prohibited books and obscene paintings.
The order to send Miranda back to Spain, in compliance with the sentence of February 5, 1782 of the Supreme Inquisitorial Council, was not fulfilled due to various substantive and formal rulings in the administrative process that made the order was questioned, and also partly because of the unconditional support of Commander Cajigal.
While he was getting the king to review the case, Cajigal entrusted Miranda with the mission of accompanying him in the attack on the Bahamas islands, in which the English capitulation was achieved on May 8, 1782 in favor of Spain in negotiations directed by Miranda and in which he also obtained the cession of all the islands.
The efficiency demonstrated by Miranda in the Bahamas then earned him Cajigal's recommendation for him to be promoted to colonel and he came under the command of the general commander of the Spanish forces in Cuba, Bernardo de Gálvez, as aide-de-camp in the population of Guárico, of French Saint Domingue, on the island of Hispaniola.
At that time the Spanish were preparing a joint action with the French to invade Jamaica (the last English stronghold in the Gulf of Mexico) and the town of Guárico was the ideal place to plan these operations because it was close to the island and because its position of easy access to be able to gather troops. The commanders considered Miranda the ideal person to plan the operations because he had first-hand knowledge of the situation of the English in the area.
However, a preventive attack by the English and the difficulties of the French fleet, which forced peace between England and France, meant that the invasion did not materialize, and therefore Miranda remained like that for a while in Guárico, in which the Inquisition would be his main problem.
In the United States
When the invasion of Jamaica did not materialize, the priorities for the Spanish authorities changed and consequently the process of the Inquisition against Miranda took on new momentum. Over time Miranda's problems with the Inquisition became complicated and the authorities sent Miranda to Havana to be arrested and sent to Spain, but when in February 1783, the Minister of the Indies José de Gálvez sent the Captain General of Havana Don Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga 'le Conciliateur' to arrest Miranda, this information reached Miranda, who knew that in Spain he was not going to have a fair trial, in this way he was able, due to various circumstances, to frustrate these plans for his arrest and he succeeds, with the help of Cajigal and the American James Seagrove, who organized their trip on a ship that departed on June 1, 1783 bound for the United States where on July 10, 1783 in New Bern. During the time he was in the United States, Miranda conducted a critical study of its military defenses in which he demonstrated extensive knowledge of the development of the US conflict and its circumstances.
There Miranda prepared and fixed the correspondence technique that he used during the rest of his trip, in which he meets people through the gift and loan of books, and examines the culture and customs of the places through which he passes in a methodical way. He passes through Charleston, Philadelphia, and Boston, and deals with various characters from American society in evenings and outings, in which he had some love affairs that Miranda himself described as inconsequential until he arrived in New York.
In this city he met the important Livingston family, whose members held prominent political positions and had ties to other important families in the city. Apparently, Miranda had a romantic relationship with Susan Livingston, daughter of Chancellor Livingston, which is glimpsed when Miranda takes a trip to Boston and in which she, the young woman, seems to be in love with him according to the letters she wrote to him.
It seems, however, as if Miranda does not want to go beyond a simple friendship, which would explain her rather hasty departure from New York. Although Miranda maintained epistolary contact with Susan for years, she never saw her again, which is why she possibly came to think that a relationship that would lead to marriage was not compatible with her plans and way of life. During the time she was in the United States, Miranda met George Washington in Philadelphia when he had just received military control of New York after the end of the war. She also met other characters like General Henry Knox or Samuel Adams. In addition, he learned of certain institutions of the new nation that impressed him favorably, such as the New Port Library, Princeton College, Rhode Island College, or Cambridge College.
Miranda's stay in the United States was only affected by the conflict of interests between France and Spain in this country after the war, since the French were not interested in having the negative aspects of his intervention widely publicized in the conflict, and the failure of the invasion of Jamaica was one of them. Reports had apparently been sent from Havana to the US government accusing Miranda of being a traitor and a deserter, reports that were released by the French to harm him, since he was the only person who could deny the accusation of the failure of the invasion of Jamaica as the responsibility of Spain. The dissemination of these reports compromised Miranda's situation, since he could not defend himself without divulging the details of his espionage mission in Jamaica that were a state secret, and therefore, faced with this situation, he decided to go to England.
In Europe
From England to Russia
On December 15, 1784, Miranda left Boston Harbor on the merchant frigate Neptune at five o'clock in the afternoon for London, and after a voyage that lasted about 56 days, she arrived to England on February 10, 1785.
In London, Miranda was discreetly watched by the Spanish due to suspicions of treason that fell on him. The reports they wrote highlight both the dealings that Miranda had with people suspected of conspiring against Spain and with people considered eminent scholars of their time.[citation required]
At the same time, Colonel William Stephens Smith, whom Miranda knew from his stay in New York, arrived at the court of England as secretary of the first United States embassy. Smith would marry the following year, on June 12, 1786, with Abigail Nabby Adams, daughter of Abigail Smith and Ambassador John Adams, who would later be the second President of the United States.
Miranda and Colonel Smith decided to travel to Prussia to witness the military maneuvers prepared by King Frederick II the Great. Bernardo del Campo, Spain's ambassador to the British capital since 1783, provided Miranda with a letter of introduction to the Spanish minister in Berlin, while James Penman, an English businessman with whom Miranda had befriended in Charleston, was in charge of keep your papers while you are away.
However, the kindness of the Spanish ambassador conceals his intrigue to get Miranda to travel to Calais and there he can be arrested and handed over to Spain. The farce, which also assigned a role to the wife and daughter of the Spanish vice-consul in London under the pretext of leaving England to place the young woman in a monastery, broke down because the Venezuelan and his friend went on August 10, 1785 to a Dutch port (Hellevoetsluis) and not to the city in northern France.
He passed through regions of present-day Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Poland; he moved to Greek and Italian lands, where he stayed for more than a year, and visited the court of Catherine II of Russia in kyiv. In Hungary he was in the palace of the Hungarian prince Nicolás Esterházy (1765-1833), who sympathized with his ideas and, apart from welcoming him kindly, sent him in one of his carriages with a letter of recommendation to meet the well-known musician Joseph Haydn. who lived and worked at the court of the Hungarian aristocrat.
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After passing through Constantinople, the Turkish capital, with which the Spanish had diplomatic relations since 1783, he was forced to undergo a sanitary quarantine in Kherson, and Prince Potemkin presented him to Catherine II in Kiev on February 13, 1787 Catalina showed quite an interest in the affairs of America and its systems of government.
Miranda in the French Revolution
In 1791, Miranda took an active part in the French Revolution. In Paris, he made friends with the Girondins Jacques Pierre Brissot and Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve. He briefly served as a general in a section of the French Revolutionary Army (then called "The Convention") that fought in the 1792 campaign to stop the advance of the Prussian army, led by the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, whose goal was to invade France from the Netherlands. Miranda reached the rank of Marshal of France under the command of Charles François Dumouriez. During the campaign he participated in the battles of Argonne, Wargemoulin, Antwerp, Liège, Tongres, Paliemberg and Valmy, where he became second in command of the northern army, from which he would separate due to great differences with Dumouriez after having withdrawn his troops in Maastricht.
During the reign of terror instituted by Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac, Miranda was arrested several times by the Jacobins, including at La Conciergerie in Paris, whose inmates were mostly guillotined. Submitted to trial in the Revolutionary Court (established by Danton,) for alleged negligence in the defense of Maastricht, he was defended by Claude Chaveau-Lagarde ―a distinguished lawyer who will defend, at his own risk and without the same success, Queen Mary Antoinette of Austria―, being threatened with being deported after a measure by the Directory of the Monarchy and the Girondins. However, he was cleared of the charges in 1795 and moved to England in 1798.
South America (1806-1812)
His greatest contribution is probably in the Spanish-American wars of independence. Miranda had a vision of a great independent empire that would group all the territories that were in the hands of the Spanish and Portuguese from the right bank of the Mississippi River in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the extreme south of the continent. The empire would be headed by a hereditary emperor named Inca to appease the indigenous ethnic groups and would have a bicameral legislature. He conceived the name Colombia for this empire, inspired by Christopher Columbus.
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On November 9, 1804, Miranda disembarked in New York from the United Kingdom. He stayed there for a little over a year and maintained contacts with prominent public figures, such as President Jefferson and Secretary of State Madison, and private figures, such as Jacob Lewis, a merchant from Port-au-Prince, and Colonel William Stephens Smith, then inspector from the port of New York and whom he had known since 1783. It was Smith who put him in contact with the American shipowner and smuggler Samuel G. Ogden, owner of a corvette that Miranda hired and which he renamed in English with the name of his son Leandro. The Marquis Casa de Irujo, Ambassador of Spain in Washington, denounced the support given to General Miranda to invade Venezuela in violation of the Neutrality Law of 1794.[citation required]
On February 2, 1806, with the political approval and economic support of the Americans and the British, Miranda left on the Leander for Haiti, where he was joined by two schooners and the ship Emperor. His intention was to disembark later in Venezuela, obtain the support of the population and begin the definitive fight for independence. After being intercepted by the British frigate Cleopatra, commanded by the Captain Wright, the corvette continued her journey until landing at Jacmel, on the island of Hispaniola, on February 20. The expedition stayed there for six weeks and managed to charter the schooners Bacchus and Bee, with which they also headed for the mainland. After failing to land at Ocumare de la Costa on April 27, where he engaged in combat with the royalist naval forces under the command of Antonio Tiscar, took refuge in Trinidad, where he arrived with a single ship, the corvette Leander. The royalist fleet escorted the two schooners to Puerto Cabello along with 58 prisoners who were locked up in the castle of San Felipe. In retaliation, 10 prisoners, mostly Americans accused of piracy, were hanged and dismembered in the main square of Puerto Cabello on July 21, 1806. The rest would suffer prison for more than ten years. One of those hanged and dismembered was the printer Miles L. Hall, who for this reason has been considered the first martyr of the printing press in Venezuela.
The British Governor of Trinidad, sir Thomas Hislop, provided Miranda with ships and supplies. With an expedition now increased to 11 ships and 300 landing men, he reached the coast of Coro (Venezuela) on August 1, 1806. At dawn on the 3rd, while the ships were unloading their artillery, Miranda and his men they rush to the ground. That same day, at the top of Fortín de La Vela, the tricolor Venezuelan flag was raised for the first time. However, finding no popular support, he re-embarked ten days later for Aruba and after some time in Trinidad as a guest of Governor Hyslop he headed for England.
On April 19, 1810, Venezuela began its independence process, for which Simón Bolívar and Andrés Bello persuaded Miranda, on a diplomatic mission in London, to return to his homeland. When he did, Miranda was received with honors at the Port of La Guaira. In Caracas he was given the rank of army general and founded the Patriotic Society, which would become the main promoter of the break with Spain. Later he is elected deputy for El Baúl, in the province of Caracas, to the constituent congress of 1811. On July 5, 1811, he had the honor of signing the Act of the Declaration of Independence of Venezuela. Later, before the advance of the Spanish troops under the command of Domingo Monteverde in 1812, he assumed the presidency with discretionary powers, after being named dictator on April 23 by the Executive Triumvirate with the rank of generalissimo.
The royalist forces counterattacked, but Miranda was unable to go on the offensive due to the constant desertions that occurred in his troops, a situation aggravated by the Venezuela Earthquake of 1812 (March 26) that affected mostly populated centers under the control of the patriots, in addition to the unpopularity of the cause of independence in Venezuelan society. Miranda tried to resist the royalist attack but the fall of the Puerto Cabello square (under the command of Simón Bolívar), the rebellion of the Barlovento slaves, as well as the growing number of Spanish armies that attacked him (Monteverde from Valencia and Yáñez from Calabozo), made it impossible for him to resist.
Fearing a brutal and desperate defeat, in accordance with the powers granted by the Executive Triumvirate, which in the Decree of April 23, 1812, had granted him the position of plenipotentiary dictator and supreme commander, with the rank of generalissimo, Miranda signs the capitulation of the patriot army, on July 25, 1812, in the city of San Mateo.
Imprisonment and confrontation with Bolívar
The signing of the capitulation would generate confusion and would be interpreted as a betrayal, so before embarking in the port of La Guaira and heading abroad to continue the fight, a group of officers led by Bolívar arrested Miranda, and Colonel José Mires locked him up in Fort San Carlos on July 31. Apparently, Bolívar's intention was to shoot him for considering that the San Mateo pact was an act of treason, but finally, following various advice, Miranda was imprisoned under Colonel Manuel María de las Casas, military commander of the port, who in He secretly went over to the Spanish side, handing Miranda over to Domingo de Monteverde, along with the other refugees who had not been able to set sail (Simón Bolívar was unaware of the betrayal of Manuel María de las Casas, and he then headed for Caracas, already in the hands of the royalists, where thanks to the intercession of some friends on the enemy side, he obtained a passport from Domingo de Monteverde, who is said to have expressed verbatim "The request of Colonel Bolívar must be satisfied, as a reward for the service rendered to the king of Spain with the delivery of Miranda", some time after leaving Venezuela, Bolívar would return to restart the war).
Prison and death
From the port of La Guaira, Miranda was transferred to the San Carlos de Caracas barracks and from there to the San Felipe de Puerto Cabello castle, where at the beginning of 1813 he wrote from his cell a memorial to the Royal Court of Caracas demanding compliance of the capitulation of San Mateo. On June 4, 1813, he was transferred to the San Felipe del Morro Castle, located in Puerto Rico, and from there to Spain, where he was locked up in a tall and spacious cell in the Cuatro Torres prison in the Carraca arsenal, in San Fernando. Here he only received little news and help from some friends. Miranda plans to escape to Gibraltar, but a stroke thwarts his plans and he dies, aged 66, on July 14, 1816.
An oil painting by the Venezuelan artist Arturo Michelena, titled Miranda en la Carraca (1896) —which portrays the hero in the Spanish jail where he died—, has become a graphic symbol of Venezuelan history and has immortalized the image of Miranda for successive generations of Venezuelans. As an additional note, it is important to say that Miranda is also considered one of the founding fathers of Freemasonry in Latin America. In Venezuela, different avenues, streets, squares, highways and parks are honored with the name of Miranda. Likewise, the third most populous entity in the country, after Zulia and Caracas, the state of Miranda, bears his name.
In the framework of his dedication to the independence of the continent, Miranda used a lot of energy to prepare, publish and disseminate documents of a different nature: letters, proclamations, plans, projects, articles, essays, etc. Much of this material involved a cultural, ideological, and political transfer through translation. In addition to translating from Latin and Greek, Miranda was fluent in several modern languages (German, Spanish, French, English, and Italian), knew Latin and Greek, and even wrote using several languages. His intellectual activity covered the most diverse topics apart from political, philosophical and military ones. He was the first Hispanic American to request the granting of political rights to women on October 26, 1792, a few months after the publication of the Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (1791) from Olympe de Gouges.
His son Leandro de Miranda was director of the first bank in Venezuela, albeit with foreign capital, called the British Colonial Bank, which operated from 1839 to 1848.
Cenotaph
Until today it has been impossible to recognize his remains, since when he died he was buried in a common grave in the cemetery of the Carraca arsenal. Meanwhile, a cenotaph was dedicated to him in the National Pantheon of Venezuela, where there are also those of Antonio José de Sucre and Andrés Bello. The monument, designed by the Italian sculptor Julio Roversi, is crowned by a sculpture of the general on a small pedestal where there is a plaque with the dates and places of his birth and death. The pedestal sits on a symbolic mausoleum decorated with funerary motifs and with open doors. In front there is a sarcophagus that is being opened by an eagle, a symbol of power, which is guarded, in turn, by an allegory of freedom. At his feet, a plaque contains the following epitaph:
Venezuela cries for the pain of not having been able to find the remains of General Miranda, who have been lost in the common huesa of the prison in which he expiated this great martyr of American freedom. The Republic would keep them with all the honour that is due to them on this site which has been assigned to them by Decree of the President of her General Joaquín Crespo, dated 22 January 1895.
The doors and the partially open tomb symbolize Venezuela's hope of finding the remains of the hero, awaiting his arrival.
Miranda participated directly in the French Revolution, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the Revolution and Marshal of France. He is the only American to have his name engraved on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Post Mortem Ascent
On July 14, 2016, in commemoration of the Bicentennial of his death in San Fernando (Spain), military and civilian honors were paid to him and the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro at his inauguration as Commander-in-Chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) promotes Francisco de Miranda to the rank of chief admiral post mortem, this being the highest grade of the Bolivarian Navy (AB) for a serving officer.
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