Independence of venezuela
The independence of Venezuela was the legal-political process that put an end to the ties that existed between the Captaincy General of Venezuela and the Spanish Empire. It also implied the replacement of the absolute monarchy by the republic as the form of government in Venezuela.
The independence of Venezuela produced the armed conflict known as the Venezuelan War of Independence between the independentist and royalist armies. On April 19, 1810, the process of independence of Venezuela began. On July 5, 1811, the act of independence is signed, that day is celebrated in Venezuela as its national day. On that date formally, through the document "Act of declaration of independence", Venezuela separated from Spain. The Patriotic Society made up of Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Miranda was the pioneer in promoting the separation of Venezuela from the Spanish crown.
The historical period between 1810 and 1830 has been divided by Venezuelan historiography into four parts: First Republic (1810-1812), Second Republic (1813-1814), Third Republic (1817-1819) and Gran Colombia (1819 -1830).
Causes
Among the influential factors are the desire for power of the Creole social groups that had social and economic status but not political status, the discontent of the population due to mismanagement and tax increases, the introduction of the ideas of Encyclopedism, the Enlightenment, the declaration of Independence of the United States, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution
Background
At the end of the XVIII century, the first attempts at independence took place in Venezuela. The first of them tried twice in 1806 to invade Venezuelan territory by La Vela de Coro, led by General Francisco de Miranda, with an armed expedition from Haiti. His incursions end in failure due to the religious preaching against him and the indifference of the population.
The Conspiracy of the Mantuanos was a movement that broke out in Caracas in 1808. The Mantuanos, who constituted the most powerful social group in society, led an attempt to establish a Governing Board to govern the destinies of the General Captaincy of Venezuela following the invasion of Spain by Napoleon.
First Republic
Revolution of April 19, 1810
The first republic corresponds to the period between April 19, 1810 and July 30, 1812, when the supreme government junta peacefully replaced the Spanish authorities.
Captain General Vicente Emparan was forced to resign his position on April 19, 1810 by the Caracas council. That same afternoon, the town council was constituted as the Supreme Conservative Board of the rights of Fernando VII.
The Supreme Board of Caracas sought the adhesion of the other provinces of the General Captaincy of Venezuela to the movement. Favorable pronouncements were given in Cumaná and Barcelona on April 27, Margarita on May 4, Barinas on May 5, Mérida on September 16, and Trujillo on October 9.
The province of Guayana ruled on May 11 in favor of the Supreme Junta of Caracas, but upon learning on June 3 of the installation in Spain of the Regency Council, it recognized it as a legitimate authority and distanced itself from the Caracas revolution. The Provinces of Coro and Maracaibo remained faithful to the Council of Regency.
Supreme Congress of Venezuela
The character of the Supreme Junta of Caracas as "conservative of the rights of Ferdinand VII" it did not allow it to go beyond the autonomy proclaimed on April 19. For this reason, the Junta called elections to install a Constituent Congress before which it could decline its powers and decide the future fate of the states.
The convocation to the Congress was made in June. The provinces of Caracas, Barinas, Cumaná, Barcelona, Mérida, Margarita and Trujillo were complied with; but not by the provinces of Maracaibo, Coro and Guayana.
Elections were held between October and November 1810. The electoral regulations were based on census, since they gave the vote to free men over 25 years of age (or over 21 if they were married) and owners of 2000 pesos in movable property or There was no vote for women, slaves, and those without wealth. The regulations also provided that the elections be held in two degrees: first, the voters appointed the electors of the parish; and then, these voters, gathered in an electoral assembly in the capital of the province, designated the representatives to Congress, at the rate of one deputy for every 20,000 inhabitants.
Once the elections were held, 44 deputies to Congress were elected. The provinces were represented as follows: Caracas 24 deputies; Barinas 9; Cumana 4; Barcelona 3; Merida 2; Trujillo 1; Daisy 1.
The Supreme Congress of Venezuela was installed on March 2, 1811 in the house of the Count of San Javier (current corner of El Conde in Caracas). On March 5, 1811, the Supreme Junta of Caracas ceased its functions.
Patriotic Society
With the founding of the Agricultural and Economic Society, it did not take long for this organization to become the main promoter of the break with Spain. Among its members were José Félix Ribas, Francisco José Ribas, Antonio Muñoz Tébar, Vicente Salias and Miguel José Sanz. In their sessions they discussed economics, politics, civil, religious and military affairs. It had up to 600 members only in Caracas and with subsidiaries in Barcelona, Barinas, Valencia and Puerto Cabello. The newspaper of the Patriota Revolucionario, directed by Salias and Muñoz Tébar, was its informative organ.
The incorporation of Generalissimo Francisco de Miranda and the young Simón Bolívar gave society a revolutionary character. Criticism of the colonial regime, the spread of separatist ideas and pressure on Congress to declare independence were the most important actions of the Patriotic Society.
Declaration of Independence
In the Supreme Congress of Venezuela there were two factions in conflict: the separatists and the fidelistas. The separatists were supporters of the independence of Venezuela, while the fidelistas were faithful to King Fernando VII.
As the sessions of Congress progressed, the idea of independence was gaining adherents within it. Many deputies supported it with passionate allegations, others with historical arguments.
On July 2, a motion on independence was presented in Congress. On July 3, 1811, the debate began in Congress. On July 5, a vote was taken. Independence was approved with 40 upvotes. Immediately, the president of Congress, deputy Juan Antonio Rodríguez, announced that the "absolute independence of Venezuela was solemnly declared."
Francisco de Miranda and other members of the Patriotic Society led a popular mass that toured the streets and squares of Caracas, acclaiming independence and freedom. Juan Escalona, who presided over the first independence triumvirate, issued a proclamation to the inhabitants de Caracas informing them that Congress had voted for absolute independence.
The deputies agreed to call the new republic the American Confederation of Venezuela and appointed a commission to decide on the flag and the drafting of a Constitution. The deputy Juan Germán Roscio and the secretary of Congress, Francisco Isnardi, prepared the Act of the Declaration of Independence. It was approved by the deputies on July 7.
On July 13, 1811, the Venezuelan flag was approved, which was based on the design made by Francisco de Miranda in 1806. On July 14, in a public and solemn act, this flag was raised for the first time.
On December 21, 1811, Congress approved the Federal Constitution of the States of Venezuela of 1811. On February 15, 1812, Congress suspended its sessions and agreed to move to Valencia, designating it a Federal City on March 1, that same year, when it resumed its sessions.
In 1811, Francisco Miranda convinced the National Congress of Venezuela to declare independence. Many regions in Venezuela declared their independence on July 5, 1811, and a Constitution was drawn up soon after. However, there were also regions that refused to join the republic. These included the cities of Coro, Maracaibo, Guayana and Valencia, which initially joined but later changed their minds.
Seam of Valencia
On July 11, 1811, six days after the Declaration of Independence, two insurrections broke out: the riot in Sabana del Teque, by the Canary Islanders in Caracas, which was quickly put down, and the insurrection of Nuestra Lady of the Annunciation of the New Valencia of the King. The people of Mantua, who did not tolerate the patriots, appointed the Marqués del Toro commander to face the Valencian uprising, but on July 15 he was defeated. Then, Francisco de Miranda, at the age of 61, is appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army and leaves with his troops for Valencia on the 19th. The actions in the streets and squares were hard-fought. Francisco de Miranda orders to attack the strongest positions of the rebels and on July 23 the Republicans take the city.
Fall of the First Republic
On March 26, 1812 at 4 p.m., an earthquake destroyed Caracas, causing extensive damage and the deaths of about 20,000 people. That same year, Bolívar lost control of Puerto Cabello and Francisco de Miranda capitulated in San Mateo before the royalist chief Domingo Monteverde, signing an agreement that consisted of the delivery of arms by the patriots. In return, the realists would respect people and property.
When Miranda went to embark in La Guaira, he is arrested —together with 8 other bosses— by his former comrades, among whom was the young Simón Bolívar. Those arrested were accused of squandering public funds and then handed over to the royalists. Miranda is imprisoned in Puerto Cabello, later he was transferred to Puerto Rico and finally to the Arsenal de la Carraca, in Cádiz, where he died in 1816.
Second Republic
The second republic corresponds to the period between August 1813 and December 1814 and is known as the period of "War to the death".
After the first Republic ended, the main political and military leaders of the Independence went into exile. Bolívar writes the Cartagena Manifesto where he analyzes the reasons for the failure of the republic and the future of the countries that participate in this process, which will later form Gran Colombia. It was written in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), on December 15, 1812. Among the political, economic, social and natural causes mentioned by Bolívar, the following stand out:
- The use of the federal system, which Bolivar considers weak for the time.
- Bad public income administration.
- The Caracas earthquake of 1812.
- The impossibility of establishing a permanent army.
- The contrary influence of the Catholic Church.
On the realist side, Monteverde, conceited by his success, refuses to hand over power to General Fernando Mijares, who arrived in Puerto Cabello from Puerto Rico and was appointed Captain General by the Regency. Failure to comply with what was agreed with Miranda, he began a repression against the patriots in order to prepare the ground to execute his plans to invade the Republic of New Granada, declared independent from Spanish power. Aware of his intentions, Bolívar requests his incorporation into the New Granadan army and logistical support to later start the military operations of what is known in history as "Admirable Campaign".
On January 8, 1813, he occupied the city of Ocaña, (the second most important in Norte de Santander, after Cúcuta) after having left free passage in the Magdalena Medio, thus achieving navigation between Bogotá and Cartagena. On February 16, he left for Cúcuta because there was danger due to the presence of Ramón Correa and his royalist forces. On his way he defeated an enemy force that blocked his way in La Aguada. On the 28th of the same month, what is now known as the Battle of Cúcuta took place, with which this city was given its independence. The Liberator requested help from the New Granadan government through the Cartagena Manifesto, which was conceived for the actions that he had already carried out in that country.
In the first six months of 1813, the resistance of the royalists collapsed. Monteverde is defeated and wounded. He retreats to Puerto Cabello, where his soldiers remove him from command. The war continues with two parallel, unconnected but effective campaigns, one from the East, commanded by General Santiago Mariño, known as the Eastern Campaign, and another from the West, commanded by Bolívar, known as the Admirable Campaign. Cumaná is liberated on August 3, 1813 by Mariño; Bolívar enters Caracas on August 6.
The reconquest of Caracas by the Republicans is for historians the milestone that marks the beginning of what they have called the Second Republic. Bolívar, from Caracas, proclaims the war to the death with the extermination of the Spanish race. The Municipality of Caracas confers on Bolívar the title of "El Libertador" and "General in Chief of the Republican Army". The following year he is appointed Supreme Chief. The military situation is complicated by the appearance of the figure of José Tomás Boves, an Asturian, who organizes an army that fights on the side of the royalists, and that revolts the black or mixed-race population against the Venezuelan whites, that is, who lead the independence process. In the opinion of some historians, Boves took advantage of the existing social resentment in this group.
Starting in February 1814, a series of meetings between patriots and royalists took place in an area that stretched from Lake Valencia to San Mateo, that is, in what is known as the Valles de Aragua. In the high house of the San Mateo hacienda, owned by Simón Bolívar, the park was placed, the custody of which was entrusted to Captain Antonio Ricaurte and a small troop of 50 soldiers. During the royalist attack, Francisco Tomás Morales seized the mill while one of his columns, —going down the line of Los Cucharos— took the “high house”. The park was not captured by said column because its custodian prevented it. Captain Antonio Ricaurte, who, seeing royalist troops in a position to capture that deposit, set fire to the gunpowder and blew it up on March 25, 1814, with which he and those who were inside the enclosure perished. Bolívar took advantage of the momentary disorder that occurred among the attackers and launched a counterattack, with which he reconquered the "high house." The statue immortalizing Ricaurte's heroic gesture at the "Ingenio Bolívar in San Mateo" It is a work by the sculptor Lorenzo González. In 1814 bloody battles followed one another, reprisals against the civilian population on both sides, and the siege of cities. The population of Caracas, threatened by the imminent arrival of Bóves, must flee to the east. Historians mark the battle of Maturín, on December 11, 1814, as the end of the Second Republic.
The Admirable Campaign ended with the entry into Caracas, Bolívar once again opened operations against the Spanish reaction that soon made itself felt in a large part of the country. From Caracas he sent lieutenant colonels Tomás Montilla to the Calabozo plains that were threatened by Boves and Vicente Campo Elías to pacify the Tuy valleys, where a rebellion had broken out. Boves defeats an outpost from Montilla at the site of Santa Catalina, after which he retreats to Caracas and Boves enters Calabozo without opposition. In the valleys of Tuy Campo Elías arrives in Ocumare del Tuy on August 26 and in a short time achieves the pacification of the region after which he returns to Caracas. In the capital he receives orders to go to Calabozo to support Montilla, which results in the defeat of Boves at Mosquiteros on October 14.
Bolívar goes to Valencia with Urdaneta's column where he makes a concentration of troops and divides them into 3 columns: the first one commanded by García de Serna to Barquisimeto against the Indian Reyes Vargas, the second one directed by Atanasio Girardot towards Puerto Cabello along the road to Aguas Calientes, and the third from Rafael Urdaneta also towards Puerto Cabello but along the road to San Esteban. García de Cerna triumphed over Reyes Vargas in Cerritos Blancos while in Puerto Cabello, Urdaneta and Girardot he took the fortresses of Vigía Alta, Vigía Baja and the outer town. Monteverde received reinforcements and launched an offensive on Valencia, Bolívar awaited him in Naguanagua and on September 30 he defeated him in the battle of Bárbula. The royalists are defeated again in the battle of Trenches, on October 3. Monteverde retired to Puerto Cabello and Bolívar returned to Caracas after highlighting Urdaneta against Coro.
The defeat of the first Venezuelan Republic in 1812 left the deepest mark on the Liberator, but above all, the deepest lesson about the cardinal importance that unity had for the triumph of the revolution. & # 34; Our division and not Spanish weapons returned us to slavery & # 34;, he had written in his famous Manifesto of Cartagena taking stock of those years. The Admirable Campaign began on February 28, 1813 with the Battle of Cúcuta against Colonel Ramón Correa where Field Marshal Ribas delivered the decisive blow with a bayonet charge into the center of the royalist lines.
The Liberator did not forget that the first and second Republics had collapsed because the revolution had been oriented exclusively towards the elimination of personal privileges or feudal privileges, and the proscription of titles of nobility for the exclusive benefit of the rich Venezuelan owners or New Granadans; without taking into account at all the mass of slaves or poor peasants who made up the bulk of the independence army.
"Our weapons, forever triumphant, humiliated the Spanish fiero, the clarin to the martial voices that heard in their mountains the land of the sun. He crowned our summits of glory when Ribas the sword softened, and his counterpart Amen La Victoria with oppressive blood his fields watered."
Decree of War to the Death
Colonel Atanasio Girardot joined Simón Bolívar in the so-called Admirable Campaign of the Liberator and fought gallantly at the head of several battalions that managed to occupy the cities of Trujillo and Mérida. In Bolívar's advance towards Caracas, Girardot was in charge of the rearguard from Apure, until reaching him near the city of Naguanagua, next to the Bárbula hill, where they would have to face the royalist army commanded by Domingo Green Mount. On August 26, 1813, Bolívar personally took charge of the siege against the Puerto Cabello square. On September 16, enemy reinforcements arrived, so Bolívar decided to retreat to the town of Naguanagua. Faced with the patriot withdrawal, the royalist Monteverde mobilized his troops until they were located at the site of Las Trincheras , sending a column of men to take position on the heights of the Bárbula hacienda. Bolívar decides to send the troops of Girardot, Urdaneta and D'Elhuyar on September 30, who finally managed to evict the royalists, but paying the high price of the sacrifice of Colonel Girardot, who died after being hit by a rifle bullet when he tried to fix the national flag on the conquered height, during the Battle of Bárbula.
The Decree of War to the Death was a declaration made by Simón Bolívar on June 15, 1813 in the Venezuelan city of Trujillo. As expressed by the Liberator, on June 15 it was created in response to various crimes and massacres carried out by Spanish soldiers after the fall of the First Republic, against thousands of Republicans. The objective of the document was to change public opinion about the Venezuelan liberation war, so that instead of being seen as a mere civil war in one of Spain's colonies, it was seen as an international war between two countries, Venezuela and Spain.
It proclaimed that all Spanish people who did not actively participate in favor of independence would be killed, and that all Americans would be pardoned, even if they cooperated (passively) with the Spanish. The "War to the Death" It was practiced by both sides. Thus, between 1815 and 1817 several distinguished citizens of New Granada were assassinated at the hands of the Spanish, and in February 1814 several Spanish prisoners were executed in Caracas and La Guaira on the orders of Bolívar.
"Spanish and Canaries, count with death, still indifferent, if you do not actively obey the freedom of America. Americans, count with life, even when you are guilty.Decree of War to Death, June 15, 1813"
The Declaration lasted until November 26, 1820, when the Spanish general Pablo Morillo met with Bolívar to declare the war of independence as a conventional war. The independence of Venezuela was the legal-political process in order to break the ties that existed between the General Captaincy of Venezuela and the Spanish Empire. It also implied the replacement of the absolute monarchy by the republic as the form of government in Venezuela.
Battle of Araure
After the end of the Admirable Campaign, the Republicans were campaigning against the royalists in west-central Venezuela. In one of those battles, near Barquisimeto, the Republicans faced the royalists led by José Ceballos on November 10. The republicans were defeated by the lack of coordination between the army. Deeply upset, the Liberator ordered the remnants of the Aragua, Caracas and Agricultores battalions that had participated in the battle to be merged into a single battalion that would not receive a name.
Venezuela was under the control of the patriots in mid-1813, with the exception of the provinces of Guayana and Maracaibo. In September 1813, the royalists received reinforcements from Cádiz, extending to armed confrontations throughout the country, while the successes of the patriots continued until the end of 1813. In these encounters, the Battle of Araure stands out, in which Simón Bolívar defeated José Ceballos..
On December 3, 1813, Simón Bolívar learned that the royalist forces (3,500 men), under the command of Brigadier José Ceballos, had met with those of José Yáñez in the town of Araure in the Portuguesa State; and by virtue of this, he ordered that all the bodies found in El Altar and Cojedes attend the concentration that would take place in the town of Aguablanca. On the 4th, the Republicans marched towards Araure and camped some 1,000 m from the town, facing the royalists, who had deployed at the entrance to the Acarigua River mountain; with their wings supported on two separate forests and their front covered by a small lake, their back was garnished by a forest, they also had 10 artillery pieces.
Colonel Florencio Jiménez, commander of the Caracas, was appointed as the commander of the Unnamed Battalion. To add to the humiliation, the battalion was issued spears instead of rifles as a combat weapon. The battalion became the mockery of the republican army, until it received its opportunity to prove its value again on December 5, 1813 in Araure. In the battle of Araure, the action of the unnamed battalion was decisive. Armed only with lances, they attacked the Numancia battalion (one of the best Spanish battalions) and managed to throw their cadres into disarray, forcing them to retreat.
On the 5th, the Republican discovery engaged in action and immediately found itself outflanked and cut off by a column of cavalry, the small attacking force was virtually destroyed. Meanwhile, Bolívar deployed his divisions in battle to resume the attack. Colonel Manuel Villapol was placed on the right; Colonel Florencio Palacios in the center and Lieutenant Colonel Vicente Campo Elías, with the Barlovento battalion, on the left. The cavalry covered the 2 flanks of the device. A cavalry corps was assigned as a reserve. Faced with the Republican attack, Ceballos marched his cavalry against the right of the attackers, to distract and disorder them, but Bolívar, alert to this movement, pawned his reserve, which disordered and put the opposing cavalry to flight.
This intervention by Bolívar allowed the enemy front to break, an action that produced great confusion within the defensive position, with the consequent triumph of the Republicans. A division was in charge of touring the battlefield, which was covered with corpses and supplies of all kinds, while Bolívar himself was in charge of the pursuit of the defeated. The republican forces marched that day to Aparición de la Corteza, where Bolívar established his provisional headquarters. The Battle began at dawn and lasted approximately six hours. The royalist troops were numerically superior to the patriotic troops. 200 prisoners, four flags and numerous pieces of artillery remained in the hands of the patriots. In this single passionate and violent clash, more than 500 horsemen from Yáñez, the Ñaña of the llaneros, perished with spears. Here the battalion fought that on the last day in Barquisimeto was punished by the Liberator, denying it its name and the right to carry a flag. But he behaved so bravely in action that Bolívar told the soldiers the next day:
"Your courage has won yesterday in the battlefield, a name for your body, and even in the midst of the fire, when I saw you succeed, I proclaimed to you the Battalion Victor of Araure. You have taken away the enemy flags that were once victorious; the famous invincible call of Numance has been won."
Fall of the Second Republic
The Battle of Úrica was a military tactical action of the Venezuelan War of Independence fought in the town of Úrica in the current state of Anzoátegui State on December 5, 1814, between the Venezuelan field marshal José Félix Ribas and José Tomás Boves, who was recognized for his extreme cruelty, both inside and outside the battlefield.[citation needed] Rafael María Baralt describes him as cruel and bloodthirsty for the application of the law of retaliation with which he responded to Bolívar's actions. Boves commanded the royalists in the Battle of Úrica which ended in the death of the fearsome commander. For this company, Ribas had 2,000 men, led by José Tadeo Monagas, Pedro Zaraza, Manuel Cedeño, Francisco Parejo and others.
Upon reaching the site of El Areo, Ribas proceeded to form 2 cavalry columns of 180 men, which received the names of Rompelíneas, with Monagas and Zaraza as commanders. After making all the preparations for the battle, the patriot detachment marched during the night of December 4 to 5, to dawn in Úrica in front of the royalists (Boves had already joined the place), deployed in 3 columns in a large savannah. Hostilities were started by Boves, when he went out with his column to face the one commanded by Colonel Bermúdez, who was able to repel the attack.
This initial success of the patriots allowed Ribas to place his men in line of battle and with them he charged against the royalists, who responded with intense artillery fire. At this moment, Ribas ordered the Rompelíneas columns to undertake the attack against the enemy right column, which was carried out successfully. When Boves realized that his column had been engulfed, he rushed out of the center of it and was killed in the crash. The rest of the royalist forces (center and left), charged against the Republican line and surrounded it, and with it they obtained the victory, the casualties were numerous on both sides.
Third Republic
The third republic corresponds to the period between 1817 and December 1819, the year in which Simón Bolívar created the republic of Gran Colombia. After the fall of the Second Republic, the patriotic leaders took refuge in the islands of the Caribbean Sea, especially in Jamaica, Trinidad, Haiti and Curaçao. From there, and with the support of those countries, especially Haiti, they resumed the fight.
Bolívar returns to New Granada, to try to repeat the feat of the Admirable Campaign, an action that is rejected by his supporters. Feeling misunderstood in Cartagena de Indias, he decided to take the path of exile to Jamaica on May 9, 1815, encouraged by the idea of reaching the English-speaking world and convincing it of its cooperation with the ideal of Spanish-American independence. In Kingston he will live from May to December 1815, a time he dedicated to meditation and pondering about the future of the American continent in the face of the situation regarding the fate of Mexico, Central America, New Granada (including present-day Panama), Venezuela, Buenos Aires, Chile and Peru. The Jamaica Letter is a text written by Simón Bolívar on September 6, 1815 in Kingston, in response to a letter from Henry Cullen where he explains the reasons that led to the fall of the Second Republic in the context of the Independence of Venezuela. Although the Letter was originally addressed to Henry Cullen, it is clear that its main objective was to attract the attention of the most powerful liberal nation of the 19th century, Great Britain, so that it would become involved in American independence.
Situation in Margarita
For the year 1815, General Juan Bautista Arismendi is provisional Governor of Margarita Island. The Spanish harassment began throughout the territory of the republic, for a few months he and his family lived on the outskirts of La Asunción under the espionage and pressure that the Spanish authorities maintain on the sympathizers of the patriot cause on the island.. In September 1815, the arrest of Arismendi was ordered, he escaped and hid with one of his sons in the mountains of Copey. On September 24, his wife Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi, who was pregnant, is taken hostage to subdue her husband and locked up under surveillance in the Arnés family home, days later she is transferred to a dungeon at Castillo Santa Rosa in The assumption.
It is in that dark and lightless dungeon of the fortress that Luisa's ordeal begins for the mistreatment and humiliation committed by the Spanish troops to which she will never give in. A sentinel watches over her until her slightest movements, and she is forced to eat the ranch that they give her as the only food. Luisa sits night and day without moving so as not to attract the attention of the guard. One day the chaplain of the fortress on his way back from his trades passes by his door and stays contemplating that woman in an attitude of defeat, humiliation. Moved with compassion for her state, he manages to get food from her own house, to remove the sentinel and to place a light that illuminates the dungeon at night.
The military actions of General Arismendi allowed him to take prisoner several Spanish chiefs among them Commander Cobián, from the Santa Rosa fortress, for which reason the royalist chief Joaquín Urreiztieta proposed to Arismendi to exchange those prisoners for his wife, such an offer was not it is accepted and the emissary receives in response: Tell the Spanish boss that without a country I don't want a wife. From that moment on, the conditions of the captivity worsened and the possibility of freedom vanished when the patriots failed in an attempt to assault the fortress. After a month has elapsed since his prison, one night he hears a great alarm and realizes that an assault on the barracks is being prepared. He flatters her with the hope of a triumph of his own, but at dawn, when everything is calm, he only hears the cries of the dying and the wounded in the fray.
Hours later, the soldiers take her out of her prison to walk her on the esplanade of the barracks, where the unfortunate prisoners have been shot. Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi trembles at the idea that she too is going to be sacrificed, but she was wrong: the object of her executioners was for her to walk over the corpses of the patriots who had been shot, to walk over those lifeless bodies that had been the audacity to want to free her. Her spilled blood is going to flow into the prison cistern and Luisa is forced to quench her thirst with that putrefying and pestilential water mixed with the blood of her family. On January 26, 1816, Luisa gave birth to a girl who died at birth due to the conditions of the delivery and the dungeon in which she was imprisoned.
During all this time, she was kept incommunicado and without news from her relatives. The triumphs of the Republican forces commanded by Arismendi in Margarita and by General José Antonio Páez in Apure determined that Brigadier Moxó ordered the transfer of Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi to Cádiz, for this reason she was taken back to the La Guaira prison on November 24, 1816 and embarked on December 3. On the high seas they are attacked by a corsair ship that seizes all the cargo and the passengers are abandoned on the island of Santa Maria in the Azores. Unable to return to Venezuela, she Luisa arrives in Cádiz. She is brought before the Captain General of Andalusia, who protests the arbitrary decision of the Spanish authorities in America and gives her the category of inmate, after she paid a bond and promised to appear monthly before the magistrate. During her stay in Cádiz, she refused to sign a document expressing her loyalty to the King of Spain and denying her husband's patriot affiliation, to which she replied that her husband's duty was to serve the country and fight to liberate it. Her exile takes place without news of her mother and her husband.
"When the heroine Luisa Cáceres of Arismendi was taken prisoner and the realistic boss demanded surrender to her husband who said I don't want a wife. she answered May my husband fulfill his duty that I will be able to fulfill mine".
Expedition of the Keys
The expedition of Los Cayos de San Luis or simply Expedición de los Cayos, is the name by which the two invasions from Haiti carried out by the Liberator Simón Bolívar at the end of 1815 are known, exercising it during the year 1816 with the purpose of liberating Venezuela from Spanish forces. After leaving the port of Los Cayos, in the western part of Haiti, it stopped for 3 days on Beata Island south of the border between Haiti and Santo Domingo, to continue its itinerary in which the first days of April 1816 they were off the southern coast of what is now the Dominican Republic; On April 19, 1816, they reached the island of Vieques near the coast of Puerto Rico, a fact that was celebrated with artillery salutes; On April 25 they arrived at the Dutch island of Saba, 20 km from San Bartolomé, from where they headed towards Margarita, fighting on May 2 before arriving there, the naval combat of Los Frailes in which Luis's squadron Brión emerges victorious and captures the Spanish brig El Intrépido and the schooner Rita. On May 3, 1816 they touched Venezuelan soil on the island of Margarita, where on the 6th of the same month an assembly headed by General Juan Bautista Arismendi ratified the special powers conferred on Bolívar in Los Cayos.
After this ratification, Bolívar's expeditionary forces went to Carúpano where they finally disembarked and proclaimed the abolition of slavery and then continued to Ocumare de la Costa where they disembarked and reached Maracay but had to withdraw harassed by Morales, leaving part of the park on the beach and half of his soldiers who under McGregor undertake the overland retreat through the Aragua valleys to the east, known as the Retreat of the Six Hundred. After returning to Haiti and organizing a new expedition, Bolívar sailed from the port of Jacmel and arrived in Juan Griego on December 28, 1816, and in Barcelona on December 31, where he established his headquarters and planned a campaign on Caracas with the concentration of the forces that operated 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.
Despite the setbacks suffered by the expedition members and by the Liberator himself in Ocumare, the historical importance of the Los Cayos Expedition lies in the fact that it allowed Santiago Mariño, Manuel Piar and later José Francisco Bermúdez to undertake the liberation of the east of the country, and that MacGregor with Carlos Soublette and other chiefs definitively entered the Mainland, to make way for the definitive triumph of the Republic.
Landing on the Coasts
The Retreat of the Six Hundred was a journey of hundreds of kilometers through a territory hostile to patriots that occurred during the expedition of the Keys in 1816 fighting along the way with few weapons and ammunition. After the withdrawal, the six hundred met with the eastern patriot forces under the command of Manuel Piar with renewed confidence.
The Venezuelan patriots had landed on the Aragua Coast and from there they divided into several columns penetrating through the jungle and reaching Maracay, but the offensive launched by Francisco Tomás Morales in response to the landing pushed them back to the Beaches. In the disorder that followed, the patriots hurriedly embarked, leaving most of the park they had on the beach, in addition to 600 men under the command of Gregor MacGregor. Subsequently, General Santiago Mariño, seconded by José Francisco Bermúdez, marched on Irapa where he attacked and destroyed the Yaguaraparo garrison. After the offensive, he arrived in Carúpano, after the royalists had abandoned the square, on September 15 he established himself in Cariaco and from there, with the support of Juan Bautista Arismendi's squad, he opened operations against the city of Cumaná, the firstborn of the Continent. American.
After some successes in Maturín and learning of the advance of Santiago Mariño on Cumaná and the withdrawal of Gregor MacGregor, General Piar arrived at Chivacoa with 700 men and from there he went to Ortiz to threaten Cumaná and serve as a liaison Marino and MacGregor.
After several confrontations, Piar passed to the province of Guayana, where General Manuel Cedeño operated and united his forces, they advanced against the city of Angostura whose defense was held by Brigadier Miguel de la Torre. The Jacmel expedition landed in Barcelona on December 31, 1816. Bolívar established his headquarters in the city and from there he planned an offensive on Caracas that would be carried out after a concentration of troops from the regions occupied by the patriots: Apure, Guyana and Cumana. Bolívar executed a "diversion" along the coast of Píritu in order to divert the attention of the royalists towards Caracas while the planned concentration was taking place, but the defeat suffered in Clarines on January 9, 1817 rendered this diversion without effect, for which Bolívar returns to Barcelona. Political and strategic difficulties forced Bolívar to suspend the Barcelona campaign , from there he left for Guayana where Piar was, leaving the Barcelona forces under the leadership of General Pedro María Freites.
Guiana Campaign
The Guayana Campaign of 1816-1817, was the second campaign carried out by Venezuelan patriots in the Venezuelan War of Independence in the Guayana region after the 1811-1812 campaign that had ended in disaster.
The campaign was a great success for the republicans under the command of Manuel Piar with what they managed after several battles to expel all the royalists from the region with which they remained in power of a region rich in natural resources and communication facilities which served as the basis for launching campaigns in other regions of the country.
The Plains
With José Antonio Páez and in Guayana with Manuel Piar. San Félix and Angostura are liberated in 1818, with which the patriots had a territory full of many riches and with access to the sea through the Orinoco River. José Antonio Páez meets with Simón Bolívar, who came from Angostura to the south of the Orinoco to join the Apure army in the campaign against Guárico.
General Páez recognized the authority of Bolívar and on February 12, 1818 with the Toma de las Flecheras where the Llanos lancers crossed the Apure River and jumped into the river on their horses swimming before the confused sight of the royalists and took Spanish ships. Then in the battle of Calabozo, Bolívar was victorious over Pablo Morillo, Páez was in charge of pursuing the Spanish vanguard as commander and defeated them in La Uriosa on February 15, 1818.
The Battle of Las Queseras del Medio was an important military action carried out on April 2, 1819 in the current Apure state of Venezuela in which the hero of independence, José Antonio Páez, defeated accompanied by 153 lancers to more than 1000 cavalrymen of the Spanish forces being the most famous battle commanded by Páez and where the famous phrase is dictated: Come back Faces! (more probably: Come back the hell!). Falling on their pursuers and destroying the royalist cavalry fleeing back to their camp. Las Queseras was the greatest triumph of the military career of General Páez, in recognition of the brilliant action, Bolívar decorated him with the Order of the Liberators the next day.
After Páez was promoted in San Juan de Payara by the Liberator to division general, the Apure campaign was fought together with Bolívar against Morillo's troops that had invaded Apure. After the Apure campaign ended with Morillo's withdrawal to Calabozo, Bolívar began the New Granada Liberation Campaign and Páez was entrusted with security and strategic reserve functions, monitoring Morillo's movements and cutting off, in conjunction with the eastern army, a possible attack by Morillo to Bolívar's forces.
Congress of Angostura
On February 15, 1819, Bolívar installed the Congress of Angostura and delivered the Angostura Speech that was prepared in the context of the wars of Independence of Venezuela and Colombia. Representatives of Venezuela, New Granada met at the Congress (now Colombia) and Quito (now Ecuador). The decisions initially made were as follows:
- The New Granada was renowned Cundinamarca and its capital, Santa Fe renamed Bogotá. The Capital of Quito would be Quito. The Capital of Venezuela would be Caracas. The Capital of the Great Colombia would be Bogotá.
- It creates the Republic of Colombiathat would be ruled by a president. There would be a Vice-President who would supplant the President in his absence. (Historically, it is customary to call Colombia of the Congress of Angostura La Gran Colombia)
- The governors of the three departments would also be called Vice-Presidents.
- The president and vice president would choose with an indirect vote, but for the purpose of starting, the congress elected them as follows: President of the Republic: Simón Bolívar and Vice President: Francisco de Paula Santander. In August Bolivar invaded his liberating task and left for Ecuador and Peru, and left the president to Santander.
- Bolivar is given the title of "Liberator" and his portrait would be exhibited in the meeting room with the slogan "Bolívar, Libertador de la Gran Colombia and father of the Homeland"
On December 17, 1819, the union of Venezuela and New Granada was declared and the Republic of Colombia was born. Currently known as Gran Colombia. Thus ends the Third Republic.
By then, the Spanish only had the north center of the country left, (including Caracas) Coro, Mérida, Cumaná, Barcelona and Maracaibo.
Armistice of Santa Ana
After six years of war, the Spanish general Pablo Morillo agreed to meet with Bolívar in 1820. After New Granada was liberated and the Republic of Colombia was created, Bolívar signed with the Spanish general Pablo Morillo, on November 26, 1820, an Armistice, as well as a War Regularization Treaty. Mariscal Sucre drafted this Treaty of Armistice and Regularization of the War, considered by Bolívar as "the most beautiful monument of mercy applied to war". Captain General Pablo Morillo receives instructions on June 6, 1820 from Spain to arbitrate with Simón Bolívar a cessation of hostilities. Morillo informed Bolívar about the unilateral ceasefire of the Spanish army and the invitation to confer an agreement to regularize the war. The plenipotentiaries of both sides meet and on November 25 Bolívar and Morillo do the same. On the 25th, the Armistice was signed between the Republic of Colombia and Spain, which suspended all military operations at sea and on land in Venezuela and confined the armies of both sides to the positions they held on the day of signing, according to which the line demarcation between the two.
The importance of the documents drafted by Antonio José de Sucre, in what meant his first diplomatic action, was the temporary cessation of the fights between the patriots and the royalists, and the end of the war to the death that began in 1813. The Armistice of Santa Ana allowed Bolívar time to prepare the strategy for the Battle of Carabobo, which ensured Venezuelan independence. The document marked a milestone in international law, since Sucre established worldwide the humanitarian treatment that the losers began to receive from the victors in a war. In this way he became a pioneer of human rights. The projection of the treaty was of such magnitude that Bolívar wrote in one of his letters: "...this treaty is worthy of the soul of Sucre"... The Armistice Treaty Its purpose was to suspend hostilities to facilitate talks between the two sides, with a view to concluding the final peace. This Treaty was signed for six months and forced both armies to remain in the positions they occupied at the time of signing. The Armistice Treaty was:
"For which from now on will the war between Spain and Colombia be waged as civilized peoples do."
Pablo Morillo recounts in his memoirs that when he arrived in Spain, after embracing Simón Bolívar and signing the Armistice Treaty of Santa Ana, the King of Spain claimed him and called him in and told him:
"Explain to me how it is that you, who triumphed against the French, against the troops of Napoleon Bonaparte, come here defeated by some savages."
To which the General replied:
"Your Majesty, if you give me a Páez and 100,000 Apure Plains to those you call Salvages, I put all Europe at your feet."
Battle of Carabobo
When the armistice expired on April 28, 1821, both sides began a mobilization of their forces, the Spanish had a display that made a combat in detail favorable, defeating the patriotic divisions one by one time. The patriots commanded by Bolívar, on the other hand, needed to concentrate their troops in order to win a single decisive battle.
The concentration of the independence troops took place in the city of San Carlos, where the armies of Bolívar, Páez and the division of Colonel Cruz Carrillo converged. The eastern army, led by José Francisco Bermúdez, carried out a diversionary maneuver advancing on Caracas, La Guaira and the Valles de Aragua that forced La Torre to send some 1000 men against him to recover the positions and secure his rear. The independence army advanced from San Carlos to Tinaco covered by the advance guard of Colonel José Laurencio Silva, who took the royalist positions in Tinaquillo. On the 20th, the Colombian army crossed the Tinaco River and on the 23rd Bolívar reviewed his forces in the Taguanes savannah. In the early hours of June 24, from the heights of Cerro Buenavista, Bolívar reconnoitred the royalist position and concluded that it was impregnable from the front and from the south. Consequently, he ordered the divisions to change their march to the left and head for the royalist right flank, which was in the open; that is to say, Bolívar conceived a maneuver tending to overwhelm the enemy right wing, an operation carried out by the divisions of José Antonio Páez and Cedeño, while the Plaza division continued along the road towards the center of the defensive position.
The Battle of Carabobo was a combat between the armies of Greater Colombia led by Simón Bolívar and that of the Kingdom of Spain led by Marshal Miguel de la Torre, which occurred on June 24, 1821 in the Sabana de Carabobo. The battle ended as a decisive independence victory, which was crucial for the liberation of Caracas and the rest of the territory that was still in the hands of the royalists, a fact that was finally achieved in 1823 with the naval Battle of Lake Maracaibo and the taking of the Castillo San Felipe de Puerto Cabello. The triumph allowed Bolívar to start the Southern Campaigns while his subordinates finished the fight in Venezuela.
On June 29, Bolívar's troops entered Caracas. The white inhabitants had abandoned the city: the houses had been looted and there were hardly any beggars and corpses in the streets. Some 24,000 people left Venezuela for the Caribbean islands, the United States or Spain. Bolívar ordered the confiscation of all the possessions of those who had emigrated, including the crops.
Naval Battle of Lake Maracaibo
The Naval Battle of Lake Maracaibo, also referred to as the Naval Battle of the Lake, was a naval battle fought on July 24, 1823 in the waters of Lake Maracaibo in the current state of Zulia, Venezuela. It would definitively seal the Venezuelan independence from Spain, being a decisive action in the naval campaigns of Independence. The Spanish had managed to reconquer the provinces of Coro and Maracaibo, which gave them considerable territory in the west of the country. The authorities of the Republic decreed a naval blockade of the country's coasts, the entrance to Lake Maracaibo was forced by Admiral Padilla on May 8, 1823, and after several limited actions the decisive battle took place on July 24, 1823, resulting in a complete Colombian triumph. The defeat at Lake Maracaibo made the position of Morales untenable, who capitulated on August 3.
At the end of the day, Admiral Padilla ordered the squadron to anchor where they had fought. Shortly after he went to the Ports of Altagracia to repair the damage to his ships. On his part, Commander Ángel Laborde went to the castle, later won the bar, played in Puerto Cabello and with the post's file headed for Cuba. The losses of the Republicans were 8 officers and 36 members of the crew and troops dead, 14 of the first and 150 of the second wounded and one officer contused, while that of the royalists was higher, without counting the 69 officers and 368 soldiers. and sailors who remained prisoners.
In two hours of fierce combat the action was decided, which paved the way for negotiations with Captain General Francisco Tomás Morales; On the following August 3, he was forced to hand over the rest of the royalist fleet, the Plaza de Maracaibo, the Castle of San Carlos, the San Felipe Castle in Puerto Cabello, as well as all the other sites occupied by the Spanish officers. On August 5, the last officer in the service of the King of Spain left Venezuelan territory: the freedom of Venezuela was definitively decided.
Gran Colombia
This event occurred between 1819 and 1830, in which Venezuela, New Granada and Ecuador were united as a single Republic called Gran Colombia. However, the dissolution of this republic had been germinating since the first days of its creation. Gran Colombia was created in 1819 by the fundamental law of the Congress of Angostura and organized by the Congress of Cúcuta, according to the Constitution of Cúcuta.
In 1827 the Gran Colombian union (to which Quito, today Ecuador, had joined in 1823) entered into crisis and the efforts of Bolívar and some others to stop the disintegration were worthless. In 1830, New Granada, Venezuela, and Quito separated. Bolívar died on December 17 of that year. In the Congress of Valencia, the deputies who met in this city from May 6, 1830 to discuss the issue of the dissolution of Greater Colombia, with the separation of Venezuela, were chosen.
Epilogue
The independence of Venezuela was finally recognized by Spain on March 30, 1845, through a peace and friendship treaty made between the governments of Queen Elizabeth II of Spain and Venezuelan President Carlos Soublette.
The Federal Constitution of 1811 established the equality of citizens before the law. Titles of nobility and personal privileges were eliminated. Laws that civilly degraded pardos were revoked. The right to property and security. These provisions have remained in the other constitutions approved over time in Venezuela. Nonetheless, inequality between social strata continued, although now based on possession of wealth, rather than ethnicity.
The Federal Constitution of 1811 ratified the prohibition, given on August 14, 1810 by the Supreme Board of Caracas, to introduce black slaves into the country. However, the figure of slavery was maintained until 1854 when President José Gregorio Monagas eliminated it.
Between 1821 and 1823, the expulsion of the Spaniards from Venezuelan territory was ordered. Those who took part in the independent movement and the elderly over 80 years of age were excepted.
Opinions on the nature of the independence process are not unanimous. Some affirm that independence was an eminently political revolution, since many of its main promoters were from the local aristocracy, who would not be interested in radically changing the existing conditions of social inequality, so as not to endanger the hegemony to which they aspired.. Others think that the initial rejection that the independence process had in a good part of the other social groups (pardos, Indians and blacks) gave it the nature of a social revolution, since these sectors wanted a transformation of the social and economic structure that gave rise to a more egalitarian society.