Hector A. Ruiz

MBA, Project Manager, Tennis Player, Musician, and Author of "How to Destroy a Country"

Month: October 2019

Causes of Venezuela’s Independence (1 of 6)

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On October 31, 2019

In History

Today’s entry will be the first of a six part series of posts in which I will identify and explain the causes that sparked the War of Venezuela’s Independence.

The intent is for each part to be a trigger for the following one, culminating with the actual beginning of the War of Independence. The six part series will be divided in three indirect causes and three direct causes. On this initial entry I will begin with the first of the three indirect causes.

The Invention of the Press.

Many inventions have substantially affected and changed humanity ever since we have been populating the Earth. Few however, have had the impact of the Printing Press.

I’ve always believed that it is important to study history keeping the perspective of the time in which the events unfolded are told, in order to understand the magnitude and especially the long term impact of the event in humanity. When talking about the invention of the Printed Press, we have to imagine Europe being a continent of monarchies, coming out of a feudal system, with a very low percentage of the population being educated and able to read or write. Knowledge was a privilege and ideas were floating in the air, nowhere to be kept on record and distributed to the people. All of this changed en 1440 with the introduction of a fast and efficient method to reproduce written content.

The invention of the Printed Press therefore implied a larger, faster, quicker and better distribution of knowledge throughout Europe. New authors came along, new perspectives, new points of view and overall, it opened the pathway for mass communication and for thinkers to actually spread their different schools of thought to the population. It was a very big deal, one of the greatest moments in the history of mankind and the originator of what would happen next, which is what I label as the second indirect cause of Venezuela’s War of Independence, which we will take a look at in my following entry.

The Captaincy General of Venezuela

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On October 23, 2019

In History

By 1721, the new Viceroyalty of New Grenada was established and given jurisdiction over the territories that today constitute Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Panama, and Venezuela then became a Province.

During this time, trade emerged as one of the main drivers of the Venezuelan economy, being managed by the Guipuzcoan Company, which held a monopoly on all trade. Foreign commerce opened and all of a sudden, Caracas became a powerhouse city in south America, having commercial relations with England, France and the Netherlands. Venezuela’s main advantage was geographical, being close to colonies of those European Kingdoms.

As the 13 North American Colonies declared their independence on July 4, 1776, Venezuela -still under the rule of the Kingdom of Spain- became a Captaincy General, which was an administrative district that gave the territory more autonomy to reorganize its powers. Some scholars consider the Captaincy General of Venezuela as another Viceroyalty, similar to New Granada (Colombia). The new entity had six provinces: Caracas, Maracaibo, Cumana, Guayana, Trinidad and Margarita.

It wouldn’t take too long for the Captaincy General of Venezuela to follow the steps of the North American 13 Colonies, and shortly after being established, the first movements to declare its independence took place.

In my next entry, I will discuss the causes that led to Venezuela’s independence.

From 1600 to the mid 1700s…

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On October 15, 2019

In History

Not much can be said about Venezuela’s history between the early years of 1600 and the mid 1700s. It seems that this is where the differences of the British and the Spanish Colonies begin.

Most scholars agree that Venezuela was not considered as key place and that its importance as a Colony of Spain was displaced by the more important Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru. Approximately 2,000 people lived in the country, with an economy that was based on livestock and goldmines, in somewhat of a feudal system.

By the end of the 1600s, there was an established higher education school named “School Seminary of Saint Rose de Lima”. Given that there was no university in the country and that for people living in the country who wanted to get a college degree, the only choices were the universities in Bogota (Colombia), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) and Mexico, the Rector of the Seminar made a formal request to the King of Spain for the creation of a University in Venezuela. This led to a royal decree that resulted in Venezuela’s first university, established on December 22, 1721: Universidad Real y Pontificia de Caracas, which centuries later would become the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) and offered degrees in Theology, Philosophy, Canon Law and Medicine. The Real y Pontificia would be Venezuela’s only university until 1810, when the Universidad de Los Andes was founded in Merida.

In my book I will touch base on the importance of higher education as part of a successful system, and of course, on the importance of the Universidad Central de Venezuela, and Venezuela’s other universities.

Three early important characters

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On October 1, 2019

In History

In today’s entry I am going to briefly talk about three of the first relevant characters that belong in Venezuela’s history: Guaicaipuro, Francisco Fajardo and Diego de Losada.

Guaicaipuro was an indian Chief of the Caracas and Los Teques tribes, who led the resistance against Spanish colonization in the Valley of Caracas, commanding other Chiefs such as Naiguata, Chacao, Guaicamacuto and his own son Baruta.

Guaicaipuro was the first Chief that attacked the Spaniards who mined gold mines in the territory of what today is Los Teques, and afterwards led another attack where he killed the Province Governor’s (Juan Rodriguez Suarez) sons.
These victories made him rise to become the leader of all tribes that lived in Caracas and Los Teques, which resulted in the Spaniards abstaining from settling in the area for over five years.

Next we have Francisco Fajardo, who was a Spanish explorer who led several expeditions that attempted to settle in the Valley of Caracas between 1555 and 1562.

Fajardo was one of the first colonizer who was a “mestizo”, meaning he was the son of a white Spanish man and a waikeri indian woman. Fajardo used this to his advantage to blend in the local tribes of the Valley. Eventually, in 1564 he was defeated by Guaicaipuro and had to retreat to Cumana city, where he was arrested and executed by Alonso Cobos for unknown reasons.

Caracas’ main highway, which covers and connects the entire city, is named after Francisco Fajardo.

Finally, we have Spaniard conqueror Diego de Losada, who founded Santiago de Leon de Caracas in 1567.

Worried by the constant attacks of Guaicaipuro, Losada ordered his men to capture and/or kill Guaicaipuro, a feat they achieved in 1568. This allowed the spaniards to stay in a permanent settlement in the valley Caracas and Los Teques.

Caracas -Venezuela’s current capital city- would not become the capital for many years. However, eventually it would be come the center of attention and most important place in the country.

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