Up until this point we have a chain of events that indirectly led to Venezuela’s War of Independence: The Invention of the Printed Press led to the Age of Enlightenment, which led to the Seven Years’ War, which resulted in Great Britain emerging as winner and sole power of Europe over France, the sore loser. But where does the Kingdom of Spain -Colonizer of Venezuela- fit into all of that?
Taxes.
The glorious achievement of Great Britain winning the war came with a small side consequence: the country was broke. King George II then thought of no better idea than to impose Taxes to its new colonies in America, to help pay for the war effort put into arguably defending the colonies themselves against the French.
I guess the Taxes would have gone unnoticed, had they not been part of a series of absurd policies that left the American Colonies quite uncomfortable, such as the ban on foreign trade and no right for seats in the British Parliament.
While Spain wasn’t directly involved in the Seven Years’ War, they suffered indirect consequences of the turnaround that occurred in Europe. Therefore, Spain had their fair amount of economic struggles and emulating King George’s policies, they too decided to impose heavy taxes in their American Colonies.
At this point in time (the years 1760-1770) the American British Colonies were a bit more structured than its Spaniard counterparts. Therefore the American Colonists were pondering whether how worth was it to pay for taxes and obey a monarch that didn’t give you any say on the laws that governed your own land.
In consequence, the “Shot that was heard around the world” happened, and so the American Revolutionary War began…