Hector A. Ruiz

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

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Causes of Venezuela’s Independence (3 of 6)

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On November 19, 2019

In History

Today I am going to talk about the third and last indirect cause of Venezuela’s Independence. The whole idea of listing six causes in six entries, is for the reader to see the “Domino Effect” that occurs from the first until the last one.

As the Age of Enlightenment unfolded throughout Europe spreading knowledge, new schools of thought and the initial bases for the industrial revolution, tensions between the two great super powers of the Old Continent had reached a peak. The fact that expansionism in colonies in America and Africa was also part of the equation (IE. The French-Indian Wars), eventually led to Great Britain and its allies (Prussia and Hanover), go into war against France and its allies (Russia, Saxony, Sweden and Austria) in what would be the largest major conflict up to date in the world.

The Seven Years’ War

Largely overlooked for many years, only recently has The Seven Years’ War been able to attain the importance it deserved in history books, with some scholars even informally labeling it as “World War Zero” or “The First Actual World War”, due to the number of key players involved in the conflict, as well as the amount of fronts and theaters where it was fought.

Regarding Venezuela’s implication as a consequence to the Seven Years’ Wars, there are three things that are of importance to consider:

  1. The overall result: Great Britain emerging as winner and France as loser.
  2. The impact of the result in Europe: what happened to both Great Britain and France, after the war.
  3. The impact of the result in America: what would happen in the theater where the war was fought, that is… The American Colonies.

All of these three elements are going to lead to the three direct causes of Venezuela’s Independence, which I will start listing in the following entry.

Causes of Venezuela’s Independence (2 of 6)

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On November 10, 2019

In History

After the invention of the Printed Press, the structure of society in Europe was altered for years to come. As I stated in my previous entry, information would now spread easily, faster and more efficiently throughout the continent, resulting in a dramatic increase of literacy in the population. Science emerged as a true game player when it came to knowledge and overall, people began to think and therefore exist.

The Age of Enlightenment

With a wider availability of literature, new schools of thought surged across Europe. Up until the Fifteenth Century, I’m quite sure you would have labeled someone as a “Leader”, if that person had military experience or any sort of involvement with the Clergy or the Monarchy. Now, there was a new type of leaders: there were “Intellectual Leaders”.

Rene Descartes, John Stuart Mill, Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon and many others were early pioneers of what would be called the “Scientific Revolution”. New ideas centered around reason and evidence, as well as progress, liberty, toleration, constitution and the separation of Church and State.

People began to ask, to wonder, to find out and ask the why of things. One of the earliest questions that was poised by the Age of Enlightenment was the actual necessity of a King in a Monarchy. Why do we need a King? Who put him there? Why is it that only his descendants have the right to govern? Why is the reasoning behind the Church? The more time passed, the more people moved towards progress and logic, leaving behind the blind faith and beliefs in the unknown.

Following the Age of Enlightenment, the structural society solidified the power of the two greatest Monarchies in Europe: England and France as superpowers of the world, and it wouldn’t take too long before both of them would want to figure out which of the two was the most powerful nation on Earth.

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.

The German Venezuela

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On September 19, 2019

In History

Despite Spain being the first ones to establish themselves in Nueva Cadiz, Santa Cruz, Coro and Cumana, it was Germany the first country to establish a structured government colony in Venezuela.

They called the land Kleine-Venedig (Little Venice), after being obtained from the King of Spain Charles I, who gave colonial rights to the Wesler family from Germany. The Weslers governed the region from 1528 to 1546, and their main interest was to find the legendary city “El Dorado”. They sent several expeditions to find it, the first one being led by Ambrosius Ehunger, who founded of Maracaibo in 1529, followed by Georg von Sprayer and Phillip von Hutten. Kleine-Venedig was also the largest German colony during the colonization of America.

After years of absence of the German governors (due to them being away from the city, searching for El Dorado), Spain took action through newly appointed governor Juan De Carvajal to recover the colony, by ordering the aprehension and eventual execution of all the Germans.

Venezuela, America.

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On September 10, 2019

In History

In 1507, the German cartographist Martin Waldseemüller drew the first world map that featured the new lands discovered by Columbus, Ojeda, Vespucci and the subsequent expeditions that followed.

Waldseemüller named the new continent as “America”, after Amerigo Vespucci, using a latin variation of his name in female gender, reasoning that the existing continents Asia and Europa (Europe), had female genders.
The name “America” is written on the map over the land that today is known as “South America”, and the map is titled as: Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespuci aliorumque lustrationes (Universal Cosmography according Ptholomei’s tradition and the discoveries of Amerigo Vespucci and others).

The first two cities founded in Venezuela were Nueva Cadiz (1500) and Santa Cruz (1502). Nueva Cadiz was a settlement founded in the island of Cubagua for the new population seeking pearl oyster beds. Santa Cruz was founded by Alonso de Ojeda in the Goajira peninsula, and it was the first city founded on main land.

Both cities were short lived. Due to internal disputes, indian attacks, and poor weather, Santa Cruz was abandoned just three months after it was founded. Nueva Cadiz saw a few years of prosperity, but after depletion of the pearl ouster beds and devastating seaquake in 1541, the city was finally abandoned.

In my following entry, I will give a quick glimpse of the first European organized government settlement in Venezuela, which contrary to what many believe, was not from Spain.

The origin of the name Venezuela

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On August 17, 2019

In History

Today’s post will go over the subject of the origin of Venezuela’s name.

The most commonly accepted theory of how Venezuela got its name, is that Alonso de Ojeda named the land after Amerigo Vespucci’s comment during a voyage made along the new land’s coast. Historians are almost certain that Vespucci made four trips to the new continent. In one of the two trips of which there is almost complete certainty that happened (the second one led by Ojeda, the other one being the third), Vespucci commented to Ojeda that the stilt houses the indians built on top of pillars in Lake Maracaibo reminded him of Venice, which led Ojeda -Captain and Leader of the expedition- to name the country with an italianized variation “Venezziola”, roughly meaning “little Venice”. The houses Ojeda and Vespucci saw are known as “Palafitos”.

A second theory states that Ojeda named the country after encountering a small local indian tribe who named themselves “Veneciuela”. The third and least accepted theory is that the name came from a variation of the city “Valencia”.

During the years I lived in Venezuela, I would say that 99% of the population accepted the theory of the houses on the lake theory. There were dozens of references and stories about it in the Venezuelan culture, including many songs that were titled “Pequeña Venecia” (Little Venice).

In my next entry, I will discuss the arrival process of the European conquerors and how they set their new ventures in this new territory that would be now known as “Venezuela”.

“That’s just the way they are”

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On August 11, 2019

In Book

The other day at work I was having a conversation with a coworker about one of those sensible topics we are working on to become a better society.

A few months ago, I was working in a project with a fellow Project Manager from a foreign country. We had several meetings and conference calls, and I was amazed on how poorly he treated the people who were under his title, regardless if the person worked for his, mine or anyone else’s company.

I shared this with a friend over a few drinks one night, and my friend -who used to work for someone of the same nationality of the PM- said to me: -“Oh yes, that’s the way they are. They are very into hierarchy. They behave one way if you have a title that’s under theirs, and they behave in a completely different way if they are under you. It’s just the way they are. They respect hierarchy and that’s the way it works for them.” A similar example was brought to my attention when a friend who lived in a certain country where the people are very into punctuality, told me: “It’s part of their culture. It’s the way they are.”

All of this makes me wonder: in this new era of globalization and equality -something I’m all in favor of- where do we stand when it comes to qualities like this that appear to be intrinsic to a group of people who share a particular behavior in common?

Am I wrong in saying that people from country “X” are nut about punctuality? Am I offending anyone if I say it is common for a certain nationality to thrive for respect and hierarchy? I would like to say no, because otherwise, why would we have all the articles:

20 things to know before moving to Sweden

Things not to do in Denmark

7 useful culture shock preventing facts about austrian culture

That brings me to my next question: is it fair to associate a group people with a certain behavior in common, regardless if it is positive or negative?

The prologue of my book -written by my best friend Dr. Lorne Lopez-, states that my book is uses “the old-school free speech some of us today long for”. As an analysis of a society done by a foreigner, something that I wanted to clear up from the very beginning of my book, is the resource of generalization and how I wanted to avoid it as most as I could. In the end, I will generalize just like when my friend would say “oh yes, people from that country are very into hierarchy”, or like when my other friend would say: “people from that country are very into punctuality”. This is because when I see certain patterns recurrently occur in a group of people who have something in common, I cannot help but to state that maybe there is a chance that someone who belongs to that group, will also have the same characteristics.

In my book, I will state that Venezuela’s society was filled with flaws and cracks that contributed to initiate the debacle of the country that has led to its current collapsed state. The thing is that, society is not an omnipresent, omnipotent invisible entity being that surrounds us and which we can’t interact with.

Society is made by people, and in Venezuela’s case, people with a lot of similar characteristics in common.

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