with the Augsburg banking and merchant firm of
llie Welsers to grant tlicm the entire Province of
Venezuehi, in return for advances of money. In
1528 Ambrose Alfinger sailed for the colony,
with a force of 400 adventurers^ representing the
new rulers. Disappointed in the expectation of
liiuling mines of gold ready to be exploited, he
and liis successor, George Spira, who brouglit over
aiuither body of retainers in 1533. raideil the in-
terior regions for produce, enslaving the natives,
and demoralizing the whole covnitry, so that in
1515 Cliarles V. rescinded the grant. The country
was now intrusted to a governor sent from
Spain. The rest of the sixteenth century was
marked by exploring expeditions, the founding of
settlements and cities, and wars with the natives.
Early in the seventeenth century the P.iscayau
merchant organization, Compafifa Guipuzcoana,
secured the right to control the Venezuelan trade,
on condition that it put an end to the illicit
trade with Curacao and cliance foreign ships.
For fifty years this worked fairly well, but event-
ually the CompaiJi'a found it more profitable to
cuter into arrangements of mutual advantage
with the Curacao merchants. This soon led to
great popular opposition, threatening civil war in
1748, but the Conipailia maintained its hold until
1778. The nominal government was in the hands
of a Captain-General, subordinate to the roj'al
audiencia at Sajito Domingo, for most of the
time down to 1786, when an independent audi-
encia was established at Carflcas.
The histoiy of the war for independence against Spain in Venezuela is to a great extent the record of tile careers of Miranda and Bolivar. After the failure of the expedition of 180(5, Miranda retired to London, where Bolivar found him and took him back to Venezuela, to become the military leader of the patriots. A popular uprising gave the revolutionists command of the capital, and on April 10, 1810, the local council at Caracas de- posed the royal Governor and selected a junta or council to rule during the regency in Spain. The next year Bolivar led a popular demonstration ■which culminated in a formal manifesto or dec- laration of independence and the proclamation of a repulilican constitutional government. Mean- while, Don Domingo Monteverde t(X)k command of the royalist forces and gradually gained the upper hand over the patriots. The fortress of Puerto Cabello was betrayed to him, and Bolivar was forced to retire to La Guayra. Miranda, un- able to maintain an army in the field, concluded a peace, July 20, 1812, and joined Bolivar, by whom he was arrested and handed over to the Spanish conmiandcr. Bolivar took refuge in Car- tagena, raised an army, and in August, 1813, re- entered Carficas in triumph. In 1815 he was forced to retire to Jamaica, but in January', 1817, he returned, established a government at Angos- tura, and had himself elected President or dicta- tor, a position which he .succeeded in making se- cure by December, 1819, when the Congress at Angostura elected him President of Colombia, representing a new republic embracing Venezuela and New Granada. On June 24, 1821. the de- cisive victory of Bolivar and Paez (q.v.) at Caraboho over the royalist army practically ended the Spanish domination in this |iart of South America. In 1820 Venezuela, under the influence of Paez. seceded from Colombia and constituted itself an independent repvdilic. The subsetincnt history of the country wa.s uneventful until 1840, when an era of insurrections and civil wars began between the conservative and liberal factions, which lasted, with scarcely a break, down to 1870. In 1854 a law for the abolition of slavery was enacted. In 1804 a federal constitu- tion was adopted.
The current of Venezuelan afl'airs has been often all'ected by disputes with the Dutcli an<l Knglish concerning the boundary between Vene- zuela aud Guiana. When the Kepublie succeeded to the title of Spain, in 1821, the boundary be- tween Venezuela and Ciuiana was somewhere be- tween the Essequibo and the Orinoco. Spain claimed to the former river, while prospectors and adventurers of all nationalities roamed through the intervening region. Knglish and Dutch settlers had established themselvesthrough- out the region drained by the lower Essecpiibo, liringing that section practically under the Brit- ish Government. The rest of the region between the two rivers ajipears to have coutained very few permanent settlements. In 1830-40 a Brit- ish agent, Schomburgk, traversed this country and mapped it, laying down a boundary line which gave to Guiana the larger part of the ter- ritory. Venezuela promptly protested, and in 1844 England disclaimed any responsibility for, or oflicial character in. the Schomburgk line. Six years later, the agitation having been maintained by the Venezuelan agents, a truce was entered into by which both parties agreed to keep out of the disputed area and, as Venezuela understood it, recoguized the de facto line which had been first laid down in 1708, when the Dutch were driven out of their attempted settlements on the Orinoco and limited to the region beyond the JNloroco Kiver. The truce lasted until" 1870-80, when each party accused the other of violating the agreement. In 1887 England occupied the main mouth of the Orinoco and fortified lier posi- tion there. Venezuela promptly broke oft' all diplomatic relations. Realizing the hopelessness of contending with Great Britain in arms, the Venezuelan Government decided to resort to pub- lic opinion. An agent was sent to the Linited States, who spread abroad pamphlets and state- ments, and interviewed newspaper men and poli- ticians, and in December, 1804, President Cleve- land recognized the widespread public interest in the dispute by an allusion to it in his annual mes- sage to Congress. A year later, the British Gov- ernment having notified the L-nited States that it had nothing to arbitrate, with Venezuela, a special message, sharp in its tone with regard to Great Britain, was sent by Cleveland to Congress, leading that body to appropriate funds (.$100,- 000) for a commission to investigate "the true divisional line between Venezuela and British Guiana." In November, 1890. before the com- mission had reported. Great Britain yielded to the demand of the L^nited States for arbitration. Eventually, in February, 1807. an agreement was reached and a treaty of arbitration duly signed. The arbitration tribunal made its award on October 3, 1800. drawing a line between the claims of the two neighbors, of whom Venezuela was apparently the less satisfied. Consult the Report of the Venezuelan Boundary Commission (Washington. 1897), especially the Ofjicinl Uis- tory of the dispute; British Blue Books and
