Central America · Conquest and the Spanish colonial era
Republic of Venezuela
1811; 1813–1814
Venezuela declared independence from Spain on 5 July 1811, the first Spanish American colony to make a formal break, inspired by the veteran precursor Francisco de Miranda, who was made generalísimo (in effect dictator).
- Existed
- 1811; 1813–1814
- Shown on the map
- 1811, 1814 (2 periods)
- Peak area
- 402k km²
- Region
- Central America
Overview
Venezuela declared independence from Spain on 5 July 1811, the first Spanish American colony to make a formal break, inspired by the veteran precursor Francisco de Miranda, who was made generalísimo (in effect dictator). This First Republic collapsed in July 1812: the catastrophic Caracas earthquake of 26 March 1812 — exploited by royalists as divine punishment on the rebels — and the advance of royalist forces under Domingo de Monteverde broke the patriot cause; Miranda capitulated and was handed over to the Spanish (he died in a Cádiz prison in 1816), an act for which the young Bolívar never forgave him.
Decline and legacy
Simón Bolívar restored republican rule in his 1813 "Admirable Campaign," entering Caracas and earning the title "El Libertador" — the Second Republic. It too collapsed in 1814 under the onslaught of the royalist llanero cavalry of José Tomás Boves, whose ferocious campaign forced the mass "Emigration to the East." These early failures taught Bolívar the strategic and political lessons — the need for a disciplined army, foreign support, and appeal to the pardo majority — that shaped his later, successful continental campaign launched from the Orinoco and New Granada.
Common questions
- What was the Republic of Venezuela?
- Venezuela declared independence from Spain on 5 July 1811, the first Spanish American colony to make a formal break, inspired by the veteran precursor Francisco de Miranda, who was made generalísimo (in effect dictator).
- When did the Republic of Venezuela exist?
- The Republic of Venezuela existed 1811; 1813–1814. On this map it is drawn 1811, 1814.
- How large was the Republic of Venezuela?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Republic of Venezuela covered about 402,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
- How did the Republic of Venezuela end?
- Simón Bolívar restored republican rule in his 1813 "Admirable Campaign," entering Caracas and earning the title "El Libertador" — the Second Republic. It too collapsed in 1814 under the onslaught of the royalist llanero cavalry of José Tomás Boves, whose ferocious campaign forced the mass "Emigration to the East."
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity and for the key figures and events as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, EBSCO Research Starters and academic sources. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Venezuela en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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