The first definite attempt at revolt from the mother-country occurred in 1797. Its leaders were captured and executed. A Venezuelan gentleman, Don Francisco Miranda, invaded the colony at Ocumare 25 March 1806. Re pulsed by Captain-General Vasconcelos, he re tired to Trinidad and about five months later made an unsuccessful landing at Coro. The first Venezuelan Congress (44 deputies ejected by seven provinces) met on 2 March 181T; the Declaration of Independence by the deputies took place on 5 July 1811. The seven provinces were at that time said to be regarded as form ing a confederation of free, sovereign and inde pendent states; nevertheless, when leaders of the revolution were sufficiently strong to de clare a constitution on 21 Dec. 1811, power was granted by that instrument to the central gov ernment to revise the provincial constitutions. On 25 July 1812 Miranda, who had been ap pointed dictator by Congress, capitulated with 4,000 men to the royalist leader, Monteverde, who was in command of only 3,000; four years later he died in prison in Spain. In 1813 Simon Bolivar, Venezuelan aristocrat, then 30 years of age, became the leader of the patriots. Initial successes were his; but a rising of half-breeds of the Llanos under Boves, in behalf of the royalists, delayed the conclusion of the strug gle for years. Boves with royalist forces de feated Bolivar, who retired to the Antilles; an expedition of 15,000 men was sent from Spain under Morrillo; in 1815 the defeat of the pa triots seemed, from the viewpoint of their Eu ropean contemporaries, absolutely assured. But Simon Bolivar had gained a purely American point of view he planned such campaigns as should liberate all of Spanish South America; and, as a matter of fact, to his brilliant leader ship must be ascribed the prompt liberation of one-half of it. On March 1818 Col. Daniel O'Leary arrived with troops raised in London, consisting largely of veterans of the Napo leonic wars— tried soldiers destined to play an all-important part in the liberation of Venezu ela. Elections were arranged in the autumn, and on 15 Feb. 1819 Congress was installed in Angostura. In June Bolivar set out, accom panied by Col. James Rook and the British Le gion, on his famous march to New Granada (Colombia); defeated the royalists in the bat tle of Boyaci on 7 August, and on 17 Dec. 1819 inaugurated the Great Colombian republic, em bracing the largest part of northwestern South America. The last stage of the struggle began on 28 April 1821. Bolivar was in Tinaquillo, with 6,500 men. His generals were: Paez, in command of the British unit, and the Bravos de Apure; Cedefio, with one brigade of La Guardia, and the Tiradores, Boyaca and Var gas battalions; Playa, with a regiment of Eng lish rifles, the other brigade of La Guardia, the Granaderos and Vencedores de Boyaci; and Anzoitegui, with one cavalry regiment under a Llanero leader. The decisive battle of Cara bobo, a victory for the patriots, was fought on 24 June 1821 by that force of 6,500, the opposing royalists numbering 5,000 men. The tatter oc cupied a position difficult to reach, and their de feat in such circumstances proved to be such a crushing blow that, although casual fighting continued for awhile, the end was in sight. On 8 Oct 1823 the last of the royalist adherents capitulated.
Finding her position in the Great Colombian Union unsatisfactory, Venezuela withdrew from it on 13 Jan. 1830. Bolivar, to whom the Congress had given dictatorial power in 1828, retired from office on 1 March 11330 and died of phthisis on 17 Dec. 1830 at Santa Marta. In April 1831 the neW Congress of Venezuela as sembled and elected General Paez as President of an independent republic of Venezuela; an embassy was sent to Bogota and Caracas be came once more the capital on 25 May. On 24
March 1854, President Jose Gregorio Monagas promulgated a decree abolishing slavery in Venezuela. Public works aof some magnitude' and a f1,500,000 European loan were authorized in 1863; the new federal Constitution was adopted 28 March 1864. Guzman Blanco, pro visional President in 1879, was formally elected in 1880; and it has been said truly that he was actually or virtually President' through out the period from 1880 to 1892. Ex-Presi dent Crespo secured re-election as Guzman Blanco's successor; and it was during his ad ministration that the arrest by the Venezuelan authorities of two inspectors of the British Guiana police on the Cuyuni River brought to a crisis the long-standing dispute in regard to the boundary between the British and the Vene zuelan possessions.
We should bear in mind here the fact that during many years protests had been made by the representatives of Venezuela against the en croachments of residents and officials from British Guiana. The contentions of the two parties were: On the part of Venezuela, that the Dutch, to whom the British were successors, had only claimed jurisdiction on the east side of the Essequibo River; on the part of Great Britain, that the Dutch had in 1759 and in 1769 put forward the claim that their territory in cluded, not merely the Essequibo River, but the whole of the basin drained by that river and its tributaries. The British government refused to consent to arbitration of the boundary, fail ing agreement by Venezuela that such parts of the Essequibo Valley as had been effectively oc cupied by British colonists should be recognized as British territory. Then came the arrest men tioned above.
Crespo appealed to Washington for protec tion. President Cleveland took up the cause of Venezuela, and in December 1895 sent his fa mous messages to Congress, in which he de clared that any forcible action by Great Britain 'would constitute a cases belli with the United States. Great excitement prevailed in Ca racas, associations being formed for the boy cott of British goods and for national de fense; but, wiser counsels prevailing on both sides, diplomatic relations were resumed in 1897. Jose Andrade became President in 1898. The boundary matter was submitted to arbitra tion and finally settled on 3 Oct. 1899 by the award of the tribunal of Paris.
Cipriano Castro, who had assumed the executive power late in October (and did not receive confirmation by a constituent assembly until February 1901), was in office when Great Britain, Germany and Italy declared a block ade of Venezuelan ports (January 1903) to en force payments by Venezuela to compensate foreigners for the damage to property sustained by them during various revolutions. Castro's government agreed to the arbitration of the claims by third parties and protocols with all the countries were signed within a few months. Castro was again elected, with General Gomez as one of the Vice-Presidents, and served two thirds of his term; but in 1909 he sailed for Europe, and then General Gomez interpreted correctly the preference of his people when by a coup d'hat, he secured without bloodshed his own safety and the Presidential power. He was established as constitutional President by virtue of the election of April 1910. The Gomez gov ernment survived two rebellions in 1913, the first an uprising in the state of Trujillo and the second an insurrection in the southwest in favor of Castro, the ex-President. The insurrection ary forces were dispersed. On 19 April 1914 Congress elected Gen. V. Marquez Bustillos as provisional President of the republic. A new Constitution went into effect 13 June 1914. On 3 May 1915 the Congress by unanimous vote elected General Gomez as President of the re nuhlic for the term 1915-22.