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German attempts at the colonization of the Americas consisted of German Venezuela (German : Klein-Venedig , also German : Welser-Kolonie [1] ), St. Thomas and Crab Island in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Klein-Venedig ("Little Venice"; also the etymology of the name "Venezuela") was the most significant part of the German colonization of the Americas between 1528 and 1546. The Augsburg-based Welser banking family (bankers to the Habsburgs) was given the colonial rights to the land by Emperor Charles V, who owed them debts for his imperial election as Holy Roman Emperor. [2] In 1528, Charles V issued a charter by which the Welsers possessed the rights to explore, rule and colonize the area with the primary motivation of searching for the legendary golden city of El Dorado. [3] [4] The venture was initially led by Ambrosius Ehinger, who founded Maracaibo in 1529. After the deaths of first Ehinger (1533), Nikolaus Federmann, Georg von Speyer (1540), Philipp von Hutten continued exploration in the interior. In absence of von Hutten from the capital of the province the crown of Spain claimed the right to appoint the governor. The Spanish Juan de Carvajal was nominated governor by the Emperor Charles V and tried to take control of the province. In 1545 he founded El Tocuyo with German colonists of Coro. On Hutten's return to the capital, Santa Ana de Coro, in 1546, the governor Carvajal had Hutten and Bartholomeus VI. Welser executed. Subsequently, Charles V revoked Welser's charter.
The Welsers transported German miners to the colony, as well as 4,000 African slaves as labour to work sugar cane plantations. Many of the German colonists died from tropical diseases, to which they had no immunity, or during frequent wars with Native Americans.
The Brandenburgisch-Africanische Compagnie of Brandenburg (the future Kingdom of Prussia) established trading posts in Africa and leased a trading post on St. Thomas from the Danish West India-Guinea Company in 1685. In 1693, the Danes seized the post, its warehouse, and all its goods without warning or repayment. There were no permanent German settlers.
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The Duchy of Courland, a German-led vassal state of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, leased New Courland (Neu-Kurland) on Tobago in the Caribbean from the British. The colony failed and was restored several times. A final Courish attempt to establish a Caribbean colony involved a settlement near modern Toco on Trinidad. [5]
The counties of Hanau-Lichtenberg and Hanau-Münzenberg, under Frederick Casimir and his adviser Johann Becher, funded – but did not complete – an extravagant program to lease Guiana from the Dutch West India Company. Calling his new realm the Hanauish-Indies (Hanauisch-Indien), Frederick Casimir ran up huge debts that ultimately forced him into a regency by some of his relatives.
Coro is the capital of Falcón State and the second oldest city in Venezuela. It was founded on July 26, 1527, by Juan de Ampíes as Santa Ana de Coro. It was historically known as Neu-Augsburg by the German Welsers, and Coro by the Spanish colonizers and Venezuelans, the city and buildings were built during the Spanish Empire. It is established at the south of the Paraguaná Peninsula in a coastal plain, flanked by the Médanos de Coro National Park to the north and the Sierra de Coro to the south, at a few kilometers from its port in the Caribbean Sea at a point equidistant between the Ensenada de La Vela and Golfete de Coro.
Nikolaus Federmann was a German adventurer and conquistador in what is modern-day Venezuela and Colombia. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Venedig (1528–1546), the concession of Venezuela Province that Charles I of Spain granted to the Welser banking family and the foundation of Santafe de Bogotá.
Philipp von Hutten was a German adventurer and an early European explorer and conquistador of Venezuela. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Venedig, the concession of Venezuela Province to the Welser banking family by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain.
Welser was a German banking and merchant family, originally a patrician family based in Augsburg and Nuremberg, that rose to great prominence in international high finance in the 16th century as bankers to the Habsburgs and financiers of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. Along with the Fugger family, the Welser family controlled large sectors of the European economy, and accumulated enormous wealth through trade and the German colonization of the Americas, including slave trade. The family received colonial rights of the Province of Venezuela from Charles V, who was also King of Spain, in 1528, becoming owners and rulers of the South American colony of Klein-Venedig, but were deprived of their rule in 1546. Philippine Welser (1527–1580), famed for both her learning and her beauty, was married to Archduke Ferdinand, Emperor Ferdinand I's son.
Georg von Speyer was a German conquistador in New Granada and Venezuela. His birth name was Georg Hohermuth but he chose to call himself after his place of birth. He is sometimes referred to as Jorge de Espira, his name in Spanish. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Venedig, the concession of Venezuela Province to the Welser banking family by Charles I of Spain.
Ambrosius Ehinger, also Dalfinger, Thalfinger, was a German conquistador and the first governor of the Welser concession, also known as “Little Venice” (Klein-Venedig), in northern South America, now Venezuela.
El Tocuyo is a fertile valley and city in west-central Venezuela at 622 m (2,041 ft) elevation. It is located in south-central Lara State about 60 km southwest of Barquisimeto. The town of El Tocuyo was founded by Juan de Carvajal in 1545 on the banks of the Tocuyo River and it was the administrative capital of Venezuela Province from 1546 to 1548. Its original name was Nuestra Señora de la Pura y Limpia Concepción del Tocuyo. El Tocuyo is now just the municipal seat of Morán. Its population is 41,327 (2001).
Klein-Venedig or Welserland was the most significant territory of the German colonization of the Americas, from 1528 to 1546, in which the Welser banking and patrician family of the Free Imperial Cities of Augsburg and Nuremberg obtained colonial rights in the Province of Venezuela in return for debts owed by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was also King of Spain. In 1528, Charles V issued a charter by which the House of Welser possessed the rights to explore, rule and colonize the area, also with the motivation of searching for the legendary golden city of El Dorado. The venture was led at first by Ambrosius Ehinger, who founded Maracaibo in 1529. After the deaths of Ehinger (1533) and then his successor Georg von Speyer (1540), Philipp von Hutten continued exploration in the interior, and in his absence from the capital of the province, the crown of Spain claimed the right to appoint the governor. On Hutten's return to the capital, Santa Ana de Coro, in 1546, the Spanish governor Juan de Carvajal had von Hutten and Bartholomeus VI. Welser executed. King Charles V revoked Welser's charter.
Prince Bartholomeus Welser was a German banker. In 1528 he signed an agreement with Charles V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, granting a concession in Venezuela Province, which became Klein-Venedig until the concession was revoked in 1546.
Juan de Carvajal was a Spanish conquistador and one of the first governors of Venezuela Province.
The Venezuela Province was a province of the Spanish Empire, of Gran Colombia (1824–1830) and later of Venezuela, apart from an interlude (1528–1546) when it was contracted as a concession by the King of Spain to the German Welser banking family, as Klein-Venedig.
Founded in 1527 and located in the northwestern Falcón state of Venezuela, the city of Coro and its Port, La Vela de Coro in the Caribbean Sea, was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1993, the first for its country.
German Venezuelans are Venezuelan citizens who descend from Germans or German people with Venezuelan citizenship. Most of them live in Caracas, Maracaibo, Valencia, Colonia agrícola de Turén, El Jarillo, and Colonia Tovar where a small-reduced and decreasing minority of people speak the Colonia Tovar dialect, a German-derived dialect from their ancestry, and the Spanish language.
Spanish expeditions led by Columbus and Alonso de Ojeda reached the coast of present-day Venezuela in 1498 and 1499. The first colonial exploitation was of the pearl oysters of the "Pearl Islands". Spain established its first permanent South American settlement in the present-day city of Cumaná in 1502, and in 1577 Caracas became the capital of the Province of Venezuela. There was also for a few years a German colony at Klein-Venedig.
Juan Martínez de Ampiés, as an officer of the Spanish army, was the first governor of Venezuela Province (1527-1529). He founded Santa Ana de Coro in July 1527. He left Venezuela after the Welsers asserted the colonial rights they had negotiated with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, launching the German colonization of the Americas.
Bartholomeus VI. Welser was a member of the Welser banking family, which had acquired the colonial rights to Venezuela Province in 1528 and created Klein-Venedig. He was the son of Bartholomeus V. Welser.
Spain–Venezuelan relations are the bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Spain and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Both nations are members of the Association of Spanish Language Academies and the Organization of Ibero-American States.
When the German Empire came into existence in 1871, none of its constituent states had any overseas colonies. Only after the Berlin Conference in 1884 did Germany begin to acquire new overseas possessions, but it had a much longer relationship with colonialism dating back to the 1520s. Before the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, various German states established chartered companies to set up trading posts; in some instances they also sought direct territorial and administrative control over these. After 1806, attempts at securing possession of territories overseas were abandoned; instead, private trading companies took the lead in the Pacific while joint-stock companies and colonial associations initiated projects elsewhere, although many never progressed beyond the planning stage.
La Vela de Coro is the port of Coro, Venezuela. Coro and its port form a conurbation, although Coro is in the municipality of Miranda and La Vela is in a separate municipality, Colina. The twin settlements were founded by the Spanish in the 16th century.
Germany–Venezuela relations have a long tradition and were officially established in 1871. During Nicolás Maduro's tenure, relations have deteriorated and in 2019 Venezuela declared the German Ambassador Daniel Kriener a persona non grata; however, he was able to return to the country soon after. Close relations with Venezuela continue to be maintained by parts of the German left and the political party Die Linke.
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