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Herbert Wolcott Bowen (29 February 1856 – 29 May 1927) was an American diplomat and poet. He served as ambassador to Venezuela, and consul-general in Spain and Iran.
Bowen was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1856, and graduated from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. He then attended Yale University as a graduate student but he did not graduate with his class. In 1881, Herbert received an L.L.B. in law and political science from Columbia Law School. He was awarded an honorary master's degree in 1903 from Yale University. [1] [2] Bowen published several volumes of poetry. [3]
After law school, Bowen practiced law in New York City specializing in international law.
In 1895, Bowen. was appointed by President Grover Cleveland as the American consul-general at Barcelona, Spain, where he served until 1899. Bowen was then appointed consul-general in Persia where he served from 1899 to 1901. [4]
Bowen was appointed by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Venezuela in 1901.
After few days in Caracas, the Libertadora Revolution broke out. A coalition of regional caudillos, headed by the wealthy banker Manuel Antonio Matos and allied with transnational corporations, tried to overthrow President Cipriano Castro. After the conflict ended in victory for Castro, British, German and Italian fleets imposed a naval blockade on Venezuelan ports over Castro's refusal to pay external debts and damages suffered by European citizens in the conflict. After naval bombardments of La Guaira and Puerto Cabello, Castro jailed all British, German and Italian immigrants in the country.
Bowen, as interim diplomatic representative of the European powers which had broken relations with Venezuela, negotiated the release of the foreign nationals.
Castro assumed that the Monroe Doctrine would see the United States prevent European military intervention in American hemisphere, but (per the Olney interpretation) President Roosevelt saw the Doctrine as concerning European seizure of physical territory only. Roosevelt also was concerned with the threat of penetration into the region by Germany.
On December 17, 1902, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Rafael Lopez Baralt requested that Bowen serve as arbitrator in the dispute over the bombardment of Fort San Carlos. The fort had been bombarded by German battleships trying to enter Lake Maracaibo. The ships began firing without approval from British Commodore Robert Archibald James Montgomerie, who had been previously warned against provoking the Venezuelans by firing without approval from the British Admiralty. The Germans and British claimed that the Venezuelans fired first, though the British declared the bombardment "unfortunate and inopportune." The German Foreign Office claimed the attempted entry to Maracaibo was motivated by a desire to cut off supply lines from neighboring Colombia.[ citation needed ]
After the Fort San Carlos incident and increasingly negative British and American press reactions to the Germans' conduct, President Roosevelt called for international arbitration in Washington. Bowen participated as a representative of the Venezuela government to refinance the debt and signed the Washington Protocols on their behalf in February 1903. Roosevelt also informed the German Ambassador that Admiral George Dewey had orders to be ready the Caribbean fleet to sail from Puerto Rico to Venezuela at an hour's notice.[ clarification needed ] This resolution was an early application of the Roosevelt Corollary, Big Stick policy, and dollar diplomacy in Latin America.
When Bowen returned to Caracas in January 1904, he noted a more peaceful and secure milieu. Castro reassured him that United States–Venezuela relations were at a high point. However, the Castro regime delayed fulfilling the agreements in Washington Protocols. Bowen lost confidence after verifying the participation of American corporations in the attempted overthrow of Castro. The Venezuelan government demanded compensation of 50 million bolivars from the corporations, but they refused to pay.
Bowen was dismissed in 1905 for impropriety. [4]
Bowen married Augusta Floyd Vingut on 26 February 1895 at a high society wedding in New York performed by Roman Catholic archbishop Michael Corrigan. [5] After divorce Bowen married second wife, Carolyn Mae Clegg (1877-1949).
Bowen died May 29, 1929. [6]
Maracaibo is a city and municipality in northwestern Venezuela, on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela. It is the second-largest city in Venezuela, after the national capital, Caracas, and the capital of the state of Zulia. The population of the city is approximately 2,658,355 with the metropolitan area estimated at 5,278,448 as of 2010. Maracaibo is nicknamed "The Beloved Land of the Sun".
Juan Vicente Gómez Chacón was a Venezuelan military general, politician and de facto ruler of Venezuela from 1908 until his death in 1935. He was president on three occasions during this time, ruling through puppet governments in between.
José Cipriano Castro Ruiz was a high-ranking officer of the Venezuelan military, politician and the president of Venezuela from 1899 to 1908. He was the first man from the Venezuelan Andes to rule the country, and was the first of four military strongmen from the Andean state of Táchira to rule the country over the next 46 years.
SMS Vineta was a protected cruiser of the Victoria Louise class, built for the German Imperial Navy in the 1890s. Vineta was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in 1895, launched in April 1897, and commissioned into the Navy in July 1898. The ship, named for the earlier screw frigate SMS Vineta, was armed with a battery of two 21 cm guns and eight 15 cm guns and had a top speed of 19 knots. Though the five Victoria Louise-class cruisers proved to be disappointing in some ways, they marked the beginning of a decade of German cruiser construction.
The Venezuelan crisis of 1902–1903 was a naval blockade imposed against Venezuela by Great Britain, Germany, and Italy from December 1902 to February 1903, after President Cipriano Castro refused to pay foreign debts and damages suffered by European citizens in recent Venezuelan civil wars. Castro assumed that the American Monroe Doctrine would see Washington intervene to prevent European military intervention. However, at the time, United States president Theodore Roosevelt and his State Department saw the doctrine as applying only to European seizure of territory, rather than intervention per se. With prior promises that no such seizure would occur, the U.S. was officially neutral and allowed the action to go ahead without objection. The blockade saw Venezuela's small navy quickly disabled, but Castro refused to give in, and instead agreed in principle to submit some of the claims to international arbitration, which he had previously rejected. Germany initially objected to this, arguing that some claims should be accepted by Venezuela without arbitration.
United Kingdom–Venezuela relations are the bilateral relations between the United Kingdom and Venezuela since 1817 when so-called "British Legions" of former British soldiers fought to defend the Third Republic of Venezuela against Spanish royalists in the Venezuelan War of Independence.
The Bombardment of Fort San Carlos occurred during the Venezuelan Crisis on January 17, 1903, when two warships of the Imperial German Navy tried to penetrate into Lake Maracaibo but were repulsed by the garrison of Fort San Carlos de la Barra after a brief exchange of fire.
Hermann Speck von Sternburg was a German diplomat.
Denmark–Venezuela relations refers to the current and historical relations between Denmark and Venezuela. Denmark is accredited to Venezuela from its embassy in Brasilia, Brazil. Venezuela is accredited to Denmark from its embassy in Oslo, Norway. In 1878, the relations between Denmark and Venezuela were described as "friendly".
Eduardo López Rivas was a Venezuelan editor and journalist. He founded and directed several Venezuelan publications throughout his life, among them the newspaper Diario El Fonógrafo and the magazine El Zulia ilustrado. He was the founder and owner of a Venezuelan editorial house, Imprenta Americana, the first publishing house to print photographs in Venezuelan periodical publications.
Following the Venezuelan War of Independence, Venezuela initially won independence from the Spanish Empire as part of Gran Colombia. Internal tensions led to the dissolution of Gran Colombia in 1830/31, with Venezuela declaring independence in 1811. For the rest of the nineteenth century, independent Venezuela saw a range of caudillos (strongmen) compete for power. Leading political figures included José Antonio Páez, Antonio Guzmán Blanco and Cipriano Castro.
Heinrich Paul Christian Richard Eckermann was an officer of the German Imperial Navy, rising to Vizeadmiral in the First World War.
Events in the year 1903 in Venezuela.
The following events occurred in August 1902:
The following events occurred in December 1902:
The State of Venezuela was the official name of Venezuela adopted by the constitution of 1830, during the government of José Antonio Páez. The name was maintained until 1856 when in the constitution promulgated in that year it changes the official name of the country to Republic of Venezuela. In the Constitution of 1864, the United States of Venezuela was established.
Manuel Antonio Matos Páez Tinoco was a Venezuelan politician, banker, military leader and diplomat.
John Brinckerhoff Jackson was an American lawyer and diplomat who spent most of his career in Europe and the Middle East.
The Liberating Revolution was a civil war in Venezuela between 1901 and 1903 in which a coalition of regional caudillos led by the banker Manuel Antonio Matos tried to overthrow the government of Cipriano Castro.
William Worthington Russell Jr. was an American diplomat who served under five presidents.