Historical Organization
Spanish colonial government
Spanish colonial government
Details
Organization Timeline
Indigenous uprising at the Arena mission
đź“… 1 December 1699Indigenous residents of the Arena mission rose against the colonial mission and its forced-labour regime. The National Trust describes the system as encomienda; NALIS also records the uprising....
Spanish officials order an armed search for Arena participants
📅 5 December 1699Four days after the uprising, acting officials in San José de Oruña ordered two captains and forty armed men to search Arena and nearby areas and capture Indigenous people they deemed responsible. The...
Two Arena prisoners are brought to San José de Oruña
đź“… 15 December 1699A colonial ordinance dated 15 December records that two Indigenous prisoners from Arena, identified as Pedro and Luis, had been brought under guard. The dossier frames the men as suspects and...
Governor’s campaign against Andresote offers a reward for his killing
đź“… 11 February 1732While seeking to capture the maroon leader Andresote, governor Sebastián GarcĂa de la Torre issued a proclamation declaring him a traitor and offering 600 pesos and pardon to whoever killed him. The...
Juan Francisco de LeĂłn surrenders after the anti-monopoly revolt
📅 9 February 1752Juan Francisco de León surrendered to Spanish authorities and gave testimony in the Caracas city council chamber. The surrender followed the 1749–1752 movement against the Guipuzcoan Company and its...
Authorities send De León and his son to prison in Cádiz
📅 28 March 1752Governor Felipe Ricardos ordered Juan Francisco de León and his son Nicolás sent to the La Carraca prison in Cádiz. Other supporters were executed or imprisoned. This punishment extended the...
Governor authorizes Roume de Saint-Laurent to recruit settlers
đź“… 29 April 1780On 29 April 1780, Governor Martin de SalaverrĂa authorized Philippe-Rose Roume de Saint-Laurent to travel to French Caribbean islands and invite French and Irish residents to settle in Trinidad. The...
Colonial court condemns José Leonardo Chirino
đź“… 10 December 1796The Real Audiencia of Caracas sentenced Chirino after the suppression of the 1795 revolt. The case criminalized an anti-slavery rebellion that had challenged colonial rule, racial hierarchy, and...
British forces capture Trinidad from Spain
đź“… 18 February 1797On 18 February 1797, British forces captured Trinidad after Spanish Governor JosĂ© MarĂa ChacĂłn capitulated at Valsayn. The change of imperial ruler did not free the people held in slavery or dismantle...
Colonial tribunal sentences JosĂ© MarĂa España to death
đź“… 6 May 1799After Spain returned clandestinely to Venezuela and was captured, a special colonial tribunal sentenced him to death. The sentence prescribed a public execution and the display of his severed head and...
Authorities expose Francisco Javier Pirela’s Maracaibo plot
đź“… 8 May 1799Colonial officials uncovered a plot involving Francisco Javier Pirela, a pardo militia sublieutenant, and French privateers from Saint-Domingue. Historical accounts describe a planned uprising for...
JosĂ© MarĂa España is executed in Caracas
📅 8 May 1799Colonial authorities carried out the death sentence in Caracas’s Plaza Mayor, publicly hanging and dismembering España. His head and body parts were sent to La Guaira and other places named in the...
Authorities stop the planned Maracaibo uprising
đź“… 19 May 1799The intended date for the Maracaibo rising arrived, but the plot was thwarted before the plan could be carried out. The account describes Pirela confessing hours before the expected start, followed by...
Miranda’s expedition lands at La Vela de Coro
đź“… 3 August 1806Francisco de Miranda landed with an expedition at La Vela de Coro, seized Fort San Pedro, and raised a tricolor flag challenging Spanish colonial rule. The expedition withdrew within days after...
Caracas forms a new government while slavery remains intact
📅 19 April 1810Caracas’s cabildo removed Spanish officials and formed a new governing body, beginning the revolutionary process that led to independence. Pardo representation appeared in the municipal act, but the...
Cuba ends legal slavery
đź“… 7 October 1886The Spanish government brought legal slavery in Cuba to an end after a gradual transition that had included an apprenticeship-like regime. The delay reflected the political power of plantation...