The Crown placed Cumaná, Guayana, Maracaibo, Trinidad, and Margarita under the governmental and military authority of the Captaincy General of Venezuela, headquartered in Caracas. The decree reorganized imperial administration and territory. It did not change the legal status of enslaved people or end the coerced labor underpinning colonial production. Recording this administrative act makes visible the state structure that governed the provinces whose economies and social hierarchies were built in part through slavery.
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What changed under the 1777 Captaincy General decree?
The decree consolidated several provinces and islands under the Captaincy General based in Caracas.
The 1777 decree changed provincial administration without changing the legal status of enslaved people.
It consolidated governmental and military authority but did not emancipate enslaved people.