Klein-Venedig

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Little Venice
Klein-Venedig
1528–1546
Coat of arms of the House of Welser of Klein-Venedig
Coat of arms of the House of Welser
Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism[2][3][4][5]
History 
• Established
1528
• Disestablished
1546
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Venezuela Province
Venezuela Province
Today part ofVenezuela
Colombia

Klein-Venedig (lit. 'Little

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.

Location of Little Venice

Welser transported to the colony German miners, and 4,000 African slaves as labor to work sugar cane plantations. Many of the German colonists died of tropical diseases or were attacked and killed during frequent journeys deep into native territory in search of gold.

Background

Province of Venezuela. The Welser were obligated to conquer the country at their own expenses, enlist only Spanish and Flemish troops, fit out two expeditions of four vessels, and build two cities and three forts within two years after taking possession. As Venezuela was reputed to contain gold mines, he later obtained permission to send out 150 German miners. Heinrich Ehinger and Hieronymus Sailer
, either independently or as agents of the House of Welser, negotiated the rights.

Search for El Dorado

Ambrosius Ehinger

Inspection of the Welser army by Georg von Speyer (right) and Philipp von Hutten (center) at Sanlúcar de Barrameda

In accordance with his contract, Welser armed a fleet, which sailed from

Nicolaus Federmann
.

From Coro, he explored the interior in search of the legendary golden city of El Dorado. In August 1529 Ehinger made his first expedition to Lake Maracaibo which was bitterly opposed by the indigenous people, the Coquivacoa. After winning a series of bloody battles, he founded the settlement at Maracaibo on 8 September 1529. Ehinger named the city New Nuremberg (German: Neu-Nürnberg) and the lake after the valiant chieftain Mara of the Coquivacoa, who had died in the fighting. The city was renamed Maracaibo after the Spanish took possession.[9]

Ehinger came down with

poisoned arrow
in the neck. Despite the attentions of Augustine father Vicente de Requejada, Ehinger died on May 31, 1533, and was buried under a tree. The expedition returned without him to Coro.

Later governors

Returning to Europe after Ehinger's death, Georg von Speyer was among the young fortune seekers solicited by the Welsers to colonize New Granada in 1534. Speyer obtained from Charles V the appointment of governor of Venezuela, despite the claims of Nikolaus Federmann, who had been Ehinger's lieutenant. He armed a new expedition in Spain and the Canary Islands, and on 22 February 1534, landed at Coro.

The La Santa Trinidad, in which Philipp von Hutten crossed the Atlantic in 1535

Between 1535 and 1538, he searched in southwestern Venezuela and northern Colombia for "

Chibcha. The Muisca were an advanced culture whose realm had already been partially conquered by Jiménez de Quesada out of Santa Marta, under orders from Pedro Fernández de Lugo
.

After marching together for about 200 miles, Speyer and Federmann divided into two parties, agreeing to meet afterward. Speyer experienced great hardships from hostile Indians, and the soldiers, unaccustomed to march under a burning sun, mutinied several times. When at last they reached the appointed place of meeting without finding any trace of Federmann, the soldiers were discouraged. Federmann crossed the Andes to Bogotá, where he and Sebastián de Belalcázar contested Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada's claims to that province.

Without Federmann, Speyer animated his troops with the hope of discovering the riches of the El Dorado, of which the survivors of Ehinger's expedition, Federmann among them, had brought the first reports. They continued the march to the south, but, when the rainy season set in, the overflow of the rivers impeded progress, and the consequent fevers decimated their ranks. Speyer persevered for a long time in his search for the El Dorado, until at last his progress was arrested by a mighty river, probably the Orinoco, or its confluent, the Apure, and early in 1539 he returned to Coro empty-handed with only 80 ragged and sickly men out of the host he had led forth more than four years before.

Because of ill health, von Speyer resigned as governor in 1539, and he died in June 1540.

In December 1540

Royal Audiencia of Santo Domingo
to preserve order in Venezuela.

As the years had gone by with no news of Hutten and his followers, Carvajal had founded El Tocuyo with settlers of Coro and begun to feel secure in his position, and the return of the German adventurers was not welcome to him. When he saw how diminished they were in number, he thought to force from them an acknowledgment of his authority. In this, however, he was unsuccessful, and a subsequent attempt to seize them was well-nigh disastrous to himself, for he was wounded by a traveling companion of Hutten's, Bartholomeus VI. Welser (the younger).

Carvajal was forced to pledge the Germans safe passage to Coro on the coast. In their journey to the coast, the adventurers took no precautions against attack, and were easily captured by Carvajal in April 1546, who, after keeping Hutten and Welser in chains for a time, had them beheaded. Some years later, the abdication of Charles V in 1556 meant the definitive end of the Welser's attempt to re-assert their concession by legal means.

List of governors, lieutenant-governors, mayors, and captains-general (1528–1556)

Image Name Term Notes
Ambrose von Ehinger 1529–1530 Hispanicized as Ambrosio Alfinger
Georg von Ehinger 1530 Hispanicized as Jorge Ehinger. Tried to seize control of the government but was repulsed
Hans Seissenhofer von Key 1530 Hispanicized as Juan Alemán or Juan 'El Bueno' . A captain and acting Lieutenant-Governor[10][11]
Bartholomeus Sayler 1531–1533 Hispanicized as Bartolomé de Santillana[12]
Ambrose von Ehinger 1533 Hispanicized as Ambrosio Alfinger
Nicolas Federmann 1533–1535 Hispanicized as Nicolás de Federmán.
Lieutenant-Governor of
Neu-Augsburg after the death of A. Ehinger[13][14]
Georg Hohermut von Speyer 1535–1540 Hispanicized as Jorge de Espira[15]
Heinrich Remboldt 1540–1543 Hispanicized as Enrique Remboldt
Mayor of
Neu-Augsburg and acting Governor.[citation needed] Commanded his Lieutenant-Governor Juan de Villegas [es] to found the city of Barquisimeto
. This was eventually done in 1552, 8 years after Remboldt's death
Philipp von Hutten 1543–1544 Hispanicized as Felipe de Utre or Felipe de Hutten
Served as Lieutenant-Governor
Melchior Grübel 1557–? Acting mayor of El Tocuyo and
Neu-Augsburg[16][17][18]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 9783935004800
    .
  2. ISBN 9781725223196
    .
  3. ISBN 9783935004800
    .
  4. ISBN 9783935004800
    .
  5. ^ "PENSAR ARTE: La profecía escrita en el muro". 21 December 2018.
  6. ^ Routledge Library Editions: World Empires (2021). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
  7. ^ South American Explorer. (1979). Perù: South American Explorers, p.27. University of Texas.
  8. ^ Faust - Eine deutsche Legende, Maus, Verlag Meyster, 1980
  9. ^ Das Imperium der Welser Archived 2013-10-22 at the Wayback Machine, author given as 'RR', Tessloff Verlag, 2009
  10. ISBN 9781718122420
    .
  11. ^ "Hans Seissehoffer | Real Academia de la Historia".
  12. ^ "Bartolomé de Santillana | Real Academia de la Historia".
  13. ^ "Biografia de Nicolás de Federman".
  14. ^ "Nicolaus Federmann | Real Academia de la Historia".
  15. ^ "Jorge Hohermuth | Real Academia de la Historia".
  16. ^ "1557 - Cronología de historia de Venezuela".
  17. ^ "Biblioteca de la Academia Nacional de la Historia: Sesquicentenario de la Independencia". 1983.
  18. ISBN 9783515077408
    .

Further reading
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