The Venezuelan civil wars were a long series of conflicts that devastated the country during most of the 19th century.
Historical summary
After independence and the subsequent dissolution of Gran Colombia in Venezuela, there was no strong government with sufficient authority and power to guarantee order, nor an idea of a nation, or civic experience.Esteves, 2006: 5, 9 This led to a phenomenon of caudillismo and militarism in which local political-military chiefs were able to confront and defeat the central government together with popular masses that supported them, following their particular ideological interests.Esteves, 2006: 6. Each local caudillo, when rising out of habit, tended to appoint himself general. Similar processes occurred throughout Hispanic America after the end of Spanish colonial rule.Historia de la Humanidad. Los inicios del siglo XIX. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Larousse, 2005, pp. 36. . This was due in part to the weakening of the ruling class, the Mantuans who had already ruled the country since colonial times.Esteves, 2006: 7 During the first half of the century, the only character who managed to become a factor of relative stability was José Antonio Páez, a military leader with great power whose political career would only end with his defeat on the battlefields.Esteves, 2006: 10–11 The popular caudillo of the llanos rose several times against governments that he considered had violated existing law or fought against those who tried to overthrow legitimate governments. His only rebellion against legality was La Cosiata, a patriotic reaction against a supranational project that most Venezuelans were not interested in embarking on.
Between 1830 and 1903 Venezuela lived through 50 years of war, with a total of 166 armed revolts. It is estimated that there were a million war casualties, with 70% of them being non-combatants killed by the plagues, famines, anarchy and political repression that wars brought. Other sources lower the figure to 260,000 killed in combat, plus 62,000 due to earthquakes and pestilence, not counting those killed in the Federal War.Spence, James Mudie (1966). La tierra de Bolívar: o, guerra, paz y aventura en la republica de Venezuela. Caracas: Banco Central de Venezuela, pp. 46. There were only two periods in that century that the governments were stable and lasting: from 1835 to 1848 and from 1870 to 1887.Rondon Nucete, Jesus (2007). Echo of his time: Antonio Spinetti Dini. Caracas: Academic Vice President Publications, pp. 30. .
The period of instability ended with the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez who ruled Venezuela from 1908 until his death in 1935, thus ensuring a strong base for state power. Gómez extinguished the regional caudillos by passing power to the central high command of the Armed Forces of Venezuela. Due to these wars, the country became impoverished and suffered demographic stagnation.Esteves, 2006: 6
These civil wars were above all combats between armed militias, each one organized by its place of origin, reflecting the alliances of the regional power groups with the government or the rebels at each moment.Martínez Becerra, Carlos (2004). Integración regional, fronteras y globalización en el continente americano. Universidad Nacional de Colombia, pp. 327. . There were cases in which the inhabitants of neighboring towns or even of the same town clashed on a small scale during these civil wars.Martínez Becerra, 2003: 327–328 Each party sought the support of the regional caudillos, who held the real power at the time.Del Alcázar, Joan; Nuria Tabanera; Josep M. Santacreu & Antoni Marimon (2003). Historia contemporánea de América. Universitat de València, pp. 91. .
The economic disorganization of independence was deepened by civil wars, and long anarchy. Páez and Soublette based their economy on cocoa, typical of their region, the plains. In those years the Orientals, the Llanos and the Corianos disputed the hegemony in rapid succession.Bonilla, Frank (1972). El fracaso de las élites. Centro de Estudios del Desarrollo de la Universidad Central de Venezuela, pp. 66. Guzmán Blanco, a man from Caracas, managed to stay in power thanks to the coffee boom, as did the Andeans Cipriano Castro and Juan Vicente Gómez.
Various guerrilla expeditions successively seized Caracas during that century, marking constant changes in the government.García Dávila, Luis Manuel (1992). Memorias del general José María García: a través del tiempo. J. Ibarra, pp. xi. This process, in which regional leaders felt dissatisfied with the distribution of power in the capital, took up arms and overthrew weak central governments by taking Caracas, has been continuous since Independence. In 1812 the Corianos of Juan Domingo de Monteverde organized an expedition to overthrow the First Republic; a year later the Andeans of Bolívar and the Orientals or Guianans of Mariño put an end to the monarchical restoration; in 1814 José Tomás Boves and his llaneros destroyed the Second Republic.Nweihed, Kaldone G. (2000). Venezuela y... los países hemisféricos, ibéricos e hispano parlantes: por los 500 años del encuentro con la tierra de Gracia. Caracas: Instituto de altos estudios de América Latina de la Universidad Simón Bolívar, pp. 22. . Páez was supported by the llaneros, Falcón by the Corianos, Castro or Gómez by the Andeans, Rolando Monteverde (liberal, collaborator of Andrade and later Castro, main caudillo of Guayana between 1899 and 1908) by the Orientals.Guarda, 2005: 51; Quintero, 1989: 81 This continuous process is finalized by Cipriano Castro. After his victory in 1899, a modern professional national army was created that was capable of subduing the militias of Llaneros, Barloventoños, Corianos and Orientales that would confront him in the Liberating Revolution (1901–1903). Caudillismo had already been temporarily placated by Guzmancismo in the 1870's,Guarda, 2005: 50 however, after Guzmáns death, it had resurfaced again, which led to definitive measures being taken during the Castro government in the 1900's.Guarda, 2005: 51 Before, the Caudillos agreed with, or fought against each government, promoted local revolts or autonomist movements and got involved on different sides (according to their momentary interest) in the national rebellions. Having loyal armies guaranteed their regional pre-eminence. Many of them called themselves defenders of federalism, understood as "maintenance of federal autonomy" and opposition to any centralization of power.Guarda, 2005: 52
Flags of the warring parties Initially the conservatives and liberals, who marked the entire nineteenth century with their wars for power in the Andes, sought to identify themselves with the colors of the Venezuelan flag – yellow, blue and red from top to bottom.Esteves, 2006: 91 The former, supporters of Páez, used red to differentiate themselves from the latter, supported by Caracas intellectuals, veterans frustrated at not having received land, and llaneros, who wore yellow. However, in 1867 an alliance was formed between conservative and liberal sectors to support the revolution of José Tadeo Monagas, who had used power for personal benefit along with his brother, José Gregorio, during the previous years in which they ruled. To embody this new union, yellow and red chose the central color of the flag: blue. From the second half of the 19th century, conservatives identified themselves with the color blue, and the liberals, beginning with the supporters of the government of Juan Crisóstomo Falcón, continued to use yellow. Another point of difference was that the Liberals supported a federal system, while the Conservatives supported a centralized one. Although that was only theoretical, because many liberals in power exercised an authoritarian mandate, centered on their people, such as Antonio Guzmán Blanco, founder of Yellow Liberalism, who was also an anticlerical, supporter of economic liberalism and benefactor of the powerful who supported him to the power.De Alcázar, 2003: 91–92. In the last decades of the century, the conservatives were gradually left out of the game for power, now dominated by the liberals. From then on, civil wars were fought between factions of liberals, for example, some faithful to federalism and others in favor of centralism. In the country's last civil wars (1899 and 1901–1903) everyone called themselves Liberals: the caudillo José Manuel Hernández defined his party as "Nationalist Liberal"; also the dictator Castro, who defeated the "yellow liberals and the red and blue, or white, or tricolor liberals."Grases, Pedro (1981). Instituciones y nombres del siglo XIX. Seix Barrall, pp. 285. ; Rondón Márquez, Rafael Ángel (1944). Guzmán Blanco: “el autócrata civilizador”; parábola de los partidos políticos tradicionales de la historia de Venezuela (datos para cien años de historia nacional). Caracas: Tipografía Garrido, pp. 314.
Guzmán Blanco was the dominant figure of the last decades of the nineteenth century, the subsequent weakening of his figure would be followed during the 90s of the century by a resurgence of anarchy and caudillismo.Mendible Z., Alejandro (2007). La Integración Suramericana: Presencia de Venezuela y Brasil. Universidad Central de Venezuela, pp. 20. . Both factors were also present in the Federal War (1859–1863) and even earlier, in the Second Republic (1813–1814), when the inability of the ruling classes to fulfill their promises and the aspirations of the common people led to extremely violent popular insurrections that devastated Venezuela. The oldest was under the command of Boves and the later directed by Zamora, two caudillos who died on the way to gain power.Rojas, Reinaldo (1993). "Rebeliones de esclavos negros en Venezuela antes y después de 1789". Estudios de Historia Social y Económica de América, no. 10, CIHALC: 163–164. Instead, from the fragmentation of Gran Colombia to the Federal War, the dominant figure in Venezuela was Páez, a key figure in trying to impose a stable regime in the country.
Civil wars and caudillos The main ones are highlighted in bold.Esteves, 2006: 5
Revolution of the Reforms (1835–1836)
The federal caudillos led by Santiago Mariño rose up against the conservative government of José María Vargas with the support of José Antonio Páez in June 1835. Mariño and his followers were defeated in March 1836. The conservatives maintain power for more than a decade. New liberal rebellions, on a smaller scale, would break out in June and September 1844.Dixon, 2015: 138
Peasant insurrection of 1846
Occurred in September 1846, animated and directed by the liberal Ezequiel Zamora against the conservative president Carlos Soublette. Páez became the main supporter of the government and managed to pacify the country by May 1847. The power of the conservatives was weakened and an agreement had to be reached so that a liberal like José Tadeo Monagas assumed power, the beginning of the Monagato or Liberal Oligarchy (1847–1858).Dixon, 2015: 147
Venezuelan civil war of 1848–1849
The Páez rebellion broke out on 4 February 1848, when the caudillo raised his llaneros against the liberal government of Monagas. They are joined by Zamora and Soublette and formed an army of 3,000 men. Monagas sends 6,000 soldiers to confront them. Defeated in the battle of Los Araguatos (10 March), Páez fled to the Caribbean where he gathered a new army with 6,000 muskets, seized Maracaibo but was again defeated in Taratara (6 April), having to entrench themselves in Maracaibo. On 2 July 1849, Paez landed at La Vela de Coro and concentrated 2,000 rebels, but was defeated at the battle of Casupo on 12 August, surrounded by 4–5,000 government soldiers, and surrendered three days later. He was exiled until 1858.Dixon, 2015: 138–139
Barquisimeto Rebellion (1853)