The Other Coup of April 1810: Bourbon Reformers and the Unraveling of Venezuela

• In Event: Rebellious Subjects, Greedy Rivals, and a Precarious Empire: Bourbon Dilemmas in Spanish America

Abstract

The people of Caracas repudiated the government of Captain General Vicente Emparan and established an independent governing junta on April 19, 1810—the first step that led to the independence of Venezuela. Less well known is that the Council of the Regency also dismissed this captain general on April 25, 1810 when it appointed another functionary. A few historians have noted this coincidence, labeling it a curious, yet irrelevant, historical footnote. Contrary to this view, this paper argues that the coups against Captain General Emparan in Caracas and Cadiz were intimately related. In particular, these coups illuminate the challenges of reforming the empire, especially as conceived in the late eighteenth century, amid a war of resistance that undermined the very basis of the Spanish Crown.

Author

• Olga Gonzalez-Silen, California State University San Marcos