Captaincy General of Venezuela
The independence movement for Venezuela began with the establishment of the Caracas Junta in 1810. After the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence in 1811, the provinces of Caracas, Cumaná, Barinas, Margarita, and the newly separated ones of Barcelona, Trujillo, and Mérida established a Republic of Venezuela, which claimed the area of the Captaincy General. The provinces of Maracaibo and Guayana, along with the city of Coro, rejected the republic, and after a year of war against the royalists, this First Republic collapsed. The provinces that had created the Venezuelan Republic were reconquered by Frigate Captain Domingo de Monteverde, who usurped power from the appointed Captain General Fernando Miyares. Because of this the Cádiz Cortes erected the Province of Maracaibo into a separate Captaincy General with Miyares at its head, but did ratify Monteverde as Captain General of the smaller Venezuela. During this period, the Province of Maracaibo elected a representative to the Cortes, José Domingo Rus, who served from March 3, 1812, to May 10, 1814, and continued to represent the province before the crown after Ferdinand VII abolished the Cortes. With Ferdinand VII's return, Venezuela was reunited in one captaincy general.
Independence Day (Venezuela)
That same afternoon, representatives Cristóbal Mendoza and Juan Germán Roscio presented to Congress the declaration of national independence with the approval of the secretary general, Francisco Isnardi. In the document, representatives from seven of the ten provinces belonging to the Captaincy General (Caracas Province, Cumaná Province, Barinas Province, Margarita Province, Barcelona Province, Mérida Province and Trujillo Province) declared their independence and explained their reasons for this action, among them, that it was baneful that a small European nation ruled the great expanses of the Americas (the New World), that Spanish America recovered its right to self-government after the abdications of Charles IV and Ferdinand VII at Bayonne, and that the political instability in Spain dictated that Venezuelans rule themselves, despite the brotherhood they shared with Spain and the Spanish people at large. The declaration proclaimed a new nation called the American Confederacy of Venezuela, as an independent state under the republican form of government on the basis of the 7 provinces belonging to the former Captaincy General. The declaration was passed by Congress on July 7, with 43 votes for and one vote against, and was granted the full force of law in a decree published on July 8 by the president of the Executive Triumviate, Cristóbal Mendoza. It was later presented to the public in Caracas and read out in what is now the Plaza Bolivar on July 14, 1811.