Venezuelan independence hero and pan-American revolutionary Francisco de Miranda died on this day 194 years ago, ending a life that saw him participate in revolutions stretching from France to the United States and culminating in his valiant attempt to free Venezuela from Spanish rule.
Miranda, who was born in Caracas and is seen as a forerunner of Venezuela’s Liberator Simon Bolivar, took part in the 1781 Spanish victory over the British in Pensacola, in what is now the U.S. state of Florida. Two years later, he traveled to Boston, where he met U.S. revolutionaries George Washington, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson, all of whom influenced his thinking on the need for independence in his homeland.
In 1791, he arrived in Paris, where he played an active role in the French Revolution, which had started with the storming of the Bastille on July 14 – the same day as Miranda’s eventual death in 1816 – of 1789.
After leaving Europe, he returned to the U.S., where he gathered supplies and volunteers for a campaign to gain Venezuela’s independence. On the way from New York to Venezuela, he stopped in Haiti, where he spoke to the country’s revolutionary leaders and created and raised Venezuela’s first flag in the town of Jacmel on March 12, 1806. Miranda then proceeded to Venezuela, and while his first attack on the country in 1806 was unsuccessful, it laid the groundwork for Venezuela’s first declaration of independence in April 19, 1811.
In 1812, Miranda was arrested by Spanish forces in Venezuela and sent to prison in Spain, where he died on July 14, 1816.
Miranda is not only a hero of Venezuela’s independence, but also a figure that linked revolutionary movements in the Americas during the late 1700s, from Venezuela to the U.S. and beyond. His life and his accomplishments are a central part of Venezuela’s bicentennial celebration, which began on April 19, 2010 and will end on July 5, 2011, the 200th anniversary of Venezuela’s formal claim of independence from Spain.
Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the U.S. Press and Communications Office / July 14, 2010
