Salvete Omnes,
Venezuela has been much in the news - eg. Miami Herald,
But let us go back to the very early XVI century, when the Spanish conquistadors, acting on behalf of their monarchs, were sailing from their ports in Santo Domingo and conquering other islands of the Caribbean See and slowly moving their settlements onto la Tierra Firme (the Mainland).
One of those regions of la Tierra Firme was the norther coast of South America, today's Venezuela & Atlantic coast of Colombia. Columbus/Colon was the first to try to esbalish a permanent settlement in la Tierra Firme during his 4th voyage. In 1499 sailing from Santa Maria, Spain, Alonso de Ojeda and his fleet sailed along the Columbus 4th voyage route, and entered the Gulf of Venezuela and the Lake Maracaibo. There he saw houses built on stilts over the water and he christened the land - Venezuela (Little Venice). At the Gulf of Uraba our Alonso de Ojeda founded Villa de San Sebastian, end settlement after Columbus' one in la Tierra Firme.
Along the Venezuelean coasts the Spaniards (and others acting in their service) attempted to establish forts already in 1500AD, but the scarce resources and often fierce resistance from the natives derailed these plans.
However, the many thousands of gold hungry settlers who came to La Espanola/ Santo Domingo, later Cuba and other islands, also started conducting naval slaving raids along the coast, looking for slaves, gold, pearls, Brazil wood; the island of Cubagua was attracting colonization attempts due to the rich pearl deposits. The attempts further east mapped the mouth of the Orinoco River
... The Franciscan and Dominican monks, Bartolome de las Casas among them, voiced their desire to Christianize the natives in the peaceful manner and with the king's blessing and commendation also established missions sailing from the Caribean ports. But more often than not these missions failed, destroyed by the native warriors. Islands of Aruba and Margarita, very close to Venezuelan coast, were taken by the Spanish conquistadors.
The warrior-like Carib people of the coast did not prevent of the establishment of three settlements, Nueva Cadiz (famous for the oyster pearls, infamous for slave-diver force labor, but destroyed by the tsunami in 1541) in 1515AD/1528AD, Santa Ana de Coro in 1525AD , and Cumana (used to be called la Atenas venezolana) at the mouth of the Manzanares river in the east 1515AD. Cumana was established in the country of the Carib Indians (then the Cumanagoto tribes under el cacique Maraguey) , and from the start punitive raids were led by the royal leaders, like capitan Gonzalo de Ocampo. Perhaps the first horses came with the entrada de Ocampo in 1515/1516AD.
In the summer of 1527AD incorruptible Juan de Ampies/Ampues, acting under orders from the Real Audiencia in Santo Domingo, landed in the dry scrubby coast of Paraguana Peninsula, where he founded said Coro. He made amicable and peaceable overtures and treaties with the natives, hence it was a short period of law and order and somewhat peaceful coexistence.
Then in 1528 CarlosI/Charles V, king of Spanish realms, who was embroiled in the Italian wars with France, needed money and his bankers, the Welsers, gave him a loan in echange for a indefinite lease in the newly established Coquivacoa (province of Venezuela), known to the Germans ad Klein-Venedig.
King Carlos obligated the bankers to found two cities, forts and give him one fifth of all profits, but the sly bankers ignored those provisions, reasoning that the land was an ocean away. So begun the German episode of La Conquista in the XVI century.
Their first governor was one Ambrosio Alfinger (Ehinger), who left Spain via the port of Sanlucar de Barrameda and reasonably quickly landed in 1529AD, took possession of Coro from de Ampues, who went on to protest to la Espanola. Alfinger founded Maracaibo, and started campaigning against the natives in search of gold, pearls, slaves, and lands. Alfinger's troops massacred whole villages and razed the country from Coro, across the llanos y the Andean cordillera to Cucuta in present Colombia. Alfinger died from the wounds while fighting the Chitareros Indians in 1533AD.
The next Welsers' governor was Hans Seissenhofer, known as Juan Aleman to the Spanish, then came George Hohermuth von Speyer (Jorge de Espira), the first official searcher for El Dorado between 1535-1538AD. He died in Coro in 1539 or 1540AD.
Then his lieutenant Nicolas Federmann of Ulm represented the Weslers. We could note that for his transgressions against Alfinger - the search with troops, including mounted troops, for the route to Asia in the Orinoco basin in 1530 - he was first banished to Augusburg, where he wrote his Indian History. Back in Venezuela in 1535AD he led many expeditions across the lands, reaching Guajira Peninsula in 1535AD, and in 1538 marched his little army into what was the eastern Muisca Confederation in Colombia, crossed into La Pampa de Bogota, and in 1539 re-founded the city of Bogota, along with Sebastian de Belalcazar and Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada - all famous conquistadores. He was accused of being a Lutheran and recieved no posts from the king Carlos V. He returned to Europe, was sued by the Welsers and died in prison in Valladolid in 1542AD. Nota bene 64 soldiers from the Bogota expedition received their economiendas from the royal chancery.
The final conquistador and German official or governor was Philip von Hutten (Felipe de Utre). In search of riches and wealth he undertook large scale 'entrada' into the Amazon Basin searching for El Dorado in 1541-45AD, and there during the El Dorado expedition he was wounded while fighting the Omagua tribal warriors.
His long expedition for riches and wealth came to nothing and he returned much weaker in power and support, facing political challenges. His duties of governonr, like spreading Christianity among the native tribes neglected, settlements left to their own measures etc like Maracaibo and Coro.
He founded various settlements during his expeditions, but he was absent and the Council found his replacement, Juan de Carvajal who took some settlers from Coro and founded his one settlement of El Tocuyo. There de Utre, along with younger Bartholomeus Welser (son of the king's banker of the same name), confronted his replacement Juan de Carvajal. The Germans was ambushed, disarmed, chained and finally killed on the spot by de Carvajal and his people. De Utre left a manuscript titled ''News from the Indies from Junker Philipp Hutten" (German: Zeitung aus India Junkher Philipps von Hutten), published in Germany in 1785AD.
The last acting official of Welsers' governors was perhaps Melchior Gruber (he was a mayor of Coro in the 1550s), but in 1546 Carlos V proclaimed the end of the Welsers' grant. But in law the grant lasted until 1556AD, when Spanish king abdicated in favor of his son, Felipe II. So ended the German participation in the Spanish Crown conquista of Venezuela.
There are many articles and books written about this Klein Vedig of the Germans in Venezuela.
Giovanna Montenegro published a book, German Conquistadors in Venezuela ( University of Notre Dame PRess, 2022)
ps
one day I may write a bit about opening of the llanos and cattle and horse ranching in that Spanish America in the XVI century.
Valete