La provincia de Venezuela. Visiones en la escena del dieciocho tardío: poder, costumbre, conflicto y paisaje

Abstract

This article is focus on the province of Venezuela from three different outlooks in a crucial moment for the configuration of the bourbon colonial system during the late eighteenth century and the previous conditions to the final rupture with the metropolis. Those are the side views from the sensibilities and the political culture of the creole elite, which in Venezuela is called mantuana, is the look of power. As well the look of the bishop Mariano Martí who makes a long and detailed pastoral visit, and presents a socio-ethnic description of the province, where it highlights its subtle view to see the problems associate with the poverty, vices and illegal interracial marriages, as well as the discontentment and fears from all sectors and castes. The perspective of the power from the outlook of the colonial administration is conferred by Francisco de Saavedra, the second intendant of Caracas. A brilliant Spanish official, enlightened, with a long work sheet filled of experiences. In it he emphasizes his enlightened vision and liberal principles regarding the trade and progress of the creoles as a source of wealth for the crown. Last, the noted Prussian scientist Alexander Humboldt who brings its perceptions about the dissimilar levels of interest of mantuanos for science and politics. It also brings suggestive data on the rising resentment of the creoles against the colonial establishment. These three outlooks occur at a crucial time, because it is the moment when the province of Venezuela is seen by the metropolis, like an strategic location of untapped potentials and poorly understood potentialities. In the end, we present the results of the superposition of these "lenses", of that look of the late colony, in the unleashing of the extreme Venezuelan violence of the century of independence and the [de]configuration of the new nation: republican and independent but with the social problems that Martí, Saavedra and Humboldt predicted. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]