The European colonization of South America had a number strange episodes - and perhaps one of the most unusual was Klein Venedig. This was an attempt to set up a German settlement in modern-day Venezuela - however the focus ended up being heavily on the search for the fabled lost city of gold - El Dorado. Erick Redington explains.
Portrait of Phillip von Hutten, a Lieutenant-Governor of Klein Venedig in the 1540s.
An Imperial Election
The Holy Roman Empire. As Voltaire wrote, it was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire. A patchwork of about 1,800 states, free cities, margravates, and other polities. This politically complicated entity would be the start of one of the strangest, and most little known, colonization efforts in the New World. In 1519, Emperor Maximilian I died, and a new Emperor had to be crowned.
In any other empire, crowning a new Emperor would be as simple as consulting a family tree. However, this was the Holy Roman Empire. It was an elective monarchy. Seven electors, important rulers within the Empire, would choose the new Emperor. Elections were not straightforward, for the Holy Roman Empire was extremely decentralized and individual rulers were very jealous of their own powers and rights in relation to the Emperor. To achieve a majority of the electors and be chosen Emperor would come at a high cost, both politically and economically.
The election of 1519 would not be a normal election. The three men who put themselves up as candidates were the three most famous rulers in Europe at the time: Henry VIII of England, Francis I of France, and Charles I of Spain. Between these three men, much of the wealth and power of the continent rested. The wealth that could be spent by the three men whetted the appetites of the seven electors. It would take a significant amount of politicking and deep pockets to win the election.
Charles could not be too careful. Henry VIII and Francis I ruled countries outside the Empire, while Charles was Archduke of Austria in addition to King of Spain. That made him the “German” candidate. But he had been raised in the Low Countries and was primarily King of Spain. If Charles lost the election, his possessions would be too far-flung and diverse to defend easily. And if Francis I became Emperor, a German Holy Roman Empire united to France under a young and ambitious king would be unstoppable. For Charles, the election had to be won, no matter the cost. And cost meant money. Lots of money. Charles would borrow enormous sums of money for “gifts” to the electors and others who could influence them. Although Charles would in the end be elected unanimously, this belies the closeness of the election. Once the election was won, however, the bill would come due. The loans would have to be repaid.
Buying a Crown
Medieval and early modern Europe had a thriving banking industry. Two of the biggest names in banks of the time were Fugger and Welser. These families grew rich lending money to kings, dukes, princes, and even private individuals. Lending money to a man who now ruled half of Western Europe was a great business strategy. Charles knew he would have to repay his creditors. His problem was that from the moment of his election, he was beset by crises throughout his domains. Crises are expensive, but if he defaulted on his loans, he could not expect to get more in the future. There had to be another solution.
It was only 27 years before Charles’ election that Columbus made his first voyage to the New World. By the time Charles was elected, his first throne, the Kingdom of Spain, owned half of the Western Hemisphere. Spain’s empire was more than a land of milk and honey. It was a land of gold and silver. Landless mercenaries leaving Europe poor and unloved were returning ennobled and wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice. Treasure ships were sailing into Cádiz and Seville bringing untold wealth. For Charles, this wealth was needed more to pay for wars against Francis, who was still bitter about losing the election, the Ottomans, who were attempting to push Islam further into the heart of Europe, and Protestants, who were threatening the very existence of the Empire and the religious unity of Western Europe. Bartholomeus Welser was a shrewd businessman. As the leader of his family’s banking firm, he had backed the right horse in the Imperial election. He wanted to be repaid by Charles but knew about the Emperor’s financial situation. He saw the wealth coming from the New World and wanted in.
The Province of Venezuela had been founded in 1527. Meant to govern the area around the Orinoco River, the economic potential of the area seemed limitless. There were rumors of gold mines, gems, silver, and many other riches. The problem was the area was undeveloped and unexplored. Welser saw an opportunity to extract the wealth of the New World directly, and Charles saw a cheap way to settle a debt. In 1528, Charles granted a charter for Welser to take control of an area roughly corresponding to Venezuela. The southern boundary was to be the “South Sea,” still undefined. All this territory was to be controlled by Welser but also in the name of Charles. Welser would have to fund an expedition, conquer the country, and build defenses at his own expense. If the rumors of boundless riches were true, the expense would be a pittance in comparison.
To Find El Dorado
Welser named Ambrose Ehinger as Captain-General of the new colony of Klein Venedig, or Little Venice in German. On February 24, 1529, 480 men of German, Spanish, and Portuguese extraction, along with some slaves, landed at Santa Ana de Coro, on the north coast of Venezuela. Very soon, it became clear that rumors of massive gold mines right on the coast were simply rumors. Ehinger was still determined to make his mark, and his fortune, and decided to explore the interior of the continent. Some say he was searching for El Dorado, the fabled lost city of gold. Others that he was looking for the mines of the natives who were in possession of some gold. Ehinger prepared his expedition carefully. After all, the grant went an undefined amount of space south, and he did not know how far he would have to go.
Ehinger’s expedition, accompanied by a number of native porters, departed and explored the shores of Lake Maracaibo. The record of brutality towards the natives of the area, the Coquivacoa, and those who were part of his expedition was horrendous. The porters were tied together by the neck in a long rope-chain and subjected to a brutal work regimen. When one man would fall out due to fatigue, he would simply be decapitated, thus freeing the rope and allowing the chain to move on. The natives, finding this brutal man, and his brutal expedition moving through their territory, fought. On September 8, 1529, he would establish the city of Neu Nürnberg, later called Maracaibo. Despite the fierce resistance of the natives of the area, and not finding the gold he wanted to, Ehinger saw the expedition as a success. He would outfit another.
The second expedition would be prepared like the first. Large numbers of native porters and a large military contingent. The expedition would set off south and west from Coro in 1531. This excursion would become a hell on earth. The Spanish would devastate native villages. The terrain was horrible. Brutality toward the native porters was normal. One group, sent back with 70,000 pesos worth of gold, had to abandon the treasure and eventually turned to cannibalizing what remained of their porters. For almost three years, the expedition roamed the jungles of Klein Venedig looking for the city of El Dorado, or at least a little more gold. Ehinger ordered his soldiers to take all gold from the natives they could find. He, however, forbade his men from buying food from the natives, even though the natives wanted to sell them food. Ehinger was, amazingly after all this, allegedly desirous of not annoying the natives. Eventually, Ehinger would be shot in the neck with a poison-tipped arrow and died on May 31, 1533.
A New Governor but the Same Goal
The successor of Ehinger would be George von Speyer, who was appointed the new governor by Charles. Speyer was determined to succeed where Ehinger had failed. He would find his fortune, he was sure. Speyer outfitted an expedition of about 2000 men and set off for the interior in 1535. This expedition would cross mountains and rivers. They would be the first expedition to cross the Mal-País. The natives were just as hostile to Speyer as they had been to Ehinger. They were also smart. They would encourage Speyer and his men that just over the horizon was a city where people were dress well and lived lavishly in a gold city. Speyer and his men overlooked the warning signs of disaster and pressed on, driven to emulate Cortés and Pizarro.
Once the expedition had gone a few hundred miles, Speyer decided to split the expedition to cover more ground. The plan was to meet up at a designated rendezvous point later on. After further travel, and several mutinies amongst his men, Speyer was forced to turn back and return to Coro. One source says that 310 of the 400 men under Speyer died. The other half of the expedition was commanded by Ehinger’s second in command Nicholas Federmann. Federmann had been angry that he had not been made his friend’s successor and had been superseded by Speyer. He had been the choice of the Welser, but Charles had overruled them and appointed Speyer instead. Federmann was seen by many of Charles’ advisors as a cruel and overbearing man. Whether he was either of those things, he was a great leader of men. It has been written of him that he was tireless in driving his men but led by example and did not expect any man to do that which he would not do himself.
Now, presented with an opportunity for independent command, Federman grabbed his chance with both hands and made his own expedition. Through force of will, he brought his expedition over the Andes and into the valleys of New Granada, ignoring Speyer’s orders. Although Jiménez de Quesada would make it to southern Colombia first by a few weeks, the achievement of Federmann was not small. A confrontation would occur between Quesada, Federmann and Sebastián Belalcázar, all three of whom led expeditions to the area and therefore believed they had rights to the treasures of the region. After a period of negotiation, all three men agreed to go to Spain together and request King Charles settle the dispute. Charles would eventually rule in favor of Quesada. Federmann would return home to Augsburg where he was promptly fired by the Welsers.
Speyer would go on to make several more expeditions. He would continue to search for three more years after the famous first expedition ended. By 1539, sick and worn out from expeditions, Speyer resigned as governor of Klein Venedig. He wanted to return to Europe but was persuaded to turn back at Santo Domingo out of a sense of duty. He would not live long, however, dying in 1540 at Coro. After Speyer’s death, the governorship passed to Phillip von Hutten. Hutten had been on Speyer’s expeditions and, shockingly, still had a desire for more.
To Do the Same Thing Over and Over…
Hutten would begin his first expedition in August 1541. Falling for the old native trick of convincing the explorers that all the gold was just over the next hill, Hutten pressed on with reckless abandon. The natives pointed Hutten to the Omaguas tribe, a powerful and warlike tribe. When the expedition arrived in Omaguas territory, Hutten was convinced this was the gateway to the fabled El Dorado. He was determined to capture living Omaguas to find out more. This resulted in a battle with an estimated 15,000 natives. The expedition, worn down through years of travail by this point, could not cope with this force. Hutten decided to return to Coro and mount a major expedition.
Hutten and his men were convinced they had been within the grasp of the fabled city. All Hutten had to do was get back to Coro, mount another expedition, and he would be the next Cortés. What he did not know was that he had been gone too long. In 1545, after not hearing from Hutten for years, the Spanish had appointed Juan de Carvajal as Captain-General of Venezuela. When only 100 miles from Coro, Carvajal, realizing that if Hutten returned, he would lose his position, captured the unfortunate Hutten. Hutton, accompanied by one of Bartholomew Welser’s sons and the expedition’s bodyguard, were all hacked to death on Carvajal’s orders.
By this point, the colony was in chaos. None of the riches that had been promised had been found. The only thing the Welsers had really accomplished was to capture natives and sell them into slavery. There were no farms, no commerce. Everyone had been so wrapped up in finding El Dorado that a true settler colony, the original intention, did not exist and there was no real plan to build one. Hutten would be the last governor of Klein Venedig. This sad disaster of a colony would not be definitively put out of its misery as Hutten had been. It would die with a whimper. Although the legal existence of the colony would continue for a while longer, the attempt to settle Germans, and the Welser’s grand dreams of limitless gold were over.
What do you think of Klein Venedig? Let us know below.
Now, read about Francisco Solano Lopez, the Paraguayan president who brought his country to military catastrophe in the War of the Triple Alliance here.
