For conquest understands each other the process in the course of the one which groups of 
European, specially Spanish (or, in any event, the king's that reigned in Spain citizens) they 
occupy the territory of the current Venezuela, they are founded in him populational nuclei, 
they subject to the aboriginal ones or they reject them toward the periphery and they 
implant the institutions and the ways of life characteristic of the metropolis, such as the 
religion, the language, the laws and juridical forms, introducing new concepts and cultural, 
political, economic and social habits. Also along this process it tosses deep roots the 
biological and cultural miscegenation of indigenous, European and African that will be 
prolonged in the time and it will end up forming the Venezuelan town. Although the 
physical domain of the territory won't be completed in fact but in the XX century (as they 
demonstrate it the case of the barís or motilones and the discovery of the sources of the 
Orinoco), it can be considered that from the juridical point of view and in general terms the 
conquest carried out by the Spaniards is very affirmed toward beginnings of the XVII 
century, when they already exist the main Venezuelan cities and the resistance of the 
indigenous groups, except for the caribeses of the Orinoquia and the jiraharas of the region 
of Nirgua, it has been smashed. 
The conquest is carried out mainly by the force of the weapons, with the aid of powerful 
and terrible animals as horses and prey dogs, but the Europeans also use the persuasion and 
the deceit, and they are been worth of the trade based on the exchange (or «it rescues») to 
attract the natives and to begin relationship with them. The one denominated «it conquers 
spiritual», carried out by priests, it adopts peaceful methods to evangelize the inhabitants of 
the New World, but in the case of Venezuela their task will be blocked from the beginning 
by the violence with which the avid conquerors of wealth act that capture the Indians to sell 
them as slaves in many cases. In the initial relationship between American and European, in 
lands of Venezuela, the whole range of possible attitudes is presented when the encounter 
of human groups belonging to cultures so different takes place whose spiritual and 
economic values were opposed. The native would feel curiosity and admiration, but also 
distrust and fear, before the recently arrived one. In some cases it offers him good welcome 
and it collaborates with him. In other cases, escapes. In other, it attacks it. Sometimes, the 
conqueror's abuses toward the peaceful Indian make that this becomes hostile or that it 
takes advantage of any occasion to move away from that. The main bases of the first 
conquering expeditions dedicated to Venezuela are the ports of the south of Spain, the 
islands Canarias and the Antilles, especially Puerto Rico and the island The Spaniard 
(Sacred Domingo). To the beginning, the groups of merchants or the hosts of warriors and 
residents that arrive in Venezuela and the immediate islands they are constituted by 
Spaniards, German, Italian, that sometimes come directly from the Iberian Peninsula or of 
the Canarias but others already have acquired experience «Latin American» in the Antilles 
or in Mexico and Central America. In general, the men are much more numerous that the 
women. Already advanced the process, toward half-filled of the XVI century, they begin to 
figure the calls «youths of the earth», Creoles or mestizos born in some place of the New 
World, and something increases the number of Spanish women. Starting from 1580, 
already at the end of the process, Portuguese participate due to the dynastic union of Spain 
and Portugal in Felipe's II person. The conquest of the territory was not due to organized 
military expeditions and sent by the Spanish monarchy, but to the action of matters. This 
could be spontaneous, without previous authorization of the Crown, thing that rarely 
happened; such it was the occupation of the island of Cubagua and the establishment there 
of a provisional homestead of the fishermen of pearls that later would become in the city of 
New Cádiz. In other cases, the interested ones proceeded to obtain the King's permission, 
by means of a capitulation in which the part obligations were specified and it leaves, as 
they made it the Welser with Carlos V; these capitulations, due to the mandatory 
imprecisión that offered as for the geographical environment, were source of disagreements 
and cases among conquerors. Later on, the American audiences (Sacred Domingo and 
Santafé of Bogotá, for the Venezuelan territory) they received from the Crown abilities to 
authorize exploration expeditions, it conquers and poblamiento; this way, while the mestizo 
Francisco Fajardo carried out for his bill his first 2 expeditions to the coast of the Caracas 
(1555, 1557-1558), for third o'clock (1559-1560) it traveled to Sacred Domingo in order to 
obtain the authorization of the Audience. 

Antecedents of the conquest 
The conquest process, expert this as domain of the Europeans on the territory and envelope 
their indigenous inhabitants, it was preceded at the end of the XV century and in the first 
decade of the XVI one for the discovery of Venezuela carried out in 1498 for Christopher 
Columbus (third trip of Christopher Columbus) and the successive explorations of the coast 
and their islands that in the immediately following years Cristóbal Guerra, Vicente Yáñez 
Pinzón, Alonso of Ojeda, Juan of the Thing, Américo Vespucio carried out. They are those 
that historian Demetrio Ramos Pérez has denominated appropiately «discovery trips and 
rescue». They were mainly, recognition sailings, in search of gold and pearls and also of a 
step toward Cipango (Japan) and Cathay (China) that was believed they were near. opened 
up this way a brief but intense period of «it rescues» (it exchanges) with the Indians, to 
those who gave beads and objects, as knives, in exchange for pearls and beautiful metals. In 
1502, Alonso of Ojeda, being titled governor of Coquivacoa, was founded in lands of 
Venezuela the town of Santa Cruz of Coquivacoa whose exact location is still in discussion; 
serious investigations locate it beside the gulf of Venezuela, in the area of Cocinetas of the 
Peasant's oriental coast, but has also thought about the possibility that is located in the 
peninsula of Paraguaná. Their existence, in any event, was brief; although Ojeda took I get 
several marriages with intention of to populate and to establish this way a penetration base, 
Santa Cruz was abandoned to the few months, when being on prisoner Ojeda for members 
of its own host. 

The penetration roads in the territory 
Four were the main penetration roads through which it was carried out the conquest of 
Venezuela. The first one, in the oriental area, started up by the middle of the second decade 
of the XVI one; had their initial seat in Margarita islands and of Cubagua -on everything in 
this at the beginning - and then extended to Cumaná in the coast and of there inland; the 
Orinoco was also in the same region an early access road, although didn't give Hispanic 
establishments as a result during a lot of time. The second, for the occident, begin at the 
beginning of the decade of 1520 with the presence in the islands of The Giants (Curazao, 
Aruba, Bonaire) of the agents of Juan of Ampíes and the foundation for a son of to this of 
Choir, in mainland, in 1527; with Ambrosio Alfínger's arrival and of the other German 
governors named by the Welser the exploration of the territory begins that gives for result 
the first foundation of Maracaibo (1529) and that of other populations in Río Axe's coast, 
beyond the End of The Candle, and in 1545, already for the Spanish Juan of Carvajal, that 
of The Tocuyo; from this city, located inland, the conquest will open up in fan toward 
Borburata, Barquisimeto, Valencia, Trujillo. Years before one of the German governors, 
Nicolás of Federmann, leaving of Choir, it had arrived in 1539 to the Savanna of Bogotá, 
where Gonzalo Jiménez of Quesada, the founder of Santa Faith of Bogotá had preceded 
him. The third penetration road in the current territory of Venezuela was quite later that the 
2 already mentioned, because it began at the end of the decade of 1550, coming from Tunja 
and Pamplona in the New Granada (today Colombia) and it penetrated in the region of you 
Walk them Venezuelans, giving origin successively, to the cities of Merida, San Cristobal, 
Screams Her and Altamira of Cáceres (Barinas). The fourth via, already toward ends of the 
XVI century, it got off the highland from Bogotá, and it continued for the plains of the Goal 
and the Orinoco, in the expeditions led by Antonio of Berrío. Among these diverse forces 
of conquest of the current territory of Venezuela they took place encounters that sometimes 
they generated hostility and others were solved peacefully. In the decade of 1540 the 
neighbors of Cubagua, after having drained the ostrales of the area, moved after The Candle 
and to Río Hacha in search of intact pleasures. At the end of the decade of 1550 between 
Merida and Trujillo face the conquerors that ascend of Choir and The Tocuyo with those 
that lower of you Walk them. In 1561, before the threat that the Tirano Lope of Aguirre 
represents, the neighbors of the first 3 mentioned penetration roads unite their forces to 
combat him. In the conquest of the valley of the caracas, in the central region, Francisco 
Fajardo's margariteños and the tocuyanos of Diego of Losada converge. From the distant 
Santa Faith of Bogotá Antonio of Berrío it arrives to the mouths of the Orinoco and of there 
it passes to the island Margarita whose residents don't come with pleasure their presence. 

The east: Cubagua, Orinoco, Margarita 
The dry and sterile island of Cubagua was the main focal point of the initial conquest of the 
Venezuelan east. There they went spontaneously adventurous and managers, from Spain or 
from their establishments of the biggest Antilles, attracted by the wealth perlífera of their 
waters. Toward 1513-1515 they exist in the island provisional homesteads; little by little 
they become permanent establishment and in 1520 they begin to take city aspect. The 
oysters perlíferas seems inexhaustible. Natives brought to the force from Margarita island, 
the near continental coast and the distant archipelago of the Lucayas dive unceasingly. In 
the beaches they gather the empty shells as the population grows and that the wealth 
increases. Cubagua is sustained of the water and the firewood that he receives of the 
continent and of the corn and Margarita brought casabe. Around 1515 they had settled 
down in the opposite coast continental friars dominicos and Franciscans that began the 
spiritual conquest, but the outrages of the hunters of Indians unchain in 1520 an indigenous 
rebellion that destroys the convents and it cuts that evangelizing process. Neither it prospers 
in 1521 the intent of Gonzalo of Ocampo to found river Orchards up the city of New 
Toledo. On the other hand, Jácome of Castellón is able to settle down at the end of 1522 
and beginnings of 1523 a strength in the mouth of the river. Such they are the distant 
origins of the city of Cumaná. Among so much, the population seated in Cubagua 
continues prospering and in 1528 she receives from Carlos V the city title, with the name of 
New Cádiz. The trade flourishes with the biggest Antilles and with Spain. French pirates 
threaten to the island, attracted by the fame of their wealth. There and in the neighboring 
Margarita a learned Renaissance society writes verses, makes Music, reads Erasmo and 
Boccaccio, without forgetting the business of the pearls; the magnates cubagüenses 
possesses black slaves that, as foremen, they watch over the Indians, and in some case they 
have Moorish slaves. Besides the church, you begins the construction of a Franciscan 
convent. The intensive exploitation of the pleasures perlíferos, for that which you/they are 
sometimes used called apparatuses «trails», goes them draining quickly starting from 1534. 
The economy languishes. The neighbors organize expeditions to look for virgin ostrales 
and they find them in the End of the Candle where many inhabitants move at the beginning 
of the decade of 1540. Other they leave to the neighboring Margarita and they are devoted 
to the agriculture, the cattle raising and the fishing. New Cádiz leaves deforesting and at the 
end of 1541, a telluric or meteorological phenomenon (maremoto or hurricane) it 
accelerates its decadence. In 1545 ruins are only of their last splendor. The foundation 
cumanesa of Jácome of Castellón also disappeared for then: in 1550 the bishop from Puerto 
Rico, Rodrigo of Bastidas, wrote that «...las churches of Cubagua and of Maracapana and 
Cumaná in mainland [...] they no longer exist to be had uninhabited». This way, with the 
disappearance of New Cádiz they also failed the first penetration intents and establishment 
in the oriental coast of Venezuela. While the fisheries of Cubagua were still in full activity, 
Hernán Cortés's old partner in Mexico, Diego of Ordaz, obtained in 1530 of the Crown of 
Spain a capitulation to explore the region of it Gave birth to. By the middle of 1531 their 
expedition entered in the Orinoco, it destroyed the aboriginal town of Huyaparica or 
Uyapar and it followed river up until the streams prevented them to continue. It was the 
first Spanish incursion in the region of Guayana. In their contacts with the natives had news 
of «the county of the Goal», very rich and populated, beyond the mountains. left this way 
forging the myth of The Gilding. They returned to the coast, and having died Ordaz in 1532 
it happened him as governor of Jerónimo of Ortal it Gave birth to (or Dortal) whose 
lieutenant Alonso of Herrera penetrated again for the Orinoco in 1534 and it arrived at the 
river it Puts, where he died at the hands of the Indians. By the middle of 1535 the 
expedition had returned to the coast. Other later intents, as the one captained by Antonio 
Sedeño, didn't have better success. 
During the years 1530-1550 the Hispanic presence in the east concentrates on the island 
Margarita whose autochthonous inhabitants, the guaiqueríes, they had received friendly the 
Spaniards when these began to frequent its costs toward 1510-1520. There was not armed 
confrontation there. In 1525, the hearer of Sacred Domingo's Real Audience, Marcelo 
Villalobos, had obtained of Carlos V, by means of a capitulation, the authorization to 
colonize and to govern the island, but died at the little time and the king extended the grace 
from the government to his daughter Aldonza Villalobos; being this smaller than age, it 
assumed the tutorship and the right to the control his mother, the widow of the hearer, 
Isabel Manrique of Villalobos. Although none of 2 o'clock exercised Margarita government 
personally, but through his relatives or of male governor lieutenants, the dynasty 
Villalobos-Manrique maintained in its hands the domain of the island until ends of the XVI 
century, when in 1593 died combatting against some pirates the governor Juan Sarmiento 
of Villandrando, great-grandson of Marcelo Villalobos. The successive governor 
lieutenants sent from Sacred Domingo starting from 1526 for the hearer Villalobos (who 
died that year) and then for their widow, the construction of a strength and a church began 
in the southern coast, giving origin to the first Hispanic population of the island; it was the 
Town of The Sea (Porlamar) that it was already organized in 1534 and in March of 1536 it 
was baptized by the father Francisco Villacorta with the name of Villa of the Sacred Spirit, 
being placed the low temple The Asunción's invocation. During those years Isabel and 
Aldonza had to contest against the neighbors of New Cádiz of Cubagua who sought to 
exercise domain on the Margarita and they got it for some years; but in 1542 Aldonza (that 
had married with the perulero Pedro Ortiz of Sandoval) it won the case. Among so much, in 
the island, the Spanish inhabitants and Creoles that had sementeras in the central valley 
they built their houses there, so that little by little was formed a nucleus that was known 
toward 1545 as «I populate of Santa Lucía» and it was the origin of the current capital of 
the New state Esparta, The Asunción. The natives of the island, although they worked for 
the Spaniards and Creole, they were vassal of the King and they were not subjected to the 
régime of it commends it. 

The foundation of Choir and the penetration for the occident 
The second of the big roads of the conquest, that of the occident, began to be activated 
something after the oriental, but in about 30 years, of 1527 at 1558, it was able to penetrate 
inland deeply and gave origin to several cities that lasted. From their headquarters of 
Sacred Domingo, the real factor Juan of Ampíes was interested in the calls islands of The 
Giants (Curazao, Aruba and Bonaire) and he obtained in 1520 of the ruling Rodrigo of 
Figueroa the mission of to keep them and to populate them with Spaniards and Indian, 
reasonable these of other islands and of mainland; in 1521 the admiral-viceroy of The 
Spaniard, Diego Colón, granted him her protection, prohibiting the Spaniards to enslave the 
Indians of the islands granted in dominion to Ampíes; in 1526, the Crown confirmed those 
graces. During those years the factor, without leaving him same of Sacred Domingo, sent 
several ships with his agents that were resided in Curazao, Aruba and Bonaire, where they 
cut stick brasil and they took to them or they encouraged to settle down to caquetíos and 
other natives that had abandoned them fearing the pro-slavery Spaniards there; in Sacred 
Domingo, Ampíes bought enslaved caquetíos, it was informed by them of the situation in 
the region coriana and it returned them free to their earth. This politics of pacification and 
approach won him the powerful cacique's trust Manaure who sent him emissaries offering 
him its friendship. By the middle of 1527 the factor sent to mainland with a ship and people 
of on foot and to horse to its homonymous son Juan of Ampíes who established a house 
strong-warehouse in the coast of the golfete of Choir and in July of that year it founded the 
population of Santa Ana of Choir like mixed town in which you/they lived side to Spanish 
and indigenous, governed side these for Manaure. It was not an official foundation, with 
Town council (for that which was not authorized) neither a military conquest, but a process 
of coexistence and reception. In November of 1528 the factor Ampíes (on behalf of which 
had come acting their son) it arrived to the golfete of Choir with about 50 Spaniards, among 
them one or several priests, and interviewed with Manaure who was baptized, the same as 
many other natives, receiving Martin's Christian name. But February 24 1529 arrived the 
German governor Ambrosio Alfínger, as agent of the Welser that in 1528 the poblamiento 
and the exploitation of the county of Venezuela had surrendered with Carlos V; accepting 
the real will, Ampíes retired, not without before to suffer prison for order of the recently 
arrived one who made build to Choir like city of Spaniards, with Town council, in the place 
where the strong house was. Toward 1532 the cacique Manaure and their people, tired of 
the bad treatments that received of the Europeans, they abandoned the town of Todariquiba 
and they went into inland. Two years later the neighbors of Choir decided to transfer it to 
the place where Ampíes son had founded it in 1527. Choir became this way the first stable 
establishment of the Venezuelan mainland, head of the government and headquarters, 
starting from 1531, of the diocese of Venezuela whose first holder was the bishop Rodrigo 
of Bastidas. The development of Choir like urban center was slow, but its existence 
provided a base for the exploration of the interior. To the few months of having arrived, 
Alfínger went out with a good part of its host, including women and children, in order to 
found another population, that which made toward September of 1529 in the western bank 
of the lake of Maracaibo, after having him crusader. The first city of Maracaibo that lasted 
was very little, because in October of 1535 Nicolás of Federmann (successor of Alfínger, 
dead 2 years before at the hands of the natives) it deforested it, being taken people to the 
establishment that called Our Mrs. of the Remedies, in the Peasant's western coast, distant 
origin of the current city of Río Hacha (Colombia). During several years Choir was the only 
city of the Venezuelan occident, because Federmann and the other governors and agents 
sent by the Welser, Germans and Spaniards together with numerous miners of that 
nationality, traveled the territory in search of auriferous veins and of the mythical one 
Golden, rescuing the natives' gold or enslaving them, but without founding stable 
populations; it was as well as Federmann crossed the plains, tramontó Walks them and it 
arrived at the beginning of 1539 to the savanna of Bogotá, where found that had been 
advanced Gonzalo Jiménez of Quesada. The first lasting city of Venezuelan inland will be 
The Tocuyo, been founded at the end of 1545 by Juan of Carvajal. The following year this 
enters in conflict with the representatives of the Welser, Felipe of Hutten and Bartolomé 
Welser to who it captures and makes kill when they returned to Choir. A residence judge 
sent by Sacred Domingo's Audience, the graduated Juan Pérez of Tolosa, arrives to The 
Tocuyo, he arrests Carvajal, he prosecutes him for those deaths, it condemns him and he 
makes hang in September of 1546. With so bloody episodes closes, in fact, the period of the 
Welser in Venezuela. 
Daughter of Choir, the city of The Tocuyo will be in turn a nursery of new cities. The first 
one is Borburata, located in the proximities (and perhaps in the same place) of the current 
Puerto Cabello. In 1547, for order of Pérez of Tolosa, their lieutenant of governor Juan of 
Villegas goes with his host, and it arrives beside the lake of Tacarigua (lake of Valencia) in 
December; it crosses the serranía and February 24 1548 then he edits, already in the coast, a 
records where it is declared founded Our Mrs. of the Concepción of Borburata. But without 
putting into practice the foundation, Villegas and their partners return to The Tocuyo, 
although they are sworn in to return again. Indeed, in November of 1549, Villegas 
commissions to Pedro Álvarez who goes from The Tocuyo with an expedition that includes 
several women, and settles down in the place of the Borburata. Finally, in April of 1551 
Villegas in person goes there and it organizes the Town council, with that which is 
sophisticated the foundation of the city. Although the old Borburata was uninhabited about 
20 years later, at the beginning of the decade of 1570, the process of its origins sample how 
the exploration of the land, the effective establishment and the juridical requirements don't 
always coincide in the time, in the foundation of a city. The same Juan of Villegas was the 
founder of the second city daughter of The Tocuyo, the New Segovia of Barquisimeto, in 
1552. Their origin was due to the existence of auriferous veins and of seeds of gold in the 
area of the river Buría, where also settled down the Real of Mines of Buría or of San Pedro 
of Buría, as mining camp in which took place the black Miguel's lift soon after. 
Barquisimeto that was city from the beginning, with Town council and ordinances and 
allotment of you commend, it moved several times of location, without losing their 
artificial unit neither their name for that reason. The third city been founded from The 
Tocuyo was that of Valencia, in the proximities of the lake that the natives Tacarigua 
called. Their foundation has given place, in recent years, to polemic whose echo has not 
still gone out completely. It is, mainly, the brother Nectario María who has contributed the 
data that you/they have forced to restate the problem. Generally, continuing to José of 
Oviedo and Bathrooms and to other columnists and historians, one had for founder from 
Valencia in 1555 to Alonso Díaz Moreno, «neighbor of the Borburata», correspondent for it 
for the Aryan governor Alonso of Villasinda. Now it is known that the process was quite 
more complex. From 1551, captain Vicente Díaz Pereira, neighbor of Borburata, had 
founded a cluster in the same place where then the city of Valencia settled down. Two 
years later, in 1553, around the cluster had been formed a populational nucleus, with some 
other neighbors of Borburata that there settled down. On this base, the Aryan governor of 
Villasinda was founded officially that same year of 1553, according to an extract made by 
Antonio from León Pinelo that is conserved in the files from Madrid, the city of Valencia, 
without it is possible to affirm if he made it in person or if it was been worth of a 
commissioner that well could be Alonso Díaz Moreno. In any event, in 1555 the city 
already existed with its Town council. The enigma is not cleared completely: the most 
recent investigations have concentrated on the existence of possible homonyms of Alonso 
Díaz Moreno and of Vicente Díaz Pereira. It also left of The Tocuyo in 1557 the expedition 
that founded the city of New Trujillo to the control of Diego García of Walls, in the place 
of Escuque, probably between March and April of 1558. By the middle of the following 
year the pressure of the natives forced to deforest it. It was the first of a series of movings 
that you/they won Trujillo that also changed name several times, the appellative of «the 
portable city». García of Walls fell in misfortune with the governor. Another captain, 
Francisco Ruiz, continued the company and he settled shortly in the same place that that, 
but he called the population Mirabel. A new governor named another time to García of 
Walls his lieutenant in the county of the cuicas. It returned, because, in December of 1559 
to the city that had been founded, naming her now Trujillo of Salamanca, and transferring it 
however to the valley of Boconó that was not, their definitive establishment. 
During the decade of 1550 the conquerors, incited by the thirst of gold, try to settle down in 
the lands of the belligerent jiraharas. Now the expeditions no longer leave only of The 
Tocuyo, but mainly of Barquisimeto. But the villages or «Real of Mines» that are founded 
they have an ephemeral life and in general it is different populations, without continuity. 
The village of The Palms, been founded by Diego of Mounts in 1554; the village of Nirva, 
or Nirgua, by Diego of Stop the following year; the Rich Villa, been founded in 1557 by 
Diego Romero, will stay up to 1568; with the name of New Sherry will try to make it 
reborn without durable success, Juan of Moorish in 1569. Only already well entered the 
XVII century you will end up dominating the region. By the middle of the XVI century, 
during the decade of 1550, the penetration that Juan of Ampíes and Ambrosio Alfínger 
began for the western coast has been able to establish a bridge head, Choir, and a solid base 
in the interior, The Tocuyo. From this they open up in fan a series of populations: 
Borburata (of ephemeral existence), Barquisimeto, Valencia, Trujillo; although 2 of them 
(Barquisimeto and Trujillo) they have not still reached their definitive locations for then. 
The search of mines and of The Gilding they constitute the main motivations of the 
conquerors, but the poblamiento has already begun and they have been granted you 
commend. In chorus a modest cathedral is built, and temples are erected in the cities. 
However, the spiritual conquest is only scarce secular priests' that must also assist the 
Hispanic population, work because the religious orders have not still made its organic 
appearance in the western region. Although Choir is officially the headquarters of the 
government and of the bishopric, the governors frequently reside inland (in The Tocuyo or 
Barquisimeto) and the officials of Real Treasury usually settle down also there, and in 
Borburata, in order to be near where it is extracted gold and power to claim the fifth part 
that it corresponds the King. 

The come conquerors of inland 
In 1550, had settled in Santa Faith of Bogotá the Audience of the New Kingdom of 
Granada. The residents of that city and especially those of Tunja and of Pamplona, founded 
this in 1549, they organized expeditions toward the AND, in address of the government of 
Venezuela, with the purpose of to discover mines and to dominate the natives of the calls 
«snowy mountains». The connection between the conquering nucleus of the Venezuelan 
occident and the residents of the New Granada had been carried out not very before, when 
Juan of Villegas sent emissaries from The Tocuyo to open the trade with them. To explore 
the mountainous area of the current states Táchira and Merida the Town council of 
Pamplona it grants powers, successively, to the mayors Juan of Maldonado (1555), Juan 
Andrés Beaches her (1557) and Juan Rodríguez Suárez (1558). It will be this last, 
nicknamed the Captain of the Red Layer who will undertake the march in March of that 
year and after overcoming all luck of obstacles it will found the city of Merida, near the 
lagoon of Urao or place of Lagunillas, October 9 1558. It takes I get about 60 men, among 
which Juan Andrés highlights Beaches her who approaches in Merida. There are not mines 
of gold there, but yes good lands, capable for the work and the breeding, and numerous 
Indians to be commended. Something later Juan of Maldonado arrives with 80 partners and 
alleging that Rodríguez Suárez has abused in its functions puts it prisoner, it expels him, 
and it transfers the city, after several incidents, to the place where today is, to the foot of the 
high crowned mountain of snow; this happened at the beginning of 1559. Soon after, 
Maldonado and their men that have continued their march toward the AND, they meet with 
the founders of Trujillo, already sent by Francisco Ruiz that you/they ascended for the 
mountain range. The 2 captains reach an agreement, and they notice the limits there among 
the lands subjected for then to the jurisdiction of the Audience of Santa Faith of Bogotá and 
those of the government of Venezuela, clerk of Sacred Domingo's Audience. Maldonado 
returns peacefully later to Merida and 2 years, March of 1561, 31 are founded in Santiago's 
valley San Cristobal's Villa. 

The conquest begins to move toward the center 
When mediating the XVI century, while the conquest for the roads of the axis Choir-the 
Tocuyo and of you Walk them had made big progresses, until the point of ending up being 
linked both, and that the penetration for the east was paralyzed, the center-northern region 
of the current Venezuela continued under the domain of the aboriginal ones. They were 
these belligerent and fearless, they had to their head caciques of military prestige and the 
high mountain range that ran parallel to the coast it hindered the access of the Europeans. A 
mestizo margariteño, Francisco Fajardo, son of a cacica guaiquerí, attempted and it was 
able to put foot in the central coast and to establish contact with his residents. Its first 
expedition, of recognition, carried out it in 1555 in 2 big canoes, with 20 Indian guaiqueríes 
and other 3 mestizos as him; it was limited to «to rescue», that is to say, to trade with the 
natives and to be given to know. The second, toward 1557-1558, made it accompanied by 
their mother the cacica Isabel, of 11 Spaniards and of more than 100 guaiqueríes; 

Caracas toward the capitalidad 
With the arrival to the governor's Juan of Pimentel Caracas in 1576 she/he settles down the 
habit that these political-military officials reside in this city starting from then. The officials 
of Real Treasury you will also reside soon after there. Even when the cathedral 
headquarters of the bishopric continues in chorus, where the members of the Town council 
Ecclesiastical, many bishops are they settle in Caracas or they pass long seasons in her. 
This way, Caracas becomes the capital in fact of the government of Venezuela. 
Headquarters of the diocese won't be it but in 1637, to the transferred being the cathedral of 
Choir to Caracas. This march toward the capitalidad is explained by diverse reasons: 1) 
climatic: due to the moderate height (900 m) of the valley in which is located; 2) 
economic: they were discovered mines of gold in their area, and the lands were capable for 
several types of cultivations, so much Europeans (wheat) as American (tobacco, corn); 3) 
military: Caracas was much more preserved of the assaults of pirates that Choir or 
Caraballeda, due to the mountain range that separated it of the sea; 4) comunicacionales: In 
spite of the mountain range, it was relatively close, although for a sheer one on the way to 
mountain, of their natural port of The Guaira, and for earth she/he had good opening 
possibilities toward the east, the south and west. An index of the potential of Caracas is the 
following one: when she/he took place in 1576 in Barquisimeto a meeting of the municipal 
town councils of the government, she/he thought about the necessity of black slaves and 
Caracas requested 500 as long as Choir, Valencia, Trujillo and Caraballeda requested 100 
each one. Caraballeda was decaying as Caracas progressed. That same year, most of their 
neighbors resided in Caracas, with the women and children, fearing the corsairs, and 
Pimentel she/he intended that Caraballeda was eliminated and incorporate its neighbors 
definitively to Caracas. The inhabitant of Caracas didn't need to Caraballeda like port, 
because they had more fence the bay of The Guaira, although in this it didn't exist any 
population then; the ships anchored indistinctly in the bay guaireña, when they drove 
merchandise for Caracas, or before Caraballeda if they brought it for this city. Finally, in 
January of 1586 the Town council of Caraballeda entered in conflict with governor Luis of 
Red who arrested its members; to little, the city was deforested and most of the neighbors 
passed Caracas, leaving others to Valencia. This way she/he gave way the project, 
suggested in 1580 by accountant Diego Ruiz Vallejo, of transferring the city from 
Caraballeda to the natural port of The Guaira. This port left populating little by little 
starting from 1590 or 1591, with a house that served as customs, other few ones to deposit 
goods and then at the beginning of the XVII century, a small jetty and some fortifications, 
around all that which housings were built. It was not, properly, neither a village neither a 
city, but yes a nucleus populated clerk of the Town council from Caracas. During the final 
years of the XVI century it was exported by that port, mainly, wheat; then, tobacco and 
something later cocoa. 
In 1579 the intent of expansion of Caracas had begun toward the east, when commending 
him Pimentel to Garci González of Silva the mission of to dominate to the Indian 
cumanagotos and chacopatas and to incorporate to the county of Caracas its lands, located 
among the rivers Unare and Neverí. After numerous combats, the conqueror had to 
abandon his company. On the other hand, years later it penetrated in the high plain, region 
of the river Guárico and of San Juan of the Muzzles, fighting against the caribeses and 
pursuing them almost to the riversides of the Orinoco. The region that today denominates 
Barcelona (Edo. Anzoátegui), que se extiende por la costa y tierra adentro entre los ríos 
Unare y Neverí (y también más allá de ellos) fue por un tiempo motivo de disputa entre 
las autoridades de Caracas, o de las poblaciones que la antecedieron, como El Collado, y las 
de Nueva Córdoba o Cumaná. All tried to take possession of the area that was defended by 
cumanagotos and chacopatas. There they were founded along the XVI century and 
especially starting from 1570, numerous populations of ephemeral existence. One of the 
most interesting cases is that of the city of San Cristobal of New Ecija, been founded in 
September of 1586 by captain Cristóbal Cobos, sent by Caracas Luis' governor of Red; 
she/he was in the proximities of where today the city of Barcelona is. In absence of Cobos 
the governor of Cumaná, Rodrigo Núñez Lobo, the population occupied in January of 1588 
as belonging to her jurisdiction, and you/he/she changed him the name for that of San 
Felipe of Cumanagotos; when returning Cobos you/he/she accepted those changes. In 1596, 
this population united with that of Our Mrs. of Trumpets (been founded in 1594, without 
relationship with the current Trumpets) and you join they constituted another city, New 
Frechilla of San Cristobal of Trumpets, beside the Guatapamare and near the current 
location of Barcelona. It will last many years, until Juan of Orpín is founded in 1638 the 
city of Barcelona. 
The expansion of Caracas also continued toward the south and toward the west. Another 
conquering captain, Sebastián Díaz Alfaro, leaving of Caracas, it founded January 6 1585 
the city of San Sebastián of the Kings that suffered 5 movings before almost finding later 
their definitive location one century, in 1676. Far the mines of gold of Apa and Carapa that 
were drained very soon, were not and mainly the door toward the plain, favorable earth for 
the cattle raising. Another population, this in the western plains, was the city of the Sacred 
Spirit of the Valley of San Juan of Guanaguanare (today Guanare) founded November 3 
1591 for the neighbor and agent from Caracas Juan Fernández of León, of Portuguese 
origin who received authorization for it from the governor Diego of Osorio. From Altamira 
of Cáceres, San Sebastián of the Kings and Guanare the conquerors had open the entrance 
to the plains. 
During the last 2 decades of the XVI century they go taking cohesion in the main cities the 
oligarchical groups of agents whose havens are the municipal town councils. The 
phenomenon is general, but more remarkable in Caracas, where they begin to stand out 
those that later will be called «mantuanos». One of them, Simón of Bolivar, the first of that 
last name arrived in Venezuela, travels to Spain like procurator of the town councils of the 
government in 1590 and she/he returns later 2 years with numerous graces of the King, 
among them the shield for the city of Caracas. In the decades of 1580 and 1590 the agents 
enter in conflict with governors and bishops that want to force them to complete the real 
dispositions on the good treatment that should be given to the commended Indians, as well 
as their concentration in towns governed by a priest doctrinero. This last, for the county of 
Caracas, it will only become effective starting from 1620. They will arise this way, 
numerous doctrine towns, and then the missionaries will arrive. 

Saint Took and the Hispanic Guayana 
The last great road of penetration of the conquest in Venezuela is chronologically, the one 
that for the Goal or for the plains, getting off Tunja and Santa Faith of Bogotá, it arrives to 
the Orinoco. In fact, it is the same road that you/they took, from the mouths of the great 
river, Ordaz and their followers, but in opposed sense. Starting from 1584 the Spanish 
Antonio of Berrío (the founder's from Bogotá Gonzalo Jiménez of Quesada nephew) she/he 
attempts several times to cross the plain and to navigate Orinoco below, in search of The 
Gilding. It achieves it the third time, in 1591. In March of that year some people leave in an 
outpost of the outlet of the Caroní, and you/he/she continues to Margarita island. In 1592 
their lieutenant Domingo of she/he will See and Ibargoyen founds the city of San José of 
Oruña in the island of Trinidad. In April of 1595 the English Walter Raleigh takes 
possession of that island and she/he makes prisoner to Berrío. As this, Raleigh also walked 
in search of The Gilding, and it penetrated for the Orinoco until the mouths of the Caroní, 
without result. Then, Raleigh is defeated in Cumaná and Berrío it recovers the freedom. 
With the support of neighbors of Cumaná and of Margarita Orinoco navigates up and near 
the mouth of the Caroní she/he is founded in December of 1595 Saint's city I Took of 
Guayana. When Antonio of Berrío dies in 1597 his son Fernando, 20 year-old waiter, the 
company it will continue. Saint Took it will change several times of place, always beside 
the Orinoco, but his presence will mark the Hispanic sovereignty on the Guianese territory.