History
In 1498, Christopher Columbus became the first European to arrive at Margarita Island. The local natives, named Guaiqueries, received the conquering Spaniards with open arms unaware that they later would become slaves of their own wealth, since the coast of the island abounded in pearls. Pearls represented almost a third of all New World tribute to the Spanish Crown. Margarita Island had to be fortified against the increasing threat of pirate attacks, and several of these fortifications remain today. In 1561, the island was seized by Lope de Aguirre, a notoriously violent and rebellious conquistador who held the islanders in a grip of terror until he returned to the mainland in an attempt to take Panama from the Spanish crown. Around 1675 the island was captured by Red Legs Greaves, a pirate known for his humanity and morality. He captured a fleet of Spanish ships off port, before turning the guns on the forts which he stormed and claimed a large booty of pearls and gold. However, true to his form, he didn't sack the town, or rape and torture the Spaniards, he just took the money and ran.
In 1814, the islanders fought successfully for independence from the Spanish after the collapse of the First Republic of Venezuela. Margarita Island became the first, permanently free territory in Venezuela. That same year, Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi was detained for over three years in a dark dungeon where she was harassed and abused. The authorities were hoping to put pressure on her husband Juan Bautista Arismendi, who was fighting for independence. It was on Margarita Island that Simón Bolívar was confirmed as Commander in Chief of the Venezuelan Republic in 1816. From there he started a nine-year campaign to free Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia from the Spanish Crown.
Read more about this topic: Isla Margarita
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“[Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.”
—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“History ... is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.
But what experience and history teach is this—that peoples and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“All things are moral. That soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration; out there in history we can see its fatal strength.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)