Manuel Carlos Piar (April 28, 1774 - October 16, 1817) was
GeneralA general officer is an officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is simply called general.-All general officer...
-in-Chief of the
armyAn army An army An army (from Latin armata "armed (things)" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based Military of a nation. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
fighting
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
during the
Venezuelan War of IndependenceThe Venezuelan War of Independence was the war fought for the emancipation of what is today Venezuela, between 1811 and 1823. It was part of a series of related emancipation movements throughout Spanish America, resulting from Napoleon's invasion of Spain...
.
The son of a Spanish sailor and a Dutch
mulattaMulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent or a person who has both black ancestry and white ancestry. The term may be perceived as pejorative in some cultures and situations. Its current usage varies greatly.-Etymology:...
born in
WillemstadWillemstad is the territorial capital of the Netherlands Antilles. Located at Lat.
and Long. , on the island of Curaçao, it has an estimated population of 125,000. The historic centre of the city consists of two quarters: Punda and Otrobanda. They are separated by the St...
,
CuraçaoCuraçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The island area of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is one of five island areas of the Netherlands...
, Piar grew up as a humble
mestizoMestizo is a Spanish and Portuguese term that was used in the Spanish Empire and Portuguese Empire to refer to Latin people of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry in the Americas....
subject to the discriminating limits imposed by the social norms of colonial times.
He arrived in Venezuela with his mother when he was ten years old and set up residence in
La GuairaLa Guaira is the capital of the Venezuelan state of Vargas and the country's chief port. It was founded in 1577 as an outlet for Caracas, 30 km to the southeast. The town and the port were badly damaged during the December 1999 floods and mudslides that affected much of the region...
.
Manuel Carlos Piar (April 28, 1774 - October 16, 1817) was
GeneralA general officer is an officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is simply called general.-All general officer...
-in-Chief of the
armyAn army An army An army (from Latin armata "armed (things)" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based Military of a nation. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
fighting
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
during the
Venezuelan War of IndependenceThe Venezuelan War of Independence was the war fought for the emancipation of what is today Venezuela, between 1811 and 1823. It was part of a series of related emancipation movements throughout Spanish America, resulting from Napoleon's invasion of Spain...
.
Heritage and early life
The son of a Spanish sailor and a Dutch
mulattaMulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent or a person who has both black ancestry and white ancestry. The term may be perceived as pejorative in some cultures and situations. Its current usage varies greatly.-Etymology:...
born in
WillemstadWillemstad is the territorial capital of the Netherlands Antilles. Located at Lat.
and Long. , on the island of Curaçao, it has an estimated population of 125,000. The historic centre of the city consists of two quarters: Punda and Otrobanda. They are separated by the St...
,
CuraçaoCuraçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The island area of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is one of five island areas of the Netherlands...
, Piar grew up as a humble
mestizoMestizo is a Spanish and Portuguese term that was used in the Spanish Empire and Portuguese Empire to refer to Latin people of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry in the Americas....
subject to the discriminating limits imposed by the social norms of colonial times.
He arrived in Venezuela with his mother when he was ten years old and set up residence in
La GuairaLa Guaira is the capital of the Venezuelan state of Vargas and the country's chief port. It was founded in 1577 as an outlet for Caracas, 30 km to the southeast. The town and the port were badly damaged during the December 1999 floods and mudslides that affected much of the region...
. Without formal schooling he acquired by himself a good level of general knowledge and taught himself several languages.
At the age of 23, he decided to join the independence effort and participated in the unsuccessful 1797 Gual and España Conspiracy.
Military career
In 1804 he joined the
militiaThe term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
fighting the English in
CuraçaoCuraçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The island area of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is one of five island areas of the Netherlands...
. The Curaçao militia successfully expelled the English, restoring Dutch rule. 1807 found him in
HaitiHaiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Creole- and French-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago...
helping the revolution on the island and commanding a warship.
By 1810 his military experience and his desire for independence from the colonial governments put him at the service of the incipient Venezuelan independence conflict against
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
. He started in the navy and was deployed to
Puerto CabelloPuerto Cabello is a city on the north coast of Venezuela. It is located in the state of Carabobo about 75 km west of Caracas. As of 2001, the city has a population of around 154,000 people. The city is the home to the largest port in the country and is thus a vital cog in the country's vast...
. As
CommanderCommander is a military rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service...
of a ship he saw action in several engagements against the Spanish navy, participating in the Battle of Sorondo in the
OrinocoThe Orinoco is one of the longest rivers in South America at 2,140 km, . Its drainage basin, sometimes called the Orinoquia covers 880,000 km², 76.3% in Venezuela with the rest in Colombia. The Orinoco and its tributaries are the major transportation system for eastern and interior Venezuela...
river in 1812.
A deteriorating and losing situation for his side forced Piar to take refuge in
TrinidadTrinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the country of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just 11 km off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of 4,768 km² it is also the fifth...
for some time. Back in Venezuela in 1813 as an army
ColonelColonel is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every country in the world. It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
he successfully defended
MaturínMaturín is the capital of the Venezuelan state of Monagas. The city has a population of 741,000 people.- Geography :Maturin is located at 67 meters of altitude and 520 kilometres from the country's capital, Caracas...
and helped liberate the eastern part of the country from Spanish forces.
The following year, 1814, now a Brigadier General, Piar led troops fighting in the provinces of
BarcelonaBarcelona is the capital of Anzoátegui State, Venezuela and was founded in 1671. Together with Puerto La Cruz, Lecheria and Guanta, Barcelona forms one of the most important urban areas of Venezuela with a population of approximately 950,000...
,
CaracasCaracas is the capital and largest city of Venezuela. It is located in the north of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range . The valley's temperatures are springlike. Terrain suitable for building lies between 760 and 910 m above...
and
CumanaCumaná is the capital of Venezuela's Sucre State. It is located 402 km east of Caracas. It was one of the first settlements founded by Europeans on the South American mainland, in 1515 by Franciscan monks, but due to successful attacks by the indigenous people, it had to be refounded several times...
. He lost an engagement with the forces of
José Tomás BovesJosé Tomás Boves , royalist caudillo of the llanos during the Venezuelan War of Independence, particularly remembered for his use of brutality and atrocities against those who supported Venezuelan independence...
near
El Salado.
Promoted to
Major GeneralMajor General or Major-General is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of Sergeant Major General. A Major General is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of Lieutenant General and senior to the ranks of Brigadier and Brigadier General...
he joined in the successful Los Cayos expedition, and the engagements of Los Frailes and
CarupanoCarúpano is a city in the eastern Venezuelan state of Sucre. It is located on the Venezuelan Caribbean coast at the opening of two valleys, some 120 km east of the capital of Sucre, Cumaná...
.
In 1816 he defeated the army of Francisco Tomás Morales at El Juncál. From there Piar started marching on
GuayanaThe Guayana Region is an administrative region of Venezuela.The region has a population of 1,383,297 inhabitants and a territory of 458,344 km². It borders the independent nation of Guyana which forms part of The Guyanas...
with the intention of beginning the liberation of that province. At the beginning of 1817 he laid siege to the city of
AngosturaCiudad Bolívar is the capital of Venezuela's southeastern Bolivar State. It was founded with the name Angostura in 1764, renamed in 1846, and, as of 2005, had an estimated population of 338,250....
. On April 11 his forces achieved a major victory over those commanded by Spanish General
Miguel de la TorreMiguel de la Torre y Pando, conde de Torrepando was a Spanish General, Governor and Captain General, who served in Spain, Venezuela, Colombia and Puerto Rico during the Hispanic American wars of independence and after.At the age of fourteen he joined the Spanish Army as a soldier during the War of...
at the battle of
San FélixCiudad Guayana is a city in Bolívar State, Venezuela. It lies south of the Orinoco, where the river is joined by the Caroní River. The city, officially founded in 1961, is actually composed of the old town of San Félix at the east and the new town of Puerto Ordaz at the west, which lie either...
. A month later Piar was promoted to the rank of General-in-Chief.
Downfall, trial and execution
At this time, following his military victories, Piar came into conflict with his higher-ranking white
criolloThe term Creole and its cognates in other languages — such as crioulo, criollo, créole, kriolu, criol, kreyol, kriulo, kriol, krio, kreol, etc. — have been applied to people in different countries and epochs, with rather different meanings...
superiors, including
Simón BolívarSimón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios Ponte Blanco, commonly known as Simón Bolívar was a South American political leader...
. This friction eventually resulted in Bolívar stripping Piar of direct troop command. Piar then asked for leave, which was granted to him in June 1817.
Besides independence, Piar also wanted greater power-sharing, social and political rights for the mestizos. Unhappy with the way mestizos had been treated by the insular Spaniards under the colonial system, Piar had hoped for better treatment for the mestizos after the defeat of the royalists. However it seemed this would not be the case. Piar, now without any troops to command, decided to remain in Guayana and lobby for support for his views against those of the all-white criollo (Piar being the only exception) leadership.
Together with Piar were other very senior military commanders also opposed to Bolívar's leadership. Among these were
José Félix RibasJosé Félix Ribas , was a Venezuelan independence leader and hero of the Venezuelan War of Independence.-Early life:...
,
Santiago MariñoSantiago Mariño , was a nineteenth-century Venezuelan revolutionary leader and hero in the Venezuelan War of Independence...
and José Francisco Bermúdez. However, unlike Piar, they were also white-criollos and their reasons for opposing Bolivar were certainly different from the need to support mestizo rights.
In what is one of the independence struggle's darkest episodes, Bolívar ordered Piar arrested and tried for desertion, insubordination and conspiring against the government. Seeing as Piar was the only one charged and arrested in this episode, it is generally agreed that Bolívar simply needed to make an example of a single general from among the military leadership. Piar was the unlucky chosen one. He was arrested on September 28, 1817 and was judged by a court martial which found him guilty on all charges; and on October 15 sentenced him to death. On that same day Simón Bolívar, as Supreme Commander, confirmed the sentence. The following day Manuel Piar, General-in-Chief, was executed against the wall of the cathedral of
AngosturaAngostura may refer toThings*Angostura , a plant genus in the Rutaceae family*Angostura bitters*Angostura Bridge, a bridge in Venezuela*Congress of Angostura, a 1819-1821 legislative body of the Gran Colombia in present day Venezuela....
by a firing squad. In a puzzling moment, Bolívar, who had decided against witnessing the execution, heard the shots from inside his nearby office and said in tears,
"He derramado mi sangre" (I have spilled my blood).