Federal War: A Visual History

The Federal War (1859-1863) was a Venezuelan civil war between the Liberals, who demanded a federal constitution and social equality under the cry 'land and free men', and the Conservative oligarchy in Caracas. It began with the Coro rising of 20 February 1859; Ezequiel Zamora, the Liberal 'general of the sovereign people', won at Santa Ines in December 1859 but was shot dead besieging San Carlos in January 1860, and after the Liberal defeat at Cople, Juan Crisostomo Falcon and Antonio Guzman Blanco waged a devastating guerrilla war across the llanos, with both sides burning towns and shooting prisoners. Jose Antonio Paez's dictatorship could not win; the Treaty of Coche in April 1863 handed power to Falcon and a federal constitution followed in 1864. Between 100,000 and 200,000 died and the country was ruined for a generation.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Federal War (Venezuela). The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Venezuela's population

The war halted growth for a decade.

Timeline of the Federal War (Venezuela)

1. 1858
   Castro's coup; Liberals exiled
2. 1859
   Coro rising; Santa Ines
3. 1860
   Zamora killed; Cople
4. 1861
   Paez dictatorship
5. 1863
   Treaty of Coche24 April.
6. 1864
   Federal constitution

Origins

After independence Venezuela was ruled by the Conservative oligarchy of Paez and the Caracas merchants; the Liberals of Antonio Leocadio Guzman drew on the resentments of llaneros, freed slaves (abolition came in 1854) and the landless. Julian Castro's coup of 1858 against the Monagas brothers promised reconciliation and delivered exile for the Liberals; from Curacao Falcon and Zamora prepared revolt, and the Coro garrison rose on 20 February 1859 with the cry 'Federation!'.

Zamora and Santa Ines

Zamora, a former shopkeeper and veteran of the 1846 peasant revolt, raised the llanos with promises of land and equality; at Santa Ines on 10 December 1859 he lured the government army into prepared trenches and destroyed it. Marching on the centre, he was shot in the head at San Carlos on 10 January 1860, by whom is still debated. Falcon took command and lost the pitched battle of Cople in February 1860, after which the Liberals scattered into guerrilla bands.

Guerrilla war and Coche

For three years federal chieftains fought across the plains and mountains while the government, from September 1861 the dictatorship of the aged Paez, held the towns; both sides confiscated, burned and executed, and the war became a social conflict of the poor against the propertied. Guzman Blanco, Falcon's political brain, negotiated with Paez's minister Pedro Jose Rojas the Treaty of Coche in April 1863: Paez stepped down, Falcon became president and a constituent assembly wrote the federal constitution of 1864 that renamed the country the United States of Venezuela and the provinces states. Guzman Blanco went on to dominate Venezuela until 1888. Zamora became a Liberal saint and, under Hugo Chavez, a national icon.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Spanish Empire (1492 to 1976)
• Empire of Brazil (1822 to 1889)
• Dutch Empire (1602 to 1975)
• Second Portuguese Empire (1663 to 1822)

Wars of the same era and region

• Colombian War of Independence (1810 to 1825)
• Thousand Days' War (1899 to 1902)
• Paraguayan War (War of the Triple Alliance) (1864 to 1870)
• La Violencia (1948 to 1958)

8 surprising things about the Federal War (Venezuela)

1. The war's cry 'Tierra y hombres libres' (land and free men) and Zamora's phrase 'horror to the oligarchy' were revived by Hugo Chavez.
2. Zamora's killer has never been identified; theories point to his own side.
3. Chavez ordered Zamora's remains exhumed and honoured in the National Pantheon and named a land reform decree after him.
4. Jose Antonio Paez, hero of independence, was 71 when he became dictator for the last time and died in New York in 1873.
5. Guzman Blanco, who negotiated the peace, later ruled Venezuela on and off for 18 years and rebuilt Caracas in Parisian style.
6. The federal constitution of 1864 gave Venezuela the name United States of Venezuela, kept until 1953.
7. The war coincided with the American Civil War and shared its scale of destruction relative to population.
8. The Battle of Santa Ines is remembered as the model of Venezuelan popular warfare and taught at its military academy.

Sources

• Federal War Wikipedia
• Venezuela: The Federal War Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Ezequiel Zamora Wikipedia
• John V. Lombardi, Venezuela: The Search for Order, the Dream of Progress (1982) Oxford University Press

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