Editing Caracas (section)

== History ==
{{For timeline}}
[[File:Diego de Losada - Antonio Herrera Toro Concejo Municipal de Caracas.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''Diego de Losada'' by [[Antonio Herrera Toro]]]]
Before the city was founded in 1567,<ref name=":0">{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Carácas}}</ref> the valley of Caracas was populated by indigenous peoples. [[Francisco Fajardo]], the son of a Spanish [[Captain (armed forces)|captain]] and a [[Guaiqueri]] ''[[cacique|cacica]]'', who came from [[Margarita Island|Margarita]], began establishing settlements in the area of [[La Guaira]] and the Caracas valley between 1555 and 1560. Fajardo attempted to establish a plantation in the valley in 1562 after these unsuccessful coastal towns, but it did not last long: it was destroyed by natives of the region led by [[Terepaima National Park|Terepaima]] and [[Guaicaipuro]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Ferry|first=Robert J.|title=The colonial elite of early Caracas: formation & crisis, 1567–1767|publisher=University of California Press|year=1989|isbn=0-585-28540-3|location=Berkeley, Calif.|oclc=45728929}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Layrisse|first1=Miguel|last2=Wilbert|first2=Johannes|last3=Arends|first3=Tulio|date=1958|title=Frequency of blood group antigens in the descendants of Guayquerí Indians|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|volume=16|issue=3|pages=307–318|doi=10.1002/ajpa.1330160304|pmid=13649899|issn=0002-9483}}</ref> Fajardo's 1560 settlement was known as Hato de San Francisco, and another attempt in 1561 by Juan Rodríguez de Suárez was called Villa de San Francisco, and was also destroyed by the same native people.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last1=Straka|first1=Tomás|title=Historical dictionary of Venezuela|last2=Guzmán Mirabal|first2=Guillermo|last3=Cáceres|first3=Alejandro E.|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|others=Rudolph, Donna Keyse|year=2017|isbn=978-1-5381-0949-6|edition=Third|location=Lanham|oclc=993810331}}</ref> The eventual settlers of Caracas came from [[Coro, Venezuela|Coro]], the German capital of their [[Klein-Venedig]] colony around the present-day coastal [[Colombia–Venezuela border]]; from the 1540s, the colony had been ''de facto'' controlled by Spaniards. Moving eastward from Coro, groups of Spanish settlers founded inland towns including [[Barquisimeto]] and [[Valencia, Carabobo|Valencia]] before reaching the Caracas valley.<ref name=":1" />

On 25 July 1567, Captain [[Diego de Losada]] laid the foundations of the city of ''Santiago de León de Caracas''.<ref name=":0" /> De Losada had been commissioned to capture the valley, and was successful by splitting the natives into different groups to work with, then fighting and defeating each of them.<ref name=":3" /> The town was the closest to the coast of these new settlements, and the colonists retained a native workforce, which allowed a trade network to develop between Caracas, the interior, and Margarita; the towns further inland produced ample cotton products and beeswax, and Margarita was a rich source of pearls. The Caracas valley had a good environment for both agricultural and arable farming, which contributed to the system of commerce but meant that the town's population was initially sparse, as it was only large enough to support a few farms.<ref name=":1" />

In 1577, Caracas became the capital of the [[Spanish Empire]]'s [[Venezuela Province]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=McCudden|first=Mary Rose|title=Britannica Student Encyclopedia : an A to Z Encyclopedia|date=May 2014|isbn=978-1-62513-172-0|location=[Chicago, Illinois]|pages=36|oclc=882262198}}</ref> under the province's new governor, [[Juan de Pimentel]] (1576–1583).<ref name=":3" /> In the 1580s, Caraqueños started selling food to the Spanish soldiers in [[Cartagena, Colombia|Cartagena]], who often docked in the coastal city when collecting products from the empire in South America. Wheat was growing increasingly expensive in the [[Iberian Peninsula]], and the Spanish profited from buying it from Caracas farmers. This cemented the city in the empire's trade circuit.<ref name=":1" />

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the coast of Venezuela was frequently raided by pirates. With the coastal mountains of the [[Cordillera de la Costa Central|Central Range]] as a barrier, Caracas was relatively immune to such attacks, compared to other Caribbean coastal settlements,<ref name=":1" /> but in 1595 the [[Preston–Somers expedition]] landed and around 200 English [[Privateer]]s, including [[George Somers]] and [[Amyas Preston]], crossed the mountains through a little-used pass while the town's defenders were guarding the more frequently used one. Encountering little resistance, the invaders sacked and set fire to the town after a failed ransom negotiation.<ref>John Lombardi, ''Venezuela'', Oxford, England, 1982, p. 72.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thebermudian.com/heritage/1055-the-burning-of-caracas|title=George Somers, Amyas Preston and the Burning of Caracas|work=The Bermudian |access-date  = 17 May 2016 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20160513110245/http://www.thebermudian.com/heritage/1055-the-burning-of-caracas |archive-date = 13 May 2016 |url-status     = dead}}</ref> The city managed to rebuild, using wheat profits and "a lot of sacrifice".<ref name=":3" /> In the 1620s, farmers in Caracas discovered that [[Cacao bean]]s could be sold, first selling them to native people of Mexico and quickly growing across the [[Caribbean]]. The city became important in the [[Viceroyalty]] of [[New Spain]], as well as moving from largely native slave labor to African slaves, the first of the Spanish colonies to become part of the [[History of slavery|slave trade]]. The city was successful and operated on cacao and slave trade until the 1650s, when an ''alhorra'' blight, the [[Mexican Inquisition]] of many of their Portuguese traders, and increased cacao production in [[Guayaquil]] greatly affected the market. This and the destructive [[1641 Caracas earthquake|1641 earthquake]] put the city into decline, and they likely began illegally trading with the [[Dutch Empire]], which Caraqueños later proved sympathetic to; by the 1670s, Caracas had a trading route through [[Curaçao]].<ref name=":1" />

[[File:Vista de Caracas en 1839.jpg|thumb|left|Caracas in 1839]]
In 1728, the [[Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas]] was founded by the king, and the cacao business grew in importance. Caracas was made one of the three provinces of [[Viceroyalty of New Granada|Nueva Granada]], corresponding to Venezuela, in 1739. Over the next three decades the Viceroyalty was variously split, with Caracas province becoming the Venezuela province. [[Luis de Unzaga]] created the [[Captaincy General of Venezuela]] in the summer of 1777, with Caracas as the capital.<ref name=":3" /> Venezuela then attempted to become independent, first with the 1797 [[Gual and España conspiracy]], based in Caracas,<ref name="The connection">{{cite web|title=The Connection between the United States Independence and the Hispanic American Independence Movement, and the Role Played by Some Key Books Published at the Beginning of the XIX Century|url=http://allanbrewercarias.net/Content/449725d9-f1cb-474b-8ab2-41efb849fea2/Content/I,%201,%201045.%20Brewer.%20THE%20ROLE%20OF%20SOME%20KEY%20BOOKS%20IN%20THE%20CONECTION%20BETWEEN%20THE%20U.S.%20INDEPENDENCE%20AND%20THE%20SPANISH.pdf|website=allanbrewercarias.net|access-date=29 July 2019|archive-date=17 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200717114346/http://allanbrewercarias.net/Content/449725d9-f1cb-474b-8ab2-41efb849fea2/Content/I,%201,%201045.%20Brewer.%20THE%20ROLE%20OF%20SOME%20KEY%20BOOKS%20IN%20THE%20CONECTION%20BETWEEN%20THE%20U.S.%20INDEPENDENCE%20AND%20THE%20SPANISH.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> and then the successful 1811 [[Venezuelan Declaration of Independence]].<ref name=":3" /> Caracas then came under worse luck: in 1812, an [[1812 Caracas earthquake|earthquake destroyed Caracas]], a quarter of its population migrated in 1814, and the [[Venezuelan War of Independence]] continued until 24 June 1821, when [[Simón Bolívar]] defeated [[royalist (Hispanic American Revolution)|royalists]] in the [[Battle of Carabobo]].<ref name=":3" /><ref name="HT">Maurice Wiesenthal, ''The History and Geography of a Valley'', 1981.</ref> Urban reforms only took place towards the end of the 19th century, under [[Antonio Guzmán Blanco]]: some landmarks were built, but the city remained distinctly [[Spanish Colonial architecture|colonial]] until the 1930s.<ref name=":3" />

[[File:Stadsgezicht met Hotel Majestica in Caracas in Venezuela, Bestanddeelnr 252-8437.jpg|thumb|Caracas in 1950.]]
Caracas grew in size, population, and economic importance during Venezuela's oil boom in the early 20th century. In the 1950s, the metropolitan area of Gran Caracas was developed, and the city began an intensive modernization program, funding public buildings, which continued throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.<ref name=":3" /> Cultural landmarks, like the [[University City of Caracas]], designed by modernist architect [[Carlos Raúl Villanueva]] and declared a World Heritage Site by [[UNESCO]] in 2000;<ref name=":23">{{cite web|title=Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/986|publisher=[[UNESCO]]|access-date=28 May 2010|archive-date=22 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200422045201/https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/986|url-status=live}}</ref> the [[Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art]]; and the [[Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex]] were built, as well as the [[Caracas Metro]] and a developed downtown area. Urban development was rapid, leading to the growth of slums on the hillsides surrounding the new city. Much of the city development also fell into disrepair come the end of the 20th century, with the [[1980s oil glut]] and political instability like the [[Caracazo]], meaning maintenance can not be sustained. The economic and social problems persist throughout the capital and country, characterized as the [[Crisis in Venezuela]]. By 2017, Caracas was the most violent city in the world.<ref name=":3" />