Captaincy General of Venezuela in the context of "Venezuelan War of Independence"

Mérida, officially known as Santiago de los Caballeros de Mérida, is the capital of the municipality of Libertador and the state of Mérida, and is one of the main cities of the Venezuelan Andes. It was founded in 1558 by Captain Juan Rodríguez Suárez, forming part of Nueva Granada, but later became part of the Captaincy General of Venezuela and played an active role in the War of Independence.

The capital city's population is 199,878 inhabitants, and the metropolitan area (including the municipalities of Libertador, Campo Elías, Sucre, and Santos Marquina) reaches 392,751 people (2011 census). The city accounts for 24% of the total population of Mérida State. It is home to the University of Los Andes and the Archdiocese of Mérida. It also has the highest and longest cable car in the world. It is the largest student and tourist center of western Venezuela. The mass transit system (Trolebús Mérida) is available as a means of tourist transport.

The Viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada (Spanish: Virreinato del Nuevo Reino de Granada [birejˈnato ðel ˈnweβo ˈrejno ðe ɣɾaˈnaða]), also called Viceroyalty of New Granada (Virreinato de la Nueva Granada) or Viceroyalty of Santa Fe, was the name given on 27 May 1717 to the jurisdiction of the Spanish Empire in northern South America, corresponding to modern Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela.

Created in 1717 by King Felipe V, as part of a new territorial control policy, it was suspended in 1723 for financial problems. It was restored in 1739 until the independence movement suspended it again in 1810. The territory corresponding to Panama was incorporated in 1739. The provinces of Venezuela were separated from the Viceroyalty and assigned to the Captaincy General of Venezuela in 1777.

The Supreme Junta (Spanish: Junta Suprema de Caracas) was the institution that governed the Captaincy General of Venezuela following the forced resignation of the Captain General Vicente Emparán on April 19, 1810, marking the beginning of the Venezuelan War of Independence. It lasted until March 2, 1811, when the first constituent congress of the First Republic of Venezuela was established.

Before the First Republic of Venezuela was established, King Ferdinand VII of Spain accepted the abdication of his father and chose to renounce his name as King on May 10, 1808. This left Napoleon Bonaparte to place his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, in charge as King of Spain through a royal decree on June 6, 1808. Following the events of the Revolution of April 19, 1810, the commanding General and other colonial officials designated by Joseph Bonaparte to oversee the Captaincy General of Venezuela, were deposed by an expanded municipal government in Caracas that called itself: the Supreme Junta to Preserve the Rights of Ferdinand VII (La Suprema Junta Conservadora de los Derechos de Fernando VII).

Juan Domingo de Monteverde y Rivas (born Juan Domingo de Monteverde; 2 April 1773  – 15 September 1832), commonly known as Domingo de Monteverde, was a Spanish soldier, governor and Captain General of Venezuela from June 1812 to 8 August 1813. Monteverde was the leader of Spanish forces in the Venezuelan War of Independence from 1812 to 1813. Monteverde led the military campaign that culminated in the fall of the First Republic of Venezuela in 1812. One year later in 1813, Monteverde was defeated by Simón Bolívar during the Admirable Campaign.

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830) was a Venezuelan statesman and military officer who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bolivia to independence from the Spanish Empire. He is known colloquially as El Libertador, or the Liberator of America.

Simón Bolívar was born in Caracas in the Captaincy General of Venezuela into a wealthy family of American-born Spaniards (criollo) but lost both parents as a child. Bolívar was educated abroad and lived in Spain, as was common for men of upper-class families in his day. While living in Madrid from 1800 to 1802, he was introduced to Enlightenment philosophy and married María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alaysa, who died in Venezuela from yellow fever in 1803. From 1803 to 1805, Bolívar embarked on a Grand Tour that ended in Rome, where he swore to end the Spanish rule in the Americas. In 1807, Bolívar returned to Venezuela and promoted Venezuelan independence to other wealthy creoles. When the Spanish authority in the Americas weakened due to Napoleon's Peninsular War, Bolívar became a zealous combatant and politician in the Spanish-American wars of independence.

Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga (1717–1793), also known as Louis Unzaga y Amezéga le Conciliateur, Luigi de Unzaga Panizza and Lewis de Onzaga, was governor of Spanish Louisiana from late 1769 to mid-1777, as well as a Captain General of Venezuela from 1777 to 1782 and Cuba from 1782 to 1785.

The cutting out of the Hermione (also known as the capture of Hermione) was a naval action that took place at Puerto Cabello, Venezuela on 25 October 1799. The formerly British frigate HMS Hermione, which had been handed over to the Spanish by its crew following a vicious mutiny, lay in the heavily guarded sea port of Puerto Cabello, now under the command of Don Ramón de Chalas.

A British frigate, HMS Surprise, was sent under Edward Hamilton to recapture Hermione. In naval terms this was called a cutting out operation—a boarding attack by small boats, preferably at night and against an unsuspecting and anchored target. This had become a popular tactic during the later 18th century.