A question on Klein-Venedig: Venezuela

Cuāuhtemōc

Cuāuhtemōc

Banned
As you know, there was a small attempt to have a "German" colony in the Americas in the early decades of the 1500s. The Augsburg banking families of Anton and Bartholomeus Welser secured the rights to Venezuela in 1528 from Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. They set up a colonization scheme and sent Ambrosisus Ehinger to govern the colony. All the governors seemed to have a desire to search for the mythical El Dorado instead of actually building up a colony. They transported German miners to the colony to mine said gold and up to four thousand Africans as labor to work the sugar cane plantations.

It wasn't that successful and a lot of the Germans ended up dying due to diseases and the poor administration. By 1541, the Spanish government had enough disputes with the banking families and stripped control of Venezeula from them and placed it under royal administration by 1556.

What if the Weslers place much more capable individuals in charge of the colony who wouldn't go out and seek out gold but instead build up Venezuela? Are there any individuals who could take up the job? Is it possible for a Klein-Venedig to even survive longer than it did?



 
Cuāuhtemōc

Cuāuhtemōc

Banned
SavoyTruffle said:
It's possible, but settler colonization in the 16th century is as difficult as colonizing Africa pre-quinine.
Click to expand...

I figured if the Germans figured out that Venezuela is not a nice place to mine for gold and instead attempted to at least build an economy based on agriculture and trade with the natives, it could survive.
 
SavoyTruffle

SavoyTruffle

Cuāuhtemōc said:
I figured if the Germans figured out that Venezuela is not a nice place to mine for gold and instead attempted to at least build an economy based on agriculture and trade with the natives, it could survive.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but the colonial draw of the 16th century was quick wealth through gold.

On the other hand, if they see what the Portuguese are doing in Brazil...
 
Cuāuhtemōc

Cuāuhtemōc

Banned
SavoyTruffle said:
Yeah, but the colonial draw of the 16th century was quick wealth through gold.

On the other hand, if they see what the Portuguese are doing in Brazil...
Click to expand...

That mindset led to the disastrous end of quite a few colonies in OTL. And yeah they could always adopt the Portuguese model. Though the Portuguese didn't find much gold until the late 1600s and 1700s and that was concentrated mainly in the south. The Germans I think can grow sugercane and a bunch of other crops to maintain themselves.
 
SavoyTruffle

SavoyTruffle

Cuāuhtemōc said:
That mindset led to the disastrous end of quite a few colonies in OTL. And yeah they could always adopt the Portuguese model. Though the Portuguese didn't find much gold until the late 1600s and 1700s and that was concentrated mainly in the south. The Germans I think can grow sugercane and a bunch of other crops to maintain themselves.
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Yeah. I can see merchants trading in spices, sugarcane, and more importantly for the era, slaves.

That would make them richer in the long run.

Now the big question would be which state gets the duty for overseeing this. The HRE?
 
Cuāuhtemōc

Cuāuhtemōc

Banned
SavoyTruffle said:
Yeah. I can see merchants trading in spices, sugarcane, and more importantly for the era, slaves.

That would make them richer in the long run.

Now the big question would be which state gets the duty for overseeing this. The HRE?
Click to expand...

Well it was a family based in the HRE that headed the colony but they were still under some degree of Spanish supervision.
 

Fearless Leader

Donor
Given the Spanish oversight of the colony as well as the South German nature of the colonists, Klein Venedig would undoubtedly be Roman Catholic in nature. Sure you'd need a "Great Man" to get things going, and a few "lucky bounces" but I don't think having Klein Venedig survive in some fashion is completely out of the question...

TTL's Great Man is going to have to be the consummate diplomat, he'll need to make arrangements that keep both the Spanish and the Natives happy if Klein Venedig is going to survive. Let's say he starts with the Natives, signs actual treaties with them and purchases portions of land for the Germans to found their colonies on while not infringing on their rights. Furthermore he manages to convince the Spanish to let the Germans continue to settle the area and abide by the treaties with the local Natives. A large part of this probably will stem from the Great Man curtailing the search for El Dorado as you said. As a result of these admittedly farsighted diplomatic maneuverings, Klein Venedig not only survives but thrives in a limited sense (slave plantation economy primarily...) and Spain sees TTL's Venezuela become a fairly prosperous colony relatively cheaply and is content enough with the status quo to allow it to continue.

Perhaps during the 30 Years War, Klein Venedig is marketed as an escape from wartorn Europe and thousands of German Catholics make the trip. (Perhaps an earlier discovery of quinine would help more of these immigrants to survive?). Piracy in OTL was a huge problem for Klein Venedig, perhaps constant raids lead to the region becoming more independent from Spain as time goes on?
 

Valdemar II

Banned
You don't need a great man, you just need the Welser embracing more sensible (through less moral) policies for the development of the colonies: Sugar production and African Slaves* rather gold mining and German miners. The next you need is the Welser not coming into dispute with the Habsburgs. That would at least give it a few more decades.

We would likely see the lowland populated by African slaves, Mulatto and Metitz, while some White German villages exist farther inland in highland**. Economical the sugar production will make it quite valuable. So I could easily see the Habsburg confiscate the colony at some point. But if it has survived separate for long enough, it will likely stay "German" speaking and adminstrated separate from New Granada. In fact we could easily see the Welser use Antwerp and later Bruges as their primary port for trade with the colony in the Old World, so the Habsburg may treat it as a Flemish colony, if they annex it.

*They already did this to a degree in OTL.

**Even in OTL Venezuela is 20% White, and they live to a large degree in the highland.
 

Monty Burns

To give the German colonization attempt a larger "home base", you could have the Welser found a west-indian company, to which the former Hanse city states and some smaller German princes buy stakes. Those smaller princes can contribute money, settlers, specialists and soldiers for the company.
 
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