Caracas, acting in conjunction with the cabildo,
deposed the captain general on April 19, 1810, and created a junta
in his stead. The example was quickly followed by most of the smaller
divisions of the province. Then when Miranda returned from England to
head the revolutionary movement, a Congress, on July 5, 1811, declared
Venezuela independent of Spain. Carried away, also, by the enthusiasm
of the moment, and forgetful of the utter unpreparedness of the country,
the Congress promulgated a federal constitution modeled on that of the
United States, which set forth all the approved doctrines of the rights
of man.

Neither Miranda nor his youthful coadjutor, Simon Bolivar, soon to
become famous in the annals of Spanish American history, approved of
this plunge into democracy. Ardent as their patriotism was, they knew
that the country needed centralized control and not experiments in
confederation or theoretical liberty. They speedily found out, also,
that they could not count on the support of the people at large. Then,
almost as if Nature herself disapproved of the whole proceeding, a
frightful earthquake in the following year shook many a Venezuelan town
into ruins. Everywhere the royalists took heart. Dissensions broke out
between Miranda and his subordinates. Betrayed into the hands of his
enemies, the old warrior himself was sent away to die in a Spanish
dungeon. And so the "earthquake" republic collapsed.

But the rigorous measures adopted by the royalists to sustain their
triumph enabled Bolivar to renew the struggle in 1813. He entered upon
a campaign which was signalized by acts of barbarity on both sides.
His declaration of "war to the death" was answered in kind. Wholesale
slaughter of prisoners, indiscriminate pillage, and wanton destruction
of property spread terror and desolation throughout the country.
Acclaimed "Liberator of Venezuela" and made dictator by the people of
Caracas, Bolivar strove in vain to overcome the half-savage llaneros,
or cowboys of the plains, who despised the innovating aristocrats of
the capital. Though he won a few victories, he did not make the cause
of independence popular, and, realizing his failure, he retired into New
Granada.

In this region an astounding series of revolutions and
counter-revolutions had taken place. Unmindful of pleas for cooperation,
the Creole leaders in town and district, from 1810 onward, seized
control of affairs in a fashion that betokened a speedy