The Limits of Atlantic Revolution: Indigenous Power, Spectres of Saint-Domingue, and the Maracaibo Conspiracy of 1799

Abstract

In the Maracaibo of 1799, Spanish authorities claimed to have uncovered a revolutionary plot to overthrow the Spanish monarchy and install a republic modeled on Saint-Domingue. In existing historical accounts, Spanish officials, free colored (pardo) militiamen in Maracaibo, and an Atlantic crew of sailors coming from Port-au-Prince play the leading roles. Although Spanish officials also claimed Guajiro Indians were coordinating and cooperating, they appear as peripheral actors. As Guajiros and their allies were more numerous and powerful than any non-Indian group in the area, and controlled the territory and waterways on which part of the trade with New Granada depended, we signal the centrality of indigenous patterns of trade, warfare, politics, and diplomacy to explain events in this corner of the revolutionary Atlantic. Thus, and in order to specify the limits of the Atlantic revolution, we argue for the need to study micro-histories of particular Guajiro leaders and their kinship-territorial networks, as well as Spanish officials and captains and crews of particular ships from European colonies.

Keywords

• haitian revolution
• atlantic world
• indigenous sovereignty
• colonial venezuela/nova granada
• pardo militias