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Little Venice Klein-Venedig | |||||||||
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| 1528–1546 | |||||||||
 Coat of arms of the House of Welser
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 Location of Klein-Venedig, hard purple: full controlled area by the House of Welser, light purple: allowed expeditions by the Spanish Empire | |||||||||
| Status | Colony of the Free Imperial Cities of Augsburg and Nuremberg | ||||||||
| Capital | Neu-Augsburg | ||||||||
| Common languages | German[1] | ||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism[2][3][4] | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | 1528 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1546 | ||||||||
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| Today part of | Venezuela Colombia | ||||||||
Klein-Venedig (German for 'Little Venice') or Welserland (German pronunciation: [ˈvɛlzɐlant]) was the most significant territory of the German colonization of the Americas, from 1528 to 1546, in which the Welser banking and patrician family of the Free Imperial Cities of Augsburg and Nuremberg obtained colonial rights in the Province of Venezuela in return for debts owed by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was also King of Spain. In 1528, Charles V issued a charter by which the House of Welser possessed the rights to explore, rule and colonize the area, also with the motivation of searching for the legendary golden city of El Dorado.[5][6] The venture was led at first by Ambrosius Ehinger, who founded Maracaibo in 1529. After the deaths of Ehinger (1533) and then his successor Georg von Speyer (1540), Philipp von Hutten continued exploration in the interior, and in his absence from the capital of the province, the crown of Spain claimed the right to appoint the governor. On Hutten's return to the capital, Santa Ana de Coro, in 1546, the Spanish governor Juan de Carvajal had von Hutten and Bartholomeus VI. Welser executed. King Charles V revoked Welser's charter.
Welser transported to the colony German miners, and 4,000 African slaves as labor to work sugar cane plantations. Many of the German colonists died of tropical diseases or were attacked and killed during frequent journeys deep into native territory in search of gold.
- ^ Ribas, Rosa (2005). Testimonios de la conciencia lingüistica en textos de viajeros alemanes a America en el siglo XVI. Edition Reichenberger. ISBN 9783935004800.
- ^ Qualben, Lars P. (28 August 2008). The Lutheran Church in Colonial America. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 9781725223196.
- ^ Ribas, Rosa (2005). Testimonios de la conciencia lingüistica en textos de viajeros alemanes a America en el siglo XVI. Edition Reichenberger. ISBN 9783935004800.
- ^ Ribas, Rosa (2005). Testimonios de la conciencia lingüistica en textos de viajeros alemanes a America en el siglo XVI. Edition Reichenberger. ISBN 9783935004800.
- ^ Routledge Library Editions: World Empires (2021). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
- ^ South American Explorer. (1979). Perù: South American Explorers, p.27. University of Texas.