Maracaibo is the second largest city in Venezuela. This stamp marks the cities first founding by Spanish in 1569. The Germans were there before in an earlier attempt to get a commercial colony started. I can understand why Venezuela doesn’t want to acknowledge an earlier failure, but when bankers go far and wide in search of gold, The Philatelist is there. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
This is a well printed version of the 1960s United Nations style stamp issue. Instead of showing the city on it’s anniversary in a historical context, the cities new large hospital complex is shown to imply things are getting better, Good job.
Todays stamp is issue A169, a 70 Centimoes stamp issued by Venezuela in 1969. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents used.
There are two guesses over the etemology of the name Maracaibo. Some think it marks the place where a great Indian chief Mara fell. Others think it is from the local Indian dialect meaning place where serpents run wild. Speaking of serpents, that brings us to the bankers and their earlier attempt at a city they called New Nuremburg.
The German Welser banking family made a great fortune on the Caribbean slave trade and trading with the Levant. The Welsers were officially Catholic and claimed to be related to the Byzantine general Belisarius. They loaned a great deal of money to Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was also King of Spain. In return the Welsers were granted a charter allowing them to set up a colony on the territory of modern Venezuela. The territory would have to be completely financed by the Welsers and utilize only Germans and Spaniards. The family named the colony Klein-Venedig which means little Venice. There was the normal sugar caine plantations using African slaves but the real lure was to find the mythical Indian city of Eldorado that they believed would contain a rich gold mine.
The going was not easy with many of the German colonists succumbing to tropical diseases and the local Indian attacks.10 years after the founding in 1535 Georg Von Speyer organized a new expedition into the interior with 450 German and 1500 friendly Indians to turn the colony around by finally finding Eldorado. They were gone for years and the settlements appointed a new Spanish governor in the absence of the Germans. In 1546 a few from the expedition returned empty handed now under Phillip Von Hutton. The Spanish governor did not welcome them. Instead he had them ambushed and Von Hutton was beheaded. The Welser family back in Germany sued to have the colony returned to them but their claim to it ended upon the death of Emperor Charles V in 1556. During the German absence, New Nuremburg had been abandoned in favor of a more defendable settlement at Cabo.
The German adventure in Venezuela was romantized in united 19th century Germany as a basis for new German colonial adventures that also harbored dreams of colonial wealth from trading, The stories were of adventurers Von Speyer and Von Hutton, not the Welser family bankers that employed them. Remember they found no gold and the world of the sixteenth century was not yet ready to make use of the areas ample oil resources.
The finding of gold to the south in Brazil in 1695 had most of the adventures, Pizarro and Sir Walter Raliegh had also tried, gave up on finding mythical Eldorado. In 1871 gold was found in Venezuela at El Callou, and a productive mine for 12 years until the vein played out. In 2016, Venezuela formed the Orinco Mining Arc to find and exploit gold and other minerals in the area. At least they didn’t call it Eldorado.
Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.