Barinas (state)
Barinas State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Barinas.
Barinas State covers a total surface area of and had an estimated population of 970,689 in 2015.
Toponymy
The toponym "Barinas" is a variant of "varinas" ; this may have a relationship with the name "Barima", given by the tunebos to the Santo Domingo river in the Aya myth. The meaning is unknown, but according to popular belief, it means a 'strong wind that comes from the valleys of the Santo Domingo river', referring to the Barinese wind, which blows in the Llanos Altos.According to Virgilio Tosta, the place name was first used before 1628 as an alternative name for Altamira; in contrast, according to Betancourt Martínez, it was in the foundations of Barinitas such as Nueva Trujillo de Barinas and Barinas. It expanded with the creation of the Province of Barinas in 1786 and was reduced to the present region in 1859.
Because of this toponym, Senna aculeata – a low, thorny and yellow-flowered shrub in the state – is sometimes called the barinas flower, which is why it is the state flower.
History
Pre-Columbian era
The first known inhabitants of Barinas were the peoples of the Osoid culture. The Osoid people inhabited the middle elevations of the Llanos and were fishermen, hunters, and maize farmers. Their first archaeological evidence is from the Caño del Oso phase of 1000 BC, probably originating from a trade network linked to the Arawaks on the Negro, Orinoco, and Apure rivers. Between 180 BC and 550 AD, the Osoid people expanded north and interacted with the Tocuyanoid people of Lara. In 500 AD, interaction with groups from the Orinoco gave rise to the La Betania phase, during which agricultural production accelerated with the introduction of cassava and pollock corn. During this time, the Osoid people built the first mounds and causeways in the Llanos. By 600 AD, chiefdom societies were probably formed in towns such as Gaván. Between 1200 and 1550, the Ossoids expanded throughout Portuguesa as ethnic diversity in the region increased, with the arrival of tierroid peoples from Lara, dabajuroids from Falcón, and arauquinoids from Apure.In prehistory, the western foothills were a trading area between the peoples of the Llanos and the Andes. There are several petroglyphs in the region made by Arawaks, Tunebos of Colombia or peoples of Mérida. Georg von Speyer and Nikolaus Federmann explored the region in 1534 on their way to the Andes. In 1542, Philipp von Hutten traveled from Coro over this area en route towards Colombia. In 1547, Alonso Pérez de Tolosa, who came from El Tocuyo, also crossed the territory.
Colonial era
King Charles III elevated the jurisdiction of Barinas to a province in 1786, separating it from Maracaibo. In 1787, Barinas had 40,991 inhabitants: 34% black, 33% white, 26% indigenous, and 5% slaves. 75% of the indigenous people lived in religious reductions, which were Capuchin, Dominican and of the church itself. Governor Fernando Miyares diversified agriculture apart from tobacco, and founded the first prison, the first hospital, and the city of San Fernando de Apure. The export of livestock and agricultural products was consolidated, which were destined for Europe through the Apure, Orinoco and other rivers.In 1535, Europeans started to explore the region, this time on behalf of the Welsares, when the then governor, Jorge de Espira, crossed Barinas along with his group during his expedition in search for El Dorado del Meta and faced jirajaras along the way. Nicolás Federmán passed by the present Arismendi the same year. Philip of Utre, who had accompanied Espira, repeated his expedition in 1541. Alonso Pérez de Tolosa also crossed Barinas in 1549, heading for El Tocuyo, after he failed in a conquest entrusted to him by the then governor Juan Pérez de Tolosa.
Altamira de Cáceres
The colonization of Barinas began on 30 June 1577, when Captain Juan Andrés Varela, commissioned by the governor of La Grita Province, Francisco de Cáceres, founded the city of Altamira de Cáceres while choosing a mountainous place.Altamira was a small city. Its inhabitants led a dangerous life being close to the jirajaras and had limited space. Due to the city's precarious conditions, Varela resigned his post as mayor a few months after founding it, and, a decade later, its inhabitants desired to move.
In spite of the inconveniences, Altamira was populated for four decades thanks to cattle raising and tobacco cultivation, and was able to compete with Cuba in the beginning. The population of the city did not prosper as expected, reaching only sixteen Creoles and 250 Indians, in spite of the fact that, according to Virgilio Tosta, "tobacco turned the primitive Barinas into a globally famous name".
New Trujillo of Barinas
The citizens of Altamira gradually moved towards El Llano, until in 1628, by order of the governor of the Province of Mérida and La Grita, Juan Pacheco Maldonado, the city was refounded as "Nueva Trujillo de Barinas" – today Barinitas. This was because the plateau was closer to the Llanos, which they wanted to conquer, while having better land for livestock and tobacco cultivation.Nueva Trujillo is considered the "gateway to the conquest of the Llanos", because from here, important settlements were founded in view of the Llanos: the town of doctrine of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción del Curay, the city of Nuestra Señora de Pedraza and the Indian towns of Santa Bárbara and Curbatí.
After the sacking of Maracaibo and the burning of Gibraltar by the Dutch, the Barinese thought of alternate trade routes; thus, in 1647, Miguel de Ochogavia undertook the successful expedition to discover the Santo Domingo-Apure-Orinoco connection, through which the subsequent conquest of Apure was carried out. This discovery led to the subsequent emergence of the ports of Torunos and Nutrias.
Spanish province of Barinas
The progressive pacification of the Indians, the development of extensive cattle raising, the general interest in evading the taxes of the Crown and the fall in demand for tobacco by the end of the 17th century caused the Barinese to abandon the table of Moromoy in order to populate the savannas around the rivers Santo Domingo, Masparro and Boconó. The Barinese established their herds there and formed important towns, such as Sabaneta, Barrancas and Obispos. For this reason, on 11 July 1759, the Viceroy of the New Granada, Jose Solis, decreed the definitive foundation of Barinas, with the name and on the current place – where the town of San Antonio de los Cerritos was by then, in order to establish a center of power closer to the new towns.Barinas was part of the Captaincy General of Venezuela since its creation. On 15 February 1786, King Carlos III decreed, over a territory that extended to cover the current states of Apure and Portuguesa, the creation of the Province of Barinas, separating it from Maracaibo. During this period, there was a remarkable diversification and economic growth, stimulated by the trade and cultivation of tobacco, sugar, indigo, cocoa, cotton, onoto and coffee. The Spaniards also built the first prison and hospital. There was a great population growth, as census records show.
Barinas defeated the Comuneros of the Andes, a fact that led to King Carlos IV granting it, in 1790, the coat of arms that today retains the state capital, along with the motto "very noble and very loyal".
Independence process
Barinas joined the process of the Supreme Board of Caracas on 5 May 1810, thus constituting a Board of Government and Conservation, in which the desire to break with the Crown was formed. In 1811, the Declaration of Independence Act was signed, thus forming part of the First Republic, which fell the following year.After the patriotic victory in the Battle of Niquitao on 2 July 1813, Barinas became part of the Second Republic, which also fell the following year. Paez's campaigns ensured the patriotic victory in Barinas during the Third Republic, in which Venezuela's independence was consolidated.
Young Barineses like José Antonio Páez and Pedro Briceño Méndez were important heroes of the Independence.
Contemporary period
The Province of Barinas during the contemporary period
During the existence of Greater Colombia, there were several political-administrative changes. In 1821, the Congress of Cúcuta created the Department of Venezuela, which included Barinas. Two years later, the Congress of the Republic separated the current territory of the State of Apure from Barinas, making it a province, with the capital in Achaguas.In 1824, in view of the Territorial Division Law, the Department of Venezuela disappeared and the Department of Apure was created, which consisted of the provinces of Barinas and Apure. Two years later, these provinces became part of the Department of Orinoco, along with Guayana.
After the dissolution of the Great Colombia, the cantons of Guanare, Ospino and Araure initiated managements to segregate themselves from the Province of Barinas, which would occur in 1851, when the National Congress erected the Province of Portuguesa.
Barinas State
During the Federal War, General Ezequiel Zamora maintained federalist control of all the Western Plains from Barinas, and consolidated it with the Battle of Santa Inés on 10 December 1859; after this victory, Zamora left the proclaimed state to besiege San Carlos, at which he was killed. In 1862, Barinas was renamed "Zamora" in his honor, despite recovering its original name in 1936. As for all the other provinces, Barinas became a de jure state since the proclamation of the United States of Venezuela, with the Constitution of 1864, thus repealing the ephemeral merger it had with Apure during the last year of the war.On 30 April 1879, in accordance with the Guzmancism's plan for the reduction of states, it was proposed the conformation of the South State of the West from the territories of the states of Barinas, Carabobo, Portuguesa and Cojedes and the Department of Nirgua of the State of Yaracuy, denominated as "sections"; however, after the protest of Barinitas for the distance of Valencia as capital, such union was given excluding Carabobo and Nirgua. Barinas proposed to include Apure as part of the State.
Despite the fact that the South West later acquired the name "Zamora", the center of power was not in Barinas, but in Ospino, provisionally, and then in Guanare. At the end of the 1880s and in view of the secessionist movement of Cojedes, the idea of the disintegration of the South West in Barinas was promoted. This led to the separation of the sections of Zamora on 22 April 1899, by Ignacio Andrade's government. However, the previous degree of autonomy was not granted.
In 1989, the states were granted greater political autonomy with the country's first regional elections.