Portuguesa (state)
Portuguesa State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. Located in the west of the Republic, it is often considered the "breadbasket of Venezuela" for the large amount of agricultural products produced there. The state is bordered by the state of Lara to the north, to the east by Cojedes, to the west by Trujillo and to the south by Barinas.
As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 876,496. The state capital is the city of Guanare.
Origin of the name
The state was designated Portuguesa on August 4, 1909, named after the Portuguesa River. The name of the river is in turn said to be derived from a local legend about a young woman of Portuguese descent who drowned in the Portuguesa River, possibly accompanying the conquistadors who founded the city of Guanare, the capital of the state.History
Pre-Columbian era
In the pre-Hispanic era, the territory of the Venezuelan plains was inhabited by groups that arrived from the Amazon region by river.The oldest known human presence dates to between 300 and 600 BC in Barinas and the Portuguesa plains, with the migrants perhaps attracted by the region's relatively predictable flooding cycle.
Over the next 1200 years, these communities moved northwards and were also influenced by groups from the Orinoco. Among the traces left by these pre-Columbian inhabitants are numerous petroglyphs of geometric, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, as well as a complex network of roads believed to have served to drain swamps or control water. They also left a system of mounds that possibly had functions of surveillance, funerary or refuge for the periods of greatest flooding.
Spanish colonization
Several expeditions of the Welser Family, originating in Coro under the command of Nikolaus Federmann and Georg von Spira, in the year 1534 and arriving in the Andean foothills crossed the current territory of the Llanos.In 1542, the armies of Philipp von Hutten from Coro visited the region on their way to Barinas, but were repulsed by the Omaguas Indians and Hutten was wounded.
The Spanish conquerors Diego Ruiz de Vallejo and Juan Ruiz de Villegas explored the lands to the east of the Andes in 1549. Decades later, on November 3, 1591, Juan Fernandez de Leon founded Espiritu Santo of the Guanaguanare Valley, today's Guanare. Its name in the indigenous language means 'Place of seagulls' or 'Land between rivers'.
19th century
The Battle of Araure, in which Simon Bolivar defeated Jose Ceballos, occurred in Portuguesa in 1813. At the time, Venezuela was under the control of the patriots in mid-1813, except for the provinces of Guayana and Maracaibo. In September 1813, the royalists received reinforcements from Cadiz, taking the offensive across the country, although the patriots' successes continued until the end of 1813.On December 3, 1813, Simón Bolívar learned that the Royalist forces, under the command of Brigadier José Ceballos, had met with those of José Yáñez in the town of Araure, and as a result, he arranged for all able bodied men in El Altar and Cojedes to muster in the town of Agua Blanca.
On the 4th, the Patriots marched towards Araure and camped about 1,000 m from the village, opposite the Royalists, who had deployed at the entrance of the Acarigua River with their wings supported by a forest and a small lagoon and their back protected by a forest. The Royalists possessed ten artillery pieces.
The battle began at dawn and lasted approximately six hours. The Royalist troops were numerically superior to the Patriot troops. The Patriots captured 200 prisoners, four flags, and numerous artillery pieces. In this single clash, the Royalists lost more than 500 cavalry.
On April 10, 1851, by decree of the Congress of the Republic under the mandate of General José Gregorio Monagas, the territory that currently makes up the state of Portuguesa became a province, with Guanare as its capital.
Federal War
The federal war was even more devastating than the emancipatory war in the states of Portuguesa, Apure and Barinas, and especially in Portuguesa, as in addition to the outrages and loss of life in the fighting, the departures of uncontrolled guerrillas, the passions and quarrels produced more deaths and misfortunes than the combats; furthermore, the arson attacks on houses, farms and cattle yards plunged many families of the time into ruin.In the days of this uncontrolled movement and in the vicinity of Araure, specifically in Tapa de Piedra, on April 4, 1859, a bloody combat was staged between the revolutionary forces of General Zamora and those of the conservative Manuel Herrera. After almost three hours of confrontation, Herrera lost the fight and had to flee with the survivors on the way to Ospino. Following the Federal Revolution in 1866, it was decided to unite the Zamora and Portuguesa entities into one and call it Zamora State. Later, with Antonio Guzmán Blanco in power, the territorial division was reduced to seven states, so Portuguesa became part of the South West state, along with Cojedes and Zamora.
20th century
At the end of the 19th century, the Restoration Revolution brought back the country's political division into 20 states and, consequently, Portuguesa and Cojedes became Zamora again. Finally, on August 5, 1909, the National Constitution was promulgated, which established that Venezuela would be composed of a Federal District, two Federal Territories and 20 states, one of which would be Portuguesa with the capital in the city of Guanare.Like most of the Llanos states, Portuguesa was practically isolated from the center of the country until the middle of the 20th century. The only way to move from this entity to another was by means of carts pulled by horses or oxen, or by using the waterways. After the overthrow of General Isaías Medina Angarita, the Revolutionary Government Board began to materialize the existing projects designed by the previous rulers on sustainable agricultural development based on the colonization of large areas. It was in the 1940s, when work began on the Los Llanos road, which meant the economic take-off of the region. The foundation of the Turén Agricultural Colony through the work of 20,000 immigrant refugees, mostly Italian, drove the rice plan, and the incorporation of hundreds of hectares of irrigated land were key to the development and growth of this state known as the granary of Venezuela.
Within this reality, a developmentalist model was adopted with evident influence from the United States. This model made possible the establishment of social relations of production in the agricultural sector based on capitalism. In this vein, at the end of the 1940s and beginning of the 1950s, a "State Project" was initiated called the Turen Agricultural Unit, which was successively implemented in the Turen Agricultural Colony. To this end, the government, through itinerant diplomacy, made use of the international agreements signed during the post-war period on aid to refugees and put into practice the open border policy of selective immigration promoted by General Marcos Pérez Jiménez, where Europeans with an agricultural tradition entered and shared work with Venezuelan citizens from various regions of the Republic. In 1949, the Agricultural Unit or Colony of Turen, the most ambitious experience of its kind ever carried out in a Caribbean country, was initiated. Located, as well as the Tovar colony, in an area of mountains, the future Granary of Venezuela sheltered, together with a minority of local farmers, a babel of immigrants from several countries. Initially, they were mainly Eastern Europeans, who arrived through the "International Refugee Organization", many of them ethnic Germans from Romania, but already in the beginning of the 50's the Italians and Germans became the relative majority of the immigrant population.
Geography
It is located in the Midwestern Region of the country, extending approximately between latitudes 08°06 and 09°50 north latitude, and meridians 68°30 and 70°11 west longitude. It has an area of representing 1.67% of the national territory. Most of its territory is flat and corresponds to the Western Plains. To the northwest it has mountains and hills of the Andes Mountains. The Andean mountainous area to the West and Northwest, with heights above 3,000 m, where the valleys of Chabasquén and Biscucuy open, in whose hills coffee and smaller fruits are grown. With 1,024,300 inhabitants for 2017 it occupies the 12th place among the most populous federal entities in Venezuela. The Portuguesa state is divided into 14 municipalities and 28 parishes.Hydrography
Some water courses include: Portuguese Red, Caño Guamal, and Caño Amarillo, which corresponds to the old riverbed of the Acarigua River that is fed by the above-mentioned channel during the summer season; in addition to Caño Turen, Caño El Toro, Caño Durigua, Caño Colorado, Caño Canaguapa, Caño Maratán, Quebrada Paso Real, Quebrada Cupra, Quebrada Cambural, and Quebrada de Araure.The Acarigua River passes through the west of the Acarigua municipality and serves as a border with the Esteller Municipality.
Climate
It has a relatively homogeneous climate, where the average minimum temperature varies between 20º and 35 °C, being this one regulated by the winds coming from the gulf of Venezuela and the trade winds that go up the Llanos, which produce areas of cloudiness and frequent torrential rains.A typical Sabana climate of the plain area of Venezuela where Guanare is located. It has two well-defined periods, a dry period from December to April, and a rainy period from May to November.
During the beginning of the drought it is characterized by the scarcity of rain, and a great thermal amplitude, where the nights are usually cool, early mornings with up to 19 °C, and during the day very hot. This is also the windiest time of the year. Around March and the beginning of April, the daily temperature range decreases a little, bringing with it the hottest season in the village. The lowest temperature recorded is 17 °C on 5 April 1984 and the highest is 41 °C during several occasions and heat waves occurring with the El Niño phenomenon.
The average annual temperature is between 22 °C and 26 °C, in the area of flat lands and in the area of mountain and piedmont landscapes the climatic conditions vary according to height variations. Precipitation is persistent throughout the year, causing rivers to maintain an abundant flow, even overflow and therefore flooding.