Klein-Venedig

Common card · No. 269213

Klein-Venedig (German for 'Little Venice') or Welserland (German pronunciation: [ˈvɛlzɐlant]) was the name of the Province of Venezuela between 1528 to 1546 when it was under the rule of the wealthy Welser banking and patrician family of the Free Imperial Cities of Augsburg and Nuremberg. It obtained colonial rights 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 granting the House of Welser the rights to explore, rule and colonize the area, also with the motivation of searching for the legendary golden city of El Dorado. Representing the most significant territory of the German colonization of the Americas, 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...

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