Venezuela’s Neutrality during the Great War: The Consolidation of the Gómez Dictatorship between 1914 and 1918

VENEZUELA’S NEUTRALITY DURING THE GREAT WAR: THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE GÓMEZ DICTATORSHIP BETWEEN 1914 AND 1918 Jane M. Rausch University of Massachusetts Amherst In their recent collection of essays, Caught in the Middle: Neutrals, Neutrality and the First World War, editors Johan den Hertog and Samuel Kruizinga suggest that neutrality during the First World War was a “multifaceted phenomenon”, and that “far from being passive observers, neutral countries developed a “multitude of different coping mechanisms” which ensured that the concept of neutrality survived the war. Making a compelling argument for more comparative studies on First World War neutrality, they conclude that “although the neutrals had no access to the core experiences of war, i.e. fighting, suffering and dying in battle, their beliefs and actions could and did influence both the course of the war and peace that was to follow it.”1 One case that has attracted little scholarly attention in this respect is the Caribbean nation of Venezuela, which despite its location within the sphere of influence wielded by the United States, defied the “Colossus of the North” to maintain unwavering neutrality throughout the war. The purpose of this essay is to redress this gap in part by offering a fresh look at the war’s impact on Venezuela then ruled by the notorious dictator, Juan Vicente Gómez. Taking into account recent revisionist research concerning this remarkable leader, the essay reviews Venezuela’s domestic situation and its foreign policy regarding the conflict between 1914 and 1918.2 The evidence suggests that among other developments, events during these critical years enable Gómez to consolidate his control over the country and elevate Venezuela’s international profile. These conclusions support den Hertog and Kruizinga’s assertion that even neutrals during the Great War were not immune from its effects. Venezuela in 1914 In 1914 Venezuela was a poor country, under-populated, and politically disintegrated with a reduced administrative structure and a minimal and very weak international presence. The population of 2,300,000 was scattered over a territory of 394,000 square miles. The capital Caracas or Federal District had 113,204 inhabitants according to the census of 1891. Since ninety percent of the people lived in the countryside, only three other C  2015 Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 61 The Latin Americanist, March 2015 cities had more than 20,000 inhabitants. Life expectancy was forty-three years with the principal health problems being poor nutrition and malaria. While most of the population was illiterate, the elite in the cities included a cultural minority formed in local or European universities who were tied spiritually and intellectually to France.3 At the end of the nineteenth century, coffee production supported by exports of cacao and cattle hides was the mainstay of the economy, and a flourishing German merchant colony controlled nearly one-third of all commerce and two-thirds of the trade in manufactured goods. Eight of the thirty-eight German commercial houses were based in Caracas. From that city they cast a “web over much of the land, monopolizing the import and export trade, mortgaging harvest, and lending money at twenty-percent interest rates.”4 The powerful firm of H.G. and L.F. Blohm of Hamburg was intimately associated with the government in a number of semi-public undertakings, while another German company had built and controlled the most important railway in the country that linked Caracas to Valencia.5 The seizure of the Venezuelan government in 1899 by Cipriano Castro proved an ominous development for this expanding German influence. Always in financial straits due to fiscal mismanagement and extravagance, the new dictator attempted to raise funds by fining War foreign firms for alleged complicity in revolutionary activities. These tactics together with his refusal to compensate for damages resulting from the destruction of foreign properties during repeated insurrections provoked a blockade of coastal cities by British, German and Italian warships in 1902 in an attempt to force Venezuela to pay its creditors. Following the appearance of U.S. warships on the scene Castro capitulated, but soon after the blockade was lifted, he again returned to harassing foreign businesses. German firms who...