The United States and Venezuela during the First World War: Cordial Relations of Suspicious Cooperation

269 Pages·2021·7.428 MB·English

by  H. Micheal Tarver

The United States
and Venezuela during
the First World War

The United States
and Venezuela during
the First World War
Cordial Relations
of Suspicious Cooperation
H. Micheal Tarver
LEXINGTON BOOKS
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Lexington Books
An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
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www .rowman .com
6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2021 [the author or The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.]
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Tarver Denova, Hollis Micheal, author.
Title: The United States and Venezuela during the First World War : cordial relations of
suspicious cooperation / H. Micheal Tarver.
Description: Lanham : Lexington Books, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references
and index. | Summary: “This book examines the uneasy diplomatic relations between
the United States and Venezuela during the First World War. The author uses archival
materials, newspapers, and other sources to argue that the two nations sought to
prevent the European war from spreading to the Western Hemisphere”— Provided by
publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021020554 (print) | LCCN 2021020555 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781498511094 (cloth) | ISBN 9781498511100 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: United States—Relations—Venezuela. | Venezuela—Relations—
United States. | World War, 1914–1918—Venezuela. | Wilson, Woodrow,
1856–1924 | Gómez, Juan Vicente, 1857–1935. | Venezuela—Politics and
government—1908–1935. | World War, 1914–1918—Diplomatic history.
Classification: LCC E183.8.V3 T37 2021 (print) | LCC E183.8.V3 (ebook) |
DDC 327.73087—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021020554
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021020555
∞ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
To Carmen and Maria

Contents
Preface ix
Map 1
Introduction 3
1 Setting the Stage 21
2 Before the Global Conflict 47
3 The Great War Begins 77
4 Wartime Relations 147
5 Conclusion 205
Bibliography 223
Index 241
About the Author 255
vii

Preface
This work is a story about two nations and their leaders during the First World
War (1914–1918). Whenever possible, the narrative uses the actual words of
the participants, along with those of selected authors. The work attempts to
avoid getting bogged down in theory and multilayered analysis, and instead
strives to present the story as events unfolded. This work does not try to ex-
plore or explain everything that occurred within and between Venezuela and
the United States during the War years. Rather, it makes an attempt to dem-
onstrate how the two nations worked together—sometimes hand-in-hand,
sometimes face-to-face—to prevent the European War from spreading to the
Western Hemisphere while at the same time protecting national sovereignty.
This book emphasizes the personalities of the nations’ leaders and selected
diplomats in an effort to illustrate how both personnel and personality molded
their foreign relations.
On the whole, Latin America and the First World War have received limited
coverage.1 Within this scholarship, the role of Venezuela has received some
coverage, although not extensive. Unfortunately, even the more thorough and
larger studies of the topic—such as those undertaken by Percy Alvin Martin,
Bill Albert, and Stefan Rinke—have only minimal coverage of Venezuela.
The same is true of larger works dealing with Juan Vicente Gómez—such as
those by Brian Stuart McBeth and Manuel Caballero—which tend to focus
more on his personality, tenure in office, and domestic problems. Still, there
have been some earlier works that have focused on the diplomatic relations
of Venezuela in the general era of the War, including noted works by Henry
Quintero, Edward Duffy, Ramón J. Velásquez, Silvio Villegas, and Freddy
Vivas Gallardo.
Still, one wonders why such a limited interest in Venezuela during the War.
Perhaps the best explanation can be drawn from Stefan Rinke’s approach to
ix