AskHistorians Podcast 058 - Colonial German Venezuela

Yawarpoma explores the 16th Century colony in what is now Venezuela, granted by Charles V to a German banking family, the Welsers. The colony, established in the same period as Spanish successes in Mexico and Peru, struggled to meet those successes by searching for a quick route to the Pacific and for the fabled city of gold, always just one more valley over. Yet, at the same time, the Germans led some of the first European expeditions into northern South America, though they would occasionally race against and even clash with Spanish rivals in an attempt to stake a claim to wealth and territory.