Klein Venedig: The German Colonization of the Americas
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2023
- Perhaps one of the least well known European ventures in the Americas was the German Colonization of the New World and the Colony of Klein Venedig. Though the country of Germany didn’t exist until 1870, Germans from the many principalities of the Holy Roman Empire were just as interested as anyone in striking it rich by conquering a wealthy new world empire like the Aztec or Inca. Some were even driven by the desire to find that mythical city of gold, El Dorado.
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Script by JCG
#history #thehistoryguy #colonialism
As a citizen of Venezuela, I would like to thank you for this interesting piece on a little known period of our history. We learn about the Welsers when we study early colonial history, but never in much detail. Your account of events is fascinating. Saludos.
Best emigrate for a while.
I often worry about German sausages.
Basically I fear the wurst.
Boooooo
narf
Ironically, the best German sausages are the wurst.
In that case, you probably wouldn't like the German TV show that ran on PBS, "The Master Butcher", about German immigrants to the American West. 😉 (my wife and I thought it was excellent).
We are Germans from Russia.
Thé old ones came with Catheine
John Law's Company of the Indies settled Germans along a bayou south of New Orleans in 1719 or so. The area is known locally as the German Coast. The bayou is Bayou Des Allemands and the community of about 2,000 is Des Allemands, which translates to "of Germans".
I've been there - only place in all of Louisiana where I could find decent sauerkraut. Which was served with not kielbasa but alligator sausage.
How much German culture is still there?
Don't know but if you're looking for descendents of the Nazis you will apparently find thousands in Argentina
@The History Guy: Thanks for another fascinating snippet of history. As an American who lived in Germany for 35 years, I noticed that you omitted the second "e" in "Venedig", pronouncing it "Vendig." In German, there are practically no silent letters. The correct pronunciation would be "VeNAYdig" with an emphasis on the second "e".
Came here to write the same, thanks!
Ditto
No diggity, no doubt 🎉
Listen to/watch his other videos. You will discover that The History Guy has no idea to pronounce place names and personal names from non-English languages. If only there were a book or a website to which he could refer....
The surname mention many times is Welser. The correct English pronunciation is wel-ser while the correct pronunciation is vel-ser
Venezuelan here, thanks for featuring this story here. I study History at university and had to read Federmann's book about his expedition for a course on Venezuelan Historiography a few years back
Which university and do they push antiwhiteism on students?
Among European-descended people in the United States, more trace their ancestry to Germans than to any other nationality. Having fought two huge wars against Germans, though, it became quite unfashionable to admit one's German ancestry. My own family name and my ancestors were prominent in the Saxon city of Braunschweig, for example, yet my parents and grandparents tried to coax me away from knowing my ancestry, so they told me we were Dutch or emphasized other ancestors such as English, etc.
I am in no way embarrassed of my German heritage. My Grandfather was a good man who worked hard and never meant anyone any harm. Our family back in Bavaria were farmers and shop keepers.
Dutch= Deuscth/German.
My grandparents' family had an anti-German racist incident against them during WW2.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel so why did the word ‘embarrass’ even come to mind? Who instilled doubt about Germanic ethnicity and honour? And for what purposes?
Has it got anything to do with Rome’s controller’s frustration of Germanic resistance to their plans? Arminius, Luther, 1066, Bismarck, stab in the back and it’s resultant reaction?………….
I understand that before WW I the flow of information from Europe to USA was largely controlled by Britain (they controlled the Trans Atlantic communication cables) and had designs against Germany well before the World War began
-- also was the sinking of the Lusitania sort of set up?
we are taught in our history lessons about the wicked blockade of Britain by Germany but didn't Britain blockade Germany first? Including stopping the arrival of foodstuffs? @@martinbeckmann9376
I had NO IDEA The Germans were in South America. But now I do and I'm sending this to my fellow History educators!
Mexican music is basically German polka
In Brazil is a city call Nuovo Hambugo,
How long have you been teaching?
@@derbywinner6316 Basically the whole south of Brazil is mostly German. I'm a Venezuelan, from one of the cities that would have been part of Klein-Venedig if it still existed, living in southern Brazil in a mostly Polish/Ukranian/German city.
This type of conquest occurred all over Europe too, as the Roman’s seized areas. Countless people and cultures were destroyed. But like everything, you can’t change yesterday. Just learn lessons and move on.
That's just history. As well as it is the future. Every culture and civilization has raged war against and enslaved their neighbors. Also culture never fully dies, bits and pieces of it always survive. Hispanic America is proof of that since they still have a lot of cultural values from the pre-white settlement period.
As well as many other examples such as the armania and Slavic lands
There's never a shortage of bad people doing bad things
Do people actually learn lessons?
Do governing bodies learn lessons?
"
@koryhawkins1499 Sure they do. That's why they're going to use the internet to help push their authoritarian agendas this time around. Last time they only had radio
Great video as always, entertaining, interesting, and educational. Thank you!
However, as native German speaker, I wanted to point out that Venedig is pronounced similar to Venezuela, with "zuela" replaced by "dig", and with emphasis on the second syllabe. Ve-NE-dig. As a general rule, there are no silent vowels in German. I think there's the rare exception or three, but I can't think of one off the top of my head.
I'm not German but live in Germany and his pronunciation of venedig really jarred my ears
Also important to note that Venedig is German for Venice.
@@paulslaughter2366
It is? Guess that's where our word for it came from, then (Swedes also call Venice Venedig).
Venezuela, new Venice, name applied by Spanish and German explorers, conquerors and settlers of that part of the Spanish and Habsburg catholic universal empire that at that times controlled many areas of Europe, Asia , Pacific Ocean and America and Caribbean Sea, because the natives Americans tribes and indigenous communities of Venezuela coastal, rivers, lakes areas lived in "palafitos" or houses built over water spaces, they were communities of indigenous fishermen and hunters gatherers and agricultural, small farmers but principally fishermen on sea and rivers, the Spaniards used like the German those indigenous in extensively mineral activities and in the economy of pearls, they exhausted and destroyed those Arawaks and Caribbean indigenous cultures, Venezuela is a rich, very rich mineral country, with big presence of gold, diamonds and silver, and it was very important to economy of Spanish empire by its cattle, cacao, sugar cane, rice and coffee and other big agricultural production in 16, 17, 18 centuries...
I have just visited the German colonies of Oxapampa and Pozuzu in the Peruvian Andes. Very surprised to find German colonies there!
Millions of German migrated to America or the Americas in 19 and 20 centuries and even before that, hundreds, thousands of German cultural and ancestry people migrated to the Spanish and Portuguese empires in 16, 17, 18 centuries, thousands and thousands of them migrated to the British, Dutch, French colonies in the Americas and Caribbean Sea in those centuries before the industrial era ...
I don’t think I had ever heard of the Germanic connection to exploration of South America! It’s an absolute wonder that the various people you told of, even survived the sea voyage! Great story but I didn’t catch mention of any pirates, though the risk was there on the perilous sea voyage!
I agree, yet consider what master engineers the Germans are. Their boats must have been exceptionally strong.
I find it interesting that the New World was mostly explored and colonized before Africa was. The European powers knew about Africa long before and established many small outposts on the coasts for trading purposes, but getting to the interior took much longer.
Thomas Sowell has some great insight as to why this was the case. His written books, but there are TH-cam channels showing his arguments.
Diseases are a big reason Africa was ignored for awhile when America was discovered. Go to Africa and die of west Nile or go to America where the Indians were dying of disease that the Europeans brought
The short explanation is that Africa was in contact with the rest of Eurasia since before recorded history, and its people therefore had about the same resistance to the diseases the colonizers brought with them. They may have been fighting with spears against guns, but they were there to do the fighting. Not so the peoples of the Americas, who experienced near-extinction from European illnesses, with the shell-shocked survivors being mostly taken into slavery or escaping to the deep interior where the environment was as hostile to them as to any European explorer.
@@stacymcmahon453Yeah 95% of the entire population died from disease alone. 😢
The barriers to European settlement were two-fold: the Sahara Desert, and the Trade Winds. The Sahara is an obvious barrier. The Trade Winds blew from the southeast and blocked ships from progressing past Senegal, where the coast swung from southwest to southeast. The sail technology prior to the 1400s did not permit ships to tack against an adverse wind. The 1400's saw the introduction of three-masted ships, propelled by square and lateen rigging, with steering by pintle-and-gudgeon rudders. The Portuguese took advantage of this to explore down the coast of Africa to the Cape, and to reach India by 1498.
A very INTERESTING video. You only hear about the English, French, Spanish & Portuguese Colonization. I never knew about German involvement. Five Stars!!!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Germantown (Pennsylvania) is an area in Upper Northwest, Philadelphia, United States. Founded by Palatine, Quaker, and Mennonite families in 1683 as an independent borough, it was absorbed into Philadelphia in 1854. From Wikipedia.
A lot of Germans came to colonial Pennsylvania and formed the Pennsylvania Dutch community ("Dutch" being a corruption of Deutsch here). And during the Revolutionary War some Hessians deserted and settled.
Wikipedia is not a good source absolutely anyone can write what they want and edit Wikipedia
@@Blaqjaqshellaq The "Pennsylvania Dutch" -- you're correct about the Deutsch connotation -- are mainly a religious order, the Amish, which originated in the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland.
Some of my ancestors , lived in German Town.
It fascinates me that Spain started taking wealth from the New World so quickly. The New World discovered in 1492 but by the 1520's they were taking everything. 25 years or so.
And you're surprized by human greed?
@@lynnfisher3037 No not really. No difference what Spain did than say Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Romans, Chinese, Hindu in the ancient world. It was always the way to gain wealth for a Nation State, conquer your enemies, take their wealth, people as slaves and ensure those left pay tribute.
Could you do a video on the Swiss colonization of eastern North Carolina and the founding of New Bern?
As a resident of Monterrey (capital of Nuevo León), I've always been fascinated by the profound impact of German culture in our region, especially given their broader influence across the Americas. In Nuevo León, Germans significantly shaped our music, introducing polka and waltzes that evolved into Norteño, a genre very popular in the region, which is becoming more global. Their expertise in brewing also spurred our local beer industry, leaving a legacy still savored today. Architecturally, European-style buildings in Monterrey bear witness to their influence. And let's not forget the culinary infusion, where German sausages and pastries have become staples in our local cuisine. Also, Germans played a role in the development of various industries in Monterrey, including manufacturing and mining. Their business acumen and technical skills contributed to the economic growth of the city.
An interesting reminder that the Habsburg family ruled both Germans and Spaniards.
Do tell. That was the glue that binded them.
Well this certainly seems like an inspiration for Aguirre: Wrath of God, an excellent German movie
Very interesting! Certainly history that deserves to be remembered!
Interesting. My wife’s German ancestors settled in South Carolina in the 1700’s.
So did my wife's.
@@tgmccoy1556 UhOh! 😵💫 😊
@@pitsnipe5559 the family was Brandenburg , and Linder.
Incredible research! Thank you so much for this. Interesting. My wife’s German ancestors settled in South Carolina in the 1700’s..
My German ancestors came to America and settled in Iowa in the 1850's or 60's. 🙂
Some of mine as well. Hence mustard based bbq...🙂
Enlightening as Always. Thank You💕
Fascinating nugget of history! Thank you THG !
Thank you, I didn't learn anything of South American history except Incas and also Simon Bolivar.
Incredible research! Thank you so much for this
I appreciate you and thank you for making content.
Always thankful for your work! We spoke once, I posted a short about it! Thank you again 😊
Dear THG, you do find the most interesting and unreported pieces of history. Thank you, THG, and please keep up the great work.
How is this NOT a movie?
Werner Hertzog’s Aguirre, wrath of god is an amazing movie.
Cuz Disney already has rights to mickey mouse operations...
One more chapter of a very complex history of which I had no clue. Thanks!!
The Bible says "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." This is another example.
Don’t forget New Sweden. I’m surrounded by towns they named… Deutsch right next door
Awesome episode
God, there's just something about the image of a group of enslaved people roped together by the neck with empty loops where people were murdered. It's literally one of the most repulsive things I can think of.
Good work!!!!
When the conquistadors say you're brutal you know you went a little too far.
Excellent!
Thank you for another masterful presentation, bravo! I'm the old "Cananadian" who commented a number of years ago. I'd join Patreon were I financially more secure. I rejoice in your successes, sir! The cruelty you yet again describe, the depths of greed, violence, rape and destruction, despite my age, (71 Winters), and life long obsession with history, leaves me dumb, again. I am so biased against the "Conquistador/Inquisition" culture, that the reenactors you briefly included of those vicious butchers makes me wonder whether there are also guys who re-enact nazi death camp guards, their "Spiritual Einsatzgruppen Brotherhood". I guess the main point of this comment may be that History Enlightens, while the Past sucked- we being fortunate enough to be born, in N America in the 2nd half of the 20th century, and have had it better than everybody who came before us. A bunch had fun. A few were amazing! for 85% of us here on Earth today- it's pretty grim. i'm lucky. I dream of a World where everybody's lucky. i wish you and yours luck, and continued triumphs. Thanks again. PS What dark, comedic ideas bubble away considering the vast untapped well of maniacs', war criminals', mass murderers' reenactors gone wrong...
Can you do a history report on confederate that fled to brazil after the south lost?
You could do a follow-up piece about the German "colonies" in southern Brazil during the 1800s.
My dad’s great grandfather was born in Dortmund, in the German state of Hesse. When he came to the US from Hesse, the German states weren’t united yet.
Dortmund is in Westfalia, not Hesse. It also never was in Hesse. Maybe you mean Darmstadt.
An interesting second chapter of the German attempt at colonization of the new world is the story of German settlements in Texas in the 19th Century.
Fun fact: Dominican merengue music includes the accordion 🪗 instrument because of the German influence from influx of "Alemanians".
German conquest of North America was more successful and more passive; farmers, bakers, etc.
Not to mention brewers.
PBS ran just one season of a really good German show called "The Master Butcher", about German immigrants to the western US in the 1800's. Trigger warning: pigs were indeed harmed in the course of the show!
Thanks!
Thank you!
CITY OF GOLD!!!
Thanks.
I've never heard anything about this, and I lived in Augsburg for two years!
Honestly, the mass German migration into the US cities between 1840 and 1925 represents a colonization effort. They didn't call certain cities in the US (e.g., St Louis) part of the Deutschtum for nothing.
Greetings from South Carolina 🎉
I knew nothing of this part of Venezuela history. Very interesting. They had a more successful time in setting up German settlements in Texas in the 1800's.
According to history, African slave trade occurred before colonization in USA/New World.
Wouldn't it be nice for us to get a certified series of maps with years of colonization on them? The indigenous people were the main population of slaves in USA, according to Kurimeo Ahau.
Klein Venedig, translated into English, means "Little Venice."
Yes, that's exactly what Venezuela means. "Little Venice".
Ganz Toll!
Sehr gut
I like to think a native american trolled the invaders by sending them on a wild goose chase, seeking a city of gold
Traveling back to the mango farm I missed this one at posting. Like the pizza we brought it was just as good the next day. Good night
What is the history of gold? It seems to be a common theme amongst all cultures that used metal.
Thank you again for this excellent and informative video. I was unfamiliar with this period of history. Z
That the expeditions suffered 50% to 100% casualties speaks to the effect of greed on the men.
15:55 Does anyone know the name of the cool "theme music" that Mr. Geiger often plays at the end of (many of) his videos? Who actually plays this nice guitar piece?
Highway Wildflowers by Bird Creek
This is interesting. I know some people in Mexico City who have Mexican born parents and grandparents but say they are of German descent and have German surnames. I never thought too much about it but this makes a lot of sense now.
The tam behind you appears to be sporting a police badge design that is particular to the City of Pittsburgh PA. Might I be correct?
It's curious, when I think about it, that throughout recorded history the seems to have been an obsession with gold and, to a lesser extent, silver, two minerals that until modern times had nearly no practical value whatsoever, except decorative. So Europeans became obsessed with the legend of Eldorado. Of course, this turned out to just that - a legend.
Yet from the 19th century onwards, as the Industrial Revolution took hold, there was true wealth (in European terms) in South America. Think of the rubber barons of Brazil, or the guano nitrates (and later copper) of the Atacama desert, even the rich pastures of Argentina - wealth from findings of practical use in Europe that even sparked s Latin American naval race.
"Practical" value isn't really the point. Gold doesn't decay, doesn't corrode, doesn't erode... cannot be created out of other natural commodities, is inherently rare, and is difficult to acquire. Therefore it is a logical placeholder for "value" in a universal context.
Don't they use it in Semiconductors?
Also, Chuckie got out of his debt!
Nice
It never occurred to me that Germany was much bigger than what we see today. Learning about the Germanic language influence made me curious.
Oh, Project paperclip?!
I believe it is pronounced "Klein Ven-nay-dig". Thanks for this informative video.
Jeepers. I watched this expecting the story of John Pastorius leading his followers to what is now the Germantown section of Philadelphia. And yes, the Third Reich sprang to mind when I heard of the brutal treatment meted out to the indigenous peoples of the area. Not a pretty story, but it needs to be remembered.
I had always read and heard that Squareheads didn't believe in slavery.
what is a squarehead?
Germans was living in Venezuela and Colombia looking for "Dorado"
Who knew? THC that's who!
Note to self: Avoid expeditions led by a guy named "Fetterman"...
Gay named fetterman. Loll😅. He probably had a head transplant to prepare for his adventure.
Hello History Guy.
I note that you totally 'missed out' on the quiet colonization of the United States. Both pre and post Civil War, Germans were expanding and settling all across the west into newly opened lands, and even into lands where only Indian tribes held sway. It is often forgotten that many, many of the towns and cities of the 'American West' were founded, or mostly populated, by German Immigrants. Many of the larger cities in America had areas known as 'little German town', or 'The German quarter'. Some even have them to this very day, like Chicago's German Town area... which is now just a small part of the greater City of Chicago and its suburbs, and with few of citizens of Chicago, really knowing where the boundaries of German town are.
Zuckerberg apparently heard rumors of Meta as well. Thought he'd find a lot of gold.
Ha!
salute
Kinda curious. I always thought that "casualties" included dead AND INJURED. Am I wrong, or did your writer screw-up? There was a battle in which the Europeans suffered "no casualties, but several serious injuries".
That was how it was directly written I. The source, although in general you are correct. I think m it might have referred to the man still being able to fight though injured.
OMG this is hilarious. Fiction could never be so outlandish.
Ve-ne-dig, three syllables. No silent letters in German.
🇺🇸....Thank THG🎀 👍
Now I understand better why many of the "rat line" went to South America
Love your insight! Thank you.
7:49 his methods had become... unsound.
Yes. First they colonized Milwaukee. Then Detroit.
!
Amazing. How brutal. I always wonder about why such brutality. Is that a psychological tool?
They did colonize Antartica, the 3td Riech colony of Neuswabenland, that too deserves to be history.
I think it is better pronounced “Klein Ve-ne-dig” three sylabbles.
Most interesting. BTW it's pronounced Ve-ne-dig not ven-dig
I realize that it’s too late now but your pronunciation of Klein-Venedig is off, unfortunately. It’s pronounced like you would Venezuela but with -dig instead on -zuela and emphasis on the second syllable (-ne). To this day, Venedig is the German name for the Italian city of Venezia, better known as Venice in English.
Once a Hun always a Hun. Such needless, wanton slaughter and destruction 😢
Feeding the algorithm…
✌️
Loved it!!
its klein VE-NE-DIG not VEN-DIG
Which means "Little Venice" in German. Too lazy to find it on a map to confirm, but I bet that sheds some light on the mosquito problems there. What about a place would cause you to name it after a city where the streets are water?
@@stacymcmahon453 the name predates the Germans- Venezuela means “Little Venice.” Although the name might have derived from an indigenous peoples name, the most common explanation is that the houses built on stilts on lake Maracaibo reminded Italian explorers of Venice.
Thank you. As a fellow German speaker, that drove me nuts.
@@kindnessmatters5215 me too. in my opinion, better speak the names in your mothertongue, than in a language you do not speak fluently
That’s sad. Couldn’t get thru one episode about Germans with out mentioning pencil mustache. 🤦♀️ the failed Austrian artist corporal
Descendant of Belisarius? Wasn't he a eunuch?
Narsus was famously a eunuch, but Belisarius was married to Antonina.
Another Ripping Yarn from THG. It is interesting to note that the Prussians operated colonies in Africa going back to 1682.
Hmmm possibly where my last name (Velzares) comes from