Cumana

Cumaná stands near the mouth of the Manzanares River on the Gulf of Cariaco, a sheltered inlet of the northeastern Venezuelan coast. Its position close to the pearl fisheries of Cubagua brought Europeans to the coast early in the sixteenth century. Indigenous communities already inhabited the surrounding country, and the first Spanish settlements faced both resistance and the dangers of a seismically active coast.

Franciscan and Dominican missions appeared around 1513–1515, but were destroyed in 1520 after a violent raid seeking Indigenous labour for the pearl fisheries. Successive attempts to establish a permanent town followed. In 1569 Diego Fernández de Serpa rebuilt Nueva Córdoba as Cumaná, making it the seat of his province. Spanish expansion inland continued to encounter resistance from the Cumanagoto and neighbouring peoples.

Earthquakes repeatedly damaged the town, notably in 1766 and 1797. Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland arrived in 1799 and began their American travels from Cumaná, observing the coast and the effects of the recent earthquake before continuing their travels. In 1810 the city formed a provisional junta amid the political crisis that preceded Venezuelan independence. Its harbour and provincial institutions kept it connected to the Caribbean even as war and earthquakes reshaped the city. Its sheltered gulf also linked the port with nearby Margarita and the islands of the southern Caribbean.