Tucanca

Tucanca is associated with Tucacas on the Venezuelan Caribbean coast, a place where inland trade met ships from Curaçao. Near the end of the seventeenth century merchants established a settlement there, buying cacao brought from the interior and exchanging European goods. The coast and its sheltered anchorages made it a useful point of contact outside the ordinary channels of Spanish colonial commerce.

In 1693 Jewish merchants from Curaçao formed a community at Tucacas known as the Santa Irmandade. Their trade drew on connections between the island and the mainland. Spanish officials sought to suppress the settlement, while Dutch vessels and local allies helped protect it. Its history illustrates the commercial ties that crossed imperial boundaries in the southern Caribbean and linked merchants across its islands and mainland.