Welser, House of

House of Welser, wealthy and influential German banking and commerce house based in Augsburg, which leased from the Spanish crown a large part of western Venezuela from 1528 until 1545. The lease was extended as partial payment of a considerable debt contracted by Charles V with the house of Welser. The agreement granted the Germans administration of that region (then largely unexplored and unsettled) and the right to explore, colonize, and extract whatever wealth they could. In exchange, the Welsers' obligations included the foundation of two towns of 300 vecinos each, the construction of three fortifications, and the importation of 50 German miners to the island of La Española (Hispaniola). The representatives of the Welsers mounted numerous expeditions into the Venezuelan interior to extract a return on their investment. Their search for gold and their pillaging alienated both Spaniards and Indians, and eventually convinced the Spanish crown to deny renewal of the lease in 1545 and to completely sever German ties with Venezuela by 1556.

See alsoBanking: Overview .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Juan Friede, Los Welser en la conquista de Venezuela (1961).

Jules Humbert, La ocupación alemana de Venezuela en el siglo XVI Periódo llamado de los Welser, 1528–1556 (1983).

Additional Bibliography

Häberlein, Mark and Johannes Burkhardt. Die Welser: neue Forschungen zur Geschichte und Kultur des oberdeutschen Handelshauses. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2002.

Walter, Rolf. Los alemanes en Venezuela: Desde Colón hasta Guzmán Blanco. Caracas, Venezuela: Asociación Cultural Humboldt, 1985.

                                         J. David Dressing