The City of Caracas in the Guzmanist Project: An Approach to the Septenio (1870–1877)

Abstract

This paper forms part of an ongoing doctoral research project. Its main objective is to analyze the role played by public works inspired by nineteenth-century European urbanism within the Guzmanist political project during the Septenio (1870–1877). The analysis is conducted from the perspective of urban cultural history. Accordingly, a systematization of the most significant buildings constructed or projected in the Venezuelan capital during this period was undertaken, together with a review of documentary and literary sources that help explain the evident process of transfer of European urban ideas to Caracas promoted by Antonio Guzmán Blanco and their relation to his broader project of power. Both official sources and testimonies from Venezuelans and foreign observers—particularly travelers who recorded their impressions of the city’s transformations—were consulted. Previous research has also noted that urban reforms in Caracas during the 1870s were strongly influenced by European models of modernization and urban planning. Preliminary findings reveal a direct relationship between public works and the objectives of modernization, progress, and political centralization promoted by Guzmán Blanco. In this context, the city can be understood as a political and cultural artifact reflecting the binomial of progress and civilization that served as a platform for the transformation of society. These results reinforce the hypothesis that the construction and transformation of physical space became a privileged instrument for the consolidation of the Guzmanist project and the pursuit of modernity.