Download The basis of the discussions between Venezuela and the United

The basis of the discussions between Venezuela and the United Kingdom lay in Britain's advocacy of a
particular division of the territory deriving from a mid-nineteenth-century survey it commissioned.
This survey originated with German naturalist Robert Schomburgk's four-year expedition for the Royal
Geographical Society in 1835 to 1839, which resulted in a sketch of the territory with a line marking
what he believed to be the western boundary claimed by the Dutch. As a result of this he was
commissioned by the British government to carry out a survey of Guiana's boundaries. The result was
the "Schomburgk Line", which he established partly following natural divisions and partly to
distinguish territory of Spanish or Venezuelan occupation from that which had been occupied by the
Dutch. The Line went well beyond the area of British occupation, and gave British Guiana control of
the mouth of the Orinoco River. In 1844 Venezuela declared the Essequibo River the dividing line; a
British offer the same year, to make major alterations to the Line and cede the mouth of the Orinoco
and much associated territory, was ignored. No treaty between Britain and Venezuela was reached, and
after an 1850 agreement not to encroach on disputed territory, the matter largely rested until 1876,
when diplomatic exchanges resumed. Schomburgk's initial sketch, which had been published in 1840,
was the only version of the "Schomburgk Line" published until 1886. This led to accusations by US
President Grover Cleveland that the line had been extended "in some mysterious way".
In October 1886 Britain declared the Line to be the provisional frontier of British Guiana, and in
February 1887 Venezuela severed diplomatic relations. Proposals for a renewal of relations and
settlement of the dispute failed repeatedly, and by summer 1894, diplomatic relations had been severed
for seven years and the dispute dragged on for half a century. In addition, both sides had established
police or military stations at key points in the area, partly to defend claims to the Caratal goldfield of
the region's Yuruari basin, which was within Venezuelan territory but claimed by the British. The mine
at El Callao, started in 1871, was for a time one of the richest in the world, and the goldfields as a
whole saw over a million ounces exported between 1860 and 1883. The gold mining was dominated by
immigrants from the British Isles and the British West Indies, giving an appearance of almost creating
an English colony on Venezuelan territory.
Movement towards U.S. involvement: Venezuela had in the course of the dispute repeatedly
appealed to the US and to the Monroe Doctrine, but the US had declined to involve itself. This
changed after Venezuela obtained the services of William L. Scruggs. Scruggs, a former US
Ambassador to Colombia and Venezuela, was recruited in 1893 by the Venezuelan Government to
operate on its behalf in Washington D.C. as a lobbyist and legal attaché. Scruggs had apparently
resigned his ambassadorship to Venezuela in December 1892, but in fact had been dismissed by the
US for bribing the President of Venezuela. As a lobbyist, Scruggs published an October 1894 pamphlet
entitled British Aggressions in Venezuela:, or the Monroe Doctrine on Trial. In the pamphlet, he
attacked "British aggression", claiming that Venezuela was anxious to arbitrate over the
Venezuela/British Guiana border dispute. Scruggs also claimed that British policies in the disputed
territory violated the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Whilst for much of the nineteenth century the Doctrine
had only rarely been invoked by the United States, a "paradigm shift in U.S. foreign relations in the
late nineteenth century" saw the U.S. more actively support its increasingly significant economic
interests in Central and South America. This "'new diplomacy' thrust the United States more
emphatically into the imperial struggle". It was in this context that Scruggs sought to draw on the
Doctrine in Venezuela's interests.
The Crisis: Scruggs collaborated with Georgian compatriot Congressman Leonidas Livingston to
propose United States House of Representatives Resolution 252 to the third session of the 53rd United
States Congress. The bill recommended Venezuela and the United Kingdom settle the dispute by
arbitration. President Grover Cleveland signed it into law on February 22, 1895, after passing both
houses of the United States Congress. The vote had been unanimous.
In May 1895 the Royal Navy occupied the Nicaraguan port of Corinto. The British demanded an
indemnity of £15,000. US Secretary of State Walter Q. Gresham thought the demands harsh, but also
that they should be met. US public opinion, however, was outraged at this British military activity in
the United States' sphere of influence.
In July 1895 new Secretary of State Richard Olney (succeeding Gresham, who died in office at the end
of May) sent a document to London which became known as "Olney's twenty-inch gun" (the draft was
12,000 words long). The note reviewed the history of the Anglo-Venezuelan dispute and of the
Monroe Doctrine, and it firmly insisted on the application of the Doctrine to the case, declaring that
"today the United States is practically sovereign on this continent, and its fiat is law upon the subjects
to which it confines its interposition." At this point the President and the Secretary of State as well as
the US public "had been brought to believe that Britain was in the wrong, that the vital interests of the
United States were involved, and the United States must intervene." The note had little impact on the
British Government, partly because Joseph Chamberlain, at the Colonial Office, thought it possible
that the colony had a major gold-bearing region around the Schomburgk line, and partly because the
Government rejected the idea that the Monroe Doctrine had any relevance for the boundary dispute. A
reply to Olney's note directly challenged his interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine, declaring that
"The Government of the United States is not entitled to affirm as a universal proposition, with
reference to a number of independent States for whose conduct it assumes no responsibility,
that its interests are necessarily concerned in whatever may befall those States, simply because
they are situated in the Western Hemisphere.”
By 17 December 1895, President Cleveland delivered an address to the United States Congress
reaffirming the Monroe Doctrine and its relevance to the dispute. The address asked Congress to fund
a commission to study the boundaries between Venezuela and British Guiana, and declared it the duty
of the United States to "to resist by every means in its power as a willful aggression upon its rights and
interests" any British attempt to exercise jurisdiction over territory the United States judged
Venezuelan. The address was perceived as direct threat of war with the United Kingdom if the British
did not comply, although in fact Cleveland had not committed himself to accepting the commission's
report, nor specified any details on how the commission would act. Despite the public belligerence,
neither the British nor the American governments had any interest in war.
On December 18, 1895, Congress approved $100,000 for the United States Commission on the
Boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana. It was formally established on 1 January 1896.
Arbitration: In January 1896 the British Government decided in effect to recognize the US right to
intervene in the boundary dispute, accepting arbitration in principle without insisting on the
Schomburgk line as a basis for negotiation. Negotiations between the United States and Britain over
the details of the arbitration followed, and Britain was able to persuade the US of much of its views,
even as it became clear that the eventual report of the Boundary Commission would likely be negative
towards the British claims. An agreement between the US and UK was signed on 12 November 1896.
Cleveland's Boundary Commission's work was suspended in November 1896, though it still went on to
produce a large report.
The agreement provided for a Tribunal with two members representing Venezuela (but chosen by the
US Supreme Court), two members chosen by the British government, and fifth member chosen by
these four, who would preside. Venezuelan President Joaquín Crespo referred to a sense of "national
humiliation", and the treaty was modified so that the Venezuelan President would nominate a Tribunal
member. However it was understood that his choice would not be a Venezuelan, and in fact he
nominated the Chief Justice of the United States. Ultimately, on 2 February 1897, the Treaty of
Washington between Venezuela and the United Kingdom was signed, and ratified several months later.
Outcome: Sitting in Paris, the Tribunal of
Arbitration finalized its decision on 3 October 1899.
The award was unanimous, but gave no reasons for
the decision, merely describing the resulting
boundary, which gave Britain almost 90% of the
disputed territory. The Schomburgk Line was, with
small deviations, re-established as the border
between British Guiana and Venezuela, and the
British case thus largely vindicated, although
Venezuela did gain the mouth of the Orinoco and
around 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2) of territory
to the east of it. The first deviation from the
Schomburgk line was that Venezuela's territory
included Barima Point at the mouth of the Orinoco,
giving it undisputed control of the river, and thus the
ability to levy duties on Venezuelan commerce. The
second was drawing the border at the Wenamu River
rather than the Cuyuni River, giving Venezuela a
substantial territory east of the line - territory which
Britain had originally refused to include in the
arbitration. However, Britain received most of the
disputed territory, and all of the gold mines.
An 1896 cartoon from an American
newspaper, following Britain's agreement to
go to arbitration. Uncle Sam and John Bull
toast in front of a map of Venezuela.
The reaction to the award was surprise, with the
award's lack of reasoning a particular concern. The
Venezuelans were keenly disappointed with the
outcome, though they honoured their counsel for
their efforts (their delegation's Secretary, Severo
Mallet-Prevost, received the Order of the Liberator
in 1944), and abided by the award.
The Anglo-Venezuelan boundary dispute asserted
for the first time a more outward-looking American
foreign policy, particularly in the Western
Hemisphere, marking the United States as a world
power. This was the earliest example of modern
interventionism under the Monroe Doctrine in which
the USA exercised its claimed prerogatives in the
Western Hemisphere
Punch cartoon after the conclusion of the
Tribunal of Arbitration. PEACE AND
PLENTY. Lord Salisbury (chuckling). "I like
arbitration — In the PROPER PLACE!"
Venezuelan Crisis of 1895
Brief Overview:
The Venezuela Crisis of 1895
occurred over Venezuela's
longstanding dispute with the
United Kingdom about the
territory of Essequibo and
Guayana Esequiba, which Britain
claimed as part of British Guiana
and Venezuela saw as Venezuelan
territory. As the dispute became a
crisis, the key issue became
Britain's refusal to include in the
proposed international arbitration
the territory east of the
"Schomburgk Line", which a
surveyor had drawn half a century
earlier as a boundary between
Venezuela and the former Dutch
territory of British Guiana. The
crisis ultimately saw Britain accept
the United States' intervention in
the dispute to force arbitration of
the entire disputed territory, and
tacitly accept the United States'
right to intervene under the
Monroe Doctrine. A tribunal
convened in Paris in 1898 to
decide the matter, and in 1899
awarded the bulk of the disputed
territory to British Guiana
Background: By 1895 Venezuela had had a
dispute with the United Kingdom about the
territory of Guayana Esequiba, which Britain
claimed as part of British Guiana and
Venezuela saw as Venezuelan territory, for
over half a century. The territorial claims were
originally those of the Spanish Empire
(inherited by Venezuela after its independence
in 1830) and of the Dutch Empire (inherited by
the United Kingdom with the acquisition of the
Dutch territories of Essequibo, Demerara and
Berbice in 1814), having remained unsettled
over previous centuries. Over the course of the
nineteenth century the British and Venezuelans
had proved no more able to reach an
agreement, until matters came to a head in
1895, after seven years of severed diplomatic
relations.