Francisco de Miranda

Francisco de Miranda was a flamboyant Venezuelan revolutionary who found influential support in Britain. He was given permission to use Trinidad as a base of operations against the Spanish in Northern South America. An 1806 landing ended in disaster after only two weeks of confused and muddled fighting. Preparations were made for a second more substantial invasion, but these were suddenly abandoned when Spain changed sides in 1808 and suddenly became a British ally. Although the revolutionary rhetoric did not end and Simon Bolivar would establish a short lived First Venezuelan Republic from 1810 to 1812. The British (and Spanish) were to learn that revolutionary zeal was very hard to stop once let out of its bottle!