Initially, both the Junta and Congress upheld the "rights of Ferdinand VII," meaning that they recognized themselves to still be part of the Spanish Monarchy, but had established a separate government due to the French invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.

Persons such as Francisco de Miranda, a long-term Venezuelan expatriate, and Simón Bolívar, a young, Criollo aristocrat—both influenced by Age of Enlightenment ideas and the example of the French Revolution—led the movement.

Even before the Congress began its sessions in November 1810, a civil war started between those who supported the juntas, and eventually independence, and royalists who wanted to maintain the union with Spain.

In these desperate moments, Miranda was given dictatorial powers, nevertheless, he was unable to stem the royalist advance headed by Captain Domingo de Monteverde.

Bolívar and other republicans continued the resistance from other parts of the Spanish South America and the Caribbean, or organized guerrilla movements in the interior of the country.

After winning a series of battles, Bolívar received the approval of the New Granadan Congress to lead a liberating force into Venezuela in what became known as the Admirable Campaign.

Bolívar entered Caracas on 6 August 1813, proclaiming the restoration of the Venezuelan Republic and his supreme leadership of it, something which was not fully recognized by Mariño based in Cumaná, although the two leaders did cooperate militarily.

In Trujillo, an Andean province, Bolívar emitted his infamous Decree of War to the Death with which he hoped to get the pardos and any mantuano who was having second thoughts on his side.

At the time that Bolívar was victorious in the west, Santiago Mariño and Manuel Piar, a pardo from the Dutch island of Curaçao, were successfully fighting royalists in eastern Venezuela.

In the Llanos a populist Spanish immigrant caudillo, José Tomás Boves, initiated a widespread pardo movement against the restored Republic.

Resistance to the Republic this time came from the people of the vast southern plains, the Llaneros, who organized under the command of Spanish immigrant, José Tomás Boves.

In the Battle of Urica, Boves was killed and Morales took command and carried out mopping up operations against the remaining patriot resistance, which included the capture and execution of Ribas.

With little prospects, some pardos and llaneros began to join the rebellions that were breaking out against Spanish rule in the broad plains of southern Venezuela.

With Brión supplying a small fleet, Bolívar sailed west along the Venezuelan coast to Ocumare de la Costa (the Expedition of Los Cayos), where, in fulfillment of Pétion's request, he officially proclaimed the end of slavery (although this went unheeded).

However, Piar and Gregor MacGregor, a Scottish soldier of fortune, who had previously been active in New Granada, managed to escape with their forces into the interior of the country, defeating Morales at El Juncal in September 1816 before moving south to Guayana.

A long-term stalemate ensued in which the royalists controlled the highly populated, urban north and the republicans the vast, under-populated plains of the south.

Since Bolívar played a central role in the symbolism of the Venezuelan government led by Chávez, this long-forgotten change was revived in the 2006 revision to the flag.)

Once in Guayana, Bolívar quickly cashiered Piar, who had been trying (or was accused of trying—historians still debate this) to form a pardo force of his own, by having him arrested and executed after a court martial in which Brión was one of the judges.

Francisco de Paula Santander, a New Granadan who had retreated to the llanos after Morillo's invasion, met with Bolívar and agreed to join forces.

Morillo's other lieutenant, the second in command of the expeditionary force, Miguel de la Torre, was ordered to put down a significant rebellion in the llanos of Apure led by José Antonio Páez.

At the time in the Southern Cone of South America, José de San Martín had concluded the liberation of Chile with the essential support of the Chilean Bernardo O'Higgins.

Campaigns in eastern Venezuela began turning the tide for independence and in the llanos Páez defeated Morillo and Morales in Apure.

This cleared the way for Bolívar and Santander to invade New Granada, where, in Pantano de Vargas, the Spaniards were defeated in a battle in which the British Legion played a central role and its commander, Rooke, was killed in action.

In 1821, the Gran Colombian army won a decisive victory at the second Battle of Carabobo, after which the only cities in the hands of the royalist forces were Cumaná, which fell shortly thereafter, and Puerto Cabello, which managed to resist a siege before finally capitulating in October 1823.

Once this was accomplished, Gran Colombia continued its fight against the Spanish in Peru and Bolivia, completing the efforts of Chilean and Argentine patriots, such as José de San Martín, who liberated southern South America.

San Blas Conspiracy It consisted of a Liberal movement that involved the installation of democracy in Spain, inspired by the French Revolution and with the participation of important members of the society.

Regardless this attempt at democracy failed, and some of their members were sent to prisons in Spanish Colonies, one of them, Juan Batista Picornell,[3] was sent to the Port of La Guaira,  where he secretly met with Manuel Gual and Jose Maria España.

His revolutionary Ideas spread like wildfire throughout the country, and sooner than later both Gual and España found themselves leading a conspiracy against the Spanish rule.