Many British subjects became deeply involved in the Spanish American independence movements because they sympathized with the political objectives or because they hoped to promote the interests of their own nation. Carlos Pi Sunyer’s interesting and well-written study suggests that Canadian-born John Robertson supported the patriot cause in Venezuela for both reasons. During 1810 and 1811, while serving as secretary and registrar in the British occupation government on the island of Curaçao, Robertson and two of the island’s governors chose to interpret Britain’s ambiguous and contradictory policy towards the revolutionary junta in Venezuela in a most liberal way. They believed that the prosperity and welfare of Curaçao and of British merchants in the Caribbean depended on close trade links with Venezuela, and treated the Caracas junta in a manner virtually amounting to recognition of independence. Robertson also went to Venezuela and held conferences with the insurgents. By mid-1811, the British government became alarmed at the activities of the Curaçao officials and adopted a policy of strict neutrality in its appointment of a new governor who would adhere to this principle.
The administrative change provoked Robertson to abandon his official post and join the Venezuelan independence movement. Robertson’s previous experience as an officer in the British army in Canada qualified him to help the Venezuelans considerably. His devotion to the patriot cause won him Simón Bolívar’s esteem and a commission to secure from the British government official recognition of Venezuela’s separation from Spain. Robertson was unable to get beyond the British-held island of St. Thomas on his mission to London in 1814 because of the hostility of the governor, and he returned to Venezuela. The following year, when the patriots suffered severe reverses, Robertson escaped to Jamaica where he soon died.
Pi Sunyer assigns John Robertson a lofty place in the pantheon of Venezuela’s national heroes; yet, as the author readily acknowledges, no documents detailing Robertson’s actual exploits in the military campaigns of 1811-1815 are available. Possibly Robertson made his most significant contribution to the cause when, acting as an official on Curaçao, he extended tacit if temporary British recognition of Venezuelan independence. Indeed, as Pi Sunyer asserts, many other British subjects including officers of the Royal Navy in the Caribbean often deviated from their government’s stated policy, thus giving the independence movements an important boost in morale.
