Miranda (state)

Miranda State (Spanish: Estado Miranda, IPA: [esˈtaðo miˈɾanda]) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela and the second most populous after Zulia State. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 2,675,165 residents. It also has the greatest Human Development Index in Venezuela, according to the Venezuelan National Institute of Statistics (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica, Caracas). The most recent population estimate was 3,194,390 in mid-2016.

Miranda is an important center for political, economic, cultural and commercial activities. The state is administered by a governor, and is sub-divided into 21 municipalities, each under a mayor.

Miranda State covers a total surface area of 7,950 km² (3,070 sq mi).

When the Spanish arrived, the region was inhabited by various Caribbean tribes. Among them were the Caracas, the Teques, the Cumanagotos, the Mariches and the Quiriquires. The Teques inhabited the southwestern part of Guaire. The Mariches inhabited the eastern part of the Caracas Valley. They practiced hunting and gathering, while others lived by fishing. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived, these tribes were brave enough to fight for their territory, commanded by caciques like Guaicaipuro and Yare.

Guaicaipuro was a legendary cacique of the Teques and Caracas Indians who resisted the conquistador Diego de Losada, while cacique Yare was the cumanagoto, quiriquire, charagoto and arauco chief who killed Captain Mendoza, who had murdered the Indian Tamanaco. Once all the tribes were subdued, the Spaniards settled completely on these lands, founding the city of Caracas, and later different towns in the interior of the state of Miranda.

During the colony this region became part of the Province of Caracas. At the end of the 16th century and beginning of the 17th century the highlands were used to cultivate, among other products, wheat destined largely for export to Cartagena de Indias and the Caribbean islands. From the second decade of the 17th century, cocoa displaced these crops. In addition, all commercial activities were monopolized by the Royal Guipuzcoa Company, which generated the first discontents and uprisings against the crown. From the beginning of the 17th century, slave labour quickly replaced the Indian labour force, concentrating on the Windward region, which was the largest cocoa producer. It was in this region that the first free blacks rose up against their masters, but were later stifled by Spanish troops.

After the dissolution of Gran Colombia, Venezuela still used the provinces as a political-territorial organization, which had been used for a long time. Miranda, at that time, was part of a province. Between 1832 and 1855 the use of the province persisted due to the confusion generated by the existence of a state as a political division of the country.

The division by states did not appear in Venezuela in a concrete way until 1864, when about twenty states were founded which, in the following governments, would be reduced to nine, among these, the founded state of Guzmán Blanco, which by 1873 only covered the region of Aragua.