Resumen

MALDONADO VITORIA, Zulimar. The Province of Maracaibo at end of the XVIIIth century: the vision of Francisco de Saavedra and José Domingo Rus . Revista de Ciencias Sociales [online]. 2008, vol.14, n.3, pp.575-589. ISSN 1315-9518.

The objective of this article is to reconstruct the geographical and socio-economic traits that characterized the Province of Maracaibo at the end of the XVIIIth and beginnings of the XIXth centuries. It is supported by a comparative analysis of the facts and descriptions contributed by the reports of Francisco de Saavedra, Intendent of Caracas (1783-1787) and José Domingo Rus, deputy of the Royal Consulate of Caracas (1796-1798) and of the Courts of Cádiz (1812-1814). It is inferred that both personages, due to posts held in the monarchic administration, achieved broad knowledge about the Province of Maracaibo and offered a vision of socio-political and economic unity regarding that vast space in order to procure for it the economic promotion and moral progress preached by the enlightened principles of the age.

Palabras clave : Consulate of Caracas; Courts of Cádiz; consular deputation; enlightenment; Province of Maracaibo.