The Pearl Fishery: Forced Labor and the Spanish Conquest of Venezuela

When Columbus first reached South America, he found Indigenous people diving for pearls off the coast of Venezuela. Within decades, the Spanish enslaved thousands of Lucayan, Guaiquerí, and other native divers to harvest pearls for the crown. This episode follows the rise and fall of the pearl beds of Cubagua and Margarita, the horrifying working conditions that killed countless divers, the short-lived Spanish settlement of Nueva Cádiz, and the eventual collapse of the pearl boom. We also explore the fate of indigenous pearl divers sold to Caribbean islands and the 16th-century protests by Dominican friars against the enslavement. A forgotten chapter of early colonialism where greed and brutality turned a natural wonder into a graveyard. #PearlFishery #Cubagua #NuevaCDiz #Venezuela #Columbus #Guaiquer #Lucayan #Encomienda #Slavery #DominicanFriars #PearlDiving #SpanishColonization #Margarita #Caribbean #16thCentury #ForcedLabor #History #FexingoHistory #Colonialism #EuropeanImperialism Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo