Manuel Carlos María Francisco Piar Gómez (April 28, 1774 – October 16, 1817) was General-in-Chief of the army fighting Spain during the Venezuelan War of Independence. Heritage and early life The son of Fernando Alonso Piar y Lottyn, a Spanish merchant seaman of Canarian origin and María Isabel Gómez, a Dutch mulatta born to an Afro-Venezuelan father and a Dutch mother in Willemstad, Curaçao, Piar grew up as a humble mestizo subject to the discriminating limits imposed by the social norms of colonial times. He arrived in Venezuela with his mother when he was ten years old and set up residence in La Guaira. Without formal schooling he acquired by himself a good level of general knowledge and taught himself several languages. At the age of 23, he decided to join the independence effort and participated in the unsuccessful 1797 Gual and España Conspiracy. Military career In 1804, he joined the Curaçao militia that was fighting the British occupation. The Curaçao militia successfully expelled the British, restoring Dutch rule. 1807 found him in Haiti helping the revolution on the island and commanding a warship. By 1810 his military experience and his desire for independence from the colonial governments put him at the service of the incipient Venezuelan rebellion against Spain. He started in the navy and was deployed to Puerto Cabello. As commander of a warship, he saw action in several engagements against the Spanish navy, including in the Battle of Sorondo in the Orinoco river in 1812. A deteriorating and losing situation for his side forced Piar to take refuge in Trinidad for some time. Back in Venezuela in 1813 as an army Colonel, he successfully defended Maturín and helped liberate the eastern part of the country from Spanish forces. The following year, 1814, now a Brigadier General, Piar led troops fighting in the provinces of Barcelona, Caracas, and Cumaná. He lost an engagement with the forces of José Tomás Boves near El Salado. Promoted to Major General, he joined Simón Bolívar in Haiti the successful Los Cayos expedition, and the engagements of Los Frailes and Carupano. In 1816 he defeated the army of Francisco Tomás Morales at El Juncal. From there Piar marched on Guayana, intending to begin the liberation of that province. At the beginning of 1817 he laid siege to the city of Angostura. On April 11 his forces achieved a major victory over those commanded