Francisco de Miranda Sebastián Francisco de Miranda Rodríguez ( March 28 , 1750 – July 14 , 1816 ) , commonly known as Francisco de Miranda ( ) , was a Venezuelan revolutionary . Although his own plans for the independence of the Spanish American colonies failed , he is regarded as a forerunner of Simón Bolívar , who during the Spanish American wars of independence successfully liberated a vast portion of South America . Miranda led a romantic and adventurous life . An idealist , he developed a visionary plan to liberate and unify all of Spanish America but his own military initiatives on behalf of an independent Spanish America ended in 1812 . He was handed over to his enemies and four years later , in 1816 , died in a Spanish prison . Within fourteen years of his death , however , most of Spanish America was independent . Early life . Sebastian Francisco de Miranda was born in Caracas , Venezuela Province , in the Spanish colonial Viceroyalty of New Granada . His father , Sebastian de Miranda Ravelo , was a wealthy merchant from the Canary Islands , and his mother , Francisca Antonia Rodríguez de Espinoza , was a wealthy Venezuelan . Growing up , Miranda enjoyed a wealthy upbringing , attending the finest private schools , while facing some discrimination due to his Canarian roots . Miranda was not necessarily a member of high society growing up , as his heritage was continually put into question by the Criollo aristocracy . In the United States . Miranda , who had bought himself a commission as a Captain of the Spanish Army around 1771 ( something not unusual in the European armies at the time ) , became interested in the American Revolutionary War , while serving as Captain of the Aragón Regiment and aide - de - camp to General Juan Manuel de Cajigal y Monserrat , ( 1739 – 1811 ) . Under Cajigal , Miranda participated in the 1781 Battle of Pensacola , which saw British West Florida fall into Spanish hands , and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel . He participated in the Capture of The Bahamas and carried news of the island ' s fall to his superior Bernardo de Gálvez . Gálvez was angry that the Bahamas expedition had gone ahead without his permission and he imprisoned Cajigal and had Miranda arrested . Miranda was later released , but this experience of Spanish officialdom may have been a factor in his subsequent conversion to the idea of independence for Spain ' s American colonies . He later returned to the United States in 1783 , where he met , among others , George Washington , Thomas Paine , Alexander Hamilton , Henry Knox , and Thomas Jefferson , embarking from Boston for England on December 15 , 1784 . In Europe : England , Prussia , Turkey and Russia ( 1786 – 1790 ) . Much later , after his adventures in England , ( until August 9 , 1785 ) , Miranda went to Venice , Padua , Verona , Mantua , Parma , Modena , Bologna , Florence , Pisa , Lucca , Livorno , Rome and Naples , ( from November 12 , 1785 to around March 16 , 1786 ) . He traveled on April 2 , 1786 , to the modern - day Dubrovnik ( a vassal city of the Ottoman Empire , then better known with other , Italian name Ragusa ) , and then to Constantinople in Turkey ( until September 23 , 1786 ) , Russia , ( from September 26 , 1786 until September 7 , 1787 , slightly under one year ) , Sweden , ( in Stockholm as from September 10 , 1787 until November 2 , 1787 ) , Norway , from November 10 , 1787 until departing from Karlskrona in Sweden from December 17 , 1787 ) , Denmark ( from September 23 , 1787 until March 10 , 1788 after being received in Denmark orders of capture from Spain no later than January 22 , 1788 ) , the Free Hanseatic Town of Hamburg , ( from ( April 1 , 1788 until the April 27 , 1788 ) , the Free Town of Bremen , ( leaving on April 27 ) , Holland , ( from around the May 2 , 1788 until around June 16 , 1788 ) , some actual Belgian towns and German cities along the Rhine river , Swiss Basel , ( arrival July 30 , 1788 , and then again after touring German - speaking Switzerland on October 12 , 1788 ) , Swiss Geneva ( arrival September 25 , 1788 ) , and France , ( entry around the 3rd and 4th weeks of September 1788 , two stays in Marseilles , the second departing there towards Bordeaux on February 26 , 1789 via inland waterways ) , travels to Rouen , Le Havre and Paris around May 5 , 1789 , getting papers as " Mr . Meeroff from Livonia " to arrive in Dover , ( England ) and then London on June 19 , 1789 , taking lodgings at the house of his British friend , " A Barlow " , at 47 Jermyn Street ) . Miranda made use of the Spanish - British diplomatic row known as the Nootka Crisis in February 1790 to present to some British Cabinet ministers his ideas about the independence of Spanish territories in South America . Later on , after fighting for Revolutionary France , Miranda made his home in London , where he had two children , Leandro ( 1803 – Paris , 1886 ) and Francisco ( 1806 – Cerinza , Colombia , 1831 ) , with his housekeeper , Sarah Andrews , whom he later married . During these earlier times in London he had met Colonel William S . Smith , secretary to John Adams ' s American Legation . Miranda during the French Revolutionary period . From 1791 , Miranda took an active part in the French Revolution . In Paris , he befriended the Girondist s Jacques Pierre Brissot and Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve , and he briefly served as a general in the section of the French Revolutionary Army commanded by Charles François Dumouriez , fighting in the in the Low Countries . Miranda was first arrested in April 1793 on the orders of Antoine Quentin Fouquier - Tinville , Chief Prosecutor of the Revolution , and accused of conspiring against the republic with Charles François Dumouriez , the renegade general . Though indicted before the Revolutionary Tribunal – and under attack in Jean - Paul Marat ' s " L ' Ami du peuple " – he conducted his defence with such calm eloquence that he was declared innocent . Even so , the campaign of Marat and the rest of the Jacobins against him did not weaken . He was arrested again in July 1793 , when he was incarcerated in La Force prison , effectively one of the ante - chambers of death during the prevailing Reign of Terror . Appearing again before the tribunal , and mustering all his soldierly courage , he accused the Committee of Public Safety of tyranny , in disregarding his previous acquittal . Miranda seems to have survived by a combination of good luck and political expediency : the revolutionary government simply could not agree what to do with him . He remained in La Force even after the fall of Robespierre in July 1794 , and was not finally released until the January of the following year . The art theorist Quatremère de Quincy was among those who campaigned for his release during this time . Now convinced that the whole direction taken by the Revolution had been wrong , he started to conspire with the moderate royalists against the Directory , and was even named as the possible leader of a military coup . He was arrested and ordered out of the country , only to escape and go into hiding . He reappeared after being given permission to remain in France , though that did not stop his involvement in yet another monarchist plot in September 1797 . The police were ordered to arrest the " Peruvian general " , as the said general submerged himself yet again in the underground . With no more illusions about France , or the Revolution , he left for England in a Danish boat , arriving in Dover in January 1798 . His name remains engraved on the Arc de Triomphe , which was built during the First Empire . He is the only person from the Americas present in the Arc . Expeditions in South America , the First Venezuelan Republic , and death ( 1806 – 1816 ) . His life has long been associated with the struggle of the Spanish colonies in Latin America for independence . Miranda envisioned an independent empire consisting of all the territories that had been under Spanish and Portuguese rule , stretching from the Mississippi River to Cape Horn . This empire was to be under the leadership of a hereditary emperor called the " Inca " , in honor of the great Inca Empire , and would have a bicameral legislature . He conceived the name " Colombia " for this empire , after the explorer Christopher Columbus . With informal British help , Miranda led an attempted invasion of the Captaincy General of Venezuela in 1806 . At the time Britain was at war with Spain , an ally of Napoleon . In November 1805 Miranda travelled to New York , where he rekindled his acquaintance with Colonel William S . Smith , who introduced him to merchant Samuel G . Ogden ( who would later be tried , but acquitted , for helping organize Miranda ' s expedition ) . Miranda then went to Washington for private meetings with President Thomas Jefferson and his Secretary of State James Madison , who met with Miranda but did not involve themselves or their nation in his plans , which would have been a violation of the Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793 . Miranda privately began organizing a filibustering expedition to liberate Venezuela . Among the volunteers who served under him in this revolt was David G . Burnet of the United States , who would later serve as interim president of the Republic of Texas after its secession from Mexico in 1836 . Miranda hired a ship from Ogden , which he rebaptized the " Leander " in honor of his oldest son . In Jacmel , Haiti , Miranda acquired two other ships , the " Bee " and the " Bacchus " , and their crews . It is here in Jacmel on March 12 , when Miranda made , and raised on the " Leander " , the first " Venezuelan " flag , which he had personally designed . On April 28 the small fleet was overtaken by Spanish war ships off the coast of Venezuela . Only the " Leander " escaped . Sixty men were captured and put on trial , and ten were sentenced to death . The " Leander " and the expeditionary force regrouped on the British islands of Barbados and Trinidad . The expedition landed at La Vela de Coro on August 3 , captured the fort and raised the flag for the first time on Venezuelan soil . Before dawn the next morning the expeditionaries occupied Coro , but found no support from the city residents . Rather than risk a defeat , the small royal force in the city fell back from the city escorting refugees and to await reinforcements . Realizing that he could not hold the city for long , Miranda ordered his force to set sail again on August 13 , and he spent the next year in the British Caribbean waiting for reinforcements that never came . On his return to Britain , he was met with better support for his plans from the British government . In 1808 a large military force to attack Venezuela was assembled and placed under the command of Arthur Wellesley , but Napoleon ' s invasion of Spain suddenly transformed Spain into an ally of Britain , and the force instead went there to fight in the Peninsular War . The First Republic of Venezuela . Venezuela achieved " de facto " independence on April 19 , 1810 , when a junta was established and the colonial administrators deposed . The Junta sent a delegation to Great Britain to get British recognition and aid . This delegation , which included future Venezuelan notables Simón Bolívar and Andrés Bello , met with and persuaded Miranda to return to his native land . There he agitated for the provisional government to declare independence . Miranda gathered around him a group of similarly - minded individuals and helped establish an association , " la Sociedad Patriotica " , modeled on the political clubs of the French Revolution . By the end of the year the Venezuelan provinces elected a congress to deal with the future of the country , and Miranda was chosen as the delegate from El Pao , Barcelona Province . On July 5 , 1811 , it formally declared Venezuelan independence and established a republic . The congress also adopted his tricolor as the Republic ' s flag . The following year Miranda and the young Republic ' s fortunes turned . Republican forces failed to subdue areas of Venezuela ( provinces of Coro , Maracaibo and Guyana ) which had remained royalist . In addition , Venezuela ' s loss of the Spanish market for its main export , cocoa meant that an economic crisis set in , which mostly hurt the middle and lower classes , who lost enthusiasm for the Republic . Finally a powerful earthquake and its aftershock s hit the country , which caused large numbers of deaths and serious damage to buildings , mostly in republican areas . It did not help that it hit on March 26 , 1812 , as services for Maundy Thursday were beginning . The Caracas Junta had been established on a Maundy Thursday as well , so the earthquake fell on its second anniversary in the liturgical calendar . This was interpreted by many as a sign from Providence . Since the earthquake occurred on Maundy Thursday , while the Venezuelan War of Independence was raging , it was explained by royalist authorities as divine punishment for the rebellion against the Spanish Crown . The archbishop of Caracas , Narciso Coll y Prat , referred to the event as " the terrifying but well - deserved earthquake " which " confirms in our days the prophecies revealed by God to men about the ancient impious and proud cities : Babylon , Jerusalem and the Tower of Babel " . Many , including those in the Republican army , and the majority of the clergy , began to secretly plot against the Republic or outright defect . Other provinces refused to send reinforcements to Caracas Province . Worse still , whole provinces began to switch sides . On July 4 , an uprising brought Barcelona over to the royalist side . Neighboring Cumaná , now cut off from the Republican center , refused to recognize Miranda ' s dictatorial powers and his appointment of a commandant general . By the middle of the month many of the outlying areas of Cumaná Province had also defected to the royalists . With these circumstances a Spanish marine frigate captain , Domingo Monteverde , operating out of Coro , was able to turn a small force under his command into a large army , as people joined him on his advance towards Valencia , leaving Miranda in charge of only a small area of central Venezuela . In these dire circmstances Miranda was given broad political powers by his government . By mid - July Monteverde had taken Valencia , and Miranda thought the situation was hopeless . He started negotiations with Monteverde and finalized an armistice on July 25 , 1812 . He then went to the port of La Guaira intending to leave on a British ship before the royalists arrived , although under the armistice there was an amnesty for political offenses . Then - Colonel Bolívar and other revolutionary officers claimed his actions as treasonous . In one of Bolívar ' s most morally dubious acts , Bolívar and the others arrested and handed Miranda over to the Spanish Royal Army . Bolívar claimed afterwards that he wanted to shoot him as a traitor but was restrained by the others ; Bolívar ' s reasoning was that " if Miranda believed the Spaniards would observe the treaty , he should have remained to keep them to their word ; if he did not , he was a traitor to have sacrificed his army to it . " Ironically , it was by handing over Miranda to the Spanish that Bolívar assured himself a passport from the Spanish authorities ( passports which , nevertheless , had been guaranteed to all republicans who requested them by the terms of the armistice ) , which allowed him to leave Venezuela unmolested . Miranda never saw freedom again . His case was still being processed , when he died in a prison cell at the Penal de las Cuatro Torres at the Arsenal de la Carraca , outside Cádiz , aged 66 . He was buried in a mass grave , making it impossible to identify his remains , so an empty tomb has been left for him in the National Pantheon of Venezuela . The oil painting by the Venezuelan artist Arturo Michelena titled , " Miranda en la Carraca " ( 1896 ) , which portrays the hero in the Spanish jail where he died , has become a graphic symbol of Venezuelan history , and has immortalized the image of Miranda for generations of Venezuelans . Legacy and honours . Miranda has been honoured in a number of ways , including in the naming of a Venezuelan state , Miranda ( created in 1889 ) , a Venezuelan port , Puerto Miranda , and a number of Venezuelan municipalities named " Miranda " or " Francisco de Miranda " . A Caracas airbase and a Caracas park are named for him . The Order of Francisco de Miranda was established in the 1930s . In 2006 Venezuela ' s Flag Day was moved to August 3 , in honor of Miranda ' s 1806 disembarkation at La Vela de Coro . One of the Bolivarian Missions , Mission Miranda , is named for him . Miranda ' s life was portrayed in the Venezuelan film " Francisco de Miranda " ( 2006 ) , as well as in the unrelated film " Miranda Returns " ( 2007 ) . Miranda ' s name is engraved in the Arc de Triomphe in Paris , and his portrait is in the Palace of Versailles . There are statutes of Miranda in Cadiz ( Spain ) , Caracas , Havana , London , Philadelphia , Patras ( Greece ) , São Paulo ( Brazil ) , St . Petersburg ( Russia ) , and Valmy ( France ) . The house where Miranda lived in London , 58 Grafton Way in Bloomsbury , has a blue plaque with his name on . Quotes . Daniel Florence O ' Leary , aide - de - camp to Simón Bolívar , said of Miranda ' s death :