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Colonia Tovar ((英語:Tovar Colony)) is a town of Venezuela, capital of the municipality Tovar in Aragua state. Founded in 1843 by a group of immigrants from the then independent state of Baden (later incorporated into Germany), is characterized by maintaining the cultural imprint of their origin, so it is called "the Germany of the Caribbean". The economy depends primarily on agriculture and tourism; and the town is located from Caracas. The Colonia is known for its temperate crops (peaches, strawberries, beets, cauliflower, carrots, cabbage, chard, broccoli, lettuce, onions and potatoes) and their derivatives. Since 1990 has shown a high rate of population growth, rising from 3,373 to 14,309 inhabitants in 2001. ==History== Between 1806 and 1918 a state called the Grand Duchy of Baden occupied much of the eastern bank of the Rhine River in the southwest corner of the mountainous wine-producing area Kaiserstuhl. From this duchy came the majority of settlers in Colonia Tovar. A colonizing company was formed, composed of colonel Agustin Codazzi and Ramón Díaz, and as guarantor Martín Tovar y Ponte (the Count of Tovar). Codazzi contacted residents of Kaiserstuhl and selected an area where the colony would be founded, choosing a site with geographic and climatic similarities to the German region. The land chosen belonged to the nephew of Count of Tovar, Manuel Felipe Tovar, who donated it for the creation of the colony. On October 14, 1841 the territory was founded as ''Palmar del Tuy'' and construction of infrastructure was begun. Once completed, the colonizing company went to the town of Endingen in Kaiserstuhl to select the settlers. The contracts between the company and immigrants were signed at the inn ''Der Pfauen'', located a few meters from the entrance to the city. The immigrants who sailed to Venezuela amounted to 391 people: 240 men and 151 women, most of them from Kaiserstuhl. They departed for Venezuela on December 18, 1842. They travelled along the Rhine, embarked at the port of Le Havre (France) on 19 January 1843 and arrived at the La Guaira on 4 March aboard the French ship ''Clemence'' piloted by Captain Malverin. The ship was scheduled to land on the Puerto Maya coast, north of La Victoria, but given that there had been no previous journeys following the path traced mapped by Codazzi, the ship was forced to turn to Choroní to go up the alternate path. This path was also designed by Codazzi and opened by the engineer Inder Pellegrini, leaving La Victoria to the place assigned for the new population. However, they could not disembark immediately in Choroní because there had been an epidemic of smallpox declared on board and the passengers and crew had to be quarantined in Choroní from March 13 that same year. On March 31, they headed to the city of Maracay and La Victoria where there were received by President of Venezuela Carlos Soublette. Settlers arrived in Palmar del Tuy on April 8, 1843, 112 days after leaving Baden. That day is considered the foundation day of Colonia Tovar, which took the last name of the donor. Among the first residents there were scientists, naturalists, writers and painters, such as Carl Ferdinand Appun, Hermann Karsten, Karl Moritz, Anton Goering, Ferdinand Bellermann (a painter who was sponsored by Humboldt) and many others, some of whom are buried in the city cemetery. Initially, the village was organized around the production of coffee. As "los colonieros" were thriving, production spread to new lands and activities such as growing vegetables and fruits, and a good market for these goods was found in Caracas or La Victoria. The manufacture of barrels, using quality timber of the zone, also became a source of income. For many years the colony was connected with Caracas by a river. The difficulty of communication, isolation and the environmental setting so different from the mountains of Germany kept the people isolated for quite some time, with a very slow population growth and even negative at some point, due to rural exodus. That trend began to revert from the 1960s onwards, when Colonia Tovar was declared of tourist interest, with the development of communications and tourism needs of Caracas, Maracay and other cities, which led to significant economic development. Today it is one of the richest towns in the country measured by population and one of the highest in terms of quality of life. Colonia Tovar's prosperity in turn led to high population growth of the population, from 3,373 to 14,309 inhabitants in 2001. Currently the paths tend to become congested at weekends due to the large number of visitors. The ancient descendants of early settlers are fully integrated into the country and have been crossbred with the native population. The town speaks Spanish and some have had to rescue their knowledge of German and improve because of the demands by the arrival of many German tourists, who are always surprised to find a typical German town in the tropics. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Colonia Tovar」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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