On the plains near Valencia, Simón Bolívar led a mixed army of Venezuelan patriots, Llanero cavalry, and a British Legion against Spanish royalist forces. The decisive victory effectively ended Spanish colonial rule in Venezuela and became a foundational myth of national identity, later commemorated on the country's coat of arms and currency.
The battlefield sat on open plains outside Valencia, terrain that favored the mounted Llaneros who had once fought for Spain but now rode for independence under José Antonio Páez. Their charge broke the royalist line held by Field Marshal Miguel de la Torre, and the British Legion, made up of veterans from the Napoleonic Wars, plugged the gap when Bolívar's own troops faltered.
The victory did not end the war in Venezuela outright, but it broke the back of Spanish power in the region and opened the path toward a unified Gran Colombia. Bolívar himself was not present at the battle's fiercest moment; command effectively passed to Páez, whose cavalry tactics became legendary.
Today, Carabobo Day is a major national holiday in Venezuela, and the battlefield hosts a monument with an eternal flame. The battle's memory has been invoked by generations of Venezuelan leaders, most recently as a symbol of sovereignty and resistance to foreign intervention.
Key people: Simón Bolívar, José Antonio Páez