The Shaping of Venezuelan Urbanism in the Hygiene Debate of Caracas,1880-1910

Abstract

From the perspective of urban historiography, Caracas is often thought to have been asleep from the 1880s until the first decades of this century. On the contrary, this paper tries to demonstrate how the city underwent major urban changes, whereby public hygiene reforms were incorporated into the urban policing agenda as early as the 19th century. As a consequence of a medical debate fuelled by the high mortality rate in the capital, the government adopted some administrative measures inspired by Europe's sanitary reforms, which contributed to shape Venezuela's modern urbanism—a contribution which has been disregarded up to now.