Introduction

Sociologists tirelessly point out the difficulties of defining a social class in any given society. In the present study we have seen how caste and ethnic considerations, occupational overlap and social and economic mobility were constantly affecting the surface distinctions of colonial society. Social alignments comparable to class differentiation were still clearly visible, but their character was not necessarily formed by their relationship to the means of production nor by an easily identifiable confrontational perception of other ‘classes’. This social complexity was nowhere more apparent than among the upper groups of the white caste which dominated the life of the province. Recognizable ethnic and occupational divisions would not seem to have been distinct enough to create a strong consciousness of class. What may have evolved instead was a ‘ruling class’ perception held in common by the disparate groups at the top in relation to the rest of society.

While it is difficult to speak of classes among the higher echelons of white society in Caracas, it is relatively simple to speak of a ruling elite. This of course assumes that there was a cohesiveness, collective consciousness and unity of purpose among those who were members of the elite, which may not have been present. As Crane Brinton in his classic analysis of revolution and anciens régimes has pointed out, the ruling groups in those societies were ‘divided and inept’ on the eve of their revolutions. Interestingly, the case of late-colonial Caracas provides an example of a pre-revolutionary society where the cohesiveness of elites actually existed, at least until it was put under severe strain after Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808.