The Colonia Tovar is a town of Venezuela, capital of the municipality Tovar, Aragua state. Founded in 1843 by a group of immigrants from the then independent state of Baden (later incorporated in Germany), is characterized by maintaining the cultural imprint of their origin, so it is called "the Germany of the Caribbean." Depends primarily on agriculture and tourism, and is located 42 km from Caracas. La Colonia is known for its temperate crops (peaches, strawberries, beets, cauliflower, carrots, cabbage, chard, broccoli, lettuce, onions and potatoes) and its derivatives. Since 1990 he has shown a high rate of population growth, from 3373-14672 inhabitants in 2011.

In 1840, during the government of General José Antonio Páez, was raised from the Ministry of Interior, the possibility of establishing new populations in which agriculture and mining will be developed in order to bring immigrants from Europe particularly Germany.

Agustín Codazzi as government representative and Alexander von Humboldt suggestion contacted the people delKaiserstuhl wine mountainous area of ​​the Grand Duchy of Baden, which occupied much of the eastern bank of the Rhine River 2 From here come from most colonists would have to establish and settle in Colonia Tovar.3

Integrated by Codazzi, and Ramón Díaz Martín Tovar Ponte (Conde de Tovar) as surety settlement enterprise was then formed. The company selected the area where you would install the colony, taking into account geographical and climatic similarities Kaiserstuhl. Selected land located at 2200 m in the Cordillera de la Costa belonged to the nephew of Conde de Tovar, Manuel Felipe Tovar, who donated to the installation of the colony.

The October 14, 1841 the territory was dubbed Palmar del Tuy and basic infrastructure were made. Once completed, the settlement enterprise in the old medieval town in the mountains of Endingen Kaiserstuhl went to select the colonists. The contracts between the company and the immigrants were signed at the Inn Der Pfauen, located a few meters from the entrance of the city. Finally immigrants who sailed to Venezuela totaled 391 people: 240 men and 151 women, most of them from Kaiserstuhl, which departed on 18 December 1842.

They went down the Rhine, embarked in the port of Le Havre (France) on 19 January 1843 and arrived at the La Guaira on March 4 aboard the French ship Clemence piloted by Captain Malverin.4 was planned to land on the Puerto Maya coast, north of Victoria, but given that it had not previously opened the path set by Codazzi, were forced to go to Choroní to climb the alternate path, also designed by Codazzi open by engineer Inder Pellegrini leaving La Victoria to the place assigned for the new population.5 however, could not land immediately because they had declared an epidemic of smallpox on board and had to be quarantined in Choroní since March 13 of that year .6

On March 31 landed, they headed to the city of Maracay and thence to Victoria, where they were greeted by the then president of Venezuela Carlos Soublette.7 Settlers arrived at Palmar del Tuy on April 8, 1843, 112 days after leaving Baden. This day is considered as the day of the founding of Colonia Tovar, who took the name as the name of the donor. Among the first settlers scientists, naturalists, writers and painters such as Karl Ferdinand Appun, Karl Hermann Karsten, Karl Moritz, Anton Goering, Wilhelm Sievers, Ferdinand Bellermann (painter who was sponsored Humboldt) and many others had, great of whom are buried in the city cemetery.

Initially, the Colonia Tovar was organized around the production of coffee. As "the Coloniero" were thriving, production spread to new lands and activities, including the cultivation of legumes, vegetables and fruits, they found good market in Caracas or La Victoria, and then barrel production, building quality woods in the area.

For many years the colony was connected to Caracas through a river. The difficulty of communication, isolation and so different from the alpine mountains of Germany made environmental scenario for quite some time, the population was kept isolated and static, with a rather slow population growth, and even negative at some point, due to rural exodus.

From the 60s, when Colonia Tovar becomes an agricultural empire and was declared of tourist interest, began to reverse this trend, with the development of communications and the recreational needs of Caracas, Maracay and other cities, giving rise to significant economic development. Today it is one of the richest towns in the country as measured by per capita income and one that has better quality of life. The prosperity of Colonia Tovar led in turn to a high population growth of the population, from 3373 to 14,309 inhabitants in 2001.

Currently the paths tend to become congested on weekends because of the large number of visitors. The ancient descendants of the first settlers are fully integrated into the country and were crossbred with the native population. They speak Spanish and have had to rescue his own knowledge of German and improve due to the demands by the arrival of many German tourists are always surprised to find a typical German village within the intertropical zone.