Herbert Wolcott Bowen

Cipriano Castro with Ambassador Bowen 1903

Herbert Wolcott Bowen (29 February 1856 – 29 May 1927) was an American diplomat and poet. He served as ambassador to Venezuela, and consul-general in Spain and Persia.

Personal life

Bowen was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1856, and graduated from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. He then attended Yale University as a graduate student but he did not graduate with his class, he was awarded an honorary master's degree in 1903 from Yale University. In 1881, Herbert received an L.L.B. in law and political science from Columbia Law School.^[1][2] Bowen published several volumes of poetry.^[3]

Bowen married Augusta Floyd Yingut on 26 February 1895 at a high society wedding in New York performed by Roman Catholic archbishop Michael Corrigan. ^[4] After divorce Bowen married second wife, Carolyn Mae Clegg (1877-1949).

Professional life

After law school, Bowen practiced law in New York City specializing in international law. In 1895 he was appointed by President Grover Cleveland as the American consul-general at Barcelona, Spain, where he served until 1899, and then consul-general in Persia where he served from 1899 to 1901.^[5] Bowen was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Venezuela in 1901. After few days in Caracas burst the Libertadora Revolution a civil war, in which a coalition of regional caudillos headed by the wealthy banker Manuel Antonio Matos, allied with transnational corporations (New York & Bermúdez Company, Orinoco Steamship Company, and the French Cable among others), tried to overthrow the president Cipriano Castro. In some battles Castro personally participated at command of the government troops, including the most important such as The siege of La Victoria in November, 1902, where with 6,500 men manages to defeat to the 14,000 revolutionaries who tried to take by force. One month later the european powers Britain, Germany and Italy imposed a naval blockade against Venezuela by over President Castro's refusal to pay foreign debts and damages suffered by European citizens in the recent failed Venezuelan civil war. During the Venezuelan crisis in retaliation after naval bombardments of La Guaira, Guanta and Puerto Cabello, Castro put in jail all foreign nationals. Bowen, as diplomatic representative of the European powers which have broken relations with Venezuela, negotiated the release of the foreign nationals. After that Castro assumed that the Monroe Doctrine would see the U.S. prevent European military intervention, but at the time the president Theodore Roosevelt saw the Doctrine as concerning European seizure of territory, rather than intervention per se. Roosevelt also was concerned with the threat of penetration into the region by Germany. With Castro failing to back down under U.S. pressure and increasingly negative British and American press reactions to the affair, the blockading nations agreed to a compromise, but maintained the blockade during negotiations over the details of refinancial the debt on Washington Protocols signed by the U.S. Ambassador Bowen as representative of Venezuela governments in February 1903. This incident was a major driver of the Roosevelt Corollary and the subsequent U.S. Big Stick policy and Dollar Diplomacy in Latin America. When Bowen returned to Caracas in January 1904 he noticed Venezuela seemed more peaceful and secure. Castro would reassure him that United States-Venezuela relationships were at a high point. However, after the Castro regime delayed fulfilling the agreements which ended the Venezuelan crisis of 1902–03, Bowen lost confidence after verifying the contributions to rebels of U.S. firms The New York & Bermudez Company and Orinoco Steamship Company at the end of failed movement to overthrow Castro, the government demanded them compensation of 50 million bolivars, but as expected the companies refused to pay. After that Bowen was dismissed in 1905 for impropriety.^[5]

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