Venezuela - vĕnəzwāˈlə, Span. vānāswāˈlä, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, republic (1995 est. pop. 21,005,000), 352,143 sq mi (912,050 sq km), N South America. Venezuela has a coastline 1,750 mi (2,816 km) long on the Caribbean Sea in the north. It is bordered on the south by Brazil, on the west and southwest by Colombia, and on the east by Guyana. Dependencies include
Margarita Island, Tortuga Island, and many smaller island groups in the Caribbean. The capital and largest city is
Caracas.
Land and People Geographically Venezuela is a land of vivid contrasts, with four major divisions: the Venezuelan highlands, the coastal lowlands, the basin of the Orinoco River, and the Guiana Highlands. An almost inaccessible and largely unexplored wilderness south of the Orinoco, the Guiana Highlands occupy more than half of the national territory and are noted for scenic wonders such as
Angel Falls. Iron ore, gold, diamonds, and other minerals are found near
Ciudad Bolívar and Ciudad Guayana. The dense forests of the region yield rubber, tropical hardwoods, and other forest products. The boundary with Brazil is mostly mountainous; its rain forests are home to thousands of indigenous inhabitants. The Orinoco, one of the great rivers of South America, has its source in this region. The Orinoco basin is a great pastoral area. North of the Orinoco and about the Apure River and its tributaries are the llanos, the vast, hot Orinoco plains, where there is a great cattle industry. Oil is found north of the Orinoco in Anzoátequi and Monagas states. The most vital region economically, however, is an area in the coastal plains, the lowlands around Lake Maracaibo. There, since 1918, Dutch, British, and American interests have developed the astonishingly rich oil fields. The coastal lowlands are exceedingly hot, but coastal ranges rise abruptly from the Caribbean to cool altitudes of 6,000 to 7,000 ft (1,830–2,130 m). These ranges soon become a region of hills, intermontane basins, and plateaus known as the Venezuelan highlands and are a spur of the Andes. Further to the southwest, close to
Barquisimeto, the mountains rise to their greatest height at Pico Bolívar (16,427 ft/5,007 m) in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida. Densely populated, the highland region is the political and commercial hub of the nation. Coffee, the keystone of the economy before the oil boom, comes from the slopes and cocoa from the lower foothills.
Valencia and
Maracay are, next to Caracas, the chief cities of the mountain basins. Economically dominant in the 19th cent., they are still major urban centers, despite some loss of power because of the oil boom along the coast. Cattle from the llanos are fattened on the rich valley grasses near Lake Valencia. Field crops are intensively cultivated in the vicinity. The politically and economically dominant landowning class is mainly of Spanish descent. About 65% of the population is mestizo, 20% white, 10% black, and 2% indigenous. Spanish is the official language. There is no established church, but nearly all Venezuelans are nominally Roman Catholic. There are 20 universities in the country. Economy Venezuela's mountains long impeded the nation's economic development because of the communications problems they presented. The country has developed a fine highway system, but goods are still carried primarily by ship. Oil accounts for about 80% of the export income, 50% of government earnings, and 25% of the gross domestic product. Venezuela is the largest foreign supplier of oil to the United States. Other exports are iron ore, bauxite, aluminum, coffee, cocoa, rice, and cotton. The main imports are manufactured goods—especially machinery, vehicles, and chemicals—and food. The main trading partners are the United States, Germany, and Japan. A large amount of oil is exported to the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba for refining.
Maracaibo,
Puerto Cabello,
La Guaira, and
Cumaná are the important ports. The government has used oil revenues to stimulate manufacturing industries. Food processing and the manufacture of construction materials, textiles, chemicals, and automobiles have become well established. Heavy-metalworks have been built on the Orinoco near Ciudad Guayana. Also, Venezuela uses its rivers to great advantage as sources of hydroelectric power. Despite government reform programs, Venezuela's wealth remains in the hands of a small minority. A disproportionately high percentage of the population lives in poverty; since the end of the oil boom in the early 1980s, the percentage of poor Venezuelans has increased dramatically, from 28% to 68%. Many cities have squalid shanty towns, and in the countryside many people are still tenant farmers. Government Venezuela is governed under the 1999 constitution. The president is elected for a six-year term and may be elected to a second term. Members of the 165-seat unicameral National Assembly are elected for five-year terms. The major parties are the Political Pole coalition, the Democratic Action party and the Social Christian party (COPEI). Administratively, Venezuela consists of 23 states, a federal district, of which Caracas is a part, and a federal dependency, which includes 11 island groups. History Early History and the Colonial Era The Arawaks and the Caribs were the earliest inhabitants of Venezuela, along with certain nomadic hunting and fishing tribes. Columbus discovered the mouths of the Orinoco in 1498. In 1499 the Venezuelan coast was explored by Alonso de
Ojeda and Amerigo
Vespucci. The latter, coming upon an island off the Paraguaná peninsula (probably Aruba), nicknamed it Venezuela (little Venice) because of native villages built above the water on stilts; the name held and was soon applied to the mainland. Spanish settlements were established on the coast at Cumaná (1520) and
Santa Ana de Coro (1527). The major task of the conquest was accomplished by German adventurers—Ambrosio de Alfinger, George de Speyer and especially Nikolaus
Federmann—in the service of the Welsers, German bankers who had obtained rights in Venezuela from Emperor Charles V. During part of the colonial period the area was an adjunct of
New Granada. Cocoa cultivation was the mainstay of the colonial economy. From the 16th to the 18th cent. the coastline was attacked by English buccaneers, and in the 18th cent. there was a brisk smuggling trade with the British islands of the West Indies. Independence and Civil Strife In 1795 there was an uprising against Spanish control, but it was only after Napoleon had taken control of Spain that a real revolution began (1810) in Venezuela, under Francisco de
Miranda. In 1811 complete independence was declared, but the revolution soon encountered difficulties. An earthquake in 1812 destroyed cities held by the patriots and helped to forward the cause of the royalists. Later, however, Simón
Bolívar (born in Venezuela) and his lieutenants, working from Colombia, were able to liberate Venezuela despite setbacks administered by the royalist commander, Pablo
Morillo. The victory of Carabobo (1821) secured independence from Spain. Venezuela and other territories became part of the federal republic of Greater Colombia. Almost from the beginning, however, Venezuela was restive. José Antonio
Páez, who had conquered the last Spanish garrison at Puerto Cabello in 1823, favored independence. He was a caudillo with a strong following among the hardy cattlemen, the llaneros. In 1830 the separatists gained the upper hand, and Venezuela became an independent state. Páez was the leading figure. Although conservative and liberal parties appeared, the actual control of Venezuela was held mainly by caudillos from the landholding class. After Páez, José Tadeo
Monagas and his brother entrenched (1846) themselves in power, but not before a bitter struggle was waged to prevent the refractory Páez from keeping a large measure of political control. The Monagas brothers were overthrown in 1858, and civil war among caudillos became chronic. A brief liberal regime under Juan Falcón created the decentralized United States of Venezuela in 1864. From 1870 to 1888,
Guzmán Blanco dominated Venezuela. He improved education, communications, and finances, crushed the church, and enriched himself. He was overthrown in 1888, but dictatorship was resumed four years later under Joaquín
Crespo. During Crespo's regime began the
Venezuela Boundary Dispute with Great Britain over the border with British Guiana (now Guyana). Cipriano
Castro, a new dictator, came to power in 1899. The financial corruption and incompetence of his administration helped to bring on a new international incident, that of the
Venezuela Claims. The year 1908 marked the beginning of the rule of one of the longest-lasting of all Latin American dictators, Juan Vicente
Gómez, who stayed in power until his death in 1935. His regime was one of total and absolute tyranny, although he did force the state (with the help of foreign oil concessions) into national solvency and material prosperity. His death was followed by popular celebration. Eleazar López Contreras became president (1935–41) and increased Venezuela's share of the oil companies' profits; under his legally elected successor, Isaías Medina Angarita, Venezuela sympathized with the Allies and finally entered World War II on the Allied side in 1945. Postwar Venezuela Later in 1945 a military junta committed to democracy and social reform gained control of the government, which was then headed by Rómulo
Betancourt of the Democratic Action party. A new constitution promulgated in 1947 provided, for the first time in Venezuelan history, for the election of a president by direct |
