It was on his third voyage of discovery that Christopher Columbus sighted Venezuela, and, on discovering the mouth of the Orinoco river, realized he had come across something far greater than another island. The following year, Spanish explorers sailed up to the western tip of the country and into Lake Maracaibo. There, observing Indian houses sitting on wooden stilts above the waters’ edge, they christened the land ‘Venezuela’, meaning ‘little Venice’.

After its discovery, Venezuela became a colony run by Spanish bureaucrats and the clergy. The earlier colonists originally searched for gold, but soon turned their attention to agriculture, using Indian labor and imported black slaves. Rebellions against colonial rule were few, and for the next 300 years Venezuela’s history was not characterized by any major events.

Between 1820-1825, Simón Bolívar led the South American independence movement previously started by Francisco de Miranda, which resulted in the defeat of the Spanish and liberation of Venezuela in 1821. Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador then unified into one state: Gran Colombia. Its leaders, however, were unable to control such a vast region and by 1830, Gran Colombia had divided into three independent republics. From 1830-1858, Venezuela found itself controlled by a succession of military dictatorships, and underwent a period of political strife and civil war. Internationally, too, there were problems. In the 1840s, Venezuela laid a claim to two thirds of British Guyana territory, giving birth to a long running border dispute that was to put a heavy strain on the relations between the two countries. Today, Venezuela still claims this land and modern Venezuelan maps mark this region as a ‘zona en reclamación’ (territory to be reclaimed).

Military rule continued into the 1900s, and under the regime of General Juan Vicente Gómez the country became stabilized, thanks mainly to the discovery of oil. Venezuela soon became the world’s leading oil exporter, and prospered. Little money, however, reached the people and much of the nation remained poor. Oil production boomed in the 1940s and 50s, and enabled President Marcos Pérez Jiménez to reward members of his government with large sums of money and modernize the country. However, opposition to the Jiménez regime began to grow. After his overthrow in 1958, the country found its way to democracy with Rómulo Bertancourt elected President. The first Venezuelan president to serve a full term, he enjoyed popular support and his programs marked the beginning of economic and political stability. Five presidents took office over the next 25 years, all constitutionally elected.

Geograghy
Venezuela is located between 1 –12 degrees longitude (N) and 60 – 73 degrees latitude (W), and is therefore entirely in the tropics. Occupying the far north eastern part of South America, it is bordered by Brazil to the south, Columbia to the west and Guyana to the southeast. Its coastline meets the waters of both the Caribbean sea in the north and the Atlantic Ocean in the east.

Covering an area of 912,050 km² (566,383 miles²), Venezuela extends up to 1,290 km (801 miles) east to west and 1,050 km (652 miles) north to south. Elevations range from sea level to 2,500 m (8,200 ft) in the Guiana Highlands and up to 5,007 m (16,427 ft) in the Andes mountains.

Venezuela has an incredibly diverse landscape encompassing 10 broad geographical regions. Off the north coast lie numerous Caribbean Islands, of which the biggest is Isla Margarita. The Andes in the west continue in the north with the Cordillera de la Costa, a mountain chain which runs along the Caribbean coast. The Andes also continue south to Los Llanos, a giant plain extending east as far as the Caura River, which flows through Venezuela's second largest forest reserve after Amazonas and only recently became known to adventure tourism. Located south of Los Llanos is the Amazon Basin, the largest rain forest in the world. East of the Caura River forest is the beginning of the Gran Sabana, part of the Guayana Highlands which extend up to the rainforests of the Orinoco Delta in the north east and the Brazilian border in the south.

Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, and the majority of developed land is situated in the Central region. Grasslands occupy half of the country, and forests cover about two-fifths, varying from true rainforest to semi-tropical evergreens. Only a small portion (less than 4 per cent) of land in Venezuela is cultivated.