Following the rise of political literature during the War of Independence, Venezuelan Romanticism emerged as the first important genre in the region.
About 85 percent of the population live in urban areas in northern Venezuela; 73 percent live less than 100 kilometers (62 mi) from the coastline.
By the middle of the sixteenth century, there were still around 2,000 Europeans in what is now Venezuela.
Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Curaзao, Bonaire, Aruba, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Leeward Antilles lie to the north, off the Venezuelan coast.
Beginning in February 2014, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have protested over high levels of criminal violence, corruption, hyperinflation, and chronic scarcity of basic goods due to policies of the federal government.
Venezuela is also among the most urbanized countries in Latin America, and the vast majority of Venezuelans live in the cities of the north, especially in the largest metropolis, Caracas.
The Napoleonic Wars in Europe weakened Spain's imperial power, and the Venezuelans achieved home rule after a coup on April 19, 1810, and declared independence from Spain on July 5, 1811.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the provinces that constitute today's Venezuela were relatively neglected.
Venezuela, known since 1999 as the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America.
The first half of the twentieth century was marked by periods of authoritarianism—including dictatorships by General Juan Vicente Gуmez from 1908 to 1935, when Venezuela became a major oil exporter.
Chбvez conceded defeat by saying "for now, we couldn't" ("por ahora no pudimos"), echoing the phrase he used after the failure of the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'йtat attempts.
Starting in 1870, Venezuela experienced increasing economic and political centralization.
Venezuela, along with what are now Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador, was part of the Republic of Gran Colombia until 1830, when Venezuela separated and became a sovereign country.
The Province of Venezuela, under the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (created in 1717), was transformed into the Captaincy General of Venezuela in 1777.
Baseball is Venezuela's most popular sport, although football (soccer), spearheaded by the Venezuela national football team, is gaining influence.
Venezuela is also a member of the Union of South American Nations (Unasul-Unasur).
The Insular Region includes all of Venezuela's island possessions: Nueva Esparta and the various federal dependencies.
Venezuela has long-standing border disputes with Colombia—aggravated by the capture of a Colombian insurgent leader inside Venezuela—and Guyana, but seeks in general to resolve them peacefully.
Before it can become a full member of MERCOSUR, Venezuela must conform to the trade bloc's economic regulations.
Following the fall of Marcos Pйrez Jimйnez in 1958, Venezuelan politics was dominated by the center-right Christian democratic COPEI and the center-left social democratic Democratic Action (AD) parties.
Venezuela's heritage, art, and culture have been heavily influenced by its Latin American context.
Venezuela's cocoa industry has decayed since the days of Spanish colonialism, when African slaves worked on cocoa estates.
Venezuelan literature originated soon after the Spanish conquest of the mostly pre-literate indigenous societies; it was dominated by Spanish influences.
Venezuela is divided into twenty-three states, a capital district corresponding to the city of Caracas, the Federal Dependencies (a special territory), and Guayana Esequiba (claimed in a border dispute with Guyana).
Nicolбs Maduro became the President of Venezuela on April 14, 2013.
Relations with Guyana are complicated by Venezuela's claim to roughly three-quarters of Guyana's territory.
Venezuela lies within the neotropic ecozone; large portions of the country were originally covered by moist broadleaf forests.
Venezuela also purchased dozens of Russian attack and transport helicopters and has begun receiving 24 Russian Sukhoi Su-30MK 2-seat fighters.
Venezuela also hosts 1,417 bird species, 48 of which are endemic.
Deep popular dissatisfaction with the traditional political parties, income disparities, and economic difficulties were some of the major frustrations expressed by Venezuelans.
Venezuela is further subdivided into 335 municipalities; these are subdivided into over one thousand parishes.
The Venezuelan president is elected by vote, with direct and universal suffrage, and functions as both head of state and head of government.
The largest Venezuelan fine chocolate producer is El Rey, though some companies such as Savoy (Nestlй) also manufacture chocolate from Venezuelan cacao and export it to Europe.
Venezuela's main trading partners are the United States, Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico.
Venezuela is currently home to a biosphere reserve that is part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves; five wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention.
Other important minority groups include Afro-Venezuelans (7 percent), and Asians (2 percent), who are of predominantly Arab or Chinese descent.
The Venezuelans have also embarked on a worldwide effort to increase their presence in embassies overseas in Africa and Asia.
Venezuela's mainland rests on the South American Plate; with 2,800 kilometers (1,740 mi) of coastline, Venezuela is home to a wide variety of landscapes.
More than half of Venezuela's birds and mammals are found in the Amazonian forests south of the Orinoco.
The name "Venezuela" is believed to have originated from the cartographer Amerigo Vespucci who, together with Alonso de Ojeda, led a 1499 naval expedition along the northwestern coast's Gulf of Venezuela.
The Venezuelans began to grow restive under colonial control toward the end of the eighteenth century.
Venezuela's prevailing political calm came to an end in 1989, when Venezuela experienced riots in which more than 200 people were killed in Caracas.
Venezuelan culture has been shaped by indigenous, Spanish and Italian, and some African influences.
Bilateral commissions have been established by Venezuela and Colombia to address a range of pending issues, including resolution of the maritime boundary in the Gulf of Venezuela.
In April 2006, Chбvez announced he was withdrawing Venezuela from the Andean Community trade bloc.
Much of Venezuela's nineteenth century history was characterized by periods of political instability, dictatorial rule of the caudillos, and revolutionary turbulence.
The country's main petroleum deposits are located around and beneath Lake Maracaibo and the Gulf of Venezuela.
After several more years of war, which killed half of Venezuela's white population, the country achieved independence from Spain in 1821 under the leadership of its most famous son, Simуn Bolнvar.
The Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru were more interested in their nearby gold and silver mines than in agricultural Venezuela.
The unicameral Venezuelan parliament is the National Assembly or Asamblea Nacional.
Half of the estimated 27,483,200 Venezuelans are mestizo (mixed white and indigenous ancestry); another 41 percent are white Latin American, mostly of Italian, Spanish, German, and Portuguese stock.
A former Spanish colony, today Venezuela is known for its petroleum industry, its biodiversity, and its natural features, including Angel Falls.
The extreme northeastern extensions of the Andes reach into Venezuela's northwest and continue along the northern Caribbean coast.
The oil, pale yellow or yellow-gray in color, is sometimes called “Rose Absolute” oil to distinguish it from diluted versions.
Chбvez also launched a major renovation of the Venezuelan armed forces by purchasing new advanced weaponry.
A well-known writer, Rуmulo Gallegos, candidate of Betancourt's party, became Venezuela's first democratically elected president in 1947.
The petroleum sector dominates Venezuela's mixed economy, accounting for roughly a third of GDP, around 80 percent of exports and more than half of government revenues.
Venezuela was colonized by Spain in 1522, when Spain established its first permanent South American settlement in what is now the city of Cumanб.
In 2005-2006, Venezuela purchased 100,000 AK-103 rifles from Russia and signed an agreement to construct a rifle and ammunition complex.
Independent parties include the Movement for Socialism (Venezuela), while Venezuela's major civil political NGO organization is Sъmate.
Falling within the tropics, Venezuela sits close to the Equator, in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Venezuelan government maintains very close relations—including close military and intelligence ties—with Cuba and advocates an end to Cuba's isolation.
Venezuela hosts significant biodiversity across habitats ranging from xeric scrublands in the extreme northwest to coastal mangrove forests in the northeast.
Historically, Venezuela has also claimed all Guyanese territory west of the Essequibo River.
The economy of Venezuela is largely based on the petroleum sector and manufacturing. Revenue from petroleum exports accounts for more than 50% of the country's GDP and roughly 95% of total exports. Venezuela is the sixth largest member of OPEC by oil production.
Etymology. According to the most popular and accepted version, in 1499, an expedition led by Alonso de Ojeda visited the Venezuelan coast. The stilt houses in the area of Lake Maracaibo reminded the navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, of the city of Venice, so he named the region Veneziola, or "Little Venice".
According to government estimates, 70 percent of the population was Roman Catholic, 29 percent was Protestant (usually defined as all non-Roman Catholic Christians), and the remaining 1 percent practiced other religions or was atheist.
Venezuela's heritage, art, and culture have been heavily influenced by the Caribbean context. These elements extend to its historic buildings, architecture, art, landscape, boundaries, and monuments. Venezuelan culture has been shaped by Indigenous, Spanish and African influences.
Venezuela is known widely for its petroleum industry, the environmental diversity of its territory, and its natural features. Home to a huge diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats, Venezuela is considered to be among the 17 most megadiverse countries in the world.
Food staples include corn, rice, plantain, yams, beans and several meats. Potatoes, tomatoes, onions, eggplants, squashes, spinach and zucchini are also common sides in the Venezuelan diet.
In 1811, it became one of the first Spanish-American colonies to declare independence, which was not securely established until 1821, when Venezuela was a department of the federal republic of Gran Colombia. It gained full independence as a separate country in 1830.
Pabellón criollo
Most Populated Cities In VenezuelaCityPopulationCaracas3,000,000Maracaibo2,225,000Maracay1,754,256Valencia1,385,0836 more rows