Founded in 1567, Caracas does not make the same great strides as the other colonial cities; at the end of the XVII E century, the city counts hardly 2300 hearts. Fruit of the development operated under the aegis of the Company of Guipúzcoa (made up in 1728), the exploitation of the pearls then the plantations of cane with sugar, tobacco, cocoa, coffee, cotton and indigo are the main activities of the colony. The development of the agriculture of plantation explains the recourse to the importation of black slaves.

Thus is born, as in Colombia, an original colonial company in the Andean context. The creole middle-class, supporting more and more with difficulty the monopoly of the exchanges by the royal companies, launches out in the activities of smuggling. In 1777, the foundation of the general harbor office of Venezuela cannot defuse the independence tendencies.

Independence and the XIXe century

In charge of a troop of revolutionists recruited in the United States, Francisco de Miranda unloads in 1806 in Venezuela. Although pushed back, it takes again the fight in April 1810. The Congress proclaims on on July 5th of the following year an independence which he does not manage to concretize.

Ten years later, the army led by Libertador, Simón Bolívar, inflict a severe defeat with the loyal supporters (battles of Carabobo). This victory, which has an enormous repercussion in all South America, is followed by the release of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Venezuela initially forms part of the Republic of Large-Colombia - federation consisted Venezuela, Colombia, Panamá and the Ecuador -, which bursts with the death of Bolívar (1830).  

Venezuela, with Caracas for capital, becomes a State except for whole, extremely of 750 ' 000 h. the José Antonio Páez general, who carried out the war in Llanos, becomes president of the Republic. It controls while resting on the notable ones. The conservatives (José Antonio Páez, José María Vargas, Carlos Soublette) remain with the power until 1847. Liberal a “interlude”, ensured by the Monagas family, is completed by one disturbed period, the “war of the federation”. Various rebellions exhaust the country of 1858 to 1863.  

Venezuela knows a phase of prosperity under the presidency of the Antonio Guzmán Blanco general. Called the “civilizing autocrat”, it launches the revolución azul, impregnated of positivism and laic spirit. It removes the convents, creates primary school education free and obligatory, the civil wedding founds, organizes the administration, protects and stimulates arts, sciences and the letters, makes build roads and railways. The XIX E century is completed in the noise of boots; the civil war shakes the country, and Caracas is taken by the caudillo Cipriano Castro in October 1899.

Dictatorship with the democracy

Venezuela enters the XX E century under the sign of the dictatorship. During nine working years of the power, Cipriano Castro alienates Europeans - which in vain claim the payment of the debt of the country - and resists a maritime blockade which is completed thanks to the intervention of the United States. Juan Vicente Gómez imposes of 1908 to 1935 an iron mode. In parallel, the economy changes with the discovery, in 1922, of important oil reservoirs. The dictator Venezuelan grants broad facilities the foreign companies. Since 1926, oil becomes the first station of export of the country.  

Hardly profiting from the economic consequences from this richness and victims from a mode relentless, workmen and intellectuals revolt in 1928. If their insurrection does not cause the fall of the mode in place, it however supports the emergence of the “generation of 1928”, which will be brought to play a big role in the political life of the country.

When Gómez dies, in 1935, it hardly leaves regrets. Its Minister for the War and the Navy, Eleazar López Contreras, succeeds to him. This one liberalizes the mode gradually (regulation of work, creation of Social Security…) and industrial development stimulates, whereas the country remains largely rural and underdeveloped. Democratization continues under the presidency of the general Isaías Medina Angarita (legalization of the Communist party, establishment of diplomatic relations with the USSR) before the party of the democratic Action (AD) does not reverse it in 1945: a junta chaired by Rómulo Betancourt, which belongs to the “generation of 1928”, assumes the power consequently. The party of the democratic Action proposes to fight against the imperialism and oligarchy.

A new Constitution is elaborate: the president of the Republic will henceforth be elected with the universal direct suffrage and secrecy. The presidential election of 1947 marks the success of the writer Rómulo Gallegos, candidate of the democratic Action. Its political progressist (vote of the women, land reform…) frighten the middle-class, and the army takes again the power in November 1948. Colonel Pérez Jiménez exerts the dictatorship as from 1952; a rising gathering military, student and workmen drive out it power in 1958.  

From 1958 to 1978, the democracy is strengthened in a climate of prosperity. The democratic Action, with Rómulo Betancourt and Raúl Leoni, then the Christian Democrats, within the COPEI (Committee of electoral political organization independent), follow one another the power. Mines of iron and oil companies are nationalized carefully.  

Venezuela in the crisis

Become oil a State rich person, Venezuela affirms itself like the fifth world producer in 1978. The oil revenue, which ensures the average annual income per capita highest of Latin America, made it possible the governments to practice a generous policy of subsidies to agriculture, to industry and the services. Ensured of the confidence of the foreign banks, the country could carry out a large way of life and be involved in debt.

But when the crisis touches the country head on, under the government Christian Democrat of Herrera Campins (1979-1984), the fall of oil exports calls into question the development, and brittlenesses of the system of assistance are put at the day. In 1984, the Jaime Lusinchi social democrat gains the presidential election. He follows a policy of substitution of the imports and devaluates the bolívar of 74 % (what makes it possible to stimulate the national companies). However the collapse of the oil price (- 55 % in 1986) compromises the rectification, and the foreign debt reaches 30 billion dollars (50 % of the GNP).

In 1988, new president, Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez, endorses a liberal economic policy and sets up a plan of austerity. All the subsidies are removed, and it price control is abandoned. A wave of privatizations touches the government enterprises. Popular riots which burst in February 1989 are severely repressed (from 500 to 1 200 deaths). If the financial position improves somewhat thereafter, the social climate and policy are degraded. From 1992 to 1993, the proportion of the poor passes from 15 % to 41 %. While the soldiers are agitated again (a series of putsches fail), corruption takes an increasingly important place.

On May 21st, 1993, president Pérez Rodríguez is suspended of his functions for embezzlements. On December 5th, Rafael Caldera (already president of 1969 to 1974) replaces it. The year 1999 is remembered by the come to power of Hugo Chavez Frias, who collected 56.2 % of the votes at the time of the organized presidential elections in December 1998, and whose party also gains the majority of the seats to the constituent Assembly, vis-a-vis the partisans of the two great traditional parties, the social democrat democratic Action, and Copei Christian Democrat, at the time of the organized general elections in July.

Enjoying a great popularity, the new Head of State however is confronted with a serious political crisis, generated by the decision of the members of the new Parliament constitutante to deprive the Congress Venezuelan of his legislative functions, to assume the right to reorganize the judicial power and to revoke the magistrates implied in corruption affairs. Ratified by the Supreme court of justice, this decision causes, indeed, a conflict open between partisans of president Hugo Chavez, majority with the Parliament and members of the other traditional parties, dominating the Congress. An agreement concluded in September, between the two parts and under the aegis of the Roman Catholic Church, puts a term at this poliltic crisis.

Invited to decide by referendum, the Venezuelans thus approve the new Constitution, voted beforehand by the Parliament and the Head of State, having extended rights, announces the behavior, in the year 2000, of general elections intended to renew the whole of the political personnel and whose members will sit, according to the new text, within an assembly monocamérale, the Senate having been abolished. In parallel, the government must face the new economic difficulties generated by the floods, which devastate the country (December), cause the death of more than the most 30 ' 000 people and some 300 ' 000 others without shelter leave some, obliging the Head of State to issue the “state of saving in war”.

At the dawn of the year 2000, many signs testify to the recession which touches the country: weakness of the iron and steel sector, falls of, the crisis household consumption of aluminum. Only, the fall of almost 20 % of the production of oil, ordered by president Chavez in full economic crisis and whereas this station represents about half of the budget revenue (70 % of exports), allows, while contributing to stop the slump in prices of the crude, to rectify a little the economy by reducing of almost half the budget deficit. Thus on on July 30th, it is with 2.9 million voice against 1.9 million with its main adversary, Francisco Arias, that president Chavez sees his mandate renewed for the second time.