Spanish expeditions led by Columbus and Alonso de Ojeda reached the coast of present-day Venezuela in 1498 and 1499. The first colonial exploitation was of the pearl oysters of the "Pearl Islands". Spain established its first permanent South American settlement in the present-day city of Cumaná in 1502, and in 1577 Caracas became the capital of the Province of Venezuela. There was also for a few years a German colony at Klein-Venedig.
The 16th- and 17th-century colonial economy was centered on gold mining and livestock farming. The relatively small number of colonists employed indigenous farmers on their haciendas, and enslaved other indigenous people and, later, Africans to work in the mines. The Venezuelan territories were governed at different times from the distant capitals of the Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru.
In the 18th century, cocoa plantations grew up along the coast, worked by further importations of African slaves. Cacao beans became Venezuela's principal export, monopolized by the Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas. Most of the surviving indigenous people had by then migrated to the south, where Spanish friars were active. Intellectual activity increased among the white Creole elite, centered on the university at Caracas. The Province of Venezuela was included in the Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717, and became the Captaincy General of Venezuela in 1777.
The independence struggle began in 1810 while Spain was engaged in the Peninsular War. The Venezuelan War of Independence ensued. The Republic of Gran Colombia became independent from Spain in 1821 under the leadership of Simón Bolívar, and Venezuela separated from that Republic in 1830.
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and Alonso de Ojeda reached the coast of present-day Venezuela in 1498 and 1499. The first colonial exploitation was of the pearl oysters of the "Pearl...
The Captaincy General of Venezuela (Spanish: Capitanía General de Venezuela), was an administrative district of colonial Spain, created on September 8...
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and...
The Venezuela Province (or Province of Caracas) was a province of the Spanish Empire (from 1527), of Gran Colombia (1824–1830) and later of Venezuela (from...
Province (1585−1864) was a former province of Spanish ColonialVenezuela and independent Venezuela, located in the Guyana region of northeastern South America...
is a denomination assigned, first in Caracas and later in the rest of Venezuela, to the blancos criollos (white creole) belonging to the local aristocracy...
most Venezuelans, many or all of these connections exist and are the source of their Venezuelan citizenship or their bond to Venezuela. Venezuela is a...
of the Spanish colonial authorities and the establishment of the Junta Suprema de Caracas on 19 April 1810, initiating the Venezuelan War of Independence...
Second Republic of Venezuela (Spanish: Segunda República de Venezuela) is the name used to refer to the reestablished Venezuelan Republic declared by...
The Third Republic of Venezuela (Spanish: Tercera República de Venezuela) is the reestablished Republic of Venezuela declared by Simón Bolívar in the year...
the Spanish colonization of the Americas and it continued during ColonialVenezuela and after independence (1830). Further immigration has taken place...
metropolitan areas during the post-colonial period. Indigenous populations primarily inhabit the southern half of Venezuela, the region known as Guayana south-along...
Margarita, Spanish pronunciation: [maɾɣaˈɾita]) is the largest island in the Venezuelan state of Nueva Esparta, situated off the northeastern coast of the country...
European Venezuelans or White Venezuelans are Venezuelan citizens who self-identify in the national census as white, tracing their heritage to European...
most longstanding capital of the Province of Venezuela and the today's capital city of Venezuela. The colonial economy in the 16th and 17th centuries was...
1739, and the provinces of Venezuela were separated from the Viceroyalty and assigned to the Captaincy General of Venezuela in 1777. In addition to those...
through modern-day Texas, Mexico, all of Central America, to Colombia and Venezuela on the north coast of South America. Major ports along this stretch of...
The Venezuelan Declaration of Independence (Spanish: Acta de la Declaración de Independencia de Venezuela) is a document drafted and adopted by Venezuelan...
Caracas, on April 19, 1810. The mantuanos, (the rich, criollo elite of colonialVenezuela) together with military and eclessiatic authorities, declared autonomy...
classified as Mestizo if they spoke Spanish and lived as Mestizos. In colonialVenezuela, pardo was more commonly used instead of mestizo. Pardo means being...
(1533), Spanish control of the coast was established, and the extension of colonial control into the interior could begin. Starting in 1536, the conquistador...
Colonial Brazil (Portuguese: Brasil Colonial) comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated...
New Granada from suffering the fate of Venezuela since the territory reproduced the prevailing pattern of colonial dissent from loyal juntas to independent...
Viceroyalty of New Granada (present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Panama) and Venezuela. Leaving the port of Cádiz on 17 February 1815, the force initially landed...
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