Venezuela - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 853

VENEZUELA

CARIBBEAN
SEA

HIGHLIGHTS
Mérida
Los Llanos
Amazonas

Angel Falls
Orinoco Delta
Parque Nacional
Mochima

Aruba

Bonaire
Los Roques Archipelbo

Punto Fijo

Curaçao

Golfo de
Venezuela Maicao Coro

Isla de Margarita Tobago

Chichiriviche
Choroní

PARQUE
NACIONAL
MORROCOY

Porlamar

CARACAS Santa

Fe

Maracaibo

Guiria

Puerto
La Cruz

Chacopata
Caripe

Trinidad

Maracay

PARQUE
NACIONAL
HENRI PITTIER

Lago de
Maracaibo

Barquismeto

Barcelona

Maturín

Trujillo

PARQUE
NACIONAL
MOCHIMA Tucupita

Mérida

El Vigia

Orinoco Delta

Barinas

San Fernando
de Apure

Puerto Ordáz

Cúcuta

San Félix

San Cristóbal

Ciudad
Bolívar

Los Llanos

PARQUE
NACIONAL
CANAIMA

Bucaramanga

La Paragua

11

Puerto Páez

Puerto Carreño

Angel
Falls

GUYANA

Puerto Ayacucho

Canaima

Tunja

Mt Roraima
(2810m)

COLOMBIA

Santa Elena de Uairén

Metres
4000

N

2000
1000

Boa Vista

BRAZIL

500
200

San Carlos de Río Negro
San Simón de Cocuy

0 100

0

kilometres

where Angel Falls , the world's highest
waterfall, plunges a vertical kilometre
into the jungle below.
CHRONOLOGY
C.13,000 BC-1498 AD Roughly 500,000 indigenous
peoples live in the area today covered by Venezuela,
belonging to three principal ethno-linguistic groups: Carib,
Arawak and Chibcha.
1498 Christopher Columbus arrives August 4 at the
eastern tip of the Paria Peninsula and continues south to
the Orinoco Delta.
1502 Italian Amerigo Vespucci sees the Arawak houses
on wooden stilts in Lake Maracaibo and calls the place
Venezuela, or “little Venice”. Enslavement of the indigenous
population for pearl harvesting begins around this time.
1521 The first European settlement is established at
Cumaná, on the northeast coast, serving as a base for
Catholic missionaries and further exploration of the
mainland.
Late 1500s The Creoles, Spanish descendants born in
the New World, accumulate slaves, agricultural wealth and
a large degree of autonomy.

1819-21 Simón Bolívar, a wealthy Creole landowner
from Caracas, wins several naval battles against the
Spanish and liberates the territory of Colombia. Bolívar
proclaims the new Republic of Gran Colombia, an
independent nation made up of modern-day Venezuela,
Colombia and Ecuador. He subsequently liberates Peru
and Bolivia.
1829 Gran Colombia disbands in the face of irreconcilable
internal disputes, and Bolívar, bitterly disappointed by the
dissolution of his dream, succumbs to tuberculosis.
1859-63 A power struggle between Liberals and Conser-
vatives, known as the Federal War, results in Liberal control
of Venezuela until the turn of the century.
1908-35 General Juan Vicente Gómez rules the country
and becomes one of Venezuela's most brutal dictators.
Press and public freedoms are curtailed and political
dissidents murdered.
1918 Oil is discovered in Venezuela along the Caribbean
coastline, and ten years later the country is the largest
producer in the world. Gómez pays off all foreign debts and
invests in roads, ports and public buildings.
1973 Carlos Andrés Pérez is elected and governs Venezuela
through one of its most prosperous periods, during which