|RNature and climate:|N In the west two chains of the Andes mountains with a highest peak within Venezuela reaching 5007 m.a.s.l. In the south a part of the Guyana Highlands.
Between these mountains the Orinoco River with a vast lowland and fertile soil. Orinoco have the world's highest waterfall, the Salto del Angel.
40% of the area is forested and only 3% is arable.
Tropical climate with an average temperature throughout the year between 25 and 28°C. Much cooler at higher elevations.
Percipitation between 500 and 1000 mm by the northern coast, between 1000 and 2000 mm in the interior but up to 3500 mm in the mountains.
|RPeople:|N 67% mestizos, 21% of European descent, 10% blacks and 2% Indians.
More than 50% of the population is less than 20 years old. Annual increase about 3%.
|REconomy:|N 56% of the labour force is occupied in services, 28% in industry and 16% in agriculture.
Oil was found in Maraciabo in western Venezuela in 1914 and has been exploited and developed since then. Venezuela is now one of the world's largest producers of oil.
Money from the oil have been used to develop the infrastructure and to develop all kinds of industry.
But falling oilprices in the 1980:s caused a sever crash in economy raising the foreign debt.
Besides oil Venezuela also have natural gas, iron ore - among the largest reserves in the world, gold, bauxite, diamonds and phosphates. Many of these minerals are extracted and heavy industry have been developed to process the resources.
Venezuela have many oilrefineries and oil and oilproducts account for more than 80% of the export revenues. Iron ore and processed iron accounts for most of the remaining export revenues, along with bauxite.
Only 3% of the land is arable. 20% is meadows and pasture and 40% is forested.
Most important crops are cereals, fruits, sugar, coffee and rice, but foodstuff must be imported.
|RHistory:|N In august 1498 Columbus was the first European to set foot on the South AMerican soil at the peninsula of Paria in Venezuela. A year later Alonso de Ojeda found Lake Maracaibo where natives had houses on stilts in the water. Hence he named the area Venezuela, meaning Little Venice.
By this time there were about 50 000 semi-sedentary Indians living in the area.
The Spaniards started the colonization in the 1520:s and Venezuela became a Spanish colony in 1546.
The first economic activities were gold and pearl expeditions and not until the 1560:s plantations were founded in the Caracas-area.
1797 the rebellion against the Spanish empire began and in 1811 the independence of the Federation of Gran Colombia, comprising Venezuela, New Grananda and Equador, was proclaimed, but the final defeat of the Spanish troops came in 1821.
1830 the federation collapsed and the independent republic Venezuela was proclaimed. The wars of independence were led by Simon Bolivar.
The base for success in the long liberation war was a strong militarization. After independence the military kept an leading role in politics. All presidents, liberal or conservative, depended on the military and the way to democracy started in 1945 when a group of young officers overthrow the conservative dictatorship and supported the Democratic Action.
A conservative coup in 1948 was followed by a new "democratic" coup in 1958 which finally established democracy.
The increasing oilprices in the 1980:s have caused economic and political instability with a huge foreign debt and an attempted, but failed, military coup in 1992.
