The Final Battles of Political Power

In 1830 Venezuela succeeded from gran Colombia giving them their own country along with their own president and war hero, Antonio Páez.(1)  Unfortunately in 1908 General Juan Gómez took control of the country for 28 years(1); ruling with military force, terror, and fear.  The Venezuelan people with help from Rómulo Gellegos threw Juan Gómez out of power. Gellegos was a popular novelist and Democratic Politian who governed from 1935-1948(1).  However then Marcos Pérez Jiménez was elected into office in 1950 he was opposed to the Democratic party and ruled very much like a dictator(1), although he did help finance with building of roads and houses.(1)  At the end of Marcos’s rule, in 1958, Rómulo Betancourt brought a permanent democracy to Venezuela.(1)

Early Colonization

Spain used Venezuela as a barging chip to sell land and resources, such as the people as slaves.  Due to this degrading use for a nation and people, the Venezuelans created a large resentment for the conquering Spanish.  This encouraged Simón Bolívar, a native Venezuelan but of Spanish decent to unite the areas of Venezuela, Ecuador, and Colombia together to form his republic of Gran Colombia.  In 1813 Simón attempted this but with little success since it only lasted four years. (1)  After his failure in 1817 Simón retreated into Eruope.  However, this was not the last South America would see of Simón Bolívar.  Just two years after in 1819 Simón returned and tried again.(1)  This war with the Spanish lasted three years; it was not until 1821 when Gran Colombia was established.(1)

Initial Contact and Colonization

The initial exploration and colonization of Venezuela was done by Spain during 1500-1550s.(3)  This exploration was inspired by the legendary city of gold, El Dorado.  Which led to alarge exploration throughout the colony;some were funded by Germany.(2)  However due to its fairly rugged rugged landscape and lack of resources it was used as a staging area for most transports and some of the native people were used as forced slave labor.(2)  Although this always was not the case during several of the earlier expedition the Spanish were often thwarted by native’s retaliation of the Spaniards.(3)