HISTORY OF VENEZUELA 

 
New Granada: AD 1740-1810

The modern nations of Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador are

grouped together, from 1740, as the Spanish viceroyalty of New
Granada with its capital at Bogotá.

The second half of the 18th century is a time of considerable

progress in the region. Spain relaxes the long-
standingmercantilist restrictions on trade with its colonies,
 
resulting in a rapid increase in prosperity. An educated and
professional class of Creoles begins to emerge, self-confident
and increasingly resentful of the privileges of thepeninsulares. In
these circumstances New Granada is a natural region for the
first resistance to imperial rule. There is a brief uprising in
Ecuador as early as 1809. But sustained opposition begins
elsewhere a year later. 
Bolívar and Gran Colombia: AD 1810-1822

Simón Bolívar, Venezuelan by birth and the central figure in the

story of the independence movements of Latin America, is a
young officer in Caracas in 1810. He is part of the conspiracy by
which a junta expels the Spanish governor of the province of
Venezuela, on April 19, and takes control. For the next twelve
years Bolívar's efforts are directed single-mindedly towards
liberating the whole of New Granada from Spanish rule. There
 
are many reverses on the way.

The optimism of July 1811, when a national assembly in Caracas

formally declares Venezuela's independence, is followed by a
complete reversal a year later. The Spanish authorities rally,
recover a military initiative, and by July 1812 regain control of
the entire province. 
Bolívar escapes to Cartagena, the main seaport of neighbouring
Colombia. The city is in rebel hands, and here he pens a
powerful political pamphlet, the Manifesto de Cartagena,
addressed to the citizens of New Granada. In it he offers the
inspiring vision of a united effort to expel the Spaniards.
 
He soon proves his own abilities in this great enterprise. In 1813,
at the head of an army of liberation, he returns to Venezuela
and wins six successive engagements against Spanish forces. On
6 August 1813 he enters Caracas. Welcomed as the Liberator, he
takes political control with dictatorial powers. 
Again success is short-lived. By July 1814 Bolívar has once more  
lost Caracas. He marches instead to Bogotá, which he succeeds
in recapturing from the Spanish. He makes this capital city his
base for a while, but soon the Spanish recover it yet again.
Bolívar flees into exile, in Jamaica and Haiti. But by the end of
1817 he is back in Venezuela, building up a new army in an
inaccessible region on the Orinoco river. 

Here he conceives a bold plan. He will not make another

attempt on Caracas. Instead he will strike at the capital city of
New Granada by a route which is considered impossible - along
the waterlogged plain of the Orinoco and then over the Andes
for a surprise attack on Bogotá. 
In 1819 Bolívar's small force, of only about 2500 men, uses
cowhide boats to cross a succession of flooded tributaries of the
Orinoco (one of his men claims later that for seven days they
marched in water up to their waists). This ordeal is followed by
one even worse, a mountain crossing during which a
considerable number of the rebel band die of cold.
 
But the surprise holds. They descend from the high passes upon
an unsuspecting enemy. In an engagement at Boyacá, on 7
August 1819, the Spanish army surrenders. Three days later
Bolívar enters Bogotá. On December 17 the Republica de
Colombia is proclaimed. It covers the entire region of modern
Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. 
As yet the republic is little more than a notion, for Venezuela
and Ecuador are still securely in Spanish hands. But the Liberator
soon puts this right. In Venezuela on 24 June 1821 he wins a
battle at Carabobo which yields to him once again his native city
of Caracas. And in Ecuador on 24 May 1822 Bolívar's favourite
general, the young Antonio José de Sucre, wins a victory at
Pichincha and brings the patriots into Quito.  

With this liberation of Ecuador, the Republica de Colombia

becomes a reality as a free republic. (To avoid confusion with
later republics of Colombia, Bolívar's pioneering state has
subsequently been given the name Gran Colombia by historians,
and this now common anachronism is followed here.) 
Gran Colombia: AD 1822-1830

Gran Colombia only has eight years as a functioning state, and  

they are increasingly turbulent. Bolívar technically remains
president even during the period (1823-6) when he is away
controlling the campaign in Peru. In his absence the acting
president is one of his trusted commanders, Francisco de Paula
Santander, a native of Colombia.

Unfortunately another close colleague of Bolívar's is increasingly

discontent with the attempted rule of the entire region of Gran
Colombia from the capital at Bogotá. The Venezuelan patriot
José Antonio Páez leads a rebellion in 1826 demanding
independence for Venezuela. 
The crisis of 1826 brings Bolívar back from Peru to Gran
Colombia. He appeases Páez, allowing him a degree of
autonomy in Venezuela, but in doing so he provokes opposition
in Colombia - where he assumes dictatorial powers in 1828 (and
later in the same year is lucky to survive an assassination
attempt).
 
Meanwhile Ecuador, the third part of Gran Colombia, has been
in political turmoil since independence was first achieved in
1823; and its valuable southern port ofGuayaquil has remained
a bone of contention with Peru. The Peruvians invade in 1829.
They are only driven back when Sucre emerges from his recent
retirement and defeats them, against heavy odds, on the plain
of Tarqui. 
By 1830 Bolívar is isolated, ineffective and increasingly ill.
Santander has been exiled after the 1828 attempt on Bolívar's
life (in which he was not directly implicated). And in 1829 Páez
has launched a renewed separatist movement demanding
Venezuelan independence.

In May 1830 Bolívar decides to leave Bogotá, resigning as  

president and planning to retire to Europe. He only gets as far as
Santa Marta, on the Atlantic coast of Colombia, where he dies of
tuberculosis - but not before hearing of two final blows. In
September both Ecuador and Venezuela secede formally from
Gran Colombia. And June has brought news of a more personal
loss. 
Of his many devoted followers Bolívar has always favoured the
talented but unassuming Antonio José de Sucre, treating him
almost as a son and seeing him as his likely successor. Early in
1830 Bolívar asks Sucre to preside over a congress in Bogotá, in
a final attempt to hold Gran Colombia together. When the
congress fails, Sucre sets off to ride home to Quito. He is
assassinated on his journey, probably by agents of a political  
rival.

Bolívar and his associates have won independence for the

nations of Spanish America. But the republics begin their
separate histories in a lethal atmosphere of mistrust and
political gangsterism. 
A republic of caudíllos: AD 1830-1945

The newly independent republic of Venezuela is profoundly  

affected, from the earliest decades of its existence, by the Latin
American tradition of caudíllos. First of these caudíllos, and one
of the most efficient in his rule, is the man who has done more
than anyone to win Venezuela's final independence, José
Antonio Paez. 

Paez is elected president in 1831 and remains the real power in

the country until 1848. He is seen as acting in the conservative
interest, though his policies are far from conventional in that
respect (under his rule the church loses both its tax immunity
and its monopoly of education). When an opposition group is
founded in 1840, it calls itself the Liberal party. 
By 1848 the liberal cause is strong enough to force Paez into
exile, but the country never settles into the lastingLiberal and
conservative clash which characterizes other nations in Latin
America. 

Instead it is the caudíllo tradition which prevails for nearly a

century, with a succession of corrupt dictators seizing power.  
Local strong men, anarchistic and uncontrollable, reflect the
same pattern at a provincial level. Their ability to do so is
increased by the extremely violent Federalist Wars of 1858-63,
in which the liberal side eventually prevails. It is thus able to
insist on the principle of greater local autonomy, which
coincidentally gives carte blanche to the regional warlords. 
With its long coastline on the Caribbean, Venezuela has more
developed foreign contacts than other south American
countries. Its connection with European bankers involves the
nation in an international crisis in 1902. In that year Venezuela
defaults on interest payments due to British, German and Italian
creditors. It also fails to pay compensation for property
damaged in local riots. The three countries send warships to  
threaten Venezuela, prompting in turn the intervention of
President Theodore Roosevelt.

Twelve years later, in 1914, there is even more significant

foreign involvement. The British and the Dutch, in the form of
Royal-Dutch Shell, begin to pump oil near Lake Maracaibo. 
The Maracaibo region proves to be one of the world's richest oil  
resources. By the end of the 1920s Venezuela exports more oil
than any other nation, and is second only to the USA as a
producer.

As yet this unexpected gush of wealth enriches mainly the

foreign oil companies (working in large numbers in the region
from 1918) and the ruling military clique. The dominant caudíllo
in the early 20th century is Juan Vicente Gómez, a particularly
ruthless and rapacious dictator who is in power from 1908 until
his death in 1935. Known in his time as the 'tyrant of the Andes',
Gómez is unusual among caudíllos in being an almost full-
blooded American Indian. 
Oil revenues help Venezuela through the depression years of the
1930s. After the death of Gómez, in 1935, they also allow his
successors in the presidency to undertake extensive investment
in the infrastructure of transport, water supplies and electricity. 

During this period Gómez's many political enemies are allowed  

to return from exile. They begin to organize political parties. The
result is a major turning point in the modern history of
Venezuela. In 1945 civilian politicians and the military join forces
to overthrow the government. They put in its place an interim
junta, with the promise of elections to follow. 
Mainly democracy: from AD 1945

When democracy comes to Venezuela, the leading political

party is Acción Democrática. Left-wing but anti-Communist, it is
founded in 1941 by Rómulo Betancourt. After the coup of 1945
Betancourt becomes provisional president. 

During his presidency Betancourt introduces moderate reforms

 
but concentrates on preparing a new democratic constitution. It
is adopted in 1947. Elections at the end of that year bring Acción
Democrática into full democratic power, whereupon a
thoroughgoing programme of left-wing measures is introduced.
The result is a military coup in 1948 by alarmed conservatives.
Betancourt escapes again into exile. 
The renewed military dictatorship lasts for nearly ten years,
most of them under the rule of the spectacularly oppressive and
corrupt Marcos Pérez Jiménez. When he is finally toppled, in a
coup in 1958, he escapes to the United States with an estimated
$200 million as his personal fortune (he is subsequently
extradited, in 1963, and serves five years in a Venezuelan gaol).
 
Betancourt returns and is elected president for a five-year term
in 1958. His term places Venezuela securely back on the
democratic track. Power has changed hands peacefully every
five years since then. In 1968 a Christian Democrat candidate
wins for the first time. He is Rafael Caldera, who is again
successful, twenty-five years later, in 1993. 
The elections of 1998, however, bring a dramatic new change of  
direction. Hugo Chavez, a charismatic former paratrooper who
has served two years in gaol for his part in a failed military coup
in 1992, wins the presidency with a large popular majority on a
nationalist left-wing programme.

Chavez, who sees himself as leading a new revolution, borrows

the mantle of the liberator of Venezuela, Bolívar. He renames
the country the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and appears
on platforms with Bolívar's jewel-encrusted ceremonial sword as
a prop. 
Using army officers to run his administration, Chavez sets out to
reverse the free-market economic policies of the 1990, so as to
benefit of the millions of Venezuelans living in poverty.

Under a new constitution, limiting presidents to two six-year

terms, he is re-elected in 2000 and again in 2006. By now - to
the alarm of many who see ominous signs of a return to the
plague of Latin America, military dictatorship - he is proposing a
change to the constitution to allow a president unlimited terms
of office. But when these proposals are put to a referendum in
December 2007, they are narrowly defeated (with 51% of the
votes against).

Read more:http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab55#ixzz16rQdc1Uh
Education in Venezuela is compulsory up to high school. Classes are conducted in Spanish in non-
sectarian schools. Education is free for all, and every citizen has the right to attend public schools. The
educational system in Venezuela is highly centralized. For this reason, changes or innovations that occur
will affect the whole country. Public and private schools are subject to supervision by the Ministry of
Education, Culture and Sports. Private schools must meet the same standards as those required in the
public schools. For all levels of education there are public and private institutions. The structure of the
whole educational system is comprised of Basic Education (Educación Básica), which lasts nine years
(from 5 to 14 years); Diversified Secondary Education (Educación Media Diversificada), which lasts 2
years (14 to 16); and Specialized Secondary Education (Educación Media Profesional), which lasts three
years (from 14 to 17), after which the student is awarded a technical degree. Secondary education
(Educación media) is divided into two cycles: Diversified and Professional. Training for bachilleres in
science, arts, or humanities lasts two years, and training for professional or mid-level
technicians técnicos medios lasts three years.

The educational system includes preprimary through higher and professional education. There are also a
number of technical and trade schools for those who prefer a less formal education or for those who
need to enter the labor market at a faster rate. The country has 900 high schools and 17 public
universities. Venezuela is a very young country; the average age is 33 years. The last census showed a 91
percent literacy rate; the remaining 9 percent includes mostly minorities or deeply impoverished people.

Higher education is provided by universities, institutes, university colleges, and university institutes.
There are two ecclesiastic university institutes and three military university institutes. These institutions
are grouped in two sub-systems: Institutes and University Colleges, mainly for short courses of study (2
1/2 to 3 years) and Universities, mainly for long courses of study (five or six years), leading to the award
of the Licenciado or to an equivalent professional title such as Engineer. Courses of study are Basic
Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Health Sciences, Social
Sciences, Education, Humanities, Art and Letters, and Military Sciences. Public universities are
Independent (with autonomy) and Experimental. Access to higher education is carried out through
the Oficina de Planificación del Sector Universitario(OPSU). Students generally take a national test before
they are selected to a particular university or career. Some departments offer independent admission
tests beyond the national test, prueba de aptitud académica. The grading system is on a scale from 1 to
20. The minimum passing mark is 10, and the maximum is 20. Some experimental institutions have a 1
to 5 grading scale, others a 1 to 9 grading scale.

The academic year for public education starts in September and ends in June. Examinations are given
nationally each year. At the end of the year, students who have done poorly have the opportunity to
pass the course by passing a make-up exam. Although education is generally free, less than 15 percent
of the university age population attends the university on a full-time basis. Books, transportation, and
daily expenses still remain the main burdens for the majority of the population. The current educational
and economic reforms in Venezuela seek to address these issues of inequality and discrimination. The
government faces the challenge of bettering the lives of a large number of uneducated people, while
addressing the need for jobs in a country where unemployment hovers at 20 percent.
Read more: Venezuela - Educational System—overview - University, Schools, Public, Lasts, Institutes,
and Sciences http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1663/Venezuela-EDUCATIONAL-SYSTEM-
OVERVIEW.html#ixzz16rRFJaJk