Venezuela, UNITED STATES OF, a northern republic of South America, between the Caribbean Sea, Colombia, Brazil, and British Guiana. The total area is slightly over 417,000 sq. m. According to official returns it is 594,165 sq. m., but this result is obtained by disregarding recent boundary decisions. In 1891 the frontier dispute with Colombia was decided by the arbiter Spain in Colombia's favour, and the south-western boundary is now formed by the rivers Arauca, Orinoco, Atabopo, and Negro, while the whole peninsula of Goajira and the town and territory of San Faustino (on the Santander border) belong to Colombia; and in 1880–82 a Venezuelo-Brazilian commission marked off a definite southern frontier. The boundary towards British Guiana has been the subject of long controversy, the Venezuelans maintaining their succession to Spanish rights, and Britain the claims taken over in 1814, when Guiana was ceded by Holland. A line surveyed by Sir R. Schomburgk (1839) was put forward in 1841 as a basis of agreement, but rejected by Venezuela; in 1881 Britain modified the line by including additional territory, and in 1890 asserted this as a minimum claim. British subjects having effectively occupied parts of the disputed (gold-bearing) territory, Venezuelan officials encroached on the districts thus occupied; and when President Cleveland's message at the end of 1895 intimated the intervention of the United States, there was the prospect of war between Britain and America. The award of the special arbitration court at Paris (1899) upheld in the main the British claim; the Schomburgk line was departed from only in two places, the lower Barima and the Cuyuni goldfields being assigned to Venezuela. Trinidad and Tobago islands are British, and Curacao, Oruba, and Bonaire Dutch.
Venezuela is a land of mountains and valleys in the west and north, of lower mountains and wooded hills in the south, of llanos between the Orinoco and the northern ranges, and of lake and swamp and forest in the north-west. The Andes enter the country south of Lake Maracaybo, and push north-eastward as the Cordillera de Merida (15,500 feet) as far as Barquisimeto (190 miles). From this point along the north stretch two more or less parallel coast-ranges. A little farther north a range is distinguished, partly submarine, partly rising in the islands along the coast, partly in the often high and generally rock-bound coast itself. Turning now to the south we find all the country beyond the Orinoco filled with low mountains and, nearer the river, hills, thrown out by the great eastern mountain-system of the continent. Here, above a granitic foundation, rise great masses of red and white sandstones, the most notable Mount Roraima (q.v.), where the frontiers of Guiana, Brazil, and Venezuela meet. Innumerable streams find a way over waterfalls and rapids to the Orinoco, which itself rises amid these mountains, escapes to the west, and then flows north along their edge till they come to an end, when, turned by the volume of the Apure, it swings round to the east and rolls past their northern bounds.
The llanos occupy a fourth of the country, lying between the Orinoco and the northern chains, and are mostly undulating plains of long grass, broken by low plateaus or mesas, and by numerous clumps of trees and belts of forest, which are not confined to the banks of streams, but rise out of the savannah. It must be noted, however, that the llanos north of the lower Orinoco, towards Paria peninsula, are dreary and sand-swept, and treeless except along the shallow watercourses. Humboldt saw the llanos bare of aught save grass, and supporting countless herds of cattle; to-day most of the cattle have disappeared, killed off in great part to feed the insurgents in the various civil wars; and as a result the young trees have had a chance to grow. The remaining portion of the country, the north-western, around Lake Maracaybo, is rendered almost uninhabitable by its swamps, morasses, and pestiferous climate. Taken as a whole the climate of Venezuela cannot fairly be described as unhealthy. Of course, in a country enclosed between the parallels 2° and 12° N. lat., with the accompanying luxuriant vegetation, tropical fevers must be present; but South American fevers are not so fatal as those of Africa, and even the yellow fever, though it still is a scourge, is being coped with to some extent. The climate is moist: the llanos have the rainy season in the summer months, but in the mountains the fall is irregular and at all seasons, losing its tropical character. The temperature varies, of course, with the altitude, from freezing-point above the snow-line to great heat in the coast-towns, the valleys, and the llanos. In the tierra caliente (hot region, up to 1700 feet, the limit of the cocoa-nut and cocoa) the yearly mean is from 77° to 86° F., ranging often above 100°; in the tierra templada (temperate region, 1700 to 7200 feet, the limit of the banana and sugar-cane) it is from 50° to 77°; and the tierra fria (cold region) embraces everything below 50°. There are no active volcanoes in Venezuela, but earthquakes have done great damage at Caracas and elsewhere.
Almost everywhere the country is very abundantly watered, the drainage passing off by eight systems—the Orinoco, the Rio Negro, the Cuyuni, the lakes of Maracaybo and Valencia, the two gulfs on either side of the peninsula of Paria, and the short coast-streams. Vegetation in the tierra caliente is luxuriant often beyond description; the heavy forests are dense with noble trees, and yield gums, balsams, dye-woods, india-rubber, sarsaparilla, cinchona, vanilla, tonka-beans, &c.; tobacco, maize, and cocoa are cultivated. Where water fails in the low-lying valleys cactus forms prevail. In the temperate region coffee is the most valuable product; others are cinchona, sugar, maize, bananas, some cotton, and wheat and barley; these last are grown also in the higher regions, as are peas and beans and much potatoes. But for the most part primitive methods and implements of agriculture are obstinately adhered to. Agriculture suffers, too, in some parts severely, from periodic plagues of locusts.
The fauna is rich in animals and birds peculiar to the tropics, but is of great variety owing to the differences of altitude and temperature. The people are mostly half-breeds—mulattos or mestizos (i.e. of crossed white and Indian blood). Pure negroes or whites are comparatively few; the latter form perhaps 1 per cent. of the population. The blacks are found mostly in the tierra caliente—chiefly on the coast; the survivors of the pure Indian stems are mainly confined to the highest regions, that of the lofty páramos, although they are found also in the Maracaybo forests and elsewhere, and in the llanos large villages of nearly pure Indians are met with. The Venezuelans are restless and passionate—least so in the cordillera region—honest and hospitable, universally polite, except among the llaneros, and as a nation sadly addicted to drink; rum in this land of sugar is manufactured everywhere, and its consumption in the ubiquitous pulperias occupies the general leisure, the lower classes adding gambling to the other vice; bull-fights and yet more cock-fights, and in the cooler regions horseracing, are the popular pastimes. The Roman Catholic is the state religion; others are tolerated. In 1870 primary education was made compulsory, but only 100,000 children take advantage of the 1600 public schools. There are two universities, at Caracas and Merida; the faculties of law and medicine are the most flourishing, for Venezuelans are fond of public life, and the overcrowded professions, in which all cannot find employment, contribute more than their quota to the ranks of the discontented and revolutionary.
Venezuela contains rich mineral deposits, as yet scarcely tapped, except for the Yuruari gold-mines, the Aroa copper-mine, various salt-mines worked by the government, and coal near Barcelona. In the neighbourhood of Lake Maracaybo there are rich springs of petroleum, and coal is abundant here, as well as in the peninsula of Paragnana; and a bituminous plain at the head of the Gulf of Paria separates from the rest of the mainland the so-called 'island' of Brea. Valuable emeralds are found on the upper Oruoco. But the yearly value of minerals extracted is only £1,100,000 (£950,000 of this for gold). Manufactures are very backward; books (at Carácas), furniture, soap, tallow-candles, cheese almost exhaust the list; but sugar is refined in many parts, and rum and newspapers are produced everywhere. Official returns in 1888 claim 8,476,300 cattle, 5,727,500 goats and sheep, 1,929,700 swine, &c., as against 2,926,733 cattle, 3,490,563 goats and sheep, 976,500 swine, &c. in 1883. Trade has advanced within recent years, in spite of the absence or deplorable state of roads in the interior—though something has been done for this too. The first railway was made in 1877; in 1891 there were 282 miles in operation, besides 3528 miles of telegraph lines and several telephone systems. Most of the over-sea trade is in the hands of foreigners, German and other. By far the principal export from Venezuela (over two-thirds of the total exports) is coffee; next follow cocoa, gold, hides, cattle, sugar, cotton, copper, dye-woods, &c. The imports (over a fourth from Britain) are flour, cotton, linen, woollen, and jute goods, iron, machinery, glass and porcelain, paper, wine, beer, &c. In the years 1887-90 the imports advanced steadily from £3,158,000 to £3,344,500, and the exports from £3,376,500 to £4,036,700. Nearly six-sevenths of the total value of imports pays duty, and smuggling is actively carried on.
In 1881 Venezuela—till 1863 made up of provinces, and in 1864 constituted a federal republic, with twenty-one states and their territories—was redivided into eight large states, eight territories, two agricultural colonies, and the federal district of Carácas. The population in 1881 numbered 2,075,245, in 1891 2,323,527; of these 326,000 are Indians, and 35,000 foreigners. Each state and the federal district elect three senators, and every 35,000 of the population return one representative to congress. A federal council of nineteen members, appointed by congress every two years, chooses one of its own members for the presidency; and neither president nor councillors can be re-elected (see, however, below, under History). The president has no power of veto. Each state has its own executive, legislature, and judiciary. The revenue (mostly from customs duties) and the expenditure nearly balance each other at from £1,500,000 to £1,800,000. The government at the end of 1890 returned the national debt at £1,532,000, but the history of the foreign debt has been, as usual in South America, one very unsatisfactory for the bondholders. The army in 1891 numbered 5760 officers and men, including generals; and there is a militia which embraces all citizens from eighteen to forty-five, and which has supplied most of the forces for the civil wars. The principal cities are Carácas, Valencia, Maracaibo, Barquisimeto, Tocuyo, Maturin, and La Guayra. The chief ports are La Guayra, Puerto Cabello, Ciudad Bolívar (the port of entry for all southern Venezuela), Maracaibo, and Guanta (opened 1892; 12 miles by rail from Barcelona).
History.—Columbus on his third voyage discovered the Paria coast on 31st July 1498. The next year the whole Venezuelan coast was skirted by Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci, and the name 'Little Venice' was given to an Indian village built on piles (as still is common) on the shores of Lake Maracaibo; this is the origin of 'Venezuela,' the name now of the whole country. In 1527 the territory of Coro was pledged by Charles V. to the Welsers of Augsburg, whose governors and adventurers (see HUTTEN, PHILIP VON) had eyes and thoughts only for gold and the fabled El Dorado. In 1558 the crown resumed possession;
Carácas was founded in 1567, and in 1578 became the seat of government; the conquistadores penetrated inland in all directions, and settlements were made in many parts. During the 17th century the attentions of the crown were limited to extracting as much revenue from the colony as possible, while the people entered earnestly on agriculture and stock-raising, and the various religious orders arrived and partitioned out the territory among themselves. But the next century saw the beginning of troubles. The government insisted on all trade being carried on with Spain alone, and ultimately with only one city—first Seville, then, till 1778, Cadiz. Legitimate commerce dwindled away, and smuggling by the Dutch and English alone interfered to keep down the enormous prices of European goods. Only Spanish-born officials were appointed, and a hatred grew up between them and the creoles which bore fruit in open violence. The first revolt occurred in 1749; other outbreaks kept the land in a ferment, until in 1810 the revolution began which ended in the independence of the country, and the withdrawal of the royal forces in 1821 (see BOLIVAR). Venezuela was united with Colombia (q.v.) and Ecuador; but these states soon fell away, and Venezuela was left to enjoy some years of comparative rest until 1847. Then followed twenty-three years of struggle between the 'Yellows' and 'Blues,' or Liberals and Conservatives, 1866-70 being terrible for the bloody guerra de cinco años, which left the llanos ruined for years and the country's credit destroyed. From 1870 to 1877 the 'Illustrious American,' General Guzman Blanco, was first dictator and then president, and did much to rescue the country from its embarrassments, resuming the service of the foreign debt, and patching up a quarrel with the Netherlands that had arisen over the old habit of smuggling. Again he held the reins of power in 1879-84 and in 1886-87; but actually he was dictator from 1870 to 1889, other presidents being merely figure-heads appointed by himself. In the latter year, however, the new president, Rojas Paul, broke with his patron, then residing in Paris as envoy and minister to all the European powers; and rumours of corrupt contracts and the bribed surrender of Venezuelan claims raised such indignation against Blanco as drove his friends from office and elected another hostile president, Dr Palacio, in the autumn. But love of office is perhaps more strongly developed in Venezuela than in any other land, and the dispossessed officials were eager for a return to power. Palacio, who entered on office a penniless lawyer, and proceeded industriously to enrich himself, played into their hands; public sentiment swung round to Blanco's party again; and in 1892, when Palacio, discounting the passing of a bill proposed by himself to extend the presidential term to four years, declined to resign, civil war broke out. The insurgents were victorious; but great part of the republic was meanwhile reduced to a state of anarchy. A revised constitution was adopted in 1893. The chief recent events have been connected with the disputed boundary with British Guiana.
See Curtis, A Land where it is always Summer (1896); Dr W. Sievers' Venezuela (Hamburg, 1888), and his admirable monograph Die Cordillere von Merida (Vienna, 1888), which describes also the northern ranges; also Codazzi, Resumen de la Geografía de Venezuela (Paris, 1841); Sachs, Aus den Llanos (Leip. 1878); Cazeneuve and Harani, Les Etats-Unis de Venezuela (Paris, 1888); Tejera's Venezuela Pintoresca (Madrid, 2 vols. 1877), his history (1875), and other histories by Baralt and Urbaneja (to 1831; Carácas, 1865) and Oviedo y Banor (the conquest and settlement; 2 vols. Madrid, 1885). Cf. also, for a special division, Von Lange's El Dorado (Leip. 1888). There are no English works so valuable as some of the consular reports.