Venezuela: A Nation Shaped by Oil 🇻🇪

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Use of scripts:“Foundations of Venezuela – Pre-Oil History and Colonial Legacy
Imagine a land where vast mountains meet impenetrable rainforests, where indigenous people lived for centuries before a fateful arrival changed their world forever. This was Venezuela before oil—a fragmented society caught between colonial ambitions and the dreams of its people. The story begins long before the Spaniards set foot on this land. The indigenous tribes, like the Caribs and Arawaks, thrived here, adapting to the unpredictable geography with fishing, farming, and spiritual traditions tied to the elements. But everything shifted in 1498 when Christopher Columbus disembarked on the Peninsula de Paria. His glowing accounts of an "earthly paradise" set the stage for Spain’s colonization.
Fast forward to the 16th century, and the Spanish settlers were struggling to tame this land. Their mission to extract riches through forced labor devastated the indigenous population. Yet Venezuela had no gold or silver deposits like Peru or Mexico. Instead, enslaved Africans were brought in to harvest cacao, the colony’s key export. This fueled a racially stratified society where white elites, or mantuanos, owned vast plantations, while mestizos, pardos, and indigenous people labored under them. “The colonial system sought to preserve patriarchal privileges centered on status and honor,” the book notes, creating deep divisions that would haunt the nation for centuries.
By the late 18th century, discontent bubbled under the surface. Inspired by Enlightenment ideals, the cry for independence grew louder. In 1810, Venezuela rejected Spanish authority, and by 1811, it declared independence. Enter Simón Bolívar, a wealthy criollo from Caracas who would rise as the Liberator. Bolívar wasn’t just a fighter; he had a vision of a united Latin America, free from colonial rule. Yet independence wasn’t easy. Civil war erupted as royalists and republicans clashed, revealing deep social divides. Bolívar promised freedom for enslaved Africans to gain their support but was later criticized for prioritizing criollo dominance over true equality.
By 1821, Bolívar’s forces achieved victory at the Battle of Carabobo, securing Venezuela’s independence. But the cost was devastating: nearly a third of the population was lost during the wars. Bolívar’s dream of uniting Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador under Gran Colombia soon unraveled, as regional tensions and personal ambitions took precedence. The fragmented nation was left to rebuild from the ashes, struggling to define its identity amidst the legacies of colonialism and war.
The colonial past left a heavy burden. Race and class divisions, forged in the cacao fields and codified under Spanish rule, persisted. The indigenous people, once central to the land’s identity, were marginalized, while the mantuanos continued to hold economic power. As the book puts it, “Efforts to incorporate the marginalized into society failed, leaving the seeds of future unrest.”
And so, Venezuela entered the 19th century as a fragile republic. The scars of colonization and independence would shape its future struggles, as the nation sought to reconcile its fractured identity. The discovery of oil in the 20th century promised to unify and modernize the country, but as we’ll see in the next chapter, it came with its own challenges and contradictions. The story of Venezuela was far from over.

The Twentieth Century – Oil, Dictatorships, and Democracy
In 1922, a single event altered Venezuela’s destiny. A gushing oil well in Lake Maracaibo erupted, spewing 100,000 barrels a day into the sky. The discovery of vast oil reserves didn’t just change the economy—it transformed the very fabric of society. A country that once relied on agriculture became the world’s second-largest oil exporter by 1928, as foreign companies like Standard Oil and Shell flooded in. But the wealth didn’t flow equally. Oil profits enriched the ruling elites and foreign investors while the majority of Venezuelans remained in poverty. “The immensity of petroleum assets obscured social inequality,” the book remarks, setting the stage for decades of political unrest.
This was the era of Juan Vicente Gómez, a military strongman who ruled Venezuela with an iron fist from 1908 to 1935. Gómez welcomed foreign oil companies and used their revenues to consolidate his power, modernizing infrastructure while crushing political dissent. Under his dictatorship, oil became the lifeblood of the nation—but at the cost of democracy. Gómez’s death in 1935 opened the door for reform, but the shadow of authoritarianism loomed large.
By the mid-20th century, the rise of a new political force—Acción Democrática (AD)—marked a shift toward democracy. In 1958, after years of military coups and dictatorship, Venezuela established the Punto Fijo pact, a power-sharing agreement between major political parties to stabilize the country. This period, often referred to as the "Golden Age," saw oil revenues fund public services, education, and infrastructure. Yet beneath the surface, corruption and inequality festered. The wealthiest few controlled the oil profits, while the poor continued to struggle.
In 1976, Venezuela nationalized its oil industry, creating Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA). This move was seen as reclaiming national sovereignty, but it also deepened the country’s reliance on oil. As oil prices soared in the 1970s, so did government spending, creating an illusion of prosperity. But when oil prices crashed in the 1980s, the economy unraveled. Widespread protests, like the Caracazo riots of 1989, revealed the growing desperation of the poor. As the book observes, “Oil revenues had masked deeper structural problems, and when the money dried up, so did the illusion of stability.”
This was the backdrop for the rise of new political actors. Corruption, inequality, and economic mismanagement left Venezuelans yearning for change. It is in this chaos that Hugo Chávez, a young army officer, launched his first coup attempt in 1992, planting the seeds for his eventual rise to power. The 20th century ended with Venezuela’s political landscape irreparably fractured, paving the way for Chávez’s revolutionary vision.
The story doesn’t end here. The next chapter takes us into the Chávez era, a time of radical reforms, fierce political battles, and a nation grappling with its identity in the shadow of oil wealth. Stay tuned.

Oil and Revolution – The Chávez Era and Beyond
It was 1998 when a former paratrooper named Hugo Chávez stepped into the political spotlight. Born into a working-class family, Chávez had spent years building his vision for Venezuela after his failed coup attempt in 1992. His promise was simple but electrifying: take back control of Venezuela's oil wealth and use it to empower the poor. And so began his presidency—a turbulent era of "21st-century socialism" that would reshape the nation.
Chávez wasted no time in implementing sweeping changes. In 1999, he introduced a new constitution, which he said would establish "a participatory democracy." This constitution centralized power in the presidency, expanded social rights, and created programs like "Misiones," which used oil revenue to fund healthcare, education, and housing for the poor. For many, it was a revolution—literally. "The basis of Chávez’s support lay in his ability to deliver tangible benefits to the marginalized," the book notes, capturing the populist appeal that sustained his leadership.
But this revolution came at a cost. Chávez’s critics accused him of authoritarianism, silencing dissent, and fostering corruption. Tensions boiled over in 2002 when a brief coup temporarily removed him from power. Yet Chávez returned stronger, leveraging his charisma and Venezuela’s vast oil wealth to consolidate his position. Internationally, he positioned Venezuela as a leader of anti-imperialism, forging alliances with countries like Cuba, Russia, and China while defying the United States.
In 2013, Chávez’s death left Venezuela at a crossroads. His successor, Nicolás Maduro, inherited a country already unraveling under the weight of falling oil prices and rising inflation. The economic collapse that followed revealed the cracks in Chávez’s system. Oil, once the lifeblood of the nation, now chained it to instability. The opposition rallied against Maduro, leading to violent protests and a divided nation. As the book states, “Chávez’s legacy is one of both hope and division—proof that revolutions don’t solve problems; they redefine them.”
Oil made Chávez’s revolution possible, but it also defined its limits. Venezuela’s dependence on oil created cycles of wealth and collapse, and without economic diversification, these cycles persisted. Chávez gave the poor a voice, but whether that voice could sustain itself in a collapsing economy remains uncertain.
As the editor of Heardly, we can learn that true progress must go beyond wealth redistribution—it requires sustainable systems that empower all sectors of society, free from dependence on singular resources.
Finally, share a sentence from the book to end today's reading: "Control over oil has been control over Venezuela itself, a reality that has both defined and imprisoned its people."”

Title Usage:“#Venezuela - Venezuela: What Everyone Needs to Know · The Crisis Explained: A Remarkable Work, BookAuthority's Best History Book on Venezuela of All Time”

Content in English. Title in English.Bilingual English-Chinese subtitles.
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Characters are portrayed as European and American.

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