Venezuela is officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, a nation on the northern shore of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and numerous islands as well as islets in the Caribbean Sea. It has a territorial expansion of 916,445 km2 (353,841 sq mi), and its populace was approximated at 28 million in 2019. The resources and also largest city cluster is the city of Caracas.

The continental region is verged on the north by the Caribbean Sea as well as the Atlantic Sea, on the west by Colombia, Brazil on the south, Trinidad and Tobago to the north-east as well as on the east by Guyana. The Venezuelan federal government maintains a claim against Guyana to Guayana Esequiba.

Venezuela is a federal governmental republic including 23 states, the Funding District as well as government dependencies covering Venezuela’s offshore islands. Venezuela is amongst the most urbanized countries in Latin America; the substantial bulk of Venezuelans reside in the cities of the north and also in the capital.

The area of Venezuela was colonized by Spain in 1522 amidst resistance from indigenous individuals. In 1811, it turned into one of the initial Spanish-American regions to proclaim self-reliance from the Spanish and to form part, as a division, of the initial government Republic of Colombia (historiographically referred to as Grandmother Colombia).

It divided as a complete sovereign country in 1830. During the 19th century, Venezuela experienced political chaos and also autocracy, remaining controlled by local armed forces tyrants until the mid-20th century.

Since 1958, the nation has had a collection of democratic governments, as an exception where a lot of the region was ruled by armed forces dictatorships, as well as the period was identified by economic success. Economic shocks in the 1980s and 1990s caused significant political situations and prevalent social unrest, including the dangerous Caracazo troubles of 1989, two tried coups in 1992, as well as the impeachment of a President for embezzlement of public funds charges in 1993.

The collapse in confidence in the existing events saw the 1998 Venezuelan governmental political election, the catalyst for the Bolivarian Transformation, which started with a 1999 Component Assembly, where a new Constitution of Venezuela was enforced. The federal government’s democratic social welfare plans were strengthened by skyrocketing oil rates, briefly raising social spending, as well as reducing economic inequality as well as hardship in the early years of the program.

The 2013 Venezuelan presidential election was commonly disputed leading to extensive demonstration, which caused another across the country dilemma that continues to now.