History of Venezuela (Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations)

On his third voyage of discovery from Spain, Christopher Columbus sighted Venezuela. Spanish explorers observed native homes built on stilts at the water's edge and gave the land its name, which means little Venice. Venezuela became a Spanish colony for the next 300 years before the South American Independence Movement which liberated the country in 1821. After a brief period of unification with Colombia and Ecuador, Venezuela was then controlled by a succession of military dictators. Polit...