ABSTRACT
When Spanish explorers encountered the bay of Maracaibo, on South America’s north coast, it reminded them of Venice; therefore, they called the land Venezuela ‘little Venice’. Today, the country of Venezuela has a land area of 912,050 square kilometers (more than twice the size of California) and 2,800 kilometers of Caribbean coastline, and in 1992 had a population of 20,675,970. Its five major cities are Caracas (the capital, founded in 1567, with close to 25 percent of the national population), Maracaibo, Valencia, Maracay, and Barquisimeto. From the early colonial period through the first decades of the twentieth century, most of Venezuela’s inhabitants lived in rural communities, but today, more than 90 percent of its population resides in urban centers.
