Venezuela (officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America. Venezuela's territory covers around 916,445 km2 with an estimated population around 29,100,000. Venezuela is considered a state with extremely high biodiversity, with habitats ranging from the Andes Mountains in the west to the Amazon Basin rainforest in the south, via extensive llanos plains and Caribbean coast in the centre and the Orinoco River Delta in the east.
The territory currently known as Venezuela was colonized by Spain in 1522 amid resistance from indigenous peoples. In 1811, it became one of the first Spanish-American colonies to declare independence, which was not securely established until 1821, when Venezuela was a department of the federal republic of Gran Colombia. It gained full independence as a separate country in 1830. |
