VENEZUELA 



GOl'J 



VENEZUELA 



humid coast lands; sugar, very little of which 

 is exported ; vanilla and tonka, a substitute for 

 vanilla. 



There is need for much improvement in the 



building of roads, as away from the larger 



cities these are little more than mule path". 



Arrangements have been made since 1915 for 



riding and improving the river steamship 



ice, and for new repair docks at Puerto 



Cabello which will promote commerce. Only 



in the vicinity of Caracas has there been any 



extensive railway system, but there are various 

 short lines running independently. Practically 

 all of these have been built with British capital. 

 The imports of Venezuela for the year 1915 

 were valued at $13,470,000; the exports, at $23,- 

 404,000. The United States has led all other 

 nations in Venezuelan trade since 1912; in 1915 

 it received considerably more than half the 

 total exports, due to the war in Europe. In 

 normal years France receives nearly as great a 

 volume of the exports as the United States. 



Government and History of Venezuela 



Government. Under the new constitution, 

 adopted in 1914, there are in the national Con- 

 gress two Senators from each state, or forty in 

 all ; members represent districts of 35,000 in- 

 habitants in the Chamber of Deputies. The 

 President is elected by the Congress for a 

 term of seven years, and there is no Vice- 



THE NATIONAL FLAG 

 Dotted lines represent yellow; horizontal lines, 

 blue ; vertical lines, red. The stars are white. 



President. The seven Justices of the Supreme 

 Court are elected by the Congress for H 

 years. The Federal government has lim 

 powers, and the states are self-governing under 

 their several constitutions. The executives of 



rates are called prcsidentes. 

 History. Venezuela was the mainland ni 

 America which Columbus discovered A i must 1, 

 1498, on his third voy;.. later 



by Amerigo Vespucci, whoso fame at one time 

 outran that of Columbus, and whose first name, 

 ied to America, was bestowed on both 

 continents of the western hemisphere. 



population then comprised 150 different 

 fnbcs of Indians, speaking an equal number of 

 dialects, with eleven wholly different languages, 

 warlike Caribs and Teques for a i 



vented permanent settlements, offering more 

 resistance than was encountered by the Span- 

 ish elsewhere in America. In the middle and 

 latter part of the sixteenth century, however, a 



STATUE TO UK ROES OF INDEPENDENCE 

 AT CARACAS. 



number of colonies were established. In the 

 seventeenth century the Hritish, French and 

 Dutch buccaneers periodically plundered the 

 coast towns, and the outlawry of the "Spanish 



