The continental territory is bordered on the north by the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean , on the west by Colombia , Brazil on the south, Trinidad and Tobago to the north-east and on the east by Guyana.
This marine area borders those of 13 states. The capital and largest urban agglomeration is the city of Caracas. The country has extremely high biodiversity and is ranked seventh in the world's list of nations with the most number of species. The sovereign state is a federal presidential republic consisting of 23 states , the Capital District covering Caracas , and federal dependencies covering Venezuela's offshore islands.
The territory now known as Venezuela was colonized by Spain in amid resistance from indigenous peoples. In , it became one of the first Spanish-American territories to declare independence , which was not securely established until , when Venezuela was a department of the federal republic of Gran Colombia. It gained full independence as a country in During the 19th century, Venezuela suffered political turmoil and autocracy, remaining dominated by regional caudillos military strongmen until the midth century.
Since , the country has had a series of democratic governments. The revolution began with a Constituent Assembly , where a new Constitution of Venezuela was written. Oil was discovered in the early 20th century, and today, Venezuela has the world's largest known oil reserves and has been one of the world's leading exporters of oil. Previously, the country was an underdeveloped exporter of agricultural commodities such as coffee and cocoa , but oil quickly came to dominate exports and government revenues.
The s oil glut led to an external debt crisis and a long-running economic crisis. The destabilized economy led to a crisis in Venezuela , resulting in hyperinflation , an economic depression , [24] shortages of basic goods [25] and drastic increases in unemployment, [26] poverty, [27] disease, child mortality, malnutrition and crime.
