#history The territorial history of Venezuela, as in most Latin American countries, begins with the European conquest and colonization of its territory. Venezuela begins to be explored after 1498 when it was visited by Christopher Columbus on his fourth and final trip. The first populations established by the Spaniards in Venezuela were Margarita Island (in the insular part) and Cumaná on the mainland, all this in eastern Venezuela. While in the western Venezuelan area there were the first territorial divisions: The Province of Margarita (1525), the Province of Venezuela (1528) and the Province of Nueva Andalucía, whose capital was Cumaná (1568). In 1570 the province of La Grita was created

In 1777 the Captaincy General of Venezuela was created, a jurisdiction under which the provinces of Caracas, Cumaná, Guyana, Margarita, Maracaibo and Trinidad were united In 1811, with the first revolutionary outbreaks against the Spanish government, the provinces of Barcelona, Barinas and Trujillo were proclaimed. With independence, the territorial division was modified as Venezuela became a department of Gran Colombia. The Departments were subdivided into provinces, the provinces into cantons and the cantons into parishes.

History of Venezuela