The territory that became Venezuela lay outside the geographical boundaries of the great pre-Hispanic civilizations of Central and South America. And although it was the first locale in which Christopher Columbus set foot on the mainland of the New World, Venezuela was of only marginal consequence within the Spanish American empire during most of the next three centuries. It was not until the late eighteenth century that the colonial region that encompassed present-day Venezuela provoked, thanks to growing agricultural and trading activity under the auspices of the Caracas Company, more than minor interest from the Spanish crown.

In strictly political terms, Venezuela's republican history exhibits a seeming incongruity between the instability and dictatorial rule of the time prior to 1935 and the stability of its post-1958 democracy. Scholars have posited a mixture of explanations for this fortuitous transformation, most of which cite the usefulness of vastly increased petroleum revenues in allowing the state to address the demands of virtually every politically active area of society. The marked decline in petroleum revenues during the 1980s therefore placed remarkable strains on this political system, which for over two decades had been the envy of the other nations of Latin America.