1.
Lake Maracaibo
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Lake Maracaibo is a large brackish tidal bay in Venezuela and an inlet of the Caribbean Sea. It is sometimes considered a rather than a bay or lagoon. It is connected to the Gulf of Venezuela by Tablazo Strait which is 5.5 kilometres wide at the northern end and it is fed by numerous rivers, the largest being the Catatumbo. Lake Maracaibo acts as a shipping route to the ports of Maracaibo. The surrounding Maracaibo Basin contains large reserves of oil, making the lake a major profit center for Venezuela. It also holds almost a quarter of Venezuelas population, a dredged channel gives oceangoing vessels access to the bay. The 8. 7-kilometre long General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge, which was completed in 1962, the weather phenomenon known as the Catatumbo lightning at Lake Maracaibo regularly produces more lightning than any other place on the planet. The first known settlements on the bay were those of the Guajiros, who still are present in large numbers, the first European to discover the bay was Alonso de Ojeda on August 24,1499, on a voyage with Amerigo Vespucci. The stilt houses reminded Vespucci of the city of Venice, so he named the region Venezuela, meaning little Venice in Italian. The word has the meaning in Spanish, where the suffix -uela is used as a diminutive term, thus. In his work Summa de Geografía, he states that they found a population who called themselves the Veneciuela. The port town of Maracaibo was founded in 1529 on the western side, in July 1821, the bay was the site of the Battle of Lake Maracaibo, an important battle in the Venezuelan War of Independence. Oil production began in the basin in 1914, with wells drilled by Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij. On April 6,1964, at 11,45 pm, thus it collided with pier #31 of the two-year-old General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge across the mouth of the lake. A259 metres section of the roadway fell into the water with a portion coming to rest across the tanker just a few feet from the ships superstructure. No oil spill occurred, and there were no deaths or serious injuries on the tanker, however seven motorists and passengers in vehicles crossing the bridge were killed. Some islands are of considerable size and they are populated with fishermen and are used for commercial and recreational purposes. Several settlements built out on stilts over the lake – palafitos – still exist in the south and south-west, due to the massive volume of oil removed in the Maracaibo Basin, some oil-producing areas adjacent to Lake Maracaibo have sunk, changing the geography of the region
2.
Maracay
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Maracay is a city in north-central Venezuela, near the Caribbean coast, and is the capital and most important city of the state of Aragua. Most of it falls under the jurisdiction of the Girardot Municipality, the population of Maracay and its surroundings as per the 2011 census was 955,362. In Venezuela, Maracay is known as Ciudad Jardín, or Garden City, officially established on March 5,1701 by Bishop Diego de Baños y Sotomayor in the valleys of Tocopio and Tapatapa in northern Venezuela. According to the most accepted explanation, it was named after an indigenous chief, and refers to the Maracayo. Alternative etymologies cite a local aromatic tree called Mara, Maracay experienced rapid growth during Juan Vicente Gómezs dictatorship. The city is home to the Mausoleo de Gómez, where the remains are stored. The areas around Maracay are agricultural, sugarcane, tobacco, coffee, there are also cattle-herding and timber-cutting activities. Activity by the Venezuelan Military also adds a great deal to Maracays economy, Maracay has good transportation facilities and infrastructure. The city is linked to most other important localities by the Autopista Regional del Centro and it also has good access to Venezuelas small national railway system. The city boasts the national Hidroplane airport, located on the shore of the Lago de Valencia, the city does not have a subway system, but one is in the planning stages. The Airport Mariscal Sucre and the military Air Base El Libertador Maracay is a city heavily influenced by the military, Maracay is the cradle of Venezuelan aviation, and it is home to the two largest Air Force bases in the country. The Venezuelan F-16 fighter planes are stationed here, as well as the new Sukhoi-30MKEs acquired by the Venezuelan Government, other military facilities include the Fourth Armored Division of the Army and the Venezuelan Paratroopers main base and training center. It is also home to the ammunition and weapons factory that produces the Venezuelan version of the FN FAL rifle. The mountains on the side of Maracay, that separate it from the coast, make up the Henri Pittier National Park. The park is a lush rainforest, with a great variety of ferns. Two very winding roads cut through the park over the mountains to the coast, one, beginning at the North-Central part of the city known as Urbanización El Castaño, goes to the beach town of Choroní. The other, beginning at the North-Western part at the city of El Limón, goes to Ocumare de la Costa, Maracay houses the Faculty of Veterinarians and Agronomy of the Universidad Central de Venezuela, and an extension of the Universidad de Carabobo. The main Campus of the UNEFA is located here, career choices include, Electronics, Aeronautical and Civil Engineering, as well as other disciplines such as avionics
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Venezuela
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Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a federal republic located on the northern coast of South America. It is bordered by Colombia on the west, Brazil on the south, Guyana on the east, Venezuela covers 916,445 km2 and has an estimated population of 31775371. The territory now known as Venezuela was colonized by Spain in 1522 amid resistance from indigenous peoples and it gained full independence as a separate country in 1830. During the 19th century, Venezuela suffered political turmoil and autocracy, since 1958, the country has had a series of democratic governments. This new constitution changed the name of the country to República Bolivariana de Venezuela. Venezuela is a presidential republic consisting of 23 states, the Capital District. Venezuela also claims all Guyanese territory west of the Essequibo River, oil was discovered in the early 20th century, and Venezuela has the worlds largest known oil reserves and has been one of the worlds leading exporters of oil. Previously an underdeveloped exporter of commodities such as coffee and cocoa, oil quickly came to dominate exports. The recovery of oil prices in the early 2000s gave Venezuela oil funds not seen since the 1980s, the Venezuelan government then established populist policies that initially boosted the Venezuelan economy and increased social spending, significantly reducing economic inequality and poverty. However, such policies later became controversial since they destabilized the economy, resulting in hyperinflation, an economic depression. According to the most popular and accepted version, in 1499, the stilt houses in the area of Lake Maracaibo reminded the navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, of the city of Venice, so he named the region Veneziola Piccola Venezia. The name acquired its current spelling as a result of Spanish influence, where the suffix -uela is used as a term, thus. The German language 16th century-term for the area, Klein-Venedig, also means little Venice, however, Martín Fernández de Enciso, a member of the Vespucci and Ojeda crew, gave a different account. In his work Summa de geografía, he states that they found people who called themselves the Veneciuela. Thus, the name Venezuela may have evolved from the native word and it is not known how many people lived in Venezuela before the Spanish conquest, it has been estimated at around one million. In addition to indigenous peoples known today, the population included historic groups such as the Kalina, Auaké, Caquetio, Mariche, the Timoto-Cuica culture was the most complex society in Pre-Columbian Venezuela, with pre-planned permanent villages, surrounded by irrigated, terraced fields. They also stored water in tanks and their houses were made primarily of stone and wood with thatched roofs. They were peaceful, for the most part, and depended on growing crops, regional crops included potatoes and ullucos
5.
States of Venezuela
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Venezuela is a federation made up of twenty-three states, a Capital District and the Federal Dependencies, which consist of a large number of islands and islets on the Caribbean Sea. Venezuela also claims the Guayana Esequiba territory which comprises six districts in the independent nation of Guyana, the states and territories of Venezuela are usually organized into regions, although these regions are mostly geographical entities and count with no administrative entities. Prior to the Federal War of, the country was divided into provinces rather than states, the victorious forces were supposed to grant more autonomy to the individual states, but this was not implemented. From 1863 to the early 1900s there were numerous changes, including the merger and splitting of states. States that existed during this time included Guzmán Blanco State, originally a renamed Aragua State, in 1881 the states of Miranda, Guárico, Nueva Esparta and the Vargas department of the Federal District were merged into the state. This was part of a territorial reorganisation reducing the number of states from 20 to 9, the 1990s saw the creation of three new states, Delta Amacuro, Amazonas, and Vargas. Venezuelas territory is divided into eight geographical regions, which are mostly used for geographical, cultural and planning purposes. Below is a list of the 23 states of Venezuela, the states are listed along with their correspondent emblems, data and location. Nueva Esparta is named for the heroism shown by its inhabitants during the Venezuelan War of Independence, Trujillo, for the capital city, Trujillo, itself named for Trujillo in Spain. Zulias name stems from a transliteration from the chibcha language
6.
Zulia
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Zulia State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. As of the 2011 census, it has a population of 3,704,404 and it is also one of the few states in Venezuela in which voseo is widely used. Zulia State is in northwestern Venezuela, bordering Lake Maracaibo, the largest body of water of its kind in Latin America and its basin covers one of the largest oil and gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere. The Lake Maracaibo Basin covers the largest oil and gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere, a long and mostly uninhabited border separates Venezuela from Colombia to the north and west, from the Guajira Peninsula to the Perijá Mountains. Venezuelas Andean states of Táchira, Mérida and Trujillo border Zulia State at the end of Lake Maracaibo and finally the states of Lara. The name Venezuela comes from the lake, when Spanish conquistadors sailed into the area, they found the indigenous peoples living in communities of huts supported by stilts along the shores of the lake. They were reminded of Venice and named the place Little Venice or Venezuela, the lake has a number of islands, some of which are populated. Near the mouth of the Catatumbo River, where it empties into Lake Maracaibo, is the famous Catatumbo lightning which is represented on the states flag, there are several competing theories about the origin of the states name. One is that Guaimaral, son of the cacique Mara, was on pilgrimage in the Pamplona region, where he fell in love with the beautiful Zulia, but she was killed in a battle against the conquerors. Gaimaral sadly returned to his fathers domains, naming rivers, towns and regions for his lost love there is historical proof. Alternatively, it had said that the state was named after the Zulia River, known in Colombia as Batatas. Another story says that both names, river and state, came from the princess Zulia, daughter of a famous cacique Cinera, Zulia was first seen by Europeans in 1499 during an expedition commanded by Alonso de Ojeda. In 1789, the covered the territory of the current Venezuelan states of Zulia, Apure, Barinas, Táchira, Mérida. In 1810, Mérida and Trujillo were separated as new provinces, the Zulia Province declared independence from Spain on January 28,1821. During the Gran Colombia period in 1824, it received the name of Zulia Department, with the dissolution of Gran Colombia in 1830, it was named Maracaibo Province and was one of the 11 provinces of Venezuela. Venezuelas federal constitution, April 22,1864, changed the denomination of province to state, at the end of the same year, the states legislation determined to change the name to the Sovereign State of Zulia, but that lasted only a few months. In 1874, its name again became Zulia State, federal government orders in 1881 created the combined Falcón Zulia state. Its autonomous state status continued until April 1,1890, when congress legislated the separation of the Falcon-Zulia State and it suffered further territorial changes towards the end of the 19th century, until the current delimitation in 1899 was finally drawn
7.
Maracaibo Municipality
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Maracaibo is a city and municipality in northwestern Venezuela, on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela. It is the second-largest city in the country and is the capital of the state of Zulia, the population of the city is approximately 1,495,200 with the metropolitan area estimated at 2,108,404 as of 2010. Maracaibo is nicknamed La Tierra del Sol Amada, the name Maracaibo is said to come from the brave cacique Mara, a young native who valiantly resisted the Spaniards and died fighting them. Legend says that when Mara fell, the Indians shouted Mara kayó, thus originating the city name --although it would be strange for them to shout in Spanish. Other historians say that the first name of land in the local language was Maara-iwo meaning Place where serpents abound. The first indigenous settlements were of Arawak and Carib origin, around the main group were the Añu tribe who built rows of stilt houses all over the northern riviera of the Lake Maracaibo. The first Europeans arrived in 1499, the city was founded three times, the first time was during the Klein-Venedig period, when the Welser bankers of Augsburg received a concession over Venezuela Province from Charles I. of Spain. In August 1529 the German Ambrosius Ehinger made his first expedition to Lake Maracaibo which was opposed by the indigenous Coquivacoa. After winning a series of battles, he founded the settlement on 8 September 1529. Ehinger named the settlement New Nuremberg and the lake after the valiant chieftain Mara of the Coquivacoa, the city was renamed Maracaibo after the Spanish took possession. The lack of activity in the zone made Nikolaus Federmann evacuate the village in 1535 and move its population to Santa Marta near the capital of Venezuela Province. A second attempt by Captain Alonso Pacheco in 1569 suffered a setback when the city had to be evacuated in 1573 due to ferocious attacks by native local tribes. Nueva Zamora comes from Mazariegos place of birth, Zamora, in Spain, since its definite foundation, the town began to develop as a whole. It is based on the side of Lake Maracaibo, the dominant feature of the oil-rich Maracaibo Basin. Favoured by prevailing winds and a harbour, the city is located on the shores of the lake where the narrows. The Dutch corsair Enrique de Gerard plundered Maracaibo in 1614, in 1667, lOlonnais with a fleet of eight ships and a crew of six hundred pirates sacked Maracaibo and Gibraltar. En route, lOlonnais crossed paths with a Spanish treasure ship, a few weeks later, when he attempted to sail out of the lake, Morgan found an occupied fort blocking the inlet to the Caribbean, along with three Spanish ships. These were the Magdalena, the San Luis, and the Soledad and he destroyed the Magdalena and burned the San Luis by sending a dummy ship full of gunpowder to explode near them, after which the crew of the Soledad surrendered
8.
A New Era
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A New Era is a centre-left political party in Venezuela. It received 11% of the vote in the 2008 regional elections,12 candidates of Un Nuevo Tiempo or supported by Un Nuevo Tiempo were elected deputies to the National Assembly out of 15 in the September 2010 legislative elections. Along with some opposition parties, Un Nuevo Tiempo boycotted the December 2005 legislative elections. The partys previous leader was Manuel Rosales, Governor of Zulia and he was also its candidate for the 2006 presidential election, attracting 37% of the national vote. Omar Barboza is the current party president, UNT was admitted into the Socialist International as a consultative member at the SIs spring congress on 4–5 February 2013. On May 6,2016, the party reported that a party leader named Germán Mavare, in Barquisimeto
9.
Metropolitan area
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As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions. The Greater São Paulo is a term for one of the multiple definitions the large metropolitan area located in the São Paulo state in Brazil. A metropolitan area combines an urban agglomeration with zones not necessarily urban in character and these outlying zones are sometimes known as a commuter belt, and may extend well beyond the urban zone, to other political entities. For example, El Monte, California is considered part of the Los Angeles metro area in the United States, in practice, the parameters of metropolitan areas, in both official and unofficial usage, are not consistent. Population figures given for one area can vary by millions. A polycentric metropolitan area is one not connected by continuous development or conurbation, in defining a metropolitan area, it is sufficient that a city or cities form a nucleus that other areas have a high degree of integration with. The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines statistical divisions as areas under the influence of one or more major towns or a major city. However, this definition has become obsolete with the conurbation of several statistical divisions into a larger metropolitan areas. In Brazil, metropolitan areas are called metropolitan regions, each State defines its own legislation for the creation, definition and organization of a metropolitan region. The creation of a region is not intended for any statistical purpose, although the Brazilian Institute of Geography. Their main purpose is to allow for a management of public policies of common interest to all cities involved. They dont have political, electoral or jurisdictional power whatsoever, so living in a metropolitan region do not elect representatives for them. Statistics Canada defines a metropolitan area as an area consisting of one or more adjacent municipalities situated around a major urban core. To form a CMA, the area must have a population of at least 100,000. To be included in the CMA, adjacent municipalities must have a degree of integration with the core. As of the Canada 2011 Census, there were 33 CMAs in Canada, including six with a population over one million—Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton. In Denmark the only area is Greater Copenhagen, consisting of the Capital Region of Denmark along with the neighboring regions Region Zealand. Greater Copenhagen has an population of 1.25 million people
10.
Demonym
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A demonym is a word that identifies residents or natives of a particular place, which is derived from the name of that particular place. It is a neologism, previously gentilic was recorded in English dictionaries, e. g. the Oxford English Dictionary, thus a Thai may be any resident or citizen of Thailand, of any ethnic group, or more narrowly a member of the Thai people. Conversely, some groups of people may be associated with multiple demonyms, for example, a native of the United Kingdom may be called a British person, a Brit, or a Briton. In some languages, when a parallel demonym does not exist, in English, demonyms are capitalized and are often the same as the adjectival form of the place, e. g. Egyptian, Japanese, or Greek. Significant exceptions exist, for instance the adjectival form of Spain is Spanish, English widely includes country-level demonyms such as Ethiopian or Guatemalan and more local demonyms such as Seoulite, Wisconsinite, Chicagoan, Michigander, Fluminense, and Paulista. Some places lack a commonly used and accepted demonym and this poses a particular challenge to those toponymists who research demonyms. The word gentilic comes from the Latin gentilis and the English suffix -ic, the word demonym was derived from the Greek word meaning populace with the suffix for name. National Geographic attributes the term demonym to Merriam-Webster editor Paul Dickson in a recent work from 1990 and it was subsequently popularized in this sense in 1997 by Dickson in his book Labels for Locals. However, in What Do You Call a Person From, a Dictionary of Resident Names attributed the term to George H. Scheetz, in his Names Names, A Descriptive and Prescriptive Onymicon, which is apparently where the term first appears. Several linguistic elements are used to create demonyms in the English language, the most common is to add a suffix to the end of the location name, slightly modified in some instances. Cairo → Cairene Cyrenaica → Cyrene Damascus → Damascene Greece → Greek Nazareth → Nazarene Slovenia → Slovene Often used for Middle Eastern locations and European locations. Kingston-upon-Hull → Hullensian Leeds → Leodensian Spain → Spaniard Savoy → Savoyard -ese is usually considered proper only as an adjective, thus, a Chinese person is used rather than a Chinese. Monaco → Monégasque Menton → Mentonasque Basque Country → Basque Often used for French locations, mostly they are from Africa and the Pacific, and are not generally known or used outside the country concerned. In much of East Africa, a person of an ethnic group will be denoted by a prefix. For example, a person of the Luba people would be a Muluba, the plural form Baluba, similar patterns with minor variations in the prefixes exist throughout on a tribal level. And Fijians who are indigenous Fijians are known as Kaiviti and these demonyms are usually more informal and colloquial. In the United States such informal demonyms frequently become associated with mascots of the sports teams of the state university system. In other countries the origins are often disputed and these will typically be formed using the standard models above
11.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
12.
Gulf of Venezuela
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The Gulf of Venezuela is a gulf of the Caribbean Sea bounded by the Venezuelan states of Zulia and Falcón and by Guajira Department, Colombia. A54 km strait connects it with Maracaibo Lake to the south, there is currently a dispute between Colombia and Venezuela over the gulf that has not been resolved, despite the decades-long negotiations conducted by a bilateral commission. Territorial waters are also in dispute over the gulf, the border dispute surged after the independence of Colombia and Venezuela from Spain in the 19th Century. The Spanish empire did not delimit the area because the Wayuu indigenous group posed resistance in the area, the land boundary was finally settled in 1941, but not the maritime. The main factor that gives importance to these waters is the fact that it connects the Caribbean Sea and Lake Maracaibo, the gulf therefore helps connect the wells and refineries in Lake Maracaibo to the world markets
13.
Caracas
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Caracas, officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital, the center of the Greater Caracas Area, and the largest city of Venezuela. Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the part of the country. Terrain suitable for building lies between 760 and 910 m above sea level, the valley is close to the Caribbean Sea, separated from the coast by a steep 2, 200-metre-high mountain range, Cerro El Ávila, to the south there are more hills and mountains. Libertador holds many of the government buildings and is the Capital District, the Distrito Capital had a population of 2,013,366 as of 2011, while the Metropolitan District of Caracas was estimated at 3,273,863 as of 2013. The Metropolitan Region of Caracas has an population of 5,243,301. Businesses that are located in the city include service companies, banks and it has a largely service-based economy, apart from some industrial activity in its metropolitan area. The Caracas Stock Exchange and Petróleos de Venezuela are headquartered in Caracas, PDVSA is the largest company in Venezuela. Caracas is also Venezuelas cultural capital, with restaurants, theaters, museums. Some of the tallest skyscrapers in Latin America are located in Caracas, in 2015, Venezuela and its capital, Caracas, had the highest per capita murder rates in the world, with 119 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Most murders and other violent crimes go unsolved, at the time of the founding of the city in 1567, the valley of Caracas was populated by indigenous peoples. Francisco Fajardo, the son of a Spanish captain and a Guaiqueri cacica, fajardos settlement did not last long. It was destroyed by natives of the led by Terepaima. This was the last rebellion on the part of the natives, on 25 July 1567, Captain Diego de Losada laid the foundations of the city of Santiago de León de Caracas. The foundation −1567 – I take possession of land in the name of God. In 1577 Caracas became the capital of the Spanish Empires Venezuela Province under Governor Juan de Pimentel, during the 17th century, the coast of Venezuela was frequently raided by pirates. With the coastal mountains as a barrier, Caracas was relatively immune to such attacks, encountering little resistance, the invaders sacked and set fire to the town after a failed ransom negotiation. As the cocoa cultivation and exports under the Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas grew in importance, in 1777, Caracas became the capital of the Captaincy General of Venezuela. José María España and Manuel Gual led a revolution aimed at independence
14.
General Archive of the Indies
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The building itself, an unusually serene and Italianate example of Spanish Renaissance architecture, was designed by Juan de Herrera. This structure and its contents were registered in 1987 by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, the origin of the structure dates to 1572 when Philip II commissioned the building from Juan de Herrera, the architect of the Escorial to house the Consulado de mercaderes of Seville. Until then, the merchants of Seville had been in the habit of retreating to the recesses of the cathedral to transact business. The building encloses a central patio with ranges of two storeys, the windows set in slightly sunken panels between flat pilasters. Plain square tablets float in the space above each window, the building is surmounted by a balustrade, with rusticated obelisks standing at the corners. The building was begun in 1584 by Juan de Mijares, using Herreras plans, work on completing the structure proceeded through the 17th century, directed until 1629 by the archbishop Juan de Zumárraga and finished by Pedro Sanchez Falconete. Responsibility for the project was delegated to José de Gálvez y Gallardo, Secretary for the Indies and it was decided that, for the time being, documents evolved after 1760 would remain with their primary institutions. The first cartloads of the arrived in October 1785. Some restructuring of the Casa Lonja to accommodate the materials was required, the archives are rich with autograph material from the first of the Conquistadores to the end of the 19th century. As of 2005, its 15 million pages are in the process of being digitized
15.
Arawak
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The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of South America, Florida, and historically of the Caribbean. The term Arawak originally applied specifically to the South American group who self-identified as Arawak and their language, the Arawak language, gives its name to the Arawakan language family. Arawakan speakers in the Caribbean were also known as the Taíno. In 1871, ethnologist Daniel Garrison Brinton proposed calling the Caribbean populace Island Arawak due to their cultural, subsequent scholars shortened this convention to Arawak, creating confusion between the island and mainland groups. In the 20th century, scholars such as Irving Rouse resumed using Taíno for the Caribbean group to emphasize their distinct culture, the Arawakan languages may have emerged in the Orinoco River valley. The group that self-identified as the Arawak, also known as the Lokono, settled the areas of what is now Guyana, Suriname, Grenada and parts of the island of Trinidad. At some point, the Arawakan-speaking Taíno culture emerged in the Caribbean, however, contact with Europeans exposed the Taino to diseases, particularly smallpox, influenza, measles, and typhus, that they no prior contact with, and thus no natural immunity. By 1504, the Spanish had overthrown the last of the Taino cacique chiefdoms on Hispaniola, and firmly established the supreme authority of the Spanish colonists over the now-subjugated Taino. The population of Hispanoila at the point of first European contact is estimated at several hundred thousand, to over a million people, but by 1514, it had dropped to a mere 35,000. By 1509, the Spanish had successfully conquered Puerto Rico and subjugated the ~30,000 Taino inhabitants, by 1530 there were 1148 Taino left alive in Puerto Rico. Taíno influence has survived even today, though, as can be seen in the religions, languages. The Lokono and other South American groups resisted colonization for a period. In the early 17th century, they allied with the Spanish against the neighboring Kalina and their population declined until the 20th century, when it began to increase again. The Spaniards who arrived in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola in 1492, the explorers mated with the Taíno women, who bore mestizo children as a result. While the Taíno have been extinct as a distinct population since the 16th century, a 2003 mitochondrial DNA study under the Taíno genome project determined that 62% of people in Puerto Rico have direct-line maternal ancestry to Taíno/Arawakan ancestors. There are about 10,000 Lokono living primarily in the areas of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. Unlike many indigenous groups in South America, the Lokono population is growing, john P. Bennett -, first Amerindian ordained as an Anglican priest in Guyana, linguist and author of An Arawak-English Dictionary. George Simon -, artist and archaeologist from Guyana, st. Lucia, Archaeological and Historical Society
16.
Kalina people
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The Kalina, also known as the Caribs, mainland Caribs and several other names, are an indigenous people native to the northern coastal areas of South America. Today, the Kalina live largely in villages on the rivers and coasts of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and they speak a Cariban language known as Carib. They may be related to the Island Caribs of the Caribbean, traditionally, Westerners have called the Kalina people variants of the Spanish name Caribe, including Caribs in English, Galina in French, and Karaïeb in Dutch. However, the speakers call themselves Kalina or Karìna, spelled variously, variants include Kalina, Cariña, Kariña, Kalihna, Kalinya, other native names include Maraworno and Marworno. Kalina may distinguish themselves as Kalina tilewuyu, partly to differentiate themselves from the mixed Maroon-Kalina inhabitants of Suriname, use of Kalina and related variants has become common practice only recently in publications, many sources continue to use Caribs or associated names. Lacking a written form of language before the arrival of Europeans, Kalina history was passed orally from one generation to the next through tales of myth. For a long time, the few Europeans studying the history of the Amerindian people of area did not distinguish between the various Caribbean tribes. For the reasons given, historical information regarding the Kalina is rare, making up for lack of written records, archaeologists have to date uncovered 273 Amerindian archeological sites on only 310 km² of the land recovered from the Sinnamary River by the Petit-Saut Dam. Some date back as far as two years, establishing the antiquity of the Amerindian presence in this area. In their first contact with Europeans, the Kalina thought they were dealing with the spirits of the sea, Palanakiłi, the Kalina quickly succumbed in large numbers, because their immune systems were not adapted to the viruses and bacteria of the Old World. The second half of the century saw the heyday of Worlds Fairs. Fifteen Kali’na, all members of one living in Sinnamary and Iracoubo, were sent to Pau. Almost nothing is known them, except their names and the fact that they were housed in huts on the lawn of the Jardin dAcclimatation. The trip lasted four months, including three in Paris and a journey by boat. They were accompanied by a Creole who acted as intermediary and, presumably, there are several portraits of them, taken by photographer Pierre Petit. The part of South America where the Kalina live is very sparsely populated, however, the people of this ethnic group are such an extreme minority in all of the countries in which they are well established that locally they are a majority only in certain very secluded areas. Their current geographic distribution covers only a fraction of their Pre-Columbian territory. They are also in the capital of Amapá, Macapá, and in Pará, in Suriname, they are a strong presence on the left bank of the Maroni River and on the banks of the Coppename River
17.
Tropaeolum tuberosum
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It is a minor food source, especially to native Amerindian populations. Mashua is a perennial climber growing to 2–4 m in height. It is related to garden nasturtiums, and is cultivated as an ornamental for its brightly coloured tubular flowers. This plant is commonly called mashua in Peru and Ecuador, but other include, The plant grows vigorously even in marginal soils. Its extraordinary resistance to insect, nematode and bacterial pests is attributed to high levels of isothiocyanates, although mashua is fully domesticated, it can persist in wild vegetation because of its aggressive growth and robustness. In Colombia, it is planted as a crop to repel pests in potato fields. The tuber is pungent in flavor when raw, but this quality disappears when cooked, the tubers comprise as much as 75 percent of the mature plants by dry weight. Up to 75 percent of dry matter reaches the tubercle, popularization of mashua may be limited by its strong flavor, and its reputation as an anaphrodisiac. However, mashua tubers roasted in traditional earthen field ovens, built at harvest, are considered a delicacy, also, the raw tubers can be shredded thinly and added to salads, to confer a spicy flavour and crunchy texture. The sepals are orange-red while the petals are bright yellow, in areas prone to frost, it requires some protection in winter. The cultivar T. tuberosum var. lineamaculatum Ken Aslet has gained the Royal Horticultural Societys Award of Garden Merit and it has been recorded by the Spanish chronicler Cobo that mashua was fed to their armies by the Inca Emperors, that they should forget their wives. Studies of male rats fed on mashua tubers have shown a 45% drop in testosterone levels due to the presence of isothiocyanates, oca New World Crops Ulluco Yacon Media related to Tropaeolum tuberosum at Wikimedia Commons
18.
Stilt house
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Stilt houses are houses raised on piles over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are primarily as a protection against flooding. The shady space under the house can be used for work or storage, houses where permafrost is present, in the Arctic, are built on stilts to keep permafrost under them from melting. Permafrost can be up to 70% water, while it is frozen, it provides a stable foundation. If heat radiating from the bottom of a home melts the permafrost, however, other means of keeping the permafrost from melting are available, but raising the home off the ground on stilts is one of the most effective ways. In the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, stilt-house settlements were common in the Alpine, remains have been found at the Ljubljana Marshes in Slovenia and at the Mondsee and Attersee lakes in Upper Austria, for example. Reconstructed stilt houses are shown in museums in Unteruhldingen and Zürich. In June 2011, the pile dwellings in six Alpine states were designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. A single Scandinavian pile dwelling, the Alvastra stilt houses, has excavated in Sweden. According to archeological evidence, stilt-house settlements were a norm in the Caroline Islands and Micronesia. Today, stilt houses are still common in parts of the Mosquito Coast in northeastern Nicaragua, northern Brazil, South East Asia, Papua New Guinea. In the Alps, similar buildings, known as raccards, are still in use as granaries, in England, granaries are placed on staddle stones, similar to stilts, to prevent mice and rats getting to the grain. Stilted granaries are also a feature in West Africa, e. g. in the Malinke language regions of Mali. Stilt houses are common in the western hemisphere, and appear to have been an indigenous creation by the Amerindians in pre-Columbian times. Palafitos are especially widespread along the banks of the river valleys of South America, notably the Amazon. Stilt houses were such a prevalent feature along the shores of Lake Maracaibo that Amerigo Vespucci was inspired to name the region Venezuela, as the costs of hurricane damage increase, more and more houses along the Gulf Coast are being built as or converted to stilt houses. Stilt houses are also a part of the Hollywood Hills, a neighborhood of Los Angeles at the Santa Monica Mountains. Kelong - Built primarily for fishing, but often doubling up as offshore dwellings in the countries, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia
19.
Klein-Venedig
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The primary motivation was the search for the legendary golden city of El Dorado. The venture was led at first by Ambrosius Ehinger, who founded Maracaibo in 1529, on Huttens return to the capital, Santa Ana de Coro, in 1546, the Spanish governor Juan de Carvajal had von Hutten and Bartholomeus VI. The emperor Charles I revoked Welsers charter, Welser transported to the colony German miners, and 4,000 African slaves as labor to work sugar cane plantations. Many of the German colonists died from diseases, to which they had no immunity. Bartholomeus V. Welser was the head of the firm of Welser Brothers. They possessed great riches, and Bartholomeus was created a prince of the empire and made privy councillor to the emperor Charles V, for the repayment of these debts the Emperor granted, in 1527, the newly discovered Province of Venezuela. As Venezuela was reputed to contain mines, he later obtained permission to send out 150 German miners. Heinrich Ehinger and Hieronymus Sailer, either independently or as agents of the Welsers, in accordance with his contract, the Welser armed a fleet, which sailed from Sanlúcar de Barrameda early in 1528, under the command of Ambrosius Ehinger, whom he appointed captain general. The Welsers set up a scheme and sent Ehinger as governor to Santa Ana de Coro. Ehinger left Seville on 7 October 1528 with the Spaniard García de Lerma and 281 settlers, at Santo Domingo, de Lerma with 50 companions left for Santa Marta, to reestablish Spanish control following the murder of the governor there. Ehinger and the remainder headed for the Venezuelan coast and landed on 24 February 1529 at Santa Ana de Coro, almost immediately Ehinger replaced his Welser-appointed Spanish deputy González de Leyva with Nicolaus Federmann. From Coro, he explored the interior in search of the golden city of El Dorado. In August 1529 Ehinger made his first expedition to Lake Maracaibo which was opposed by the indigenous people. After winning a series of battles, he founded the settlement at Maracaibo on 8 September 1529. Ehinger named the city New Nuremberg and the lake after the valiant chieftain Mara of the Coquivacoa, the city was renamed Maracaibo after the Spanish took possession. Ehinger came down with malaria and decided to recuperate in the relatively civilized comforts of Hispaniola and they crossed the Oca and Valledupar mountains of the Serranía del Perijá, moved along the Cesar River, and finally to the Zapatosa marsh. There the expedition rested about three months, then it continued south, where they met resistance from the indigenous tribes, so they turned east. During this expedition they were forced to eat their horses and dogs, as they made their way home, they were attacked by the Chitareros on May 27,1533
20.
Welser
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Along with the Fugger family, the Welser family controlled large sectors of the European economy, and accumulated enormous wealth through trade and the German colonization of the Americas. Philippine Welser, famed for both her learning and her beauty, was married to Archduke Ferdinand, Emperor Ferdinand Is son, claiming descent from the Byzantine general Belisarius, the family is known since the 13th century. By the early Age of Discovery, the Welser family had established trading posts in Antwerp, Lyon, Madrid, Nuremberg, Sevilla, Lisbon, Venice, Rome, the Welsers financed not only the Emperor, but also other European monarchs. The history of the family can be traced back to the 13th century, later its members became widely known as prominent merchants. In the 15th and 16th centuries, branches of the family settled at Nuremberg and in Austria, Welser, explored Venezuela and was executed by local Spanish Governor Juan de Carvajal in 1546. Bartholomäuss niece, Philippine, daughter of Franz Welser, renowned for her learning and beauty and she was given the titles Baroness of Zinnenburg, Margravine of Burgau, Landgravine of Nellenburg and Countess of Oberhohenberg and Niederhohenberg. Their children were debarred from inheriting their fathers rank as Archdukes of Austria, their son Margrave Andrew of Burgau became a cardinal and Charles, another member of the Welser family, Markus Welser, became famous for his learning. He was a humanist, historian, publisher and from 1611 Bürgermeister of Augsburg, carl Wilhelm Welser von Neunhof was a mayor of Nuremberg. Bartholomeus V. Welser was ennobled by the Emperor in 1532, the Augsburg main line became extinct in 1797, the Nuremberg branch in 1878. The Ulm branch, which became Imperial Barons in 1713, still exists, the Welsersche Familienstiftung, founded on 1 April 1539, still exists and has owned numerous castles in Germany. Following the extinction of the senior lines of the family. In Augsburg, a museum of Welser and Fugger history is planned, fernhandel, Familienbeziehungen und sozialer Status an der Wende vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit, in, Wolfgang Jahn u. a. Katalog zur Ausstellung im Antonierhaus, Memmingen 12, oktober 1998, Veröffentlichungen zur Bayerischen Geschichte und Kultur 37/98, München 1998, S. 17–37 Jörg Denzer, Die Konquista der Augsburger Welser-Gesellschaft in Südamerika. Nuremberg City Lexicon, pp.1171 f, 262–371, auch online Johann Michael Frhr. v. Welser, Die Welser, Nürnberg 1917, Selbstverlag der Welserschen Familienstiftung, Venezuela
21.
Augsburg
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Augsburg is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It was a Free Imperial City for over 500 years and it is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is a district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is the third-largest city in Bavaria with a population of 286,000 citizens, after Neuss and Trier, Augsburg is Germanys third oldest city, being founded by the Romans as Augusta Vindelicorum, named after the Roman emperor Augustus. Augsburg is the only German city with its own legal holiday and this gives Augsburg more legal holidays than any other region or city in Germany. Augsburg was the home of two families that rose to great prominence internationally, replacing the Medicis as Europes leading bankers, the Fugger. Augsburg lies at the convergence of the Alpine rivers Lech and Wertach, in the south extends the Lechfeld, an Outwash plain of the post ice age between the rivers Lech and Wertach, where rare primeval landscapes were preserved. The Augsburg city forest and the Lech valley heaths today rank among the most species-rich middle European habitats, on Augsburg borders the nature park Augsburg Western Woods - a large forestland. The city itself is also heavily greened, as a result, in 1997 Augsburg was the first German city to win the Europe-wide contest Entente Florale for Europes greenest and most livable city. Augsburg is surrounded by the counties Landkreis Augsburg in the west, the neighboring towns and cities are Friedberg, Königsbrunn, Stadtbergen, Neusäß, Gersthofen, Rehling, Affing, Kissing, Mering, Merching, Bobingen, Gessertshausen und Diedorf. Augsburg has a continental climate. The city was founded in 15 BC by Drusus and Tiberius as Augusta Vindelicorum, the name means Augusta of the Vindelici. This garrison camp soon became the capital of the Roman province of Raetia, thus, Augsburg was the intersection of many important European east-west and north-south connections, which later evolved as major trade routes of the Middle Ages. Around 120 AD Augsburg became the capital of the Roman province Raetia, Augsburg was sacked by the Huns in the 5th century AD, by Charlemagne in the 8th century, and by Welf of Bavaria in the 11th century, but arose each time to greater prosperity. Augsburg was granted the status of a Free Imperial City on March 9,1276 and from then until 1803, it was independent of its former overlord, the Prince-Bishop of Augsburg. Frictions between the city-state and the prince-bishops were to remain frequent however, particularly after Augsburg became Protestant and curtailed the rights, with a strategic location as intersection of trade routes to Italy, the Free Imperial City became a major trading center. Augsburg produced large quantities of goods, cloth and textiles. Augsburg became the base of two banking families that rose to prominence, the Fuggers and the Welsers
22.
Venezuela Province
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It has its origins with the 1527 foundation of Santa Ana de Coro by Juan de Ampíes, the provinces first governor. Coro was the capital until 1546, followed by El Tocuyo. The capital was moved to Caracas in 1577 by Juan de Pimentel, at one time Calabozo was its capital. Early on, the province was defined in relation to the Venezuelan coastline, New Andalusia Province soon provided an eastern boundary, excepting a brief period when the short-lived New Catalonia Province existed between the Venezuela and New Andalusia provinces. Guayana Province formed a southern boundary, matters in the west were more complex and fluid, but the Maracaibo Province formed clearly the largest part until the Barinas Province was split from it in 1786. For most of its existence the province was subject to the legal, administrative supervision was transferred to the Viceroyalty of New Granada when this was created in 1717, and in 1777 to the new Captaincy General of Venezuela. Legal supervision by Santo Domingo ended in 1786 when the Royal Audience of Caracas became functional within the new Captaincy-General, the province was one of the 7 which signed the Venezuelan Declaration of Independence. Towards the end of the Venezuelan War of Independence it was incorporated into Gran Colombia, in 1824 it was recreated as a reduced Caracas Province within a much smaller Venezuela Department. With the independence of Venezuela in 1830, the province was one of 11, in 1848 Aragua Province and Guárico Province were split from Caracas. Following the Federal War, the States of Venezuela were created in 1864, list of Governors of Venezuela Province
23.
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
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Charles V was ruler of both the Spanish Empire from 1516 and the Holy Roman Empire from 1519, as well as of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1506. He voluntarily stepped down from these and other positions by a series of abdications between 1554 and 1556, through inheritance, he brought together under his rule extensive territories in western, central, and southern Europe, and the Spanish colonies in the Americas and Asia. As a result, his domains spanned nearly four square kilometers and were the first to be described as the empire on which the sun never sets. Charles was the heir of three of Europes leading dynasties, the Houses of Valois-Burgundy, Habsburg, and Trastámara and he inherited the Burgundian Netherlands and the Franche-Comté as heir of the House of Valois-Burgundy. From his own dynasty, the Habsburgs, he inherited Austria and he was also elected to succeed his Habsburg grandfather, Maximilian I, as Holy Roman Emperor, a title held by the Habsburgs since 1440. Charles was the first king to rule Castile and Aragon simultaneously in his own right, the personal union, under Charles, of the Holy Roman Empire with the Spanish Empire resulted in the closest Europe would come to a universal monarchy since the death of Louis the Pious. France recovered and the wars continued for the remainder of Charless reign, enormously expensive, they led to the development of the first modern professional army in Europe, the Tercios. The struggle with the Ottoman Empire was fought in Hungary and the Mediterranean, after seizing most of eastern and central Hungary in 1526, the Ottomans’ advance was halted at their failed Siege of Vienna in 1529. A lengthy war of attrition, conducted on his behalf by his younger brother Ferdinand, in the Mediterranean, although there were some successes, Charles was unable to prevent the Ottomans’ increasing naval dominance and the piratical activity of the Barbary Corsairs. Charles opposed the Reformation and in Germany he was in conflict with the Protestant Princes of the Schmalkaldic League who were motivated by religious and political opposition to him. Once the rebellions were quelled the essential Castilian and Burgundian territories remained mostly loyal to Charles throughout his rule, Charles’s Spanish dominions were the chief source of his power and wealth, and they became increasingly important as his reign progressed. In the Americas, Charles sanctioned the conquest by Castillian conquistadors of the Aztec, Castillian control was extended across much of South and Central America. The resulting vast expansion of territory and the flows of South American silver to Castile had profound long term effects on Spain. Charles was only 56 when he abdicated, but after 34 years of rule he was physically exhausted and sought the peace of a monastery. Upon Charles’s abdications, the Holy Roman Empire was inherited by his younger brother Ferdinand, the Spanish Empire, including the possessions in the Netherlands and Italy, was inherited by Charles’s son Philip II. The two empires would remain allies until the 18th century, Charles was born in 1500 as the eldest son of Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile in the Flemish city of Ghent, which was part of the Habsburg Netherlands. The culture and courtly life of the Burgundian Low Countries were an important influence in his early life and he was tutored by William de Croÿ, and also by Adrian of Utrecht. He also gained a decent command of German, though he never spoke it as well as French, a witticism sometimes attributed to Charles is, I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse
24.
Coquivacoa
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Coquivacoa or Coquibacoa is an indigenous name for an area in north-west Venezuela - either the Gulf of Venezuela or Lake Maracaibo or possibly the wider region. This people may be related to the Wayuu or the Caquetio people, the Spanish conquistador Alonso de Ojeda had been appointed Governor of Coquibacoa in 1502, a position that only lasted a few months. He had applied the term Coquibacoa to the Guajira Peninsula, which Ojeda erroneously thought was an island, a parish in Maracaibo is named Coquivacoa. Gran Coquivacoa is a Gaita Zuliana group founded in 1968, there is a regional television station named Coquivacoa Televisión. Singer Alí Primera wrote a song called Coquivacoa, there is a city named Chivacoa in Yaracuy state, founded by Caquetio people
25.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
26.
Santa Marta
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Santa Marta, officially Distrito Turístico, Cultural e Histórico de Santa Marta, is a city in Colombia. It is the capital of the department of Magdalena and fourth largest urban city of the Caribbean Region of Colombia, after Barranquilla, Cartagena and this city is situated on a bay of the same name and as such, is a prime tourist destination. Before the arrival of Europeans, the South American continent was inhabited by a number of indigenous groups, the Tairona formed mid- to large-size population centers, consisting of stone pathways, terraces, protected waterways, and spaces dedicated to agricultural produce. Their economy was agricultural, cultivating corn, pineapple, yucca. The Tayrona are considered advanced for their time period. Surviving archaeological sites consisted of formed terraces and small scale underground stone channels and they also were known to actively collect and process salt, which was a significant trading commodity. We know that they traded with indigenous groups along the coast. Archaeological excavations have recovered significant works in pottery, stonework and gold, Santa Marta’s flag consists of two colours, white and blue. White symbolises peace, in all are united without restriction. Blue symbolises the sky, the sea, the found in the horizon. Santa Marta is located on Santa Marta Bay of the Caribbean Sea in the province of Magdalena and it is 992 km from Bogotá and 93 km from Barranquilla. It is bordered to the north and west by the Caribbean and to the south by the municipalities of Aracataca, Santa Martas economy is based on tourism, trade, port activities, fishing and agriculture, in that order. The main agricultural products are, bananas, coffee, cocoa, Santa Marta is a major port. Simon Bolivar International Airport is 16 km from the city centre and it should be noted that historic figure Simon Bolivar died here, a significant event for South America as a whole. His villa known as La Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino is located just outside the city centre, as the main city centre is located close to the coast, the city itself has had difficulty controlling expansion. Although, technically a separate locality, Rodadero is often considered part of Santa Marta itself, Santa Marta has one sister city, Miami Beach, Florida. Barranquilla Cartagena de Indias Taganga Santa Marta at analitica
27.
Coro, Venezuela
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Coro is the capital of Falcón State and the oldest city in the west of Venezuela. It was founded on July 26,1527 by Juan de Ampíes as Santa Ana de Coro and it has a wide cultural tradition that comes from being the urban settlement founded by the Spanish conquerors who colonized the interior of the continent. It was the first capital of the Venezuela Province and head of the first bishop founded in South America in 1531, as Neu-Augsburg, it was the first German colony in the Americas under the Welsers. Since 2005 it is on the UNESCOs List of World Heritage in Danger, according to the tradition the word coro derives from the Caquetio word curiana, meaning place of winds. However, according to the authoritative DRAE Spanish dictionary, the word coro in its second meaning means wind of the northwest, the city was founded on July 26 of 1527 by Juan Martín de Ampués, with the name of Santa Ana de Coro. From Coro emerged multiple expeditions to the Venezuelan and Colombian Llanos, the Andes and the Orinoco River in search of El Dorado, the city is in its early days a beachhead or outpost of the Spanish during the conquest and colonization in the western and central Venezuela. From them left the expeditions of exploration and founding of new towns, Santa Ana de Coro lost the political capital of the Venezuela Province in 1578 to Caracas, motivated by repeated invasions of pirates and especially to the harshness of its climate. Finally it was no longer the seat of the bishopric in 1636, during the seventeenth century Coro was hit by a hurricane and invasions of pirates, to the point where it appeared in the charts of English and French of the time with the title of destroyed. However, these calamities left intact the countryside, with its productive power, thus, in the late 18th and early 19th century reaches its colonial peak. Precisely from this period are the best preserved buildings in the city. The movement, which would be the forerunner in the process would end in defeat. It was then in the port of La Vela de Coro, subsequently formed a bulwark of the Spanish Empire to land on its coasts the troops that end up destroying the First Republic of Venezuela. By the time the General Rafael Urdaneta invades from Maracaibo commanding the Grancolombian army, since the early 50s Coro was declared a National Heritage. Coro is located at north of the Coro region, transition between the Venezuelan Coastal Range and the Cordillera de Mérida. To the north lies the Médanos Isthmus, named for it found in a formation of dunes or sand fields that have formed by persistent trade winds. The isthmus connects the Paraguaná Peninsula with the mainland, at south of the city are the foothills of the Sierra de Falcón. Coro has a hot climate with an average of approximately 382 mm of rainfall per year. The highest rainfall occurs between October and December, the average temperature is 28.9 °C, with minimum temperatures of 25 °C and maximum 34 °C
28.
Maracaibo Basin
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Covering over 36,657 square km, it is a hydrocarbon-rich region that has produced over 30 billion bbl of oil with an estimated 44 billion bbl yet to be recovered. The basin is characterized by a shallow tidal estuary, Lake Maracaibo. The Maracaibo basin has a tectonic history that dates back to the Jurassic period with multiple evolution stages. Despite its complexity, these major tectonic stages were carefully preserved within its stratigraphy and this makes The Maracaibo basin one of the most valuable basins for reconstructing South Americas early tectonic history. The Maracaibo basin is surrounded by two ranges, the Méridas Andes to the southeast and the Sierra de Perija to the west. The basin lies within a region of deformation created by the interactions of the Caribbean and these interactions include the collision of the Caribbean plate with the South American plate in the Cenozoic era, which formed a belt of foreland basins across northern South America. There are three main fault zones associated with the basin, the Santa Marta-Bucaramanga fault zone, the Boconó fault zone, and these strike-slip zones create a v-shape around the basin which form a smaller plate known as the Maracaibo block. Within this v-shaped wedge, multiple smaller fault zones are present including the Icotea strike-slip fault, the formation of the Maracaibo basin began 160 Ma with the North American, South American, and Caribbean plates playing key roles in the evolution of the basin. It developed into the foreland basin via multiple stages throughout time, Late Jurassic, Late Cretaceous, Paleocene-Eocene. During the break-up of Pangea, the North American plate began to separate from the South American plate, the two plates rifted away from each other forming the Proto-Caribbean Seaway, an 1800 km wide region of oceanic crust. As this rifting occurred, the Caribbean plate began its migration from the Pacific region. After rifting, the edge of the South American plate developed into a passive margin with the Proto-Caribbean Seaway. This stable passive margin allowed for thermal subsidence to occur which began to due to the building up of the Cordillera Central range of Colombia. This uplift was initiated by the eastward moving Caribbean plate interacting with the Nazca, the Caribbean plate has been migrating eastward from the Pacific region and eventually collided with the South American plate in the middle Paleocene. This collision transformed the passive margin of northern South America into an active margin, the Caribbean plate had subducted significant amounts of oceanic Proto-Caribbean crust by this time and was now subducting beneath the South American crust. This boundary interaction was greatly affecting the region of northwestern South America, foreland basins formed across the region which received large amount of sediment due to the plate boundary interactions to the north. The Caribbean plate continued its migration and continued to deform the northwestern regions of South America while also producing deformation along the northeastern regions. As plate migration proceeded, accretion along the South American plate increased and this accretion greatly influenced mountain building of the region
29.
Cocoa bean
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The beans are the basis of chocolate, and of such Mesoamerican foods as mole and tejate. The word cocoa comes from the Spanish word cacao, which is derived from the Nahuatl word cacahuatl, the Nahuatl word, in turn, ultimately derives from the reconstructed Proto Mije-Sokean word *kakaw~*kakawa. It originated in Central America and parts of Mexico, more than 5,000 years ago, it was consumed by pre-Columbian cultures along the Yucatán, including the Mayans, and as far back as Olmeca civilization in spiritual ceremonies. It also grows in the foothills of the Andes in the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America and its range may have been larger in the past, evidence of its wild range may be obscured by cultivation of the tree in these areas since long before the Spanish arrived. The cocoa bean was a currency throughout Mesoamerica before the Spanish conquest. Cacao trees grow in a geographical zone, of about 20° to the north and south of the Equator. Nearly 70% of the world today is grown in West Africa. The cacao plant was first given its name by Swedish natural scientist Carl Linnaeus in his original classification of the plant kingdom. Cocoa was an important commodity in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, flavored with vanilla or other spices, his chocolate was whipped into a froth that dissolved in the mouth. No fewer than 60 portions each day reportedly may have been consumed by Moctezuma II, chocolate was introduced to Europe by the Spaniards, and became a popular beverage by the mid-17th century. They also introduced the tree into the West Indies and the Philippines. It was also introduced into the rest of Asia and into West Africa by Europeans, in the Gold Coast, modern Ghana, cacao was introduced by an African, Tetteh Quarshie. Due to heat buildup in the process, cacao beans lose most of the purplish hue and become mostly brown in color. This skin is released easily after roasting by winnowing, white seeds are found in some rare varieties, usually mixed with purples, and are considered of higher value. The three main varieties of plant are Forastero, Criollo, and Trinitario. The first is the most widely used, comprising 80-90% of the production of cocoa. Cocoa beans of the Criollo variety are rarer and considered a delicacy, Criollo plantations have lower yields than those of Forastero, and also tend to be less resistant to several diseases that attack the cocoa plant, hence very few countries still produce it. One of the largest producers of Criollo beans is Venezuela, Trinitario is a hybrid between Criollo and Forastero varieties
30.
Gemstone
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A gemstone is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks or organic materials that are not minerals are used for jewelry and are therefore often considered to be gemstones as well. Most gemstones are hard, but some soft minerals are used in jewelry because of their luster or other properties that have aesthetic value. Rarity is another characteristic that lends value to a gemstone, apart from jewelry, from earliest antiquity engraved gems and hardstone carvings, such as cups, were major luxury art forms. A gem maker is called a lapidary or gemcutter, a worker is a diamantaire. The carvings of Carl Fabergé are significant works in this tradition, the traditional classification in the West, which goes back to the ancient Greeks, begins with a distinction between precious and semi-precious, similar distinctions are made in other cultures. In modern usage the precious stones are diamond, ruby, sapphire, other stones are classified by their color, translucency and hardness. Another unscientific term for semi-precious gemstones used in art history and archaeology is hardstone, in modern times gemstones are identified by gemologists, who describe gems and their characteristics using technical terminology specific to the field of gemology. The first characteristic a gemologist uses to identify a gemstone is its chemical composition, for example, diamonds are made of carbon and rubies of aluminium oxide. Next, many gems are crystals which are classified by their crystal system such as cubic or trigonal or monoclinic, another term used is habit, the form the gem is usually found in. For example, diamonds, which have a crystal system, are often found as octahedrons. Gemstones are classified into different groups, species, and varieties, for example, ruby is the red variety of the species corundum, while any other color of corundum is considered sapphire. Other examples are the Emerald, aquamarine, red beryl, goshenite, heliodor, and morganite, gems are characterized in terms of refractive index, dispersion, specific gravity, hardness, cleavage, fracture, and luster. They may exhibit pleochroism or double refraction and they may have luminescence and a distinctive absorption spectrum. Material or flaws within a stone may be present as inclusions, gemstones may also be classified in terms of their water. This is a grading of the gems luster, transparency. Very transparent gems are considered first water, while second or third water gems are those of a lesser transparency, there is no universally accepted grading system for gemstones. Diamonds are graded using a system developed by the Gemological Institute of America in the early 1950s, historically, all gemstones were graded using the naked eye
31.
Spanish dollar
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Its purpose was to correspond to the German thaler. The Spanish dollar was used by many countries as the first international currency because of its uniformity in standard. Some countries countersigned the Spanish dollar so it could be used as their local currency, the Spanish dollar was the coin upon which the original United States dollar was based, and it remained legal tender in the United States until the Coinage Act of 1857. Because it was used in Europe, the Americas. Diverse theories link the origin of the $ symbol to the columns, millions of Spanish dollars were minted over the course of several centuries. They were among the most widely circulating coins of the period in the Americas. In the 16th century, Count Hieronymus Schlick of Bohemia began minting coins known as Joachimsthalers, named for Joachimsthal, the Joachimsthalers weighed 451 Troy grains of silver. So successful were these coins that similar thalers were minted in Burgundy, the Burgundian Cross Thaler depicted the Cross of Burgundy and was prevalent in the Burgundian Netherlands that were revolting against the Spanish king and Duke of Burgundy Philip II. After 1575, the Dutch revolting provinces replaced the currency with a daalder depicting a lion, specifically to facilitate export trade, the leeuwendaalder was authorized to contain 427.16 grains of.750 fine silver, lighter than the large denomination coins then in circulation. Clearly it was advantageous for a Dutch merchant to pay a foreign debt in leeuwendaalders rather than in other heavier. Thus, the leeuwendaalder or lion dollar became the coin of choice for foreign trade and it became popular in the Middle East, and colonies in the east and west. They also circulated throughout the English colonies during the Seventeenth and early Eighteenth centuries, from New Netherland the lion dollar spread to all thirteen colonies in the west. After the introduction of the Guldengroschen in Austria in 1486, the concept of a silver coin with high purity eventually spread throughout the rest of Europe. Monetary reform in Spain brought about the introduction of an 8-real coin in 1497, in 1537 the Spanish escudo gold coin was introduced, which was worth 16 reales. The later Gold Doubloon was worth 32 reales or 2 escudos and it is this divisibility into 8 which caused the silver coins to be named pieces of eight. In the following centuries, the coin was minted with different designs at various mints in Spain. In the 19th century, the denomination was changed to 20 reales. Spains adoption of the peseta in 1869 and its joining the Latin Monetary Union meant the end of the last vestiges of the Spanish dollar in Spain itself
32.
Henry Morgan
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Sir Henry Morgan was a Welsh privateer, landowner and, later, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he raided settlements and shipping on the Spanish Main, with the prize money from the raids he purchased three large sugar plantations on the island. Much of Morgans early life is unknown and he was born in south Wales, but it is not known how he made his way to the West Indies, or how he began his career as a privateer. He was probably a member of a group of raiders led by Sir Christopher Myngs in the early 1660s, Morgan became a close friend of Sir Thomas Modyford, the Governor of Jamaica. When diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of England and Spain worsened in 1667, Modyford gave Morgan a letter of marque, Morgan subsequently conducted successful and highly lucrative raids on Puerto Principe and Porto Bello. In 1668 he sailed for Maracaibo and Gibraltar, both on Lake Maracaibo in modern-day Venezuela and he raided both cities and stripped them of their wealth before destroying a large Spanish squadron as he escaped. In 1671 Morgan attacked Panama City, landing on the Caribbean coast and traversing the isthmus before he attacked the city, the battle was a rout, although the privateers profited less than in other raids. Morgan was appointed a Knight Bachelor in November 1674 and returned to Jamaica shortly afterward to serve as the territorys Lieutenant Governor and he served on the Assembly of Jamaica until 1683 and on three occasions he acted as Governor of Jamaica in the absence of the post-holder. He died in Jamaica on 25 August 1688 and his life was romanticised after his death and he became the inspiration for pirate-themed works of fiction across a range of genres. Henry Morgan was born around 1635 in Wales, either in Llanrumney, Glamorgan or Pencarn, several sources state Morgans father was Robert Morgan, a farmer. It is unknown how Morgan made his way to the Caribbean, in the 17th century the Caribbean offered an opportunity for young men to become rich quickly, although significant investment was needed to obtain high returns from the sugar export economy. Other opportunities for gain were through trade or plunder of the Spanish Empire. Much of the plunder was from privateering, whereby individuals and ships were commissioned by government to attack the countrys enemies. It is probable that in the early 1660s Morgan was active with a group of privateers led by Sir Christopher Myngs attacking Spanish cities and settlements in the Caribbean and Central America. In 1663 it is likely that Morgan captained one of the ships in Myngs fleet, and took part in the attack on Santiago de Cuba, about 1,500 privateers used Jamaica as a base for their activity and brought significant revenue to the island. As the planting community of 5,000 was still new and developing, a privateer was granted a letter of marque which gave him a licence to attack and seize vessels, normally of a specific country, or with conditions attached. A portion of all obtained by the privateers was given to the sovereign or the issuing ambassador. In August 1665 Morgan, along with fellow captains John Morris and Jacob Fackman, Modyford was impressed enough with the spoils to report back to the government that Central America was the properest place for an attack on the Spanish Indies
33.
Michel de Grammont
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Michel de Grammont was a French pirate. He was born in Paris, France and was lost at sea in the north-east Caribbean and his pirate career lasted from around 1670 to 1686 during which he commanded the flagship Hardi. Primarily attacked Spanish holdings in Maracaibo, Gibraltar, Trujillo, La Guaira, Puerto Cabello, Cumana, chevalier de Grammont was a nobleman who came into disfavour after killing his sisters suitor in a duel. Forced to leave France, he went to Hispaniola where he was given a French ship and his first success was the capture of a Dutch convoy, valued at about 400,000 livres. On his next voyage he ran on a reef and sank, Grammont moved to Tortuga where he bought and outfitted a new ship which he used to attack Spanish shipping. In June 1678 he was commander of the six ships and 700 men salvaged from the Las Aves Disaster. De Grammont landed his men in Spanish-held Venezuela and captured Maracaibo, as well as smaller towns including Gibraltar. For the next six months the pirates plundered the entire region, in June 1680, de Grammont joined forces with Thomas Paine and a captain named Wright at Blanquilla Island. Together with 50 men they successfully raided the town of Cumana although it was defended by 2,000 Spanish soldiers and 17 ships with 328 cannons, Grammont however was badly wounded by a sword and returned to Las Aves to recover. Following his recovery, de Grammont commanded eight ships but had no success until 1682 when, at the request of the governor of Petit-Goâve, he joined Nicholas van Hoorn to harass Spanish shipping. During this period they attacked ships which unknown to them belonged to the Dutch pirate Laurens de Graaf, de Graaf initially refused but later agreed. In May 17,1683, de Grammont, van Hoorn, Yankey Willems, using two captured Spanish galleons in the vanguard, Yankey Willems and Laurens de Graaf were able to sneak into the Spanish harbor during the early morning hours and landed a small force on shore. The buccaneers caught the garrison off guard, many of the still sleeping. After three or four days, Willems and the others looted the town before retreating at the sight of the New Spain fleet, later Grammont raided Spanish Florida settlements, including St. Augustine and the Mocama mission province, forcing further southward migrations. De Grammont then commenced to execute prisoners as retaliation, but de Graaf stopped the executions, de Grammont was last seen in April 1686 sailing in the northeast direction sailing off of St. Augustine, Florida. Although his exact fate is unknown, his ship was reported lost with all hands in a storm shortly after he set sail
34.
Trujillo, Trujillo
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Trujillo is the capital city of Trujillo State in Venezuela. About 40,000 people live in this city and this city is shrouded in mystery and humility, is located in El Valle de Los Mukas. Surrounded by mountains known as the city of peace and charm, founded by one the Conquistadores de America, Diego García de Paredes, son of Diego García de Paredes, Spanish soldier and duellist, native of Trujillo in Extremadura, Spain. In 1678, Trujillo was the farthest point in a raid on Spanish-held Venezuela. Trujillo, La Libertad Trujillo, Colón Trujillo, Cáceres
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Venezuela
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Maracaibo travel guide from Wikivoyage
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