Subdivisions of Venezuela
Encyclopedia
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
is divided into 23 states
States of Venezuela
Venezuela is divided into 23 states , 1 Capital District and the Federal Dependencies that consist of a large number of Venezuelan islands...
(estados), 1 Capital District
Venezuelan Capital District
The Capital District of Venezuela is a federal district corresponding to the capital Caracas. It has an area of 433 km² and there is only one administrative division , Libertador, which contains about half City of Caracas. It is the seat of the federal government and the head of the public...
(Distrito Capital) and the Federal Dependencies (Dependencias Federales de Ultramar) that consist of a large number of Venezuelan islands. These are grouped into regions
Regions of Venezuela
Venezuela's states, capital district, and federal dependencies have been grouped into administrative regions since a 1969 decree on regionalization that institutionalized a process of region development...
.
Historical subdivisions
Prior to the Federal WarFederal War
The Federal War - also known as the Great War or the Five Year War - was a civil war in Venezuela between the conservative party and the liberal party about the monopoly of the conservatives of the land and the government positions, and their reluctance to grant any reforms. This drove the...
(1859–1863), Venezuela was divided into provinces
Provinces of Venezuela
The Provinces of Venezuela were administrative divisions used from Venezuela's independence from Gran Colombia in 1830 to 1864, when the States of Venezuela were created. There were initially 11 provinces, with 3 created later, until in 1856 the Law of Territorial Division divided Venezuela into 21...
rather than states. The victorious forces were supposed to grant more autonomy to the individual states, but this was not implemented.
Between 1863 and the early 1900s, there were numerous territorial changes, including the merger and splitting of states. Thereafter, until the late 1990s, the states were left unchanged. Recent years have seen the creation of three new states: Delta Amacuro
Delta Amacuro
Delta Amacuro State is one of the 23 states of Venezuela, and is the location of the Orinoco Delta. The Paria Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean are found to the north, Bolívar State is found to the south, the Atlantic Ocean and Guyana are found to the east, and Monagas State is found to the west...
, Amazonas, and Vargas (in that order).
Special status areas
- Federal Dependencies
- Capital DistrictVenezuelan Capital DistrictThe Capital District of Venezuela is a federal district corresponding to the capital Caracas. It has an area of 433 km² and there is only one administrative division , Libertador, which contains about half City of Caracas. It is the seat of the federal government and the head of the public...
Municipal organization
Venezuelan states are subdivided into "municipalitiesMunicipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
" (Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
municipios), which may correspond to either or both of county
County
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
and city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
-speaking countries. Municipios are the fundamental unit of local government
Local government
Local government refers collectively to administrative authorities over areas that are smaller than a state.The term is used to contrast with offices at nation-state level, which are referred to as the central government, national government, or federal government...
in Venezuela.