Not much can be said about Venezuela’s history between the early years of 1600 and the mid 1700s. It seems that this is where the differences of the British and the Spanish Colonies begin.

Most scholars agree that Venezuela was not considered as key place and that its importance as a Colony of Spain was displaced by the more important Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru. Approximately 2,000 people lived in the country, with an economy that was based on livestock and goldmines, in somewhat of a feudal system.

By the end of the 1600s, there was an established higher education school named “School Seminary of Saint Rose de Lima”. Given that there was no university in the country and that for people living in the country who wanted to get a college degree, the only choices were the universities in Bogota (Colombia), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) and Mexico, the Rector of the Seminar made a formal request to the King of Spain for the creation of a University in Venezuela. This led to a royal decree that resulted in Venezuela’s first university, established on December 22, 1721: Universidad Real y Pontificia de Caracas, which centuries later would become the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) and offered degrees in Theology, Philosophy, Canon Law and Medicine. The Real y Pontificia would be Venezuela’s only university until 1810, when the Universidad de Los Andes was founded in Merida.

In my book I will touch base on the importance of higher education as part of a successful system, and of course, on the importance of the Universidad Central de Venezuela, and Venezuela’s other universities.