The country is divided into 20 States, 2 Territories and a Federal District. The National Congress includes 40 Senators and 52 Representatives. Each state has an equal number of representatives, each having a legislative Assembly, whose members are chosen in accordance with its respective constitution.
Venezuela stands to-day upon the threshold of great interior development especially in agriculture and cattle-raising. Her position is similar to that of the United States after the Civil War when vast areas, sparsely settled, lay awaiting the movement of population to develop them. Her mineral resources are practically untouched and opportunities await foreign capitalists who are familiar with the development of new countries.
The political situation, however, should not be neglected. W. H. Koebel in his "History of South America" says, "No state of South America can show such a perpetual ferment, such a fog of unrest and strife hanging over and choking its development as this." Whether or not the past eight years of stable government and national prosperity has demonstrated to the people of Venezuela the proper course to follow is a question beyond the scope of the present inquiry.
In any event, the foreign investor will be well advised if he places his capital in Venezuela only after mature consideration of the political changes of the last two decades and the ability of the present administration to carry through its policy of enlightened development.
Census Bureau, Caracas, Venezuela, July, 1920. Memoria del Ministro del Fomento, 1920. Confidential Report of Department of Commerce, 1919. Memoria de Instrucción Pública, 1918, 1919, 1920. Memoria de Obras Públicas, 1920, Vol. 1. Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The last official census of Venezuela, which was completed in the year 1891, placed the population of the country at 2,323,527. According to the Venezuelan Year Book of 1904, 10% of the people are white and of European descent, but by far the larger part, possibly 70% of the total, is a mixed race in which white and Indian blood prevail, the remainder being pure Indian blood. It is not to be expected that the new census, begun in August, 1919, will show any great changes because of the three following reasons:[3]