Can Someone Help Me Make This Paragraph Smaller?

it’s on the history of venezuela, and I need it to be much smaller, but still have the important information. if anyone can help, it be greatly appreciated (Y)
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Most of the early history of Venezuela consisted of searching for gold, or the lost city of gold, El Dorado. Later history was about the first inhabitants, the Spanish conquest, the independence movement, and the turbulent road to democracy. Christopher Columbus was the first European to explore Venezuela in the 1490′s where he wrote to the king and queen claming land for Spain and claming to see Indians with pearls around their arms and necks. Later, in 1499, Spanish explorer, Alfonso de Ojeda, and mapmaker, Amerigo Vespucci made the expedition to the northern coast and seeing the Indian huts built on stilts in Lake Maracaibo. This reminded the two explorers of the canals of Venice, so they named the country, Little Venice, known today as, Venezuela. But before the Europeans explored the land, it was first inhabited by the Indians who had made their way across the Bering strait from Asia during the ice age. These Venezuelan Indians were accomplished farmers, great artisans, and believed a lot in religious ritual but they were not as organized as the Aztecs, Incas not Mayas since they were overcome when they fought the Spanish conquistadors. In 1509, the first European settlement in all of South America was founded on the Venezuelan island of Cubagua where settlers came for the search for gold. Around 1520, the first permanent Spanish settlement was founded at Cumana, on the northeastern coast. The oldest city in Venezuela, Coro, founded in 1527, was mortgaged by Charles 1 of Spain to the German banking house of Wesler. The settlers of Wesler made expeditions to Venezuela, completely destroying the city, killing many indigenous inhabitants in search of gold, but were ultimately unsuccessful. The agreement was later terminated by Spain and instead, opted to develop Venezuela agriculturally instead. By the end of the 16th century, 20 towns had been established and millions of Indians were forced to become slaves for the Spanish settlers but by the end of the conquest, only 2 million out of the 50 million indigenous Indians had survived. The remaining Indians were colonized by missionaries from Spain who were spearing the work of Christianity. During the 1700′s and 1800′s Venezuela, like any country, had it’s desire to trade freely with other nations, and in 17728, the Real Compania Guipuzcoana de Caracas was established allowing the Basques from Spain exclusive rights to import goods into Venezuela. The company was dismantled in 1785, limiting the free trade but later allowing free trade again in 1797, to foil the attempts of Britain selling goods illegally to Venezuela. However, in 1802, the Spaniards once again, changed their minds and decided to limit free trade, which caused many angry Venezuelans to revolt and, led by Caraqueno Francisco de Miranda, began the independence movement. This ended unsuccessful and Miranda was exiled, later returned in 1810 to proclaim dictator of Venezuela but was by 1812 he was captured by forces still in favour by the Spanish rule. A caraqueno and Miranda’s former aide, Simon Boliver was a significant man in Venezuela’s history since he invaded the country in 1813, reestablished the republic, appointed himself as dictator and gained the title of liberator. Also, in 1821, Boliver successfully brought together what are now, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Columbia to from one independent state, Gran Columbia. Later, in 1830, Venezuela split from Gran Columbia and finally became a independent country. Between the years, 1908 to 1958, Venezuela had brutal and fierce dictators, enjoyed the new democratic rule for a few years, but back to dictatorship. In 1958 Romulo Betancourt and his democratic party finally brought lasting democracy. He is also famous for using benefiting people with the petroleum profits and as well as helping with illiteracy, the poor living conditions, and also had a high infant mortality rate.

2 Comments

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  Ocelotl March 14, 2010 at 8:41 am

  You need more details to help us decide what is important and what isn’t.
  Please, do not use Yahoo Answers to do your homework.
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  A W March 14, 2010 at 2:56 pm

  First off, you need to define what is and isn’t the “important information.” Second, that’s more like an entire essay rather than just a paragraph. I see a lot of details that don’t need to be included, like the very last sentence, and details like “By the end of the 16th century, 20 towns had been established and millions of Indians were forced to become slaves for the Spanish settlers but by the end of the conquest, only 2 million out of the 50 million indigenous Indians had survived.” Is that really necessary information? I think in order to get this correct, you need to define what is and isn’t considered absolutely necessary to the paragraph and take the unnecessary things out of it.