Editing Economy of Venezuela (section)

=== 1922–1959 ===
After oil was discovered in Venezuela in 1922 during the [[Maracaibo]] strike, Venezuela's dictator [[Juan Vicente Gómez]] allowed American [[oil companies]] to write Venezuela's petroleum law.<ref>Yergin, Daniel. ''The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power''. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1990. pp.&nbsp;233–236; 432</ref> In 1943, [[Standard Oil of New Jersey]] accepted a new agreement in Venezuela based on the 50–50 principle, described as "a landmark event".<ref>Yergin 1990, p. 435</ref> Even more favorable terms were negotiated in 1945, after a coup brought to power a left-leaning government that included [[Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso]].

From the 1950s to the early 1980s, the Venezuelan economy, which was buoyed by high oil prices, was one of the strongest and most prosperous in South America. The continuous growth during that period attracted many [[immigrant]]s.

In 1958, a new government, again including Pérez Alfonso, devised a plan for an international oil [[cartel]], that would become [[OPEC]].<ref>Yergin 1990, pp. 510–513</ref>

During [[Marcos Pérez Jiménez|Pérez Jiménez']] dictatorship from 1952 to 1958, Venezuela enjoyed remarkably high [[GDP]] growth, so that in the late 1950s Venezuela's real [[GDP per capita]] almost reached that of Ireland or West Germany. Albeit, West Germany was still recovering from [[WW2]] destruction of German infrastructure. In 1950, Venezuela was the world's 4th wealthiest nation per capita.<ref>NationMaster. [http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_gdp_per_cap_in_195-economy-gdp-per-capita-1950 "GDP per capita in 1950 statistics."].</ref> However, [[Rómulo Betancourt]], [[President of Venezuela|president]] from 1959 to 1964, inherited from 1958 to 1959 onward an enormous internal and external debt caused by rampant public spending. He managed to balance Venezuela's public budget and initiate an [[agrarian reform]].<ref>Alexander, Robert. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2116216 "Nature and Progress of Agrarian Reform in Latin America."] ''The Journal of Economic History''. Vol. 23, No. 4 (December 1963), pp. 559–573.</ref>