[IT'S ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT THE OIL] Mapa de la Republica de Venezuela: con un plano de Barcelona, Barquisimeto, Ciudad Bolívar, Maracibo, Maracay, Puerto Cabello, Puerto La Cruz, San Cristóbal, Valencia

[Venezuela] [Oil]

General Drafting Company, cartographer, for the Creole Petroleum Corporation, 1956. Text in Spanish. Full color, one sheet map measures 65 x 108 cm, folding to 22 x 11 cm. Light wear. Includes various indexes, distance chart, explanation of signs, and index to points of interest in Caracas. Also includes highlighted zones of oil exploration.

Venezuela became an oil economy after the discovery of crude oil around 1913. During the 1920s, oil production was mostly done through concessions to foreign companies. The largest of those was the Creole Petroleum Corporation, an American oil company and a division of Standard Oil of New Jersey. Once the second largest oil producer in the world, the company was dissolved when Venezuelan nationalized its assets along with those of other foreign oil firms on January 1, 1976.

At the time this map was published, the U.S. introduced oil import restrictions, starting with voluntary controls in 1957 and escalating to President Eisenhower's Mandatory Oil Import Program (MOIP) in 1959, driven by concerns that cheap foreign oil threatened U.S. national security and domestic producers. From 1962, the maximum level of imports was set at 12.2% of domestic production. The import quota was lifted in 1973 by President Richard Nixon. Item #80035

Price: $200.00