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| 1777–1811 |  Captaincy General of Venezuela (Capitanía General de Venezuela): the provinces of Venezuela were taken out of the Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1777 by King Charles III and put under one captain general, until the independence of 5 July 1811 |
| 5 Jul 1811 | the Supreme Congress, meeting in Caracas, passes a resolution for independence on 5 July 1811 and the act of independence of 7 July 1811 declares the Confederación Americana de Venezuela; Spain retakes the country in 1812-1813 and 1814-1816, independence holds from 1819 within Gran Colombia, and Venezuela is a separate state from 13 January 1830 |
| 1811–1819 |  Confederación Americana de Venezuela and the republics of the war of independence: the confederation of 5 July 1811-25 July 1812, the Second Republic of 8 August 1813-8 September 1814 and the República de Venezuela of 7 May 1816; Spanish rule returned in 1812-1813 and 1814-1816, and the decree of 20 November 1817 added an eighth star for Guayana to the yellow, blue and red tricolour of Miranda |
| 1819–1830 |  Gran Colombia (República de Colombia): the Fundamental Law of 17 December 1819, passed at Angostura, joined Venezuela and New Granada, and Venezuela was the Departamento de Venezuela (split into the departments of Orinoco, Venezuela and Zulia on 8 October 1821); separation was proclaimed on 26 November 1829 and 13 January 1830 |
| 1830–1864 | Republic of Venezuela (República de Venezuela): the sovereign state of 13 January 1830, called Estado de Venezuela until the constitution of 24 October 1830 |
| 1864–1953 | United States of Venezuela (Estados Unidos de Venezuela): the federation of the constitution signed on 28 March 1864, in operation from 1 May 1864 |
| 1953–1999 | Republic of Venezuela (República de Venezuela): the name of the constitution of 15 April 1953; the coat of arms was added to the flag by the law of 17 February 1954 |
| 1999– | Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (República Bolivariana de Venezuela): the name of the constitution of 1999, in force from 30 December 1999; the eighth star for Guayana was added to the flag in 2006 |
Beer came to Venezuela as an import. Under Spanish rule it arrived from Spain and the Antilles in wide-necked bottles called limetas, and during the independence war Germany and Britain became the main suppliers. It is often said that the first Venezuelan beer was brewed at Colonia Tovar in 1843, a month after the settlers from Baden arrived, but no independent source confirms it.
The first brewing company was Cervecería Nacional, whose shareholders met in Caracas in 1893 with a capital of 528,000 bolívares and a capacity of 80,000 litres a month; it later had plants in Caracas, Puerto Cabello, Maracaibo and Ciudad Bolívar and became Cervecería Caracas in April 1925. Cervecería Venezolana de Maiquetía followed in 1912, and the company behind Cerveza Zulia of Maracaibo dates from 1925. Cervecería Regional was founded in Maracaibo on 14 May 1929 by 41 shareholders, who had to be sellers of beer in Zulia, so the beer had its outlets from the start. Its plant on the shore of Lake Maracaibo was built with German equipment and a German brewmaster, Franz Budell, and began with 3 million litres a year.
Cervecería Polar began on 14 March 1941 in a small plant at Antímano, west of Caracas, set up by Lorenzo Mendoza Fleury with Rafael Luján and Karl Eggers; the first kettle had come from Europe at Christmas 1939. In 1943 the Czechoslovak brewmaster Carlos Roubicek changed the recipe, using maize, and the beer caught on. The company then built plants at Barcelona (1950), Los Cortijos in Caracas (1951), Maracaibo (1960) and San Joaquín in Carabobo (1978), launched the malt drink Maltín Polar in 1951 and Solera in 1955, and took the name Empresas Polar in 1991. Cervecera Nacional was formed in 1955 from several older breweries and moved its Caracas plant to Boleíta in 1965; the brewers set up a joint chamber in 1962.
From the 1990s the market was held by two firms. Regional was bought by the Cisneros Group in 1992 and opened a second plant at Cagua, Aragua, in December 1997; Regional Light, launched in November 2000 in a clear bottle, became its main beer. The Brazilian brewer Brahma bought Cervecera Nacional in 1994 and closed its Caracas plant; the company was renamed AmBev Venezuela in 2003, relaunched Zulia in 2008 and Cardenal in 2010, and combined its business with Regional in 2010-2012 (Regional 85 per cent). On 18 March 2013 it began to close its Barquisimeto plant, after its share had fallen from 9 to 0.9 per cent. Polar held about 79 per cent of the volume in 2012; it added Solera Märzen in 2012, Black and Alt in 2016 and an IPA in 2018. In April 2016 its four breweries stopped for lack of imported barley malt, and on 1 June the company announced a loan of USD 35 million from BBVA for malt, hops and steel for crown caps.
Craft brewing began with Cervecería Tovar in 1999, which calls itself the pioneer; Pisse des Gottes followed in 2009 and Norte del Sur in 2012, and in 2013 the craft brewers formed their association, the ACAV; Benitz and La Coloniera brew at Colonia Tovar. Per head, Venezuelans drank about 90 litres of beer in 2007, the most in Latin America. The big brewers now look abroad and back: Polar Premium was made at Auburndale, Florida, for the United States (launched in November 2024) and in Spain (presented in Madrid in October 2025), while Regional brought back Cardenal in December 2025 in 250 ml cans and added Cardenal Ultra, with 67 kcal, in March 2026. Regional's two plants can brew 47 million litres a month.
