Concept
Zulia State (Estado Zulia, esˈtaðo ˈsulja; Wayuu: Mma’ipakat Suuria) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Maracaibo. As of the 2011 census, it has a population of 3,704,404, the largest population among Venezuela's states. It is also one of the few states (if not the only one) in Venezuela in which voseo (the use of vos as a second person singular pronoun) is widespread. The state is coterminous with the eponymous region of Zulia. Zulia State is in northwestern Venezuela, bordering Lake Maracaibo, the largest body of water of its kind in Latin America. Its basin covers one of the largest oil and gas reserves in the Western Hemisphere. Zulia is economically important to the country for its oil and mineral exploitation, but it is also one of the major agricultural areas of Venezuela, highlighting the region's contribution in areas such as livestock, bananas, fruits, meat, and milk. There are several competing theories about the origin of the state's name. One is that Guaimaral, son of the cacique Mara, was on pilgrimage in the Pamplona region, where he fell in love with the beautiful Zulia, but she was killed in a battle against the conquerors. Gaimaral sadly returned to his father's domains, naming rivers, towns and regions for his lost love there is little historical proof, but that is the most popular theory. The area that is now Zulia was first seen by Europeans in 1499 during an expedition commanded by Alonso de Ojeda. Transferred by the Crown of Spain to German Businessmen (to the banking company of the Welsers of Augsburg), in 1527, the Governorship and lands of the Province of Venezuela, was its factor and governor of: the Province Ambrosio Dalfinger, the first conqueror of those regions. His expedition from Coro to Maracaibo around 1528 and 1529 and the one he carried out at the end of 1529 along the eastern shore of the lake up to the mouth of the Motatán river, were the first occasions, after the discovery, in which they made contact the Europeans with the Indians living in Lake Maracaibo.
