“ The Positive and Negative Aspects of Chemistry”

In chemistry there are many advantages and disadvantages as well as the

deterioration of the environment as contributions to the cure of various diseases.
Now I will say all the advantages and disadvantages that chemistry has in
everyday life and in the world.

Advantages:

Use in daily life:

Development of new medicines for diseases that already exist in order to increase
the rate of life in the world.

New more durable materials such as plastic, fabrics, almost unbreakable glass,
etc. And thus help prevent environmental pollution by wasting less garbage.

Development of less harmful energy for humans without side effects, personal
cleaning items, soaps, creams, shampoo all with gentler effects on skin care, also
household cleaning items, more powerful drain cleaners, and removes dirt and
insecticides. which do not harm humans and do not affect the ozone layer.

It has also helped prevent the deterioration of the environment by creating

biodegradable materials, which are consumed faster than any other non-
biodegradable material and also materials that are not thrown away and have
countless uses.

There is also the use of chemistry in food, thus creating transgenic foods which
have more nutrients, vitamins and are more delicious in addition to their large size
and longer shelf life.

Disadvantages:

Chemistry also has its cons and these are some of them,

The deterioration of the environment with petrochemical detergents, and other

products.

Factories dump their chemical waste since it is much easier and cheaper to dump
their waste into the sea

In the air, the toxic gases produced by chemical and pharmaceutical factories due
to the consumption of fossil fuels.
.1.4 Classification of elements

The elements of the periodic table can be classified based on their electronic
configuration, in what is known as blocks :

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Thus, we can distinguish the following blocks depending on the orbital in which
their last electron is found:

1) Representative elements (syp blocks)

They are those whose last electron is housed in an s or p orbital respectively. The
s block groups the elements of groups 1 and 2 (alkaline and alkaline earth) and the
p six groups (13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18) of which the last two are halogens (17) and
noble gases ( 18).

2) Transition elements (block d)

They are the elements whose last electron is housed in a d orbital. They group the
elements of the central groups, from 3 to 12, to give a total of 10 groups.

3) Internal transition elements (block f)

They are those whose last electron is housed in an f orbital. It comprises two series
of 14 elements each, which are named after the element that precedes them in
their period: Lanthanides (4f orbital) and Actinides (5f orbital).

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Documentation Documentation
It also reacts with iron and copper , but if it is completely dry the reaction no longer
takes place. Therefore it can be stored in steel or iron cylinders.
Chlorine water can dissolve gold and platinum, which are metals that are very
resistant to chemical agents.
If it is dissolved in substances that provide a high concentration of hydroxyl ions, a
mixture of chloride and hypochlorite is formed. For example, with sodium hydroxide
(soda) it gives a mixture of sodium chloride and hypochlorite called Javel water.
Chlorine combines directly with most non-metallic elements, with the exception of
carbon , nitrogen and oxygen (of which chlorides are known, although obtained
indirectly). For example, with phosphorus it combines to form phosphorus
trichloride, and phosphorus pentachloride if there is excess chlorine.
Reactivity Summary
With air : Does not react
With H2O: Gentle; HOCl ; Cl-; Cl2(aq)
With 6M HCl: Gentle; HOCl ; Cl-
With HNO3
Gentle; HClOx; NOxCl ; NOx
15M:
With 6M NaOH: Gentle; OCl-; Cl-

Chlorine is a greenish-yellow gas with a penetrating and irritating odor, dense and
poisonous that can easily liquefy at a pressure of 6.8 atmospheres and at 20ºC.
Chlorine gas dissolves quite well in water: at atmospheric pressure and at 0ºC, 1
liter of water dissolves approximately 5 liters of chlorine gas giving a solution
known as chlorine water from which a hydrate can crystallize. Calcium Reacts
violently with water to form the hydroxide Ca(OH)2, releasing hydrogen . Aluminum
reacts easily with HCl, NaOH, perchloric acid, but generally resists corrosion due to
rust. However, when there are Cu++ and Cl- ions, its passivation disappears and it
is very reactive.
Alkylaluminiums, used in the polymerization of ethylene,[5] are so reactive that
they destroy human tissue and produce violent exothermic reactions upon contact
with air and water.[6] Magnesium also reacts with hydrochloric acid (HCl)
producing heat and hydrogen, which is released into the environment in the form of
bubbles. At high temperatures the reaction occurs even faster.
Magnesium is a highly flammable metal, which combusts easily when it is in the
form of chips or powder, while in the form of a solid mass it is less flammable.
Once lit, it is difficult to turn off, since it reacts with both nitrogen present in the air
(forming magnesium nitrate) and carbon dioxide (forming magnesium and carbon
oxide).

For its usefulness

Below we will explain a little about which elements are most used.
Calcium ions act as a cofactor in many enzymatic reactions, they are involved in
glycogen metabolism , together with potassium and sodium they regulate muscle
contraction. The percentage of calcium in organisms is variable and depends on
the species, but on average it represents 2.45% in all living beings; in vegetables, it
only represents 0.007%.
In common speech, the word calcium is used to refer to its aluminum salts. This
metal has a combination of properties that make it very useful in mechanical
engineering , such as its low density (2,700 kg/m3) and its high resistance to
corrosion. Using suitable alloys, its mechanical resistance can be significantly
increased (up to 690 MPa). It is a good conductor of electricity , is easily machined
and is relatively cheap. For all these reasons, it is the most used metal after steel.
Under normal conditions of pressure and temperature , oxygen is in a gaseous
state forming diatomic molecules (O2) that, despite being unstable, are generated
during the photosynthesis of plants and are subsequently used by animals in
respiration (see oxygen cycle). oxygen). It can also be found in liquid form in
laboratories. If it reaches a temperature lower than -219°C, it becomes a blue
crystalline solid. Its valence is 2.
Copper is part of a very high number of alloys that generally have better
mechanical properties, although they have lower electrical conductivity. The most
important are known as bronzes and brass. On the other hand, copper is a durable
metal because it can be recycled an almost unlimited number of times without
losing its mechanical properties.
It was one of the first metals to be used by humans in prehistory . Copper and its
alloy with tin , bronze, acquired so much importance that historians have called two
periods of Antiquity the Copper Age and the Bronze Age. Although its use lost
relative importance with the development of the steel industry, copper and its alloys
continued to be used to make objects as diverse as coins, bells and cannons.
Starting in the 19th century, specifically with the invention of the electric generator
in 1831 by Faraday, copper once again became a strategic metal, being the main
raw material for cables and electrical installations.
Copper has an important biological role in the photosynthesis process of plants,
although it is not part of the composition of chlorophyll. Copper contributes to the
formation of red blood cells and the maintenance of blood vessels, nerves, the
immune system and bones and is therefore an essential trace element for human
life.[9]
Copper is found in a large amount of common foods in the diet such as oysters,
shellfish, legumes, organ meats and nuts among others, in addition to drinking
water and therefore it is very rare for a copper deficiency to occur in the body.
Copper imbalance causes a liver disease known as Wilson's disease in the body.
Copper is the third most used metal in the world, behind steel and aluminum.
World refined copper production was estimated at 15.8 Mt in 2006, with a deficit of
10.7% compared to projected world demand of 17.7 Mt.[11] Fuels are bodies
capable of combining with oxygen with the release of heat. The products of
combustion are generally gases. For practical reasons, combustion should be
neither too fast nor too slow.
A distinction can be made between fuels burned in homes and fuels used in
combustion engines ; Although all fuels can be used as fuels, the same does not
happen vice versa.
Classification and use of fuels:
The different fuels and fuels used can be: solid, liquid or gaseous.

Due to its economic impact

In the following paragraphs I will explain a little of the great economic impact that
some elements have.

Fuels and fuels. Fuels are bodies capable of combining with oxygen with the
release of heat. The products of combustion are generally gases. For practical
reasons, combustion should be neither too fast nor too slow. A distinction can be
made between fuels burned in homes and fuels used in combustion engines;
Although all fuels can be used as fuels, the same does not happen vice versa.
Classification and use of fuels: The different fuels and fuels used can be: solid,
liquid or gaseous. Solid fuels.

Natural coals: Natural coals come from the slow transformation, out of contact with
air, of large vegetal masses accumulated in certain regions during geological
periods. The carbonization process, in some cases, is very old, in addition to other
factors influencing it, such as environmental conditions and the type of original
plant. Numerous theories have been put forward to explain the formation of coal
mines, but none are completely satisfactory. Wood: Wood is used mainly in
domestic heating. In industrial homes, except in countries where it is very
abundant, it is not usually used.

Liquid fuels. Oil: Found in certain regions of the globe (United States, Venezuela,
USSR, etc.) in underground deposits, it is extracted by drilling that can reach a
depth of 7000 m. The crude oil, which contains water and sand, is taken to settling
containers; If it is not refined at the extraction site, it is transported through drawn
steel pipes, with an internal diameter of 5 to 35 cm, which are called pipelines.
Crude oil, a liquid of very variable appearance, is an extremely complex mixture of
numerous hydrocarbons, with small quantities of other substances. Depending on
their origin, saturated hydrocarbons or cyclic hydrocarbons predominate; But in all
oils the two types of hydrocarbons exist in very variable proportions.

Gaseous fuels. Natural gas: Inside the Earth's crust there are pockets that contain
significant quantities of combustible gases whose origin is probably analogous to
that of petroleum. The pressure of these gases is usually high, which allows their
economical distribution to large regions. They are made up mainly of methane, with
small amounts of butane, and even liquid hydrocarbons. These, once extracted,
constitute a good source of gasoline. Butane and Propane: They are extracted
from crude oil, in which they are dissolved. They also originate from the various oil
treatment operations. They are easily liquefiable at low pressure and can be
transported in liquid form in light metal containers. They are used as domestic
gases in regions where there is no distribution of lighting gas.

Hydrogen: Pure hydrogen, generally produced by electrolysis of water, is used as a

fuel only in autogenous welding and in the manufacture of synthetic gemstones. In
this case it is irreplaceable: since it does not contain carbon, there is no danger of
it altering the transparency of the stones. Acetylene: It is obtained by the action of
water on calcium carbide. It gives a very hot and very bright flame. It is used in
welding and for lighting; but these are accessory applications: acetylene is, above
all, an important intermediate in numerous industrial chemical syntheses

Due to its environmental impact

In the following summary we can find which elements are very harmful to the
environment and humans:

As lead is found in nature in the form of carbonate and sulfate, almost all lead in
commerce is obtained from the sulfide that constitutes the mineral galena.

It is a gray metal, heavy, soft and not very resistant to traction. Freshly cut, it has a
shiny surface that, exposed to air, quickly tarnishes due to oxidation; The opaque
layer of oxide protects it from further attack.

Lead reacts very slowly with hydrochloric acid, and cold sulfuric acid barely attacks
it, forming insoluble sulfate that preserves it from its further action. Lead brought
into contact with hard water is covered with a protective layer of insoluble salts,
such as sulfate, basic bicarbonate or phosphate. Distilled water and rainwater,
which do not contain dissolved substances capable of forming this film, attack the
metal due to the dissolved oxygen, and form lead hydroxide, which is somewhat
soluble.

Soluble lead compounds are poisonous, and therefore lead pipes for carrying
drinking water can only be safely used if the water is somewhat hard.

Lead is used to make plumbing tubes and coat electrical cables. Sulfuric acid
installations and lead batteries are also used.

Lead vapors are the cause of a major disease called lead poisoning, characterized
among other symptoms by anorexia, persistent constipation, anemia, muscular
paralysis, insomnia, anxiety, etc. It usually affects miners who extract lead,
typographers, painters and those who manufacture accumulators.

There are important differences in the epidemiology and clinical manifestations of

lead poisoning in children and adults.

In children, the disease must be due to malacia or pica (perversion of appetite that
leads the child to eat things unsuitable for nutrition) or biting objects decorated with
paints that contain lead.
In adults, lead poisoning is commonly occupational in origin although it can rarely
be caused by the consumption of contaminated food or beverages.

Symptoms in children are: abdominal pain, vomiting, drowsiness, irritability,

weakness or seizures; coma, signs of increased intracranial pressure.

In adults: anorexia, constipation, intestinal discomfort, weakness, fatigue,

headache, paleness. In severe cases there may be abdominal spasms. The lead
line can only appear when there is a deficiency in oral hygiene.

Arsenic:

Arsenic is found free in nature, and also combined in various minerals: realgar, red,
orpiment, yellow, mispiquel

Or arsenical pyrite, cobaltine and arseniosite.

Arsenic trioxide is obtained by roasting arsenic ores; he oxidizes sublimes and

collects as white dust in the chimney.

Arsenic is a brittle, crystalline, steel-gray solid. It sublimes easily, forming toxic

yellow vapors with a sweet smell.

Arsenic exists in three allotropic forms: gray crystalline, yellow crystalline and black
amorphous.

The yellow variety is analogous to white phosphorus. The gray variety structurally
resembles violet phosphorus.

Arsenic is relatively inert at ordinary temperatures, but when heated in air it burns
as a bluish flame producing white clouds of the solid trioxide.

Although all soluble arsenic compounds are poisonous, some have medicinal uses.
Those who consume it acquire a certain tolerance to it and can take larger
quantities than other unaccustomed people.

Arsenic compounds are used in agriculture in sprays and dips for livestock, in order
to destroy insects and parasites.

Symptoms of arsenic ingestion are:

Metallic taste, burning pain in the esophagus and stomach, cramping pains,
vomiting and profuse diarrhea with "rice water" stools. Followed by bloody stools,
depression, intense thirst, dry mouth and throat, sensation of constriction in the
throat, alliaceous smell of breath and feces, vertigo, central headache, muscle
cramps, cold, slimy skin; Pulse small, rapid and weak; cold extremities, cyanosis,
longing breathing, stupor, circulatory collapse, convulsions, coma skin rashes,
oliguria, albuminuria, hematuria.

Tin:

It is found in nature in a weight proportion slightly higher than 0.003% and usually
occurs in combination, especially in the form of oxide or cassiterite, very abundant
in Bolivia, Indonesia, and Malacia.

Tin is a white metal, softer than zinc, but harder than lead. At 200°C it becomes
very brittle and can be pulverized.

Tin is used as a protective coating for the iron in tinplate. Tinplate is used to make
boats and similar objects.

Tin is also used in the manufacture of alloys, such as manmade (copper, tin),
solder metal (tin, lead), and printing metal (tin, lead and antimony.

Alloys rich in tin are used to make the anti-friction metal (white metal), with which
the inside of the bearings is coated. The alloy with lead constitutes the basis of the
so-called soft solders.

Stanic oxide is slightly harmful, and if strong doses are inhaled, an increase in
temperature may occur; repeated inhalation often causes neuropathy.

Stanic chloride can cause bronchial irritation and pulmonary enema.

Organic tin derivatives are very toxic and can cause agitation and delirium, which is
often followed by a coma with intracranial hypertension.

Mercury:

It is found native in nature in some cases, but its most abundant mineral is
cinnabar. It only represents 0.5 ppm of the Earth's crust.

It is the only metal that, at ordinary temperatures, adopts the liquid state.

It does not oxidize in air at ordinary temperatures, but combines slowly with oxygen
when kept in the atmosphere near its boiling point. Due to its general inactivity and
reduced vapor pressure, vacuum pumps are used, and in the laboratory, to confine
gases.

At high temperatures, mercury vapor conducts electric current.

Mercury forms amalgams with many metals, liquid when the proportion of the other
metal is small, but pasty and even solid when said proportion increases. Tin, silver
and gold amalgams are used in dentistry.

Despite its beneficial medical applications, mercury causes poisoning (such as

mercurial stomatitis and hydragyrism) that affects various organs, especially the
kidney and the digestive and nervous systems.

Acute mercurial poisoning:

Symptoms: When the poison has been ingested in concentrated form it produces:
burning pain in the mouth, throat and stomach, salivation, pain, colic, severe
vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, copious loss of fluids.

Chronic mercurial poisoning:

This poisoning can be a consequence of inhalation of mercury vapors or dust of

mercurial salts. Mercury can be absorbed through intact skin.

Alkyl mercury compounds can cause mental disturbances; Excitement followed by

depression, which can be severe and long lasting.

Cadmium:

As it is more volatile than zinc, the cadmium contained in zinc ores is found in the
first portion of the metal obtained; It is separated from zinc by fractional distillation.
It is also separated and recovered in the electrolytic refining of zinc. If the voltage is
properly regulated, only pure zinc is deposited; The cadmium remains in the anode
mud from which it is recovered by distillation.

Cadmium is white with a slight bluish tone, being much more malleable than zinc.

It is mainly used in the preparation of low-melting alloys for automatic fire

extinguishers and fuses, and also for coating iron to protect it from oxidation.
Cadmium rods are used in nuclear reactors to absorb neutrons and regulate the
fission process.

The most important soluble salts of cadmium are chloride, efflorescent and sulfate.
The hydrated cadmium ion is a weak acid.

Symptoms:

Ingestion: violent gastric and abdominal spasms, vomiting, diarrhea. By inhalation:

pharyngeal dryness, cough, sensation of chest constriction; brown color of urine
(cadmium oxide): intense, cold skin.
Zinc; It is a bright white metal with a bluish-gray luster, soluble in acids and alkalis
and insoluble in water. It makes up 0.013% of the Earth's crust. It is not found
natively, although in a small proportion it is frequently found in the composition of
different rocks.

The ores used in zinc metallurgy are oxide, carbonate and sulfide.

Zinc is a metal that is brittle at ordinary temperatures, but malleable between 120°
and 150°C, then maintaining its flexibility when cooled.

The metal is chemically active and displaces hydrogen from dilute acids, although
its action is very slow when pure. It does not change in dry air, but in humid air it
oxidizes, covering itself with an adherent film of basic carbonate that protects it
from any further action. Sufficiently heated in air, it burns as a greenish flame,
giving white zinc oxide.

Zinc is used for roofing, gutters and cornices.

It is also used in electric batteries as an anode, and is part of alloys such as brass,
Babbitt metal and German silver.

Sulfur is an element necessary for life in small quantities. Sulfate is one of the most
abundant salts in the sea. Sulfur is rarely a limiting factor for plants, except in very
poor soils or in swamps distant from the ocean. Plants use sulfur to make an
organic substance that passes into the food chain, is released as waste and, after
decomposition, returns to the water as sulfate. This part of the cycle, in Figure
25.2, is similar to the phosphorus cycle in Figure 2.3 and the nitrogen cycle
Some of the organic matter from plant production, with sulfur, enters peat and
aquatic sediments, and eventually becomes coal and oil. When water is filtered into
organic deposits, the sulfate contained in the water is transformed into hydrogen
sulfide by microorganisms that use the oxygen in the sulfate. Some reactions with
iron salts form particles of iron sulfates (a yellow mineral called "fool's gold"), this is
how coal and oil are enriched with sulfur.
Dmitri Mendeleev
(08/02/1834 - 02/02/1907)

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev Russian chemist

He was born on February 8, 1834 in Tobolsk ( Siberia ).

He studied Chemistry at the University of Saint Petersburg and in 1859 at the

University of Heidelberg, where he met the Italian chemist Stanislao Cannizzaro .
He returned to Saint Petersburg and worked as professor of chemistry at the
Technical Institute in 1863 and professor of general chemistry at Saint Petersburg
University in 1866.

He wrote the two volumes of Principles of Chemistry (1868-1870). He attempted to

classify elements according to their chemical properties. In 1869 he published the
first version of the periodic table. In 1871 he published a corrected version. He also
conducted research studying the chemical theory of dissolution, the thermal
expansion of liquids, and the nature of petroleum.

In 1887 he began a solo balloon trip to study a solar eclipse.

In 1893 he was appointed director of the Department of Weights and Measures in

Saint Petersburg.

Dmitri Mendeleev died on February 2, 1907 in Saint Petersburg.

Characters in the history of chemistry

1 Plato: (428 -347BC) denies the use of observation and sensitive experience as a
method of investigation of reality.

2 Empedocles: 493 – 433 BC), which expresses a tendency to recover the

confidence of the senses. This philosopher accepts the idea that reality is eternal
and is made up of four primary substances: fire, air, earth and water.

3 Archimedes: 287 – 212 BC The famous Greek wise man Archimedes discovered
almost by chance the principle that bears his name, which states a law of
hydrostatics (which establishes that any body immersed in a liquid experiences a
loss of weight equal to the weight of the volume of the liquid it displaces) while
bathed, observing how the water moved and overflowed.

4 Aristotle: 530 BC. Aristotle assumed that the sky constituted a fifth element,
ether.

5 Democritus: (460 – 370 BC) constitute the highest representatives of the Atomist
School. The hypothesis about the atomic nature of the substance, and the notion
that is derived from it about the composition of substances as mixtures of different
atoms that differ from each other by their sizes and shapes, is an integration in the
controversy between reason and the senses

6 Pythagoras: (582 – 500 BC) disdain the role of the senses in knowledge and
declare the empire of reason.
7 Anaximenes: (570-500 BC) the basic element was Fog. The transformations of
the fog enable quantitative changes that translate into qualitative changes: if the
fog becomes rarer it gives rise to fire; If, on the other hand, it condenses, it will
progressively give rise to clouds, water, earth and rocks.

8 Anaximander: (611 – 547BC) appeals to a conceptual entity of maximum

generalization: the apeiron to define the indeterminate or infinite that can assume
the form of any of the vital elements for man, be it fire, air, water, the earth.

9 Thales: (625 – 546 BC) elaborates the thesis that the diversity of things finds
unity in a primary element. In terms of question, its inquiry can be summarized as
follows: Can any substance be transformed into another in such a way that all
substances would be nothing more than different aspects of a basic matter?

Thales' answer to this question is affirmative, and implies the introduction of order
in the universe and a basic simplicity. It remained to decide what that basic subject
or “element” was. Thales proposed that this primordial element was water.

10 Heraclitus of Ephesus: (540 – 475 BC) differs from his predecessors when he
adopts the position of seeing change as the main characteristic of the Universe
and, in accordance with this vision, proposes fire as a primary, dynamic element in
the processes of change. . At the center of his line of thought we find dialectic: the
stability of things is temporary and reflects the harmony of opposites, eternal
change is given by the rupture of this harmony.

11 Euripides: 485-406 BC It could be that Euripides was the inventor of the divine
filiation of Ion

12 Robert Boyle: January 25, 1627 – London, December 30, 1691 observed that
air is consumed in the combustion process and that metals gain weight when they
oxidize. He recognized the difference between a compound and a mixture, and
formulated his atomic theory of matter based on his laboratory experiments. Gas
Laws

13 John Dalton: (1766-1844), His most important contribution to science was his
theory that matter is composed of atoms of different masses that combine in simple
proportions to form compounds. Dalton arrived at his atomic theory through the
study of the physical properties of atmospheric air and other gases. In the course
of his research, he discovered the law known as Dalton's law of partial pressures,
according to which the pressure exerted by a mixture of gases is equal to the sum
of the partial pressures that each of the gases would exert if He alone will occupy
the total volume of the mixture.

14 JJ” Thomson: Born in the city of Cheetham Hill, a district of Manchester in

England, on December 18, 1856, he graduated from the Faculty of Cambridge,
United Kingdom, August 30, 1940), a prominent British scientist of his time,
discoverer of the electron, of isotopes and inventor of the mass spectrometer. In
1906 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

15 Albert Einstein: born in the Bavarian city of Ulm on March 14, 1879, on this
occasion we want to highlight a letter written by him addressed to the president FR
Roosevelt, at the beginning of the Second World War, between 1939 and 1945; He
deduced the most popular physics equation: the mass-energy equivalence, E=mc²,
sadly and debatable, he is called the "father of the atomic bomb", but he advocated
world peace, theory of gravitational and electromagnetic forces. the laser, the
optical fiber or the chip, in the last century was proclaimed as the "character of the
20th century."

CLASSIFICATION OF CHEMISTRY

Chemistry is known as the science that studies the composition and properties of
matter, as well as the changes it experiences and the energy associated with them.
The chemical changes and the energy they produce are so important that they
have found application in various professional fields such as engineering and
architecture, for which chemistry produces stainless steel, paints, bricks, glass, etc.

In the field of medicine, chemistry has been very useful in the fight against
microorganisms that cause diseases, through the production of vaccines, serums,
antibiotics, anesthetics and other products. For agriculture, chemistry provides
fertilizers and insecticides. The energy from the combustion of gasoline is used to
spin turbines in a power plant and produce electricity. In general, it can be said that
most of the activities of the human race receive support from chemistry to develop.

Chemistry is one of the natural sciences (Physics, Chemistry and Biology) and with
which it has a close relationship and has evolved to such a degree that today
several sciences (branches of chemistry) are known that have an intimate
relationship between them. Some examples of these sciences are:

Inorganic Chemistry Soil Chemistry Electrochemistry

Organic Chemistry Water Chemistry Industrial Chemistry

Analytical Chemistry Materials Chemistry Food Chemistry

Physical-Chemistry Nuclear Chemistry Chemical-Physiological

Biochemistry Petrochemistry Pharmacochemistry

Inorganic Chemistry is responsible for the study of chemical elements and their
compounds, except carbon (mineral chemistry)

Organic Chemistry studies carbon compounds (derived from living beings and oil).

Analytical Chemistry aims to identify, separate and quantitatively determine the

composition of different substances.

Physical Chemistry fundamentally studies the structure of matter, energy changes,

laws, principles and theories that explain the transformations from one form of
matter to another.

Biochemistry is dedicated to the study of substances that are part of living

organisms (cellular metabolisms).

However, due to the great development that chemistry has had in the 19th and
20th centuries, it has been necessary to expand the number of branches, among
which are: electrochemistry, nuclear chemistry, petrochemistry, radiochemistry and
others. .

Without a doubt, the development of chemistry in all its fields will make it
necessary to open other branches, since these divisions have progressively
intermingled, giving rise to combined sciences such as: Organometallic Chemistry,
Electroanalytical Chemistry, etc.

Currently, it is necessary to reclassify the fields of chemistry according to the

natural boundaries of contemporary research.

Classification of chemical elements

The most fundamental classification of chemical elements is into metals and non-
metals.

Metals are characterized by their shiny appearance, ability to change shape

without breaking (malleable), and excellent conductivity of heat and electricity.

Nonmetals are characterized by lacking these physical properties, although there

are some exceptions (for example, solid iodine is shiny; graphite is an excellent
conductor of electricity; and diamond is an excellent conductor of heat).
The chemical characteristics are: metals tend to lose electrons to form positive ions
and non-metals tend to gain electrons to form negative ions. When a metal reacts
with a non-metal, there is usually a transfer of one or more electrons from the first
to the second.

Property of metals

They have low ionization potential and high specific weight

As a general rule, in their last energy level they have 1 to 3 electrons.

They are solids except for mercury (Hg), gallium (Ga), cesium (Cs) and francium
(Fr), which are liquids.

They have a metallic appearance and shine

They are good conductors of heat and electricity

They are ductile and malleable, some are tough, others soft

They oxidize due to loss of electrons

Its molecule is made up of a single atom, its crystalline structure when it joins with
oxygen forms oxides and these when reacting with water form hydroxides.
Alkaline elements are the most active

General properties of non-metals

They have a tendency to gain electrons

They have high ionization potential and low specific weight

As a general rule, in their last energy level they have 4 to 7 electrons

They occur in the three physical states of aggregation

They do not have a metallic appearance or shine.

They are poor conductors of heat and electricity

They are not ductile, malleable, or tenacious.

They are reduced by electron gain

Its molecules are made up of two or more atoms

When they join with oxygen they form anhydrides and these, when they react with
water, form oxyacids.

Halogens and oxygen are the most active

Several non-metals exhibit allotropy

Most elements are classified as metals. Metals are found on the left side and in the
center of the periodic table. Non-metals, which are relatively few, are found in the
upper right corner of this table. Some elements have metallic and non-metallic
behavior and are classified as metalloids and semimetals.

Nonmetals also have variable properties, just like metals. In general, the elements
that most effectively attract electrons from metals are found in the upper right
corner of the periodic table.

Periodic table

The Russian Dimitri Mendeleev and the German Julio Lotear Meyer, working
separately, managed to organize the chemical elements, based on their physical
and chemical properties.

The long periodic table was proposed by Alfred Warner and Henry Moseley was
the one who proposed that the order of the elements should be the atomic number
and not the atomic weight.

Brief description of the properties and applications of some elements of the

Periodic Table.

Noble gases or rare gases

Noble gases, also called rare or inert gases, enter, in a small proportion, in the
composition of atmospheric air. Helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon
belong to this group, which are characterized by their chemical inactivity, since
they have full electrons in the last shell. They therefore have no tendency to lose or
gain electrons. Hence their valence is zero or they are called inert, although today
there is a reservation to this statement that compounds of neon, xeron or krypton
have already been synthesized with oxygen, fluorine and water.

Helium is found in the air; Neon and krypton are used in lighting for their bright
colors that they emit when excited, radon is radioactive.

Group I, alkali metals

Alkali metals are those found in the first group on the periodic table.

With the exception of hydrogen, they are all white, shiny, very active, and are found
combined in the form of compounds. They should be stored in an inert atmosphere
or under oil.

Alkali metal compounds are isomorphic, as are saline ammonium compounds. This
radical presents great analogies with the metals of this group.

These metals, whose atoms have a single electron in the outer shell, are
monovalent. Given their atomic structure, they easily give up the valence electron
and pass into the ionic state. This explains the electropositive character they
possess, as well as other properties.

The most important ones are sodium and potassium, their salts are used
industrially on a large scale.

Group II, alkaline earth metals

The six elements that make up group IIA of the periodic system are known as
alkaline earth metals: beryllium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, barium and
radium. They are bivalent and are called alkaline earth metals because of the
earthy appearance of their oxides.

Radium is a radioactive element.

These elements are very active although not as much as those of group I. They are
good conductors of heat and electricity, they are white and shiny.

As the name indicates, they exhibit intermediate properties between alkali and
earth metals; Magnesium and, above all, beryllium are the ones that most closely
resemble these.
They do not exist in their natural state, because they are too active and, generally,
they occur forming silicates, carbonates, chlorides and sulfates, generally
insoluble.

These metals are difficult to obtain, so their use is very restricted.

Group III, boron family

Boron is less metallic than the others. Aluminum is amphoteric. Gallium, indium
and thallium are rare and exist in trace amounts. Boron has a broad chemistry of
study.

Group IV, Carbon Family

The study of carbon compounds corresponds to Organic Chemistry. Elemental

carbon exists as diamond and graphite.

Silicon is beginning to be widely studied due to its similarity to carbon. The

remaining elements have more metallic properties.

Group V, nitrogen family

This group is considered the most heterogeneous in the periodic table. Nitrogen is
present in compounds such as proteins, fertilizers, explosives and is a constituent
of air. As you can see, it is both a beneficial and harmful element. Phosphorus
already has a special chemistry of study, its compounds are generally toxic.
Arsenic is a poisonous metalloid. Antimony is very similar to aluminum, its
applications are more than one metal.

Group VI, Collagens

The first five elements are non-metallic, the last, polonium, is radioactive. Oxygen
is a colorless gas that makes up air. The water and the land. Sulfur is a yellow solid
and its compounds are generally toxic or corrosive. The chemistry of tellurium and
selenium is complex.

Group VII, halogens

Fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine and astatine, called halogen metalloids,

constitute the group of monovalent nonmetals. All of them are colored in a gaseous
state and, from a chemical point of view, they present very pronounced
electronegative properties, from which the great affinity they have with hydrogen
and metals is derived.

Salt formers are found combined in nature due to their great activity. The salts of
these elements with those of groups I and II are in the seas. The properties of
halogens are very similar. Most of its derived compounds are toxic, irritating, active
and have wide application in both industry and the laboratory.

Astatinium or astatine differs a little from the rest of the group.

Transition elements

This is a family made up of groups IIIB, IVB, VB, VIB, VIIB, IB and IIB, among
which are the elements copper, iron, zinc, gold, silver, nickel and platinum.

The characteristics of transition metals are very varied, some are found in nature in
the form of compounds; others are free

These elements are not as active as the representative ones, they are all metals
and therefore are ductile, malleable, tenacious, with high melting and boiling
points, conductors of heat and electricity. They have seed orbitals, and due to this
is their variability in oxidation state.

Due to the oxidation state, the compounds are colorful.

SOME ELEMENTS THAT CAUSE POLLUTION

In nature there are some elements that, due to their structure or in combination
with others in the form of compounds, are harmful to man, since they are
environmental polluting agents; especially from the air, water and soil, or because
they cause irreversible damage to human beings, such as death.

Some of these elements are:

Antimony (Sb) and textiles.- It is used in alloys, printing metal, batteries, ceramics.
The main damage it causes is poisoning by ingestion or inhalation of vapors,
mainly by a gas called stibnite SbH3.

Arsenic (As) medicines and glass. It is used in ant poisons, insecticides, paints. It
is one of the most poisonous elements there is, as well as all compounds.
Sulfur (S) They are mainly oxides SO2 and SO3 that pollute the air and produce
acid rain with water. Substances such as chlorinated sulfur derivatives, sulfates
and acids are corrosive. H2S gas is extremely toxic and pollutes the air. Sulfur is
used in some skin medications.

Bromine (Br) Its vapors pollute the air, and its derived compounds are tear-
inducing and poisonous.

Cadmium (Cd) Toxic metal that originates from the refining of zinc; It also comes
from electrodeposition operations and therefore contaminates the air and water.
Contained in some fertilizers contaminates the soil.

Chlorine (Cl) Its values pollute the air and are corrosive. It is used in the form of
chlorates to whiten clothes, for mouthwashes and to make matches. Chlorates are
soluble in water and contaminate it, in addition to forming explosive mixtures with
organic compounds.

Values of chlorinated organic compounds such as insecticides, anesthetics and

solvents damage the liver and brain. Some medications containing chlorine affect
the nervous system.

Chromium (Cr) Chromium and its compounds are harmful to the body, as they
destroy all cells. It is used in organic syntheses and in the steel industry. Any
soluble chromates contaminate the water.

Magnesium (Mn) It is used in the manufacture of steel and dry batteries. Inhalation
of dusts and fumes containing magnesium causes poisoning. It also pollutes water
and atrophies the brain.

Mercury (Hg) Metals that are very useful because they are liquid; It is used in
thermometers and because it is a good electrical conduit, it is used in devices of
this type, as well as in lighting, fungicidal paints, catalysts, dental amalgams,
pesticides, etc. but it contaminates water, air and causes poisoning. Algae absorb
it, then fish and finally man. The grains or seeds retain it and finally the man eats
them.

Lead (Pb) Lead accumulates in the body as it is inhaled from the air or ingested
with food and water. Most of the lead that pollutes the air comes from automobile
gasoline, which is added to provide anti-knock properties. It is also used in paints,
as printing metal, solders and batteries. Due to its use, the body is affected by lead
poisoning. Its salts, like acetate, are poisonous.
There are other elements that in some way contaminate water, air and soil such
as: thallium, zinc, selenium, nitrogen oxygen, beryllium, cobalt and above all a
large number of compounds that have carbon. (Organic).

Aluminum (Al): Light metal, resistant to corrosion and impact, it can be laminated
and spun, which is why it is used in construction, in parts of vehicles, airplanes and
in household items. It is extracted from bauxite.

Sulfur (S): Non-metal, yellow solid, found in volcanic deposits and sulphurous
waters. It is used in the production of fertilizers, medicines, insecticides, chemical
and petrochemical products.

Cobalt (Co): White metal that is used in the production of special steels due to its
high resistance to heat, corrosion and friction. It is used in high-speed mechanical
tools, magnets and motors. In powder form it is used as a blue pigment for glass. It
is a catalyst. Its radioactive isotope is used as a blue pigment for glass. It is a
catalyst

Copper (Cu): Red metal that carbonates in humid air and turns green, known since
ancient times. It is mainly used as an electrical conductor, also to make coins and
in alloys such as brass and bronze.

Iron (Fe): Ductile, malleable blackish-gray metal that oxidizes on contact with
humid air. It is extracted from minerals such as hematin, limonite, pyrite, magnetite
and siderite. It is used in the art and medicine industry. To make steel, cement,
non-ferrous metal castings, our blood contains it in hemoglobin.

Fluorine (F): This non-metal is contained in the fluorite CaF2 in the form of veins
embedded in limestone. Florite is used as a flux in metallurgical furnaces. To
obtain HF, NHF4 and etch glass; also in the chemical, ceramic and water
purification industries.

Phosphorus (P): Non-metallic element found in phosphate rock containing P2 O5

in phosphorite Ca3 (PO4)2. Bones and teeth contain this element.

It has applications for the production of detergents, plastics, lacquers, paints,

livestock and poultry food.

Mercury (Hg): Liquid metal at room temperature, bright white heat, resistant to
corrosion and a good electrical conductor. It is used in the manufacture of precision
instruments, batteries, thermometers, barometers, dental amalgams, caustic soda,
medicines, insecticides and fungicides and bactericides.

It is obtained mainly from cinnabar which contains HgS.

Silver (Ag): White metal, its main use has been the minting of coins and the
manufacture of tableware and jewelry. It is used in photography, electrical
appliances, alloys, welding.

Lead (Pb): Soft metal with a low melting point, low elastic limit, resistant to
corrosion, it is obtained from the sulfide called galena Pbs. It is used in batteries or
accumulators, paint pigments, linotypes. Welding and atomic research. Other
products that can be recovered from the minerals it contains are: cadmium, copper,
gold, silver, bismuth, arsenic, tellurium and antimony.

Gold (Au): Yellow metal, unalterable, ductile, shiny, due to its properties and rarity
make it exceptional and of great value. It is the international monetary standard. In
nature it is found associated with platinum, silver and tellurium in some cases. Its
alloys are used in jewelry and ornaments, dental pieces, and scientific laboratory
equipment. Its uses in jewelry have recently been replaced by iridium and
ruthenium, and in dental pieces by platinum and palladium.

Uranium (U): Used as nuclear fuel, it is a rare element in nature and never occurs
in a free state. There are 150 minerals that contain it. Thorium is associated with
uranium.
Transformations Derived from Oil Exploitation
Published on March 10, 2012 by isaura
Transformations Derived from Oil Exploitation

I.- Changes in the economic structure

During the oil period, a set of changes of great importance occurred in the
organization and functioning of the national economy, which largely guided the
type of economic, political and social development that has occurred in the country
since then. We can highlight the most important changes:

1.- The oil industry has become the fundamental sector of the Venezuelan
economy.

The fundamental sector of an economy is understood to be the one that has the
greatest influence on productive activity and general economic growth. In the
previous period, export agriculture occupied that key place, hence the entire
economic, social and political life of the country revolved around it. The rapid
growth of oil production and exports allowed them to quickly surpass those of the
agricultural sector (1926) with which the oil industry became the fundamental
sector of our economic structure. This change will have profound implications on
the life of the country.

Firstly, it is a foreign sector, whose decisions are made from abroad, which from
the beginning placed our country in a new situation of dependence with respect to
the countries of origin of the oil companies; dependence not only economic and
technological, but also political. From then on, the open or covert intervention of
foreign governments, especially that of the United States, in our internal politics
was institutionalized, justifying it with the defense of the interests of their
companies in our country.

Secondly, income from export agriculture circulated throughout almost the entire
country, covering important sectors of the Venezuelan population, while oil income
barely directly benefited a number of employees and workers that never exceeded
3 % of the working population. On the other hand, these companies acquired all
their materials and equipment abroad, as well as the consumer goods that their
workers needed, becoming enclaves separated from the rest of the national
economy, without direct links with other sectors, which made them Its growth would
have almost zero direct importance on the rest of the economy. In this sense, its
fundamental effect was exerted indirectly through the payment of taxes and
royalties to the Venezuelan State, which, as we have already pointed out, makes
the government's public spending policy of decisive importance for the destiny of
the country.

Oil production, which was 502,000 barrels per day in 1940, rises to 1,500,000 in
1950, to 2,849,000 in 1960 and to 3,708,000 in 1970. As of this last year, it tends
to decrease slightly, but its contribution to the country's economy grows
considerably due to the rise in oil prices, which from around 2 bolivars per barrel in
the 1960s rose, in 1974, to more than 13 dollars, in such a way that the oil industry
maintains to this day its condition as a fundamental sector of the Venezuelan
economy, as proven by the following indicators calculated for 1973.

a) Oil represents 95% of the value of Venezuelan exports.

b) Oil represents approximately 55% of the value of the country's physical product,
that is, a value equal to that of all national industrial, mining and agricultural
production.

c) Oil directly contributes 70% of the State's ordinary income.

d) Oil directly contributes 60% of all the foreign currencies that enter the country,
which are what are used to pay for our imports.

2.- The exploitation of iron ore.

In 1950, iron ore exploitation began in the Bolívar State, carried out, like oil, by
foreign companies representing large international trusts, the Iron Mines of
Venezuela, a subsidiary of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation and the Orinoco.
Mining, of the Unired Steel Corporation, North American consortiums.

The history of iron repeats the series of venalities initiated by the oil companies.
Let's see how Dr. Salvador de la Plaza related them:

“In 1925 the El Pao deposits were discovered and in 1927 an exploitation
concession was granted to a Mr. Boccardo, from Ciudad Bolívar, who transferred it
in 1932 to Iron Mines Co., a subsidiary of the North American trusi Bethlehem
Steel Corporation. These deposits are located in the Piar District of Bolívar State
and the concession surface covers 8,600 hectares. Surprisingly, in 1928, a new
Mining Law was passed with the sole purpose of modifying the articles relating to
the exploitation tax and in such a way, as we will see later, that the
concessionaires were exempt from paying it. Iron, despite the fact that the
concession had been granted to Boccardo in 1927, was granted in 1932 the
“grace” to convert its concession to that new Law, so it was exempt from paying
exploitation tax.”

“The fact that North American trusts, including Bethlehem Steel with the
concession to Iron, began to be interested in Venezuelan iron, mainly due to the
fact that the very rich high-grade deposits of the United States were showing signs
of near depletion, It led the Government of that time to appoint in 1937 a
Commission for the study and exploration of Guyana, especially with regard to iron.
In 1939, that Commission provided an extensive study on the Sierra Imataca.”

“On November 10, 1946 and under the name of Oliver Iron Mining Co., the Orinoco
Mining Co., a subsidiary of the North American trust United State Steel
Corporation, requested and obtained from the State the concession to exploit some
iron deposits in the Heres District. of the Bolívar State. A concession had been
granted over those same deposits to a Mr. Alfredo Gruber, who sold it and
transferred it to Orinoco. These deposits make up the now renowned Cerro Bolívar
and the concessions cover an area of 8,093 hectares. The iron contained in these
concessions has been valued by Orinoco at 35,000 million bolivars.”

“The following year, on December 3, 1947, other concessions in the Delta

Amacuro Territory were granted to Orinoco itself, with an initial exploration surface
of 30,000 hectares, which when converted into exploitation concessions were
reduced to 12,500 hectares. Given that by the date of granting these concessions
that National Reserve Territory had already been declared, it was necessary, in
order to comply with the Law, to establish certain “special advantages” in the title of
the concession and, among them, h) that It obliged Orinoco to: create and sustain
a small, non-profit model agricultural farm in the region, in accordance with the
legal and pertinent provisions and to hire the services of a Venezuelan agronomist
for that purpose. This farm will be installed after the concessions come into
operation in an immediate location (Official Gazette No. 22,481 of 3-12-47). Since
there is no relationship between an iron concession and a model agricultural farm,
the illusion of such a “special advantage” did not fail to attract attention. The only
explanation that has been suggested so far is that Orinoco, based on technical
experiences, proposed to use ammonium nitrate as an explosive for the extraction
of iron on Cerro Bolívar instead of dynamite, which mixed with oil of waste or with
oil, has the property that its handling is simpler and less dangerous, since it does
not leave residues, as sometimes happens with dynamite, residues that, when they
explode when the rock blocks are crushed, cause loss of life and deterioration of
property. But ammonium nitrate is also a fertilizer and as such Orinoco would not
pay duties when importing it because it would be consumed in the Model
Agricultural Farm. Thus, the Revolutionary Government Junta of the years 46 and
47 not only granted very rich iron concessions to the North American trust United
State Steel Corporation - Headquarters of the Orinoco Mining Co. - but with the
modest "special advantage" h) donated, free of tariff duties, the import of the
explosive that would be used in the extraction of iron in Cerro Bolívar. In 1958 and
possibly due to the low quality of the mineral, Orinoco renounced the concessions
in the Delta Amacuro Territory.”

“In the same Bolívar State and with an area of 6,000 hectares, another North
American trust, Republic Steel Corporation. With the name of The María Luisa Ore
Company and through a transfer made to it by Mr. Tade4 Shoen, it obtained a
concession.”

“Other concessions and in other years were granted by the State, but what is
interesting to note is that the North American trusts, by direct granting or transfers,
came to control more than 40,000 hectares of concessions by December 1957.
Due to the renunciation of some of them and the expiration of others, by December
31, 1961 the area of concessions had decreased to 31,893 hectares and by
December 31, 1962 to 26,893 hectares, according to recent information from the
Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons, due to having “one expiration was declared
during that last year of ten concessions, of 500 hectares each, that had been
granted to Mr. Héctor Figarella.”

The development of iron ore production, driven by the growing needs of the North
American economy, quickly placed our country among the world's leading
exporters of the product.

With the production of iron ore, economic power increases, as well as the benefits
of foreign capital in Venezuela. Our country, on the other hand, has received very
little until now for this exploitation. In this sense, the deepening of the initiated
process of nationalization of the sector opens new and promising paths to the
authentic economic development of the country, since the combination of oil and
iron in the hands of the Venezuelan nation lays the foundations for a new type of
development, based on construction of a heavy industry capable of producing
machinery and equipment for national needs and export, the way in which these
possibilities are used, the future of the Venezuelan economy largely depends.
3.- The behavior of agriculture.

As has already been seen, export agriculture had been in crisis since the end of
the 19th century. After the First World War with the rise in international prices of
coffee and cocoa, there was an important recovery, but not enough for the
incapacity of the landowner class, together with the peasant exodus to the cities
and oil fields and the absence of an adequate official policy will end up leading it to
ruin. Since then, export agriculture began its phase of definitive decline, which
consolidated the determining importance of oil exports on the national economy.

The fall of export agriculture did not mean, however, an absolute decline in
agricultural production, since the increase in the internal market and the opening of
communication routes allowed it to be oriented towards national consumption. In
fact, from 1920 to 1936 the total agricultural product grew by more than 66%.
Later, the increase in demand for agricultural raw materials that industrial
development brought with it, as well as official support for some agricultural
programs, favored the capitalist development of agriculture, which has brought with
it a set of technical innovations (mechanization, use of fertilizers and herbicides,
fight against pests, etc.), especially in dairy, textile and oilseed farming, rice,
tobacco, potatoes and sugar cane, development that has been concentrated in the
States of Zulia, Portuguesa, Yaracuy, Aragua, Carabobo, Miranda, Barinas,
Guárico and Trujillo.

Another aspect that is worth highlighting is the implementation of several attempts

at agrarian reform, the last of which began in 1960 with the current Agrarian
Reform Law, through which some 100 thousand peasant families would have been
settled by 1972. Various official documents allow us to verify, however, the
shallowness of the attempt and the meager results. In fact, according to some, the
smallness of the assigned plots (an average of ten hectares per family), and the
insufficient technical and credit assistance have only developed smallholdings with
very precarious results, both for the national economy and for the farmers
themselves. peasants, whose income for a family with an average of five members
is Bs. 3,554 a year: that is, Bs. 296 per month. On the other hand, only 14.7
percent, that is, less than 20 thousand of the 130 thousand settled peasants, have
really achieved an acceptable result by reaching a monthly income of 935 bolivars
per family. The rest have either suffered losses and failed (8,500 families) or
continue living in the same conditions of traditional misery (102,000 families with
an average monthly income of 218 bolivars).

In any case, the development of agriculture is far behind the needs of the
Venezuelan population. We still have significant deficits that force the country to
import about 3,000 million bolivars in agricultural products, many of which could be
produced in the country (corn, beans and beans, fruits and vegetables, etc.). This
backwardness in agriculture creates serious problems for industrial development
and has a negative impact on the population's standard of living.

4.- The development of the commercial and service sector.

In the previous economic structure, the commercial sector, exporter and importer,
played, as we have already said, a central role within the functioning of the
economy as financier, buyer and exporter of agricultural production, importer of the
required industrial goods and payer to the treasury. national of almost all of its
income in the form of taxes.

The agony of export agriculture and the fact that the oil companies themselves
exported their production caused the importance of the commercial sector's role as
an exporter to rapidly decline. On the other hand, a set of processes were in
operation that were going to more than compensate for that loss.

First, the increase in the domestic market driven by oil activity led to a considerable
increase in imports, the benefits of which exceeded the loss of income due to the
decrease in agricultural exports.

Secondly, the growth of national production, both agricultural and industrial,

strengthened internal trade, which further increased the economic importance of
the sector.

Thirdly, the rise of the entire economy considerably increased the needs for
transportation and other services linked to the production and marketing of
products (banks, warehouses, financing companies, insurance companies, etc.),
activities that were also developed to a large extent. measured by the merchant
bourgeoisie, with the consequent increase in its economic power.

In summary, the commercial and service sector, or tertiary sector, is the main
beneficiary of the oil boom, since the highest profit rates are obtained there, a
situation that has had a negative impact on our agricultural and industrial
development. Indeed, despite the fact that commerce and the aforementioned
services constitute necessary activities and are of great importance for the
economy of the entire country, the fact that in these sectors the greatest benefits
are obtained with very little risk, has discouraged less secure investments. in
industry and agriculture, which are the fundamental pillars of a healthy and
balanced economy.
5.- Industrial development.

a) The growth process:

During the Gomecista period, the industrial landscape of the country changed very
little. As Orlando Araujo points out:

In fact, only some items such as cigarettes, textiles, beer, soap, etc. were
moderately developed, so that by 1936 the industrial product, including artisanal
products, barely reached 6% of the national product. The increase in domestic
demand that the oil business brought with it was satisfied, as we have seen, with
growing imports of industrial products.

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, a double phenomenon occurred that
would influence the industrial development of the country. On the one hand,
national income increased due to the increase in oil exports that the war activities
brought with them and because the Petroleum Reform of 1943 increased the
participation of the Venezuelan State in the profits of the Oil Companies. On the
other hand, our imports decreased and became considerably more expensive,
which made possible the development of some national industries; such as
cement, rubber, food and beverages, etc.

At the end of the war, a set of favorable conditions for the purchase of machinery
and equipment were presented, both nationally and internationally, in addition to
the formation of a group of new industrial entrepreneurs during the war. In the
international order, the victory of the allies meant the beginning of the collapse of
the great colonial empires, the formation of the socialist Camp, the founding of the
United Nations, etc., all phenomena that contributed to cementing the desires for
economic development on the part of the of backward countries, wishes that were
realized in the formation of a national industry.

All these favorable conditions allowed a relatively important growth in

industrialization to begin in 1945 for the time. Faced with the accomplished facts,
the companies of monopoly capitalism, which until then were contrary to our
industrial development, began to establish their companies in the country, either
directly or associated with Creole capital in mixed companies. As a result, from
1945 to 1958, industrial production of food (33.9%), textiles (21.2%), other
consumer goods (61.1%) and, above all, construction materials (56.6%) increased.
). the latter favored by Pérez Jiménez's “reinforced concrete” policy. that is, the
dictator's predilection for showy public works, of great sumptuousness, especially
in the capital of the Republic (Torres de El Silencio. Cable car, Highways, Luxury
Hotels, etc.).

During that period (1950-1958) the State provided some support to the nascent
industrial development in the form of credits and tariff protection, but was unable to
denounce the Trade Reciprocity Treaty with the United States, which was one of
the instruments that most hindered said development. .

After the fall of the Pérez Jiménez dictatorship, a period of pressure began from all
progressive sectors of national life to accelerate industrial growth, a process led by
the Pro-Venezuela Association with the support of political parties and of the
worker and peasant movement; But it is from 1961, the year in which the drop in
national oil income created serious concerns in the country's leading circles, that a
more organized and accelerated process of industrialization began, favored by a
generous credit and protectionist policy of the State. As a result of this policy, the
industrial product grows from 2,547 million bolivars in 1958 to 6,589 million bolivars
in 1971, thus increasing its participation in the total territorial product from 10.8% in
1958 to 13.9% in 1971, figures which testify to relatively important growth. Let us
now try to analyze the type of industrial development that has occurred in the
country, and its relationship with the general well-being of the population and with
the future of our nation.

b) Characteristic of Venezuelan industrialization

1- It is an industry that begins by producing in the country what was previously

imported (import substitution), therefore, far from expressing the real needs of the
Venezuelan population, it expresses the North American consumption pattern.
“Imported industrial goods express the degree of development of the workforce
and the instruments of production in the country that produced them: they imply a
certain technique, in accordance with that degree of development. But they are
also the result of the particular demands imposed by the economic structure of
these countries. Capitalist-monopoly economies have their Achilles heel on the
demand side of the market, hence their fundamental problem is not that of
producing, but that of selling, constantly creating new elements that stimulate
consumption. Such motivation is necessarily expressed in the consumption
pattern: production is not limited to satisfying needs, but also to creating them.
Through the mass media, the corporate advertising apparatus fulfills in higher
capitalism its key task of constantly producing new needs, of creating ideal
consumption objectives that expand global demand and avoid the trauma of
material production. Hence, the intense process of sophistication of consumption
that is characteristic of advanced capitalist countries is a phenomenon inherent to
their economic structure, expressing an unavoidable need for its maintenance as
long as such structure is a requirement for their growth as long as the set of
capitalist-monopoly production relations that serve as its fundamental system.”

2- To produce these goods, they had to make use of the technology that the
companies that sold us imports used in their countries, which determined the
alliance of Creole capital with those foreign companies that provided their brands
and patents. As a result we have, on the one hand, a process of intense
penetration of foreign capital in our industry that rises from 576 million bolivars in
1958 to 4,128 million in 1971, and. On the other hand, our country has to pay high
sums every year for the use of foreign patents and trademarks.

“Due to the implementation in Venezuela of the final stage of American technology

through direct investments, we have had to incur very high costs. Such costs are
impossible to quantify in their entirety due to the lack of information. They are
represented by the dividends received by such companies, by the high salaries of
the North American managerial and technical personnel used in the country, by the
hidden remission of profits in the form of overprices of imported raw materials,
etc..."

3- Our industry has been, until now, an assembly industry, that is, it buys the parts
and raw materials of a good from abroad and the machinery to assemble it in the
country. A typical example is the “construction” of automobiles, an industry that
depends to a high degree on foreign supplies, since only a minimal part of its
components begin to be produced in the country, also with foreign technology and
investments.

4- Due to the use of this foreign technology designed for the large markets of the
capitalist countries, with one or two factories much more was produced than what
the national market required, which, in addition to keeping a part of the productive
capacity idle of companies, favored the formation of monopolies in the different
sectors of production, which is one of the causes of the high cost of living in the
country.

We can conclude by pointing out that the industrial growth that occurred represents
a stage of advance in the economic development of the country; but it must still
correct serious flaws, such as its dependent nature and the concentration of its
capital in a small group of national and foreign capitalists in order to advance
towards becoming a mature industry, truly national and at the service of all
Venezuelans.
c) Basic industries.

—A separate paragraph deserves the development of a set of basic industries in

the hands of the State that represent considerable progress, and on whose
development the future of the country will essentially depend. We are essentially
referring to the steel and petrochemical industries, which represent the starting
point of authentic national industrial development based on the transformation of
our raw materials (oil, iron and agricultural products), and not on the assembly of
imported parts and products. These companies, together with the nationalized oil
and iron industry, constitute the bases of Venezuela's economic future, without
forgetting at any time the need for a radical change in the country's agriculture.

6.- Characteristics of the new economic structure

Despite the great importance of the changes that have occurred, the characteristic
features indicated in the previous economic structure remain and are accentuated,
although changing form, that is, non-production, dependence and structural
heterogeneity.

a) Monoproduction:

By 1936, Venezuelan oil production constituted more than 50 percent of the value
of all agricultural, industrial and mining production, a percentage never reached by
cocoa or coffee in their best times. By 1972, despite agricultural and industrial
growth, this percentage had barely dropped to 47 percent.

“The hegemony of oil maintains a constant threat to the security of Venezuelans,

creating a climate that is not conducive to progress and collective well-being.

…The importance of oil depends on the price paid by consumers who are outside
the national territory. The excessive proportion that it occupies in the whole of what
we produce means that a large part of it has to be sent to other countries and what
makes our high export coefficient truly serious is that 92.8 percent is oil. “National
mono-production is so marked that it turns outwards at the dangerous levels
indicated.”

“(…) The hegemony of oil, a determinant of large exports that increase our
dependence on foreign trade, creates a dangerous situation, independent of the
entities or companies that could manage this national resource. Even if it were
Venezuelan companies or the State itself that managed the oil industry, the
aforementioned danger would remain because it is due to the exaggerated
significance of oil in its relationship to the general economy of the country...

b) The Dependency:

The dependent nature of the Venezuelan economy is also accentuated and

diversified. On the one hand, the new fundamental sector of the structure is now
owned by foreign companies, on whose decisions regarding prices and volume of
exports the economic life of the country will since depend. On the other hand, the
aforementioned technological dependence is generated and, finally, the
introduction of the foreign consumption pattern meant a new form of dependence
that would totally transform the lives of Venezuelans, induced since then, through
the media dominated by big capital, to add new fashions and consumer habits
every day, many of them unnecessary, to provide an outlet for the immense
production of world capitalism.

c) Structural heterogeneity:

The process of decomposition of the old backward structure has been so slow that
it continues to the present. Work relations based on the parasitic rentism of the
landowners are still valid in the Venezuelan countryside. As has been seen, the
Agrarian Reform, far from solving the problem, has created an important layer of
poor peasants with very low productivity. Meanwhile, a dependent capitalism
develops in the cities and in the countryside that coexists in some regions with the
characteristic backwardness of the previous structure. In other words, capitalism
grows without being able to absorb the entire working population, which creates
the so-called phenomenon of marginality, that is, the fact that a part of the
population is left out of capitalist economic growth both in the countryside as in the
cities, which gives rise in the latter to the development of neighborhoods full of
miserable ranches where the most diverse forms of social maladjustment are
incubated.

In short, we continue to be a mono-producing and dependent country. with a

heterogeneous structure in which the extreme misery of important sectors of the
popular masses becomes increasingly noticeable and humiliating in the face of the
accelerated enrichment of the minority that reaps the fruits of dependent capitalist
growth.

7.- Characterization of the type of economic development

Just as the type of growth characteristic of the agricultural economy was what
suited the development of capitalism in the advanced countries of the time, that of
the oil period is what corresponded to the interests of the large monopolistic
consortiums of the imperialist period.

Until 1936 we continued to be a country producing raw materials to fuel the growth
of the world capitalist economy. For which we received a payment in salaries and
wages to the workers and in taxes and royalties to the government that served to
strengthen our condition as buyers of the industrial production of those countries.

In other words: the form of growth consisted of exchanging increasing quantities of

oil for industrial goods, which, far from increasing the country's productive capacity,
impoverished it because oil is an exhaustible good whose reserves decrease with
each barrel extracted, and benefited to foreign countries that exploited it at very
low cost and sold us industrial items at increasingly higher prices.

To consolidate this system of exploitative relations of the country, the United States
imposed on Venezuela the signing of the Trade Reciprocity Treaty through which
said country undertook to provide sales facilities for Venezuelan oil in exchange for
keeping customs duties low ( tariffs) that were paid in our country for the North
American goods that we imported. In this way, they prevented a national industry
from developing, since Venezuelan companies required tariff protection to be able
to compete with foreign industrial production.

Industrial development, which could have changed the type of economic growth,
was quickly penetrated by foreign capital, in such a way that if before we bought
finished industrial goods, now we continue to buy, and in greater quantities, raw
materials and semi-finished parts from abroad. , with which we continue to be a
country that exports raw materials and imports the production of said countries.

Another aspect worth highlighting within the type of growth that occurred is the
unequal distribution of the fruits of growth. A small minority of capitalists
monopolize the wealth that is increasingly concentrated in a small number of
Venezuelans. Suffice it to point out in this sense that according to the 1950
population census there were 64,698 employers in the country for that year and
that this figure was reduced in the 1971 census to 13,002. Meanwhile, the vast
majority of Venezuelans are condemned to shameful misery.

II.- Changes in the social structure:

As a consequence of the aforementioned economic changes, the old social
structure based on large estates and the exploitation of workers by landowners and
the mercantile bourgeoisie suffers a considerable impact that will begin the process
of definitive decomposition, at the same time as the rise begins. of the new classes
and social strata:

1.- Traditional social classes

a) The peasantry

The history of the Venezuelan peasantry is the history of their sustained struggle
over several centuries to improve their living conditions. The colonial chronicles are
full of slave and indigenous revolts and the most varied forms of peasant protest, a
situation that did not undergo significant changes after independence. The
liberation of the slaves in 1854 marks the starting point of an economic structure in
which peasant labor responds, fundamentally, to the circumstances of feudal
servitude.

The reaction of the peasantry, against an order of things that only offered as
perspectives the security of lifelong misery, was of two types. On the one hand, the
fight for land ownership and against the privileges of landowners that culminated in
the Federal War; on the other hand, incorporation into the armed struggle in the
games, montaneras and army of the time as soldiers, seeking to risk their
miserable life in war against the possibility of social or economic improvement. It
was what Juan Parao, Gallegos' character in his work “Cantaclaro” called
“changing the Menudo for the Morocota.”

The arrival of the Andean leaders to power with Cipriano Castro and its
consolidation with the dictatorship of J. v. Gómez, supported by the growing flow of
oil revenues, made the conditions for these two types of reaction of the peasantry
increasingly difficult. The creation of a solid military apparatus based on regional
commanders loyal to the dictator and the flourishing economic power of the State
allowed the country to be “pacified” under the sign of force and terror, which initially
strengthened the social power of the landowners and exploitation. of the peasantry.

It is easy to understand that, in such circumstances, oil exploitation created the

basic conditions for the decomposition of the peasantry with their emigration to the
oil fields and urban areas to which we have already referred, not without the
opposition of the landowners, who made great efforts to prevent the peasant
exodus, such as the request for detention in public works, the institution of coercive
conscription, etc., but such measures ultimately turned out to be ineffective in the
face of the magnitude of the transformation process that the country was
experiencing.

The peasant exodus did not, however, have the same intensity in all rural areas
depending on the communication facilities, the degree of population density of
each rural area in relation to the availability of arable land, health conditions, etc. .

Trujillo, Falcón and Lara, three neighboring states, contributed 72 percent of the
population that in 1941 lived in the oil-producing municipalities of the Zulia State.
Sucre and Nueva Esparta, States that had access by sea, also provided an
important contribution of workers; On the other hand, States with few
communication routes, such as Bolívar and Apure, had little migratory activity.

In the areas little affected by the oil phenomenon, the peasantry continued to live in
the same previous conditions, but a door of escape was definitely open that would
expand with the subsequent development of communication routes. The traditional
peasant class, therefore, is transformed into a descending class, decomposing
both due to the abandonment of agricultural activities by the important contingents
that flowed to the cities and oil fields and due to the penetration of capitalism in the
countryside and the emergence of the agricultural workers (salaried workers).

By 1936, the population employed in agriculture (includes livestock, fishing,

forestry, etc.) was 625 thousand workers, representing 57 percent of the entire
active population employed in the country. By 1971 the absolute figure had risen
slightly (to 656 thousand workers); but its relative importance drops considerably to
23 percent. The composition of the peasantry also radically changed with the
growth of agricultural workers, and those settled by the Agrarian Reform.

b) The landowners

The First World War considerably aggravated the chronic crisis in which large-
scale agriculture was struggling. On the one hand, the drop in coffee and cocoa
prices seriously affected the value of exports; On the other hand, “the most
important German commercial houses,” says Salvador de la Plaza, “suspended
their advances in money and goods to the owners and herds.”

At the end of the war the situation seemed to improve, the prices of coffee and
cocoa increased and the value of Venezuelan exports increased enormously, only
to then fall into the violent crisis of 1920 that seriously hit landowners and
merchants.
Such was the economic situation of the landowner class at the time when oil
exports began. From 1921 to 1929 prices rose again, practically doubling, but the
peasant exodus and the incapacity of the landowner class and the lack of official
support to improve the financing and cultivation techniques as had been done in
Brazil, prevented take advantage of the new favorable situation.

In 1928 the government established the Agricultural and Livestock Bank, which
filled the landowner class with joy because it broke away from the agiotism of the
commercial houses and made them dream of great growth in coffee and cocoa
production, but the world crisis of the The 1930s came to an end, and now
definitively, with such hopes, since the drop in the prices of these products plunged
the landowners into ruin. In 1934 export agriculture received the final blow with the
official fixing of the dollar exchange rate at 3.93 when until then it had oscillated
between 5 and 7 bolivars. This meant that the dollars received from the sale of a
bag of coffee abroad had a much lower value in bolivars than before, with the
consequent detriment for the growers.

Export agriculture could not recover from this final blow. There begins the long
decline of large-scale agriculture that would be accelerated, paradoxically, by the
creation of the Agricultural and Livestock Bank, created to strengthen it. Indeed,
the emergence of a source of low-interest loans at times of an agricultural crisis
and boom in urban activities had to result in the stimulation of absenteeism. In
effect, the owners mortgaged their lands and with the money obtained they also
emigrated to the cities, where some of them began to develop new types of
economic activities.

As a result of this process, which would later be joined to the penetration of

capitalism in the countryside and the formation of an important group of agricultural
entrepreneurs, the landowner class progressively loses its traditional economic and
political power, it also becomes a class in decline. on a national scale, although it
still maintains ownership of important extensions of land in some regions,
especially in the coffee-growing areas of the Andes, in the cattle-raising regions of
the plains and in some cocoa-growing areas.

c) The commercial bourgeoisie

As we have already pointed out, with the crisis of traditional agriculture and the rise
of imports, the commercial bourgeoisie lost its (exporter-importer), which
definitively separated it from the large estates and linked it more to foreign
capitalism, since, on the one hand , the country's purchasing capacity now
depended on the oil companies and, on the other hand, the supply of industrial
items, whose demand was growing, was made from abroad. This class is
strengthened politically with the decline of the latifundio and with the death of J.
and. Gómez, after whom, appears as the most important social factor in the
government of President López Contreras.

As transportation and services develop and the industrialization process takes

place, the commercial bourgeoisie expands its economic power towards these
sectors until it is completely integrated with the rest of the capitalist class that today
dominates the economic life of the country.

d) The craftsmanship

According to the 1920 and 1936 censuses, the number of artisans and self-
employed workers rose from 43 thousand to 123 thousand. For its part, the product
created by them rose from 72 million bolivars in 1920 to 223 million in 1936. All this
reveals a great rise of this social class that would participate in many of the
struggles of the time alongside the nascent working class and the progressive
sectors of the middle layers of the population that would develop within the new
process generated by the oil exploitation.

From then on, as the industrialization process took place, the artisan began to lose
importance since the vast majority of them ended up becoming salaried workers.

2.- New social classes

a) The foreign capitalist class

The penetration of foreign companies, and their domination of the fundamental

sector of the new economic structure, also meant the insertion of the foreign
capitalist class into the social structure of the country in conditions of a
fundamental dominant class, with a solid influence on internal political power.
based on its great economic power and the support provided by its governments of
origin.

To exercise this political power, the foreign monopolistic bourgeoisie initially used
the traditional internal ruling classes, that is, the landowners, whose representation
is summarized in the figure of the dictator J. v. Gómez and in the internal
commercial bourgeoisie which, as we have already pointed out, was one of the
main beneficiaries of the new situation.
The foreign capitalist class is a reactionary class in national terms because its
interest is to obtain benefits to transfer abroad. He has no interest in the
comprehensive development of our country; On the contrary, its convenience is to
maintain the delay to carry out the exploitation of our workers and natural
resources in the best possible conditions.

As we have seen, as the domestic market and the other sectors of the economy
grew, foreign capital penetrated. all of them, thus contributing to increasing the
country's dependency.

b) The national capitalist class:

This class has its origins in the commercial bourgeoisie, in some groups of wealthy
landowners and in the layer of high public officials known as the bureaucratic
bourgeoisie, that is, they used the advantages of political power to enrich
themselves. These three routes of origin contributed to creating at the beginning a
capitalist class linked to import trade, usury, speculation, especially in the purchase
and sale of land in the cities, and the development of means of transportation and
other necessary services. to the oil business and imports.

This field of action for capitalists will expand considerably with the development of
industrialization and the growing support in the form of credits and protection of all
kinds provided by the State. As a consequence, the power of this class develops
rapidly, as evidenced by the growing amount of its capital, which rises from 30
billion bolivars in 1950 to more than 85 billion in 1971.

As the country's economic growth process has advanced, the boundaries between
mercantile, industrial, financial capitalism, etc. have been lost. and a solid integral
bourgeoisie is formed where its most notable representatives have interests in all
sectors of the economy.

Parallel to the rise of their power, their class consciousness and their
organizational capacity to defend their interests also grow. Already in 1944, the
Venezuelan Federation of Chambers and Associations of Commerce and
Production (FEDECAMARAS) was founded, which has played an important role as
an organizer of the capitalist class, with an economic, political and ideological
capacity that places it as one of the most important factors of power in today's
Venezuela.

An important aspect of the Creole capitalist class is its intimate ties with foreign
capital. According to figures from the Central Bank of Venezuela, for 1971 the total
foreign investment in the country was 15,400 million bolivars and the
complementary national capital, or associated with it, was 19,592 million. If we add
to this the technological dependence of Creole capital on foreign capital, we reach
the conclusion that both types of national and foreign capital today form a unit that
is difficult to separate.

c) The working class:

As has already been noted, one of the most important effects of the development
of oil exploitation was the growth of the working class, which increased from about
70,000 workers in 1920 to about 141,000 in 1936. It was still an incipient
development because for this last year these workers represented only 13 percent
of the total Venezuelan workers, but they were already from that time, supported
by the students and other sectors of the petite bourgeoisie, the vanguard of the
economic and social struggles to improve the living conditions of the Venezuelan
people and against the exploitation of the country by foreign companies and their
Creole allies.

It was, then, a class, not only small in number, but also organizationally weak
outside the oil and transportation sector, since in the rest of the economy the
employing companies had only an average of four workers, which limited the
organization and the awareness of their condition as an exploited class. Despite
this, during the Gomecista period the first strikes were carried out in struggle for
increased wages, such as that of the oil workers of the Bolívar District of the State
of Zulia (1925), which lasted two weeks and achieved an increase in wages from 5
to 7 bolivars daily.

In 1936, the first Labor Law was approved, which in addition to guaranteeing a set
of benefits and rights to workers, allowed the organization of unions for the first
time. At the end of that year, the first organized legal strike in the history of the
country began, which only achieved small improvements in wages due to the
intervention of the López Contreras government in defense of the oil companies,
but which marks, on the other hand, the beginning of the rise of union
organizations in Venezuela and the growing political importance of the working
class.

From then on, as a result of the development of capitalism, their number grew
continuously until reaching 1,789,429 employees in 1971, that is, 60% of the
country's total working population.
While its quantitative growth operates, labor organizations develop with many ups
and downs, either due to the negative political conditions during some periods such
as that of Pérez Jiménez, or due to the division of the labor movement itself based
on political biases. This division of the working class, still in force, has contributed
to taking away its power, while, as we have already seen, the united and
supportive capitalist class in its national organization (FEDECAMARAS), has
considerably increased its influence in all areas of life. national.

d) Other workers:

As part of the consequences of the peasant exodus to urban areas, domestic

workers, especially women, increased considerably. Their number rose from 35
thousand in 1920 to 108 thousand in 1936 and 158 thousand in 1971.

The number of workers employed in the Public Administration also increases,

becoming the country's first employer, rising from 13 thousand workers in 1920, 56
thousand in 1936, 500 thousand in 1971 and 900,000 in 1980.

There is also the rise of a set of middle sectors of the population (petty
bourgeoisie), such as professionals, students, small property owners, etc., who
since the dictatorship of J. v. Gómez to this day have played an important political
and social role and as ideological guides of the different trends that prevail in our
country.

e) The marginal masses:

As we have already pointed out, the dependent, disjointed and insufficient growth
that the country's economy has had, together with the accelerated process of
urbanization, have resulted in the emergence and development of a considerable
mass of unemployed and workers with precarious occupations (peddlers, shoe
shiners, car caretakers and other very low-income workers) who live, along with
their families, in unhealthy ranches and in miserable conditions.

This population, which together with the peasantry occupies the lowest places on
the social scale, constitutes the so-called marginal masses, which represent a
percentage greater than 45 percent of the country's urban population, a figure that
expresses the most serious and objective criticism of the current Venezuelan
society and the form of economic growth that has occurred in the country.

The growth of our marginal population is closely linked to the migration

phenomenon. On the one hand, internal migration, mainly from rural areas, whose
inhabitants continue to look for better living and working conditions in cities. On the
other hand, foreign immigration from neighboring countries, whose inhabitants
have transferred the economic and social problems of their countries of origin to
ours, which has contributed to increasing pressure on our health, welfare and
educational services, and increasing unemployment and crime rates.