Utopía e historia en los primeros descubridores y cronistas de Venezuela. Siglo XVI.

The article examines the views of European explorers and chroniclers on the indigenous civilizations which they encountered upon arriving in the Americas and specifically in the geographic area which later became Venezuela. In particular, it examines the diaries and logs of Italian explorers Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci, Franciscan friar Pedro de Aguado, and Spanish chronicler Juan de Castellanos. The article analyzes the impressions of these men from a perspective that considers history as the result of humankind's search for better conditions in which to live and develop, or utopia. It suggests that European explorers, steeped in the ideologies of mercantilism and the Catholic Church, viewed indigenous societies in the Americas with indifference.