Venezuela's inhabitants are very racially mixed. This comes from the colonial period. When whites (the British, Spaniards, French, etc.) conquered America's territory, they took their black African slaves to America to work. During Venezuela's colonial time, black people did not have any rights. They just worked for food. The native people were taught Roman Catholicism. For a long time, society was headed by white creoles, people in Venezuela that were descended from Spaniards but considered Venezuela home. The other Venezuelan people did not like that, and they started thinking about independence. On July 24, 1823, Venezuela won its independence, led by Simón Bolívar.