The name Maracaibo is said to derive from the brave cacique (indigenous chief) Mara, a young native who valiantly resisted the Spaniards and died fighting them.

Around the main group were the Añu tribe who built rows of stilt houses all over the northern riviera of Lake Maracaibo.

In August 1529, the German Ambrosius Ehinger made his first expedition to Lake Maracaibo, which was bitterly opposed by the indigenous Coquivacoa.

Ehinger named the settlement New Nuremberg (German: Neu-Nürnberg) and the lake after the valiant chieftain Mara of the Coquivacoa, who had died in the fighting.

A second attempt by Captain Alonso Pacheco in 1569 suffered a brief setback when the city had to be evacuated in 1573 due to ferocious attacks by native local tribes.

Favored by prevailing winds and a protected harbour, the city is located on the shores of the lake where the narrows, which eventually lead to the Gulf of Venezuela, first become pronounced.

The Dutch corsair Henrik de Gerard plundered Maracaibo in 1614, and in 1642 the city was attacked by the British pirate William Jackson.

En route, l'Olonnais crossed paths with a Spanish treasure ship, which he captured, along with its rich cargo of cacao, gemstones and more than 260,000 pieces of eight.

A few weeks later, when he attempted to sail out of the lake, Morgan found an occupied fort blocking the inlet to the Caribbean, along with three Spanish ships.

He destroyed the Magdalena and burned the San Luis by sending a dummy ship full of gunpowder to explode near them, after which the crew of the Soledad surrendered.

[8][9] In June 1678, Michel de Grammont, the French commander of six ships and 700 men, captured Maracaibo then followed the plundering of several smaller towns as Gibraltar, penetrating as far inland as Trujillo.

The royalists, led by Francisco Tomás Morales, fought with the patriots, led by Rafael Urdaneta, to take back control over the province in the Juana de Ávila Battle, and Morales brought back Spanish rule in 1822 until he was defeated in the Battle of Lake Maracaibo on 24 July 1823, culminating Venezuela's struggle for independence.

Commerce and culture flowed between Maracaibo and the Caribbean Sea, particularly the Dutch Antilles, Colombian coastal cities, Cuba, Hispaniola and later on Miami, New York and Hamburg.

The Venezuelans claimed this as a victory, and in response the German commander sent the protected cruiser SMS Vineta, with heavier weapons, to set an example.

[10] The dictatorial regime of General Marcos Pérez Jiménez in the 1950s set as a goal the construction of a bridge connecting the two lake shores.

The fall of the Pérez Jiménez regime on January 23, 1958, quickly led to a less elaborate design project that was approved and funded by a democratic and more financially responsible government.

The building of El Puente sobre el Lago de Maracaibo "General Rafael Urdaneta" ('General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge over Lake Maracaibo') named after the distinguished general and war of independence hero was opened to public traffic in 1962 connecting the city to its opposite shore neighbors and the rest of the country through a new system of highways.

In recent years, due to political/economic and cultural reasons, many have moved to Maracaibo from rural areas and other cities (including Caracas).

In 2019, power outages and widespread poverty caused a citywide wave of violence and looting,[15] resulting in mass emigration, most of which was headed to the United States.

[11] Zulia's main income comes from oil extraction and refining, agriculture (coffee, rice, maize, cassava, cocoa, sugar cane), livestock production, and mining (clay, limestone, coal and sand[citation needed]).

The rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta gives the city a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen: BSh)[16] Attenuated only by the moderating influence of the lake; Maracaibo's average historical temperature is 29 °C (84.2 °F).