The theoretical work of Laureano Vallenilla Lanz was analysed, with particular emphasis on his explanations concerning the War of Independence in Venezuela and its impact on Republican society. In view of the current nature of the debate on social divisions in Venezuela, the aim of the work is to disentangle the historical roots of popular participation by valuing, from a critical perspective, the contributions made a century ago by the author of the study. Vallenilla Lanz’s work provided and continues to provide fundamental ideas for understanding our historical past. By characterising the war of independence as a civil war, it sheds light on the nodes of our history to which history has repeatedly wrecked. Her view on the gendarme Necesario, not just explaining the past, explains the need for the international burglary to resort to the dictatorship in order to prevent the legal gesture of Boves, Páez or Zamora from travelling back to Venezuelan territory.