The country started to live the effects of the discovery of oilfields. Works at the San Lorenzo refinery, in western Zulia state, showed that the industrial era had begun with refining, production of byproducts and marketing of oil in Venezuela.

Concomitantly with the construction of the refinery, near the shore of Lake Maracaibo, the first dolphin pier and the first oil pipeline were built. As a result, the crude oil output could be taken from the Zumaque 1 field to the San Lorenzo refinery. In this way, the Mene Grande field was linked with the refinery and the Caribbean Company pier, located on the banks of Lake Maracaibo. Two parallel lines 9 miles long and 8 inch diameter started operating from the Mene Grande field to the San Lorenzo terminal.

The first export of crude oil from San Lorenzo occurred in September 1917. On December 13th, the Venezuelan Oil Concessions (Shell) successfully completed wildcat Santa Bárbara 1. They did not know that they were discovering one of the largest oilfields in the world at that time.

But there were also bad news. On June 12th, Venezuelan pianist Teresa Carreño, 63, passed away in New York City. The pianist's better-known works include, among others, El vals de Teresita, La cesta de flores, Himno a Bolívar, Saludo a Caracas, Himno al ilustre americano.

Change to communism
Concomitantly, the political situation in Russia was increasingly confusing and the Russian Revolution started. This political movement had two stages. First, in February, the tsarist dynasty was overthrown and the autocracy of Tsar Nicolas II was replaced by an intended liberal republic.

Then came the October Revolution led by Lenin and organized by Lev Trotsky. The Revolutionary Military Committee took office following an armed uprising; the provisional government of Alexander Kerensky was removed and the former bourgeois state was liquidated. Private ownership of major means of production and utilities was eradicated. Former institutions were replaced by the worker's state, under the dictatorship of the proletariat and Soviet democracy, workers' control of production, and reapportionment of land among peasants following the expropriation from large landowners and capitalists.

In Europe, amidst the World War, three Portuguese shepherds -Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia- witnessed the appearance of Virgin Mary on several occasions. She asked them to help the world return to Christianity.