Frankly, I just skimmed the article after I saw Rand mentioned as a 'philosopher'. May be you've dealt with these somewhere later.

Anyways, where does political and military history come into picture for Venezuela (and many African countries) that have abundance of resources but are still poor?

What would an analysis of attributing Venezuela's (or any other resource rich but poor country) current economic situation to covert / overt actions of Uncle Sam look like?

Attributing Europe's prosperity to an 'idea' of colonization, or their military 'resources' significantly understates impacts of other factors.

It is meaningless (though delightful and time consuming) to philosophize the outcomes without factoring in these historical aspects.