Colombian Civil War of 1851

Last updated
Colombian Civil War of 1851
Part of the Colombian Civil Wars
La Apoteosis de Popayan Liberacion de los esclavos.jpg
José Hilario López and the liberation of the slaves by Efraím Martínez
Date22 May – 10 September 1851
Location
Result Victory for the Liberals
Belligerents
Single Color Flag - 0434B1.svg Colombian Conservative Party Flag of New Granada.svg Republic of New Granada
Red flag.svg Colombian Liberal Party
Commanders and leaders
Single Color Flag - 0434B1.svg Julio Arboleda
Single Color Flag - 0434B1.svg Mariano Ospina Rodríguez
Single Color Flag - 0434B1.svg Eusebio Borrero
Single Color Flag - 0434B1.svg Manuel Ibáñez
Flag of New Granada.svg José Hilario López
Flag of New Granada.svg José María Obando
Flag of New Granada.svg Tomás Herrera
Flag of New Granada.svg José María Melo

The Colombian Civil War of 1851 was a Civil War in the Republic of New Granada (present-day Colombia) between Liberals and Conservatives, fought between May and September 1851. The cause for the war was the Abolition of Slavery. The war was won by the Liberals.

Contents

Background

In the wake of the Liberal Revolutions of 1848 in Europe, the newly created Colombian Liberal Party had won the 1849 Colombian presidential election and José Hilario López had become the first Liberal President of New Granada. His government expelled the Jesuits from the country, supported the separation between church and state, freedom of the press and the federalization of the state, initiated land reforms and abolished slavery. [1]

The Civil war

The abolition of slavery provoced an armed reaction by the large landowners in the south, especially in the Cauca and Pasto Provinces. The largest number of slaves were in Cauca and the attacks on the Church were especially sensitive in the extreme south. The rebellion was led by the brothers Sergio and Julio Arboleda Pombo, landowners and powerful slave owners who represented that sector of the population, which saw its wealth threatened by the liberation of the slaves.

President José Hilario López sent General José María Obando to Cauca to quell Julio Arboleda's rebellion, and Tomás Herrera to the Valle del Cauca in the west. The war lasted just four months and its epicenters were in Pasto, Cauca, Cali and Antioquia. It ended with the Conservative defeat. [2]

Julio Arboleda was defeated by General Manuel María Franco in Buesaco (Nariño) and fled to Ecuador, and from there to Peru, when the Liberals came to power in Ecuador.
In the west, Eusebio Borrero had organized an army of eight hundred men and taken Medellín, but was defeated by General Tomás Herrera at Rio Negro. In Cundinamarca the Guasca guerrilleros, led by the brothers Pastor and Mariano Ospina Rodríguez, were defeated by General José María Melo. [3]

Consequences

The triumph of the liberal government in this war accelerated the process of liberal reforms. Likewise, two years later, it allowed the creation of the New Granada Constitution of 1853, which established a wide range of freedoms, but which survived only five years. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera</span> Colombian general and political figure

Tomás Cipriano Ignacio Maria de Mosquera y Figueroa Arboleda Salazar, Prieto de Tovar, Vergara, Silva, Hurtado de Mendoza, Urrutia y Guzmán was a Colombian general, political figure. He was president of Colombia four times. The first time was as president of Republic of New Granada from 1845 to 1849. During the Colombian Civil War of 1860–1862 he led liberal forces in a civil war against conservative factions. After the liberals won, a new, federalist constitution was implemented, which established a two-year presidency, and the nation renamed the United States of Colombia. Mosquera served twice as president of the new government. From 1861 to 1862 he served in a non-elected, interim manner, while the constitution was written. From 1862 to 1864 he served in an elected manner. He had a fourth term from 1866 to 1867. Due to the liberal reforms carried out under his leadership, he is considered one of the most important persons in Colombian history of the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecuadorian–Colombian War</span>

The Ecuadorian–Colombian War ,It was a series of armed conflicts waged between the current republics of Colombia and Ecuador between 1862 and 1863.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Provinces of New Granada</span> Period of Colombian statehood from 1810 to 1816

The United Provinces of New Granada was a country in South America from 1810 to 1816, a period known in Colombian history as la Patria Boba. It was formed from areas of the New Kingdom of Granada, roughly corresponding to the territory of modern-day Colombia. The government was a federation with a parliamentary system, consisting of a weak executive and strong congress. The country was reconquered by Spain in 1816.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republic of New Granada</span> 1831–1858 state in South America

The Republic of New Granada was a centralist unitary republic consisting primarily of present-day Colombia and Panama with smaller portions of today's Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru and Brazil that existed from 1831 to 1858. The state was created after the dissolution of Great Colombia in 1830 through the secession of Ecuador and Venezuela. In 1858 the state was renamed into the Granadine Confederation. On 9 May 1834, the national flag was adopted and was used until 26 November 1861, with the Gran Colombian colours in Veles' arrangement. The merchant ensign had the eight-pointed star in white.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom of wombs</span> Latin American doctrine that children of slaves could not automatically be enslaved

Freedom of wombs, also referred to as free birth or the law of wombs, was a 19th century judicial concept in several Latin American countries, that declared that all wombs bore free children. All children are born free, even if the mother is enslaved. This principle did not go into effect unless a country adopted it and included it in its constitution or other legislation. It overturned a tradition, under which babies born to enslaved women became the property of the women's owners. Intended as a step towards ending slavery, it was unevenly adopted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliseo Payán</span> Colombian lawyer, politician and military officer

José Eliseo Payán Hurtado was a Colombian lawyer, politician, and military officer. Payán as Vice President of Colombia assumed the Presidency of Colombia because of the absence of President Rafael Núñez in 1887.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">José Hilario López</span> Colombian politician and military officer

José Hilario López Valdés was a Colombian politician and military officer. He was the President of Colombia between 1849 and 1853.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War of the Supremes</span> 1839–42 civil conflict in the Republic of New Granada

The War of the Supremes was a civil conflict in Republic of the New Granada from 1839 to 1842 caused by the ambitions of various regional leaders to seize power and depose President José Ignacio de Márquez. It was called the War of the Supremes because of the participation of General José María Obando and other revolutionary gamonales who called themselves jefes supremos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomás de Herrera</span> President of New Grenada

Tomás José Ramón del Carmen de Herrera y Pérez Dávila was a Neogranadine statesman and general who in 1840 became Head of State of the Free State of the Isthmus, a short lived independent state which is located in what is now Panama. Tomás de Herrera also became acting President of the Republic of the New Granada for 3 months, during the Colombian Civil War of 1854 against General José María Melo, who had committed a coup on 17 April.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colombian Civil War (1860–1862)</span>

The Colombian Civil War began on 8 May 1860 and lasted until November 1862. It was an internal conflict between the newly formed conservative Granadine Confederation and a more liberal rebel force from the newly seceded region of Cauca, composed of dissatisfied politicians commanded by General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, its former president. The Granadine Confederation, created a few years earlier in 1858 by Mariano Ospina Rodríguez, was defeated in the capital Bogotá, with Mosquera deposing the newly elected president Bartolomé Calvo on July 18, 1861. Forming a provisional government, with himself as president, Mosquera continued to pursue the conservative forces until their final defeat in 1862. The resulting formation of the new United States of Colombia would have significant cultural and economic consequences for Colombia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">José María Melo</span> Colombian politician and general

José María Dionisio Melo y Ortiz was a Colombian general and political figure who fought in the South American wars of independence, and who rose to power and briefly held the presidency of Colombia in 1854. Of Pijao ancestry, he is considered the country's first and only indigenous president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">José María Obando</span> President of Colombia; general (1795–1861)

José María Ramón Obando del Campo was a Neogranadine General and politician who twice served as President of Colombia. As a General, he initially fought for the Royalist Army during the Independence Wars of Colombia, ultimately joining the revolutionary forces of Simón Bolívar towards the end, but once independence was attained he opposed Bolívar's Centralist government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juan José Nieto Gil</span> Colombian politician, Army general and writer

Juan José Nieto Gil was a Colombian politician, Army general and writer. A Liberal party caudillo of Cartagena, he served interimly as Governor of the Province of Cartagena, and was later elected President of the Sovereign State of Bolívar from 1859 to 1864. In 1861, during the Colombian Civil War, he fought on the side of the Liberal rebels against the Administration of President Mariano Ospina Rodríguez, and acting in rebellion proclaimed himself President of the Granadine Confederation in his right as the Presidential Designate, relinquishing power four months later to the Liberal leader, General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera y Arboleda, who led a successful coup d'état against the Conservative Government in Bogotá.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julio Arboleda Pombo</span> Colombian poet, journalist, and politician

Julio Arboleda Pombo was a Colombian poet, journalist, and politician. He was also a prominent slave owner, and led a failed rebellion in 1851 with the aim of preventing the abolition of slavery in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Colombia</span> History of slavery in Colombia

Slavery was practiced in Colombia from the beginning of the 16th century until its definitive abolition in 1851. This process consisted of trafficking in people of African and indigenous origin, first by the European colonizers from Spain and later by the commercial elites of the Republic of New Granada, the country that contained what is present-day Colombia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margarita Diez-Colunje y Pombo</span>

Margarita Diez-Colunje y Pombo was a Colombian historian, translator, and genealogist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First family of Colombia</span> Presidential families of Colombia

The first family of Colombia is the family of the president of Colombia, who is both head of state and head of government of Colombia. It is an unofficial title for the family of a republic's head of state. Members of the first family consist of the president, the First Lady of Colombia, and any of their children. However, other close relatives of the president and first spouse, such as parents, grandchildren, stepchildren, and in-laws, may be classified as members of the first family for context purposes. The first family of Colombia live in the presidential residence Casa de Nariño in Bogotá, Colombia.

Presidential elections were held in the Republic of New Granada in 1852 and 1853. The electoral college was elected in 1852 and subsequently elected the president in March 1853.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colombian Civil War of 1854</span>

The Colombian Civil War of 1854 was a civil conflict that took place in the Republic of New Granada. It was the popular response supported by both Liberals and Conservatives against the coup d'état orchestrated by General José María Melo on 17 April 1854.

References

  1. Arismendi Posada, Ignacio; Gobernantes Colombianos; trans. Colombian Presidents; Inter print Editors Ltd.; Italgraf; Segunda Edición; pg. 51; Bogotá, Colombia; 1983
  2. 1 2 Señal Memoria: La guerra que trajo el fin de la esclavitud
  3. "La guerra de 1851". Biblioteca Virtual del Banco de la República. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2011.