History
The history of the Republic of New Granada was marked by competing economic and political interests and rocked by violent conflicts and civil wars. One of the prime features of the political climate of the Republic was the position of the Roman Catholic Church and the level of autonomy for the federal states.
In 1839, a dispute arose over the dissolution of monasteries by the Congress of New Granada. This soon escalated into the War of the Supremes, which raged for the next two years and transformed into a conflict about regional autonomy and a border conflict with Ecuador. Panama tried unsuccessfully to break away from New Granada in 1840 and 1850.
In 1851 a Civil war took place, which was triggered by the Liberal reforms of President José Hilario López, which provided for the emancipation of slaves, the expulsion of the Jesuits, the granting of freedom of the press and the abolition of the death penalty. As a reaction, Conservative and pro-slavery groups from Cauca and Antioquia departments, led by Julio Arboleda, Manuel Ibánez and Eusebio Borrero, revolted against liberal president José Hilario López, in an attempt to prevent emancipation of disenfranchised groups and abolition of slavery, in addition to a number of religious issues.
In 1853 there was a Liberal constitutional reform, and in 1854 there was another civil war under the dictatorship of General José María Melo. In 1858 a federal constitution was introduced. An uprising by General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera sparked a new three-year civil war in 1860. After the capture of Bogotá in 1861 by Mosquera, who proclaimed himself president, the country was renamed and given a new constitution to form the Granadine Confederation in response to demands for a decentralized administration for the country.
The Viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada, also called Viceroyalty of New Granada or Viceroyalty of Santa Fe, was the name given on 27 May 1717 to the jurisdiction of the Spanish Empire in northern South America, corresponding to modern Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela. Created in 1717 by King Felipe V, as part of a new territorial control policy, it was suspended in 1723 for financial problems and was restored in 1739 until the independence movement suspended it again in 1810. The territory corresponding to Panama was incorporated later in 1739, and the provinces of Venezuela were separated from the Viceroyalty and assigned to the Captaincy General of Venezuela in 1777. In addition to those core areas, the territory of the Viceroyalty of New Granada included Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, southwestern Suriname, parts of northwestern Brazil, and northern Peru. A strip along the Atlantic Ocean in Mosquito Coast was added by the Royal Decree of 20 November 1803, but the British battled for administrative control.
The national flagof Colombia symbolizes that the nation gained its independence from Spain on 20 July 1810. It is a horizontal tricolor of yellow, blue and red in a 2:1:1 ratio. The yellow stripe takes up a half of the flag while the blue and red stripes take up a quarter of the space each.
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.
United States of Colombia was the name adopted in 1863 by the Constitución de Rionegro for the Granadine Confederation, after years of civil war. Colombia became a federal state itself composed of nine "sovereign states.” It comprised the present-day nations of Colombia and Panama and parts of northwestern Brazil. After several more years of intermittent civil wars, it was replaced by the more centralist Republic of Colombia in 1886, predecessor to modern Colombia.
The Gran Colombian–Peruvian War of 1828 and 1829 was the first international conflict fought by the Republic of Peru, which had gained its independence from Spain in 1821, and Gran Colombia, that existed between 1819 and 1830.
The Ecuadorian–Colombian War was a series of armed conflicts waged between the current republics of Colombia and Ecuador between 1862 and 1863.
The Granadine Confederation was a short-lived federal republic established in 1858 as a result of a constitutional change replacing the Republic of New Granada. It consisted of the present-day nations of Colombia and Panama and parts of northwestern Brazil. In turn, the Granadine Confederation was replaced by the United States of Colombia after another constitutional change in 1863.
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.
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.
Bartolomé Calvo Díaz de Lamadrid was a Colombian lawyer, journalist, and statesman, who became President of the Granadine Confederation, in what is now Colombia, in 1861 in his role as Inspector General, because no elections were held on that year to decide the presidency. He also served as Governor of Panama and Ambassador to Ecuador, and worked in a number of newspapers.
Manuel María Mallarino Ibargüen was the 8th Vice President of New Granada, and as such served as Acting President from 1855 to 1857.
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.
Gran Colombia, or Greater Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, was a state that encompassed much of northern South America and part of southern North America from 1819 to 1831. It included present-day Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela, along with parts of northern Peru, northwestern Brazil, and claimed the Essequibo region. The terms Gran Colombia and Greater Colombia are used historiographically to distinguish it from the current Republic of Colombia, which is also the official name of the former state.
States of Colombia existed from February 27, 1855, in the Republic of New Granada and the Granadine Confederation, where they were called "federal states". In the United States of Colombia they were called "sovereign states".
The province of Santafé de Bogotá, also known as the government of Santafé during the Spanish imperial era, was originally an administrative and territorial entity of the New Kingdom of Granada. It was created on July 17th, 1550, at which point New Granada was a province within the Viceroyalty of Peru. In 1717, province became part of Viceroyalty of New Granada after King Philip V of Spain issued a real cédula creating the new viceroyalty.
The Panama State, officially known as the Federal State of Panama from 1855 to 1863, and as the Sovereign State of Panama from 1863 until 1886 when it was dissolved, was established as one of the states of the Republic of Gran Colombia established in 1821 after independence from the Spanish Empire and was later part of the Republic of New Granada, the Granadine Confederation, and the United States of Colombia. The state was established on 27 February 1855 and lasted until 1886 when it was replaced by the Department of Panama. In 1903, the territory of the Panama State achieved independence as the Republic of Panama.
The dissolution of Gran Colombia and the disintegration of its political structures and central government created three independent countries: the Republic of Venezuela, the Republic of Ecuador and the Republic of New Granada.
The Colombian Civil War of 1851 was a Civil War in the Republic of New Granada 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.
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