However,international recognition of the legitimacy of the Gran Colombian state ran afoul of European opposition to the independence of states in the Americas.Austria,France, andRussia only recognized independence in the Americas if the new states accepted monarchs from European dynasties. In addition, Colombia and the international powers disagreed over the extension of the Colombian territory and its boundaries.[5]
Gran Colombia was constituted as a unitary centralist state.[6] Its existence was marked by a struggle between those who supported acentralized government with a strong presidency and those who supported a decentralized,federal form of government. At the same time, another political division emerged between those who supported theConstitution of Cúcuta and two groups who sought to do away with the Constitution, either in favor of breaking up the country into smaller republics or maintaining the union but creating an even stronger presidency. The faction that favored constitutional rule coalesced around Vice-PresidentFrancisco de Paula Santander, while those who supported the creation of a stronger presidency were led by PresidentSimón Bolívar. The two of them had been allies in the war against Spanish rule, but by 1825, their differences had become public and were an important part of the political instability from that year onward.
Gran Colombia was dissolved in 1831 due to the political differences that existed between supporters of federalism and centralism, as well as regional tensions among the peoples that made up the republic. It broke into thesuccessor states of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela; Panamawas separated from Colombia in 1903. Since Gran Colombia's territory corresponded more or less to the original jurisdiction of the formerViceroyalty of New Granada, it also claimed the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, theMosquito Coast, as well as most ofEsequiba.
Its proclaimed name was the Republic of Colombia.[7] Historians have adopted the term "Gran Colombia" to distinguish this republic from the present-day Republic of Colombia, which began using the name in 1863, although many useColombia where the confusion would not arise.[8]
Simón Bolívar and otherSpanish American revolutionaries also used the word "Colombia" in the continental sense. The 1819 proclamation of a country with the name "Colombia" by theCongress of Angostura gave the term a specific geographic and political reference.
Map of all territory controlled and claimed by Gran Colombia, showing rivers.
The total population of Gran Colombia afterindependence was 2,583,799, lower than the 2,900,000 population of the territory before independence with Indians numbering 1,200,000 people or 50% of the population.[3] However in the modern-day territory of Colombia, the population was 1,327,000. Including 700,000 Indians which made up 53% of the population of the territory of Colombia.[10]
TheConstitution of Cúcuta was drafted in 1821 at theCongress of Cúcuta, establishing the republic's capital in Bogotá. Bolívar and Santander were appointed by the Congress as the country's president and vice-president. A great degree of centralization was established by the assembly at Cúcuta since several New Granadan and Venezuelan deputies of the Congress who formerly had been ardent federalists now came to believe that centralism was necessary to successfully manage the war against theroyalists. To break up regionalist tendencies and to set up efficient central control of local administration, a new territorial division was implemented in 1824. The departments of Venezuela, Cundinamarca, and Quito were split into smaller departments, each governed by anintendant appointed by the central government, with the same powers thatBourbon intendants had.[12] Realizing that not all of the provinces were represented at Cúcuta because many areas of the country remained in royalist hands, the congress called for a new constitutional convention to meet in ten years.
In its first years, it helped other provinces still at war with Spain to become independent: all of Venezuela exceptPuerto Cabello was liberated at theBattle of Carabobo, Panama joined the federation in November 1821, and the provinces ofPasto,Guayaquil andQuito in 1822. That year Colombia became the first Spanish American republic recognized by the United States, due to the efforts of diplomatManuel Torres.[13] Its army later consolidated the independence of Peru in 1824.
Bolívar and Santander were re-appointed by the national congress in 1826.
A map of Gran Colombia showing the12 departments created in 1824 and easternterritories disputed with neighboring countries (Mosquito Coast not indicated as disputed or part of Colombia). Map from 1840.The departments of Gran Colombia in 1824 as shown on an 1890 map (not including some disputed territory)
Gran Colombia was constituted as a unitary centralist state.[6] Its history was marked by a struggle between those who supported acentralized government with a strong presidency and those who supported a decentralized,federal form of government. At the same time, another political division emerged between those who supported theConstitution of Cúcuta and two groups who sought to do away with the constitution, either in favor of breaking up the country into smaller republics or maintaining the union but creating an even stronger presidency. The faction that favored constitutional rule and a federal state coalesced around vice-presidentFrancisco de Paula Santander, while those who supported the creation of a stronger presidency and national unity were led by PresidentSimón Bolívar. The two of them had been allies in the war against Spanish rule, but by 1825, their differences had become public and were an important part of the political instability from that year onward.
As the war against Spain came to an end in the mid-1820s,federalist andregionalist sentiments that had been suppressed for the sake of the war arose once again. There were calls for a modification of the political division, and related economic and commercial disputes between regions reappeared. Ecuador had important economic and political grievances. Since the end of the eighteenth century, its textile industry had suffered because cheaper textiles were being imported. After independence, it adopted a low-tariff policy, which benefited agricultural regions such as Venezuela. Moreover, from 1820 to 1825, the area was ruled directly by Bolívar because of the extraordinary powers granted to him. His top priority was the war in Peru against the royalists, not solving Ecuador's economic problems.
Having been incorporated later, Ecuador was also underrepresented in all branches of the central government, and Ecuadorians had little opportunity to rise to command positions in its army. Even local political offices were often staffed by Venezuelans and New Granadans. No outright separatist movement emerged in Ecuador, but these problems were never resolved in the ten-year existence of the country.[14] The strongest calls for a federal arrangement instead came from Venezuela, where there was strong federalist sentiment among the region'sliberals, many of whom had not fought in the war of independence but had supportedSpanish liberalism in the previous decade and who now allied themselves with the conservative Commandant General of the Department of Venezuela,José Antonio Páez, against the central government.[15]
In 1826, Venezuela came close toseceding. That year, Congress began impeachment proceedings against Páez, who resigned his post on April 28 but reassumed it two days later in defiance of the central government. Support for Páez and his revolt—which came to be known as theCosiata (a Venezuelancolloquialism of the time meaning "the insignificant thing") in Venezuelan history—spread throughout Venezuela, aided by the fact that it did not explicitly stand for anything, except defiance to the central government. Nevertheless, the support Páez received from across the Venezuelan political spectrum posed a serious threat to the unity of the country. In July and August, the municipal government of Guayaquil and ajunta in Quito issued declarations of support for Páez's actions. Bolívar, for his part, used the developments to promote the conservative constitution he had just written forBolivia, which found support among conservative Ecuadorians and the Venezuelan military officialdom, but was generally met with indifference or outright hostility among other sectors of society and, most importantly for future political developments, by vice-president Santander himself.
In November two assemblies met in Venezuela to discuss the future of the region, but no formal independence was declared at either. That same month, skirmishes broke out between the supporters of Páez and Bolívar in the east and south of Venezuela. By the end of the year, Bolívar was inMaracaibo preparing to march into Venezuela with an army, if necessary. Ultimately, political compromises prevented this. In January, Bolívar offered the rebellious Venezuelans a general amnesty and the promise to convene a new constituent assembly before the ten-year period established by the Constitution of Cúcuta, and Páez backed down and recognized Bolívar's authority. The reforms, however, never fully satisfied its different political factions, and no permanent consolidation was achieved. The instability of the state's structure was now apparent to all.[16]
In 1828, the new constituent assembly, the Convention of Ocaña, began its sessions. At its opening, Bolívar again proposed a new constitution based on the Bolivian one, but this suggestion continued to be unpopular. The convention fell apart when pro-Bolívar delegates walked out rather than sign a federalist constitution. After this failure, Bolívar believed that by centralizing his constitutional powers he could prevent the separatists (the New Granadians represented mainly byFrancisco de Paula Santander andJosé María Obando, and the Venezuelans byJosé Antonio Páez) from bringing down the union. He ultimately failed to do so. As the collapse of the country became evident in 1830, Bolívar resigned from the presidency. Internal political strife between the different regions intensified even as GeneralRafael Urdaneta temporarily took power in Bogotá, attempting to use his authority to ostensibly restore order, but actually hoping to convince Bolívar to return to the presidency and the country to accept him. The federation finally dissolved in the closing months of 1830 and was formally abolished in 1831. Venezuela, Ecuador, and New Granada came to exist as independent states.
On 3 June 1828 Bolívar declared war on Peru over Gran Colombian claims on the Peruvian territories ofJaén andMaynas.[17] The war ended in the Treaty of Guayaquil, which was signed on 22 September 1829 and went into effect on 27 October 1829.[18]
Thedissolution of Gran Colombia represented the failure of Bolívar's vision. The former republic was replaced by the republics of Venezuela, Ecuador, and New Granada. The former Department of Cundinamarca (as established in 1819 at theCongress of Angostura) became a new country, theRepublic of New Granada. In 1858, New Granada was replaced by theGranadine Confederation. Later in 1863, the Granadine Confederation changed its name officially to theUnited States of Colombia, and in 1886, adopted its present-day name: the Republic of Colombia. Panama, which voluntarily became part of it in 1821, remained a department of the Republic of Colombia until 1903 when, in great part as a consequence of theThousand Days War of 1899–1902,[19]it became independent under intense American pressure. The United States wanted territorial rights in the futurePanama Canal Zone, which Colombia had refused.
With the exception of Panama (which, as mentioned, achieved independence seven decades later), the countries that were created have similar flags, reminiscent of the flag of Gran Colombia:
Before a new constitution could be written by the 1821Congress of Cúcuta, the 1819Congress of Angostura appointed Bolívar and Santander president and vice president, respectively. Under theConstitution of Cúcuta, the country was divided into twelvedepartments each governed by anintendant. Departments were further divided into thirty-six provinces, each headed by a governor, who had overlapping powers with the intendant. Military affairs at the department level were overseen by acommandant general, who could also be the intendant. All three offices were appointed by the central government. The central government, which temporarily was to reside inBogotá, consisted of a presidency, abicameral congress, and ahigh court (theAlta Corte).
The president was the head of the executive branch of both the central and local governments. The president could be granted extraordinary powers inmilitary fronts, such as the area that became Ecuador. The vice-president assumed the presidency in case of the absence, death, demotion, or illness of the president. Since President Bolívar was absent from Gran Colombia for the early years of its existence, executive power was wielded by the vice president, Santander. Thevote was given to persons who owned 100pesos in landed property or had an equivalent income from a profession. Elections wereindirect.[20][21]
In Peru, the dissolution of Gran Colombia is seen as a country ceasing to exist, giving way to the formation of new nation-states. The significance of this view is that the treaties Peru had signed with Gran Colombia became void when the countersignatory ceased to exist. The three new states, the Republic of New Granada (which later changed its name toRepublic of Colombia), theRepublic of Venezuela, and theRepublic of Ecuador, in the Peruvian view, started with a clean diplomatic slate.[22][23]
An alternative view is that Ecuador and Venezuela separated from the Gran Colombian Federation and inherited all of the treaty obligations that Gran Colombia had assumed, at least to the extent that they apply to their respective territories. There are indications that Colombia itself maintained this position; Gran Colombia and its successor state, the Republic of Colombia, shared a capital city, a subset of the same territory, and much the same citizenry. It would be unnatural to disavow their common histories.[22][23]
The question of the status of treaties and accords dating to the revolutionary period (1809–1819) and Gran Colombia period (1819–1830) has a profound effect on international relations to the present day.[22][23][example needed]
^"Los nombres de Colombia".Alta Consejería Presidencial para el Bicentenario de la Independencia de Colombia. Archived fromthe original on September 18, 2016. RetrievedAugust 12, 2016.
^Bushnell,The Santander Regime, 12. Bushnell uses both "Colombia" and "Gran Colombia."
^Miranda, Francisco de; Josefina Rodríguez de Alonso; José Luis Salcedo-Bastardo (1978).Colombeia: Primera parte: Miranda, súbdito español, 1750–1780. Vol. 1. Caracas: Ediciones de la Presidencia de la República. pp. 8–9.ISBN978-84-499-5163-3.
^Bowman, Charles H. Jr. (March 1969). "Manuel Torres in Philadelphia and the Recognition of Colombian Independence, 1821–1822".Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia.80 (1):17–38.JSTOR44210719.
^Arauz, Celestino A; Carlos Manuel Gasteazoro; Armando Muñoz Pinzón (1980).La Historia de Panamá en sus textos. Textos universitarios: Historia (Panamá). Vol. 1. Panama: Editorial Universitaria.
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