Colombianos blancos (Spanish) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Total population | |
| 20%–26%[1][2][3][4] of the Colombian population | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Throughout the nation, especially in theAndean Region and the major cities[5] | |
| Languages | |
| PredominantlySpanish[6] | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity (Roman Catholic)[6] | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Europeans · West Asians Mestizo Colombians · White Latin Americans |
White Colombians (Spanish:Colombianos blancos) areColombians of completely or predominantlyEuropean orWest Asian ancestry. According to the 2018 census, 87.58% of Colombians do not identify with any ethnic group, being eitherWhite orMestizo (of mixed European,African, andIndigenous ancestry), which are not categorized separately.[7]
While most sources estimate Whites to be 20% of the country's population,[1][2][3] according toLatinobarómetro poll, 26% of Colombians surveyed self-identified as White.[4]
White Colombians primarily live in theAndean Region and the urban centers.[8] Most are ofSpanish origin, but there is also a large population ofMiddle Eastern descendants,[9] as well as someItalian,[10]German,[11] and other European ancestries.[12][13]
According to research published in 2014, which evaluated the genetic pool of 1,659 Colombians living mostly in the city ofMedellín, the average genetic makeup was 60% European, 29% Indigenous, and 11% African, with self-identified White Colombians (19.3% of the samples) being 65% European, 26% Indigenous, and 9% African.[14]
Before the arrival of Europeans,Indigenous peoples of Colombia populated the region.[15]
The presence of Whites in Colombia began in 1510 with the colonization ofSan Sebastián de Urabá. ManySpaniards came searching forgold, while others established themselves locally as leaders ofChristian social organizations.[16]
During the early 18th century, many French explorers traveled to the Caribbean coast of Colombia, called Urabá. At around 140 French registered asProtestants who undertook to grow cocoa beans. After a violent conflict between the European explorers and the indigenous, the survivors were able to flee from war and began settling in the department ofCórdoba.[17]
Some of the French veterans of theFrench Revolutionary Wars (1792 - 1802) and of theGrande Armée ofNapoléon during theNapoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815) participated in the liberation armies, which was a mission of Jean Baptiste Boussingault arrived inColombia in 1822. French zoologist François Désiré Roulin, signed a four-year contract to teachmineralogy andchemistry at the School of Mines, and to serve the role ofmineralogist researcher and engineer of the mines of theViceroyalty of New Granada.[18]
In 1855, a group of French immigrants landed in Colombia that deeply impacted the history of mining in theAntioquia region during the second half of the 19th century. The members who worked in the mining were Count Adolphe de Gaisne de Bourmont, Adolphe and Paul de Bedout, Augustin de Colleville, Henri Brèche and Eugène Lutz. Bourmont bought in 1856 a part of the shares of the Titiribí smelting farm, which belonged to the English Tyrell Moore, and also of different mines located in the area. The collapse of most French agricultural, industrial or mining companies stand out, including the fruitless attempt by a French geographerÉlisée Reclus, who installed a crop inSierra Nevada deSanta Marta, or the French Sinu Company.
Until 1870, nearly all French immigrants toColombia originated from thePyrenees. French immigrants in Colombia came from Southwestern France, includingBéarn, theBasque Country (Basses-Pyrénées),Rouergue andCharente. Others were from Paris and theSavoy region.
As of 2017, only 6,400 French citizens are residing in Colombia. Most of them are highly concentrated inBogotá.[19]The first German immigrants arrived in the 16th century, contracted by the Spanish Crown, and included explorers such asAmbrosio Alfinger andNikolaus Federmann. There was another small wave of German immigrants at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, including Leo Siegfried Kopp, the founder of the famous Bavaria Brewery.SCADTA, a Colombian-German air transport corporation established by German expatriates in 1919, was the first commercial airline in theWestern Hemisphere.[20]
During the era ofNazi Germany, there were some GermanNazi agitators in Colombia, such asBarranquilla businessman Emil Prufurt,[21] but the majority were apolitical.[citation needed] Colombia asked Germans who were on the US blacklist to leave while allowing German and Jewish refugees in the country illegally to stay.[21]
In December 1941, theUnited States government estimated that at least 4,000Germans were living in Colombia.[21]
Moderately conservative Mennonites ofGerman origin started to settle in Colombia in February 2016, with immigrants coming mainly from the region aroundCuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, in northern Mexico, immigrants toLiveney colony mainly fromManitoba Colony and immigrants toAustralia colony mainly from Ojo de la Yegua Colony (Nordkolonie), some 50 km north of Cuauhtémoc, Mexico, but others came from the United States, Canada andBolivia.[22]Liviney andAustralia were establishedfincas and the Mennonites did not change their names.[23]
In 2018 there were three Mennonite colonies some 90 km fromPuerto Gaitán,Meta Department,Liviney (also known asLos Venados) with about 7,200 hectares,Australia with about 7,000 hectares andLa Florida (also known asSan Jorge) with about 2,000. In 2019, there was a new Mennonite colony namedBuenos Aires (also known asPajuil).[24][25][26] These four Mennonite colonies comprise some 28,000 ha.[27]
These Mennonites are mostly so-called"Russian" Mennonites who formed as anethnic group in the 19th century in what is todayUkraine. They forbid television and radio, but allow cars and many other modern technologies they need for work. They speakPlautdietsch and womendress plain.[28] A 2020 survey found that there are more than 200 Mennonite colonies in nine Latin American countries, with four in Colombia.[27]Basque priests introducedHandball into Colombia.[29] Along with business, Basque immigrants in Colombia were devoted to teaching and public administration.[29] In the first years of the Andean multinational company, Basque sailors navigated as captains and pilots on most of the ships until the country could train its own crews.[29] In Bogotá, there is a small colony of 30 to 40 families who emigrated due to theSpanish Civil War.[30]
.jpg)
Colombia was one of the early focal points ofSephardi immigration.[31] Jewish converts to Christianity and somecrypto-Jews also sailed with the early explorers. It has been suggested that the present-day culture of business entrepreneurship inAntioquia andValle del Cauca is attributable to Sephardi immigration.[32][better source needed]
A wave ofAshkenazi immigrants came after the rise ofNazism in 1933, followed by as many as 17,000 German Jews. From 1939 until the end of World War II, immigration was forced to stop through anti-immigrant policies and restrictions on immigration from Germany.[33]
The largest wave of Middle Eastern immigration began around 1880 and remained during the first two decades of the 20th century. They were mainlyMaronite Christians fromLebanon,Syria andOttoman Palestine, fleeing financial hardships and the repression of the TurkishOttoman Empire. When they were first processed in the ports of Colombia, they were classified as Turks (in part because most of them had Ottoman Passports at the time).
During the early 20th century, numerous Jewish immigrants came from Turkey, North Africa, and Syria. Shortly after, Jewish immigrants began to arrive from Eastern Europe.[21] Armenians, Lebanese, Syrians,[34] Palestinians, and some Israelis[35] have continued to settle in Colombia.[34]
Between 700,000 and 3,200,000 Colombians have full or partial Middle Eastern descent.[36][37] Due to a lack of information, it is impossible to know the exact number of people who immigrated to Colombia. A figure of 50,000-100,000 from 1880 to 1930 may be reliable.[34] Regardless of the figure, the Lebanese are perhaps the biggest immigrant group, next to the Spanish, since independence.[34]Cartagena,Cali, andBogotá were among the cities with Colombia's largest number ofArabic-speaking representatives in 1945.[34]
Colombia has the third-largest Lebanese population abroad below onlyArgentina andBrazil, with an estimated population of between 1,200,000 and 2,500,000 people. Between 1880 and 1930, it is estimated 10,000 to 30,000 Lebanese migrants relocated to Colombia.
According to a 2025 article byRaúl Zibechi for The North American Congress on Latin America, there were 100,000 Palestinians in Colombia. Approximate estimations by theEmbassy of Palestine in Bogotá were between 100,000 and 120,000 people in 2019, this included first, second, third, and fourthgeneration Palestinian immigrants.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
| |||||||||||
| European emigration by location |
| ||||||||||
| Historical concepts | |||||||||||
| Sociological phenomena and theories |
| ||||||||||
| Negative stereotypes of Whites | |||||||||||
| Whiteidentity politics | |||||||||||
