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Information About Colombia

Colombia is a South American country almost the size of the state of Alaska. It is the only country in South America to have coastlines on both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans--the latter in the form of the Caribbean Sea. On land, it is bordered by Venezuela and Brazil to the east, and Peru and Ecuador to the south.

The first permanent Spanish colonial settlements in the area were made at Cartagena in 1533 and Santa Marta in 1535. Although the region had been inhabited by Amerindians for centuries, they could not resist the conquistadores. Santafé de Bogota was founded in 1538 and became the capital of the viceroyalty of New Granada—acombination of today's Colombia, Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador--in 1739. In 1810, parts of New Granada began fighting for independence, which finally came in 1819 when Simon Bolivar defeated the Spanish.

An independent federation consisting of Colombia, Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador was set up in 1821. It was called the Republic of Colombia, and within it present day's Colonia was known as New Granada. New Granada took the name "Colombia" in 1863, long after the federation was dissolved.

The break up of the federation occurred in 1830 when Ecuador and Venezuela left the union. The period from that time until about 1900 was extremely volatile. There were eight civil wars, the last being the Thousand Day's War, which clained some 100,000 lives. Immediately following this conflict, in 1903, Panama seceded from the federation with U.S. support (the U.S. had an interest in the Panama Canal), thereby embittering Colombian-American relations for years.

From 1903-1930 Colombia stabilized under conservative rule and entered foreign trade consistently for the first time with coffee exports. Unfortunatly, after this time fighting began to break out between the two ruling parties, Liberal and Conservative. This period of "La Violencia" led to the dictatorship of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. His forceful rule helped to quell the fighting for a short time until he was pressured to step down in 1957.

Finally, the leaders of the Conservative and Liberal parties agreed to form a coalition called the National Front. The coalition had two goals: to end dictatorship and to end violence. They agreed that beginning in 1958 and lasting for at least 16 years, the presidency of Colombia would alternate between the two parties every four years. It was also agreed that all elected and appointed positions would be equally divided between the two parties, and furthermore that no party could contest this agreement until the sixteen years ended. This was a generally successful agreement in that it ended partisan violence.

The government of Colombia has remained Democratic since that time, with the presidents being required to offer "adequate and equitable" participation in the government to the other party. The position of president is both chief of state and head of government. The president is assisted by a thirteen member cabinet and the governors of the nation's departments and national territories. There is a two house congress--one of the strongest in Latin America, and a Supreme Court which holds the highest power in the country. Suffrage is universal over the age of eighteen.

Due to the inter-marriage of the Spaniards and the Amerindians, 78% of the 34 million people in Colombia are White and Mestizos. There are 4% of African descent, 14% Mulatto and 3% mixed African and Amerindian. Pure blooded Amerindians now constitute only 1% of the population. 75% of Colombians live in the Andean highlands and the rest live on the Caribbean coastal region. There has been a trend in recent years of urban migration to Bogotá, Medellin and Cali.

Spanish is the official and spoken language, and Roman Catholicism is the official religion, yet many Indians follow traditional religious beliefs and have different linguistic groups. Free public education is available for all, although the middle and upper classes usually choose private education. 10% of the national budget is spent on education and the literacy rate is 95%.