SPANISH CONQUEST
Spanish Conquest
In 1502, on his last voyage to the Americas, Christopher Columbus explored a part of the Caribbean coast of the empire of the Chibcha people, now the northern coast of Colombia. He was followed by a number of Spanish conquistadores, who conquered the Chibcha and established the first permanent settlement of Europeans on the American mainland, on the site of Darién in 1510, and the settlements of Santa Marta in 1525 and Santa Fe de Bogotá in 1538. In 1549 the former Chibcha Empire was included in the Audiencia of New Granada. Between 1717 and 1739 the Audiencia of New Granada and the territories that later became Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama were included in the viceroyalty of New Granada. Lack of economic progress and social and political discrimination against native-born New Granadans caused intense hostility to Spanish rule. Inspired by the successful American and French revolutions of the late 18th century, the people of New Granada joined the revolutionary movement for independence that swept over Spain's western empire in the early 19th century.
Independence from Spain
In the wars that followed, the South American leader Simón Bolívar was the outstanding revolutionary and military figure. His decisive victory over the Spanish royalists at the Battle of Boyacá River on August 7, 1819, resulted in the liberation of the former Audiencia of New Granada. The Congress of Angostura, which followed on December 17, 1819, proclaimed the formation of the State of Great Colombia, to comprise the former Audiencia of New Granada, present-day Panama, and, on their liberation, Venezuela and Ecuador. Following the liberation of Venezuela in 1821, the Congress of Cúcuta, on August 30, 1821, adopted a constitution for Great Colombia, providing for a republican form of government, and elected Bolívar as its first president. The new republic was short-lived; in 1831 New Granada (including Panama) became a separate state.
The history of the country since then is largely a record of the struggle, frequently violent, of liberal and conservative elements to determine government policy. Political and social issues were frequently complicated by bitter controversies involving the property, legal status, and privileges of the Roman Catholic church.
Constitutional Changes
Slavery was abolished in New Granada in 1851 and 1852. A new constitution, adopted in 1853, provided for trial by jury, freedom of the press, and other civil rights. In 1853 church and state were separated. Five years later the provinces became federal states, and the name of the republic was changed to Granadine Confederation. Civil war broke out in 1861 between liberal elements, favoring greater sovereignty for the states constituting the republic, and conservative elements, fighting for a strong central government. Following the victory of the liberals a new constitution was adopted in 1863 providing for a union of sovereign states named the United States of Colombia.
From 1880 to 1930, conservative policies predominated. A revolt of liberal elements was suppressed in 1885. A new constitution was proclaimed in 1886, and the present name of the country, the republic of Colombia, was chosen. The new constitution abolished the sovereign states created by the constitution of 1863 and established the present basic structure of the country. The Roman Catholic church was made the official church. Between 1899 and 1902 the country descended into civil war. This war, known as the War of a Thousand Days, claimed 60,000 to 130,000 lives.
Loss of Panama
In 1903 the Colombian Senate refused to ratify the Hay-Herrán Treaty, which provided for the lease of a strip of territory across the Isthmus of Panama to the United States for the purpose of building a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. A revolt broke out in Panama; U.S. armed forces intervened to prevent Colombian troops from suppressing the uprising, and the United States recognized Panama as an independent state. The resulting strained relations between Colombia and the United States were resolved by the Thomson-Urrutia Treaty, ratified in 1921.
The return to power of liberal elements, which took place in the election of 1930, resulted, in 1936, in constitutional amendments giving the government power to regulate privately owned property in the national interest; establishing the right of workers to strike, subject to legal regulation; disestablishing the Roman Catholic church; and secularizing public education. A new labor code adopted in 1944 provided for minimum wage scales, paid vacations and holidays, accident and sickness benefits, and the right to organize.
World War II and the Postwar Era
During World War II (1939-1945) Colombia severed diplomatic relations with Japan, Germany, and Italy in 1941, and in 1942 with the Vichy government of France. In 1943 the Colombian Senate declared a state of belligerency with Germany, and the republic signed the charter of the United Nations in June 1945, becoming one of the 51 original members.
The postwar era was one of severe political crisis, a direct result of the deepening antagonism between Liberal and Conservative factions. The assassination of Liberal Party leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in Bogotá on April 9, 1948, sparked a nationwide uprising against the Conservative government; some 1500 were killed and more than 20,000 injured. The rebellion disrupted the Ninth International Conference of American States, then in session in Bogotá. The conference succeeded, however, in completing the draft of the charter of the Organization of American States, of which Colombia became a signatory on April 30. With the aid of the loyal army the rebellion was brought under control by the government, which was reorganized to include an equal number of Liberal and Conservative cabinet ministers. Nevertheless, tension and violence mounted steadily during the following months. Liberal members withdrew from the government after a government decree was issued banning meetings and parades, and the Liberal Party withdrew its candidate from the presidential elections of 1949, charging the government with election law violations. As a result the Conservative candidate, Laureano Gómez, a political leader and newspaper editor, won the November elections without opposition. He was inaugurated in August 1950.
An Era of Violence
Between Gómez's election and inauguration, the political struggle had entered a new phase. Armed guerrilla bands were in action in many outlying areas of the country. In response, the government declared a state of siege and suspended the 1950 session of Congress. Shortly after the inauguration of Gómez a Liberal Party convention declared the government illegal, charging it with suppressing freedom of speech, the press, and assembly, and vowed to continue its boycott of elections. In February 1953 the Conservative Party proposed a new constitution, the provisions of which would have imposed on Colombia a totalitarian regime modeled after that of Spain under Francisco Franco. Liberals and moderate Conservatives bitterly opposed the constitution, and in June, when a military junta deposed the Gómez government, both factions gave their approval to the coup d'état. General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla was named provisional president, and in August 1954 he was elected to a four-year term by the constitutional convention. The convention did not meet again until October 1956, during which time the government ruled by decree. When the convention reopened, a number of delegates openly denounced the restrictive policies of Rojas Pinilla. A wave of antigovernment violence followed. However, Congress reelected Rojas Pinilla in May 1957. This inflamed public opinion, and a new military coup deposed him a few days later. The Liberal and Conservative parties then arrived at an agreement to share all government offices equally for 12 years. This plan was approved in a plebiscite on December 1, 1957, and early in 1958 it was extended to 16 years.
The National Front and After
Later in 1958 the Liberal candidate, Alberto Lleras Camargo, a former president, was reelected to the presidency. The Liberal-Conservative coalition, called the National Front, brought a measure of stability to Colombia in the 1960s. The coalition retained a majority in both houses of Congress but could seldom win the two-thirds majority required in both houses for the passage of legislation. As a result the government frequently fell into periods of near-paralysis. President Guillermo León Valencia, the Conservative candidate elected to office in 1964, declared a state of siege the following year in order to overcome the political stalemate. Rule by decree was continued under President Carlos Lleras Restrepo, who was elected on the Liberal ticket and succeeded Valencia in 1966. In the elections of 1970 the National Front defeated a challenge by former dictator Rojas Pinilla, electing Misael Pastrana Borrero as president.
When the National Front coalition came to an end in 1974, Alfonso López Michelsen, a Liberal, was elected president. The Conservatives were granted certain cabinet posts. High unemployment persisted, and incidents of labor and student unrest occurred, as well as isolated guerrilla activity. In 1978, in an election marked by low voter turnout, another Liberal, Julio Turbay Ayala, was elected president by a slim margin; he consequently took five Conservatives into his cabinet. Leftist insurgents became bolder in 1979 as the army failed to subdue them. In 1980 a guerrilla band occupied the Dominican embassy in Bogotá for 61 days, holding many foreign diplomats as hostages. Presidential elections in 1982 were won by the Conservative candidate, Belisario Betancur Cuartas, a former minister of labor. Under an amnesty issued by Betancur, about 400 guerrillas were pardoned; a truce between the government and rebel groups was announced in May 1984. The same month, Betancur launched a crackdown on Colombia's flourishing drug traffic. Through 1985, however, the guerrillas regained strength, and the antidrug crackdown lost momentum as the drug traffickers and rebels joined forces in some regions. In November government troops and guerrillas engaged in violent combat after the guerrillas seized the Palace of Justice in Bogotá and took dozens of hostages. By the end of the siege, 100 were dead, including the president of the supreme court and 10 other justices. Later that month a volcanic mudslide resulted in 25,000 dead or missing.
In the 1986 elections, the Liberals took parliament, and Virgilio Barco Vargas, their leader, became president on August 7. In August 1989, responding to a wave of killings in which Colombia's cocaine cartels were implicated, the government arrested more than 10,000 people and confiscated the property of suspected drug traffickers. After a campaign during which three presidential candidates were assassinated, the Liberal Party nominee, César Gaviria Trujillo, was elected in May 1990. He supported a new constitution that took effect in July 1991 and, among other provisions, prohibited extradition of Colombian citizens. Gaviria also lifted the state of siege and offered amnesty to drug traffickers who turned themselves in. Some did so, but the cocaine trade, along with guerrilla activity, continued to disrupt the country. In December 1991, Pablo Escobar, head of the Medellín cocaine cartel, was killed by government security forces when a gunfight ensued after they attempted to capture him. In June 1994 hundreds of people were killed after an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale triggered avalanches and floods in southwestern Colombia. Also that month, Ernesto Samper Pizano of the Liberal Party was elected president. The government and two guerrilla groups made progress towards peace in 1994, agreeing to talks aimed at the disarmament of and legislative representation for the guerrillas. Other groups stepped up attacks around the country, causing both damage and loss of life.
Presidential Crisis
Colombia entered into an extended political crisis in 1995, after Samper was accused of accepting almost $6 million in campaign contributions from drug traffickers in exchange for leniency during any criminal proceedings for drug-related crimes. Although government prosecutors later claimed to have confirmed the contributions, Samper consistently said that he did not knowingly receive any drug money, and he refused to step down from the presidency, despite increasing calls for his resignation. Samper declared a 90-day state of emergency in August 1995, ostensibly to battle organized crime and terrorist violence, but many Colombians saw the move as an attempt to divert attention away from the growing political scandal.
In January 1996 Samper's former defense minister claimed that the president had solicited and knowingly accepted campaign contributions from drug traffickers. Samper convened a special session of Congress later that month to initiate an investigation that would consider the accusations against him, but many Colombians argued that the Congress itself was thoroughly corrupt and would never force Samper out of office. Colombia's chief prosecutor formally indicted Samper in February 1996, charging the president with the crimes of illegal enrichment, electoral fraud, falsifying documents, and coverup. The indictments were seen as the initial steps in what could become a formal congressional impeachment of the president.
In March 1996 the U.S. government criticized Colombia's effort in the ongoing drug war, claiming that the country was uncooperative in international efforts to combat drug production and distribution. The United States "decertified" Colombia in the anti-drug campaign, disqualifying the country from receiving most forms of U.S. economic assistance. In June Congress cleared Samper of all charges of wrongdoing. The following month the United States cancelled his US travel visa and a Colombian court convicted two of the president's associates of funneling drug money into Samper's campaign.
As Samper's presidency became increasingly paralyzed by the drug charges, forces outside government control-coca producers, leftist revolutionary groups, and rightist anti-guerilla forces-stepped up their activities, especially in the less accessible, outlying areas of the country. Coca farmers, angered by the government program to eradicate their crops, staged a number of protests. In August paramilitary police killed two farmers and wounded 26 other people during a protest in the southern region of Putumayo. At the end of August leftwing rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia killed 80 soldiers and police in ten separate incidents. In November and December anti-guerilla vigilante groups killed 73 people suspected of being guerilla sympathizers.
In February 1997 the United States extended its decertification of Colombia for another year. Colombia retaliated in early March by halting its coca eradication plan, although several days later Colombian authorities announced they would resume the eradication program.
