New Granada, 1718-1819







Grand Colombia, 1819-1830



With Bolivar victorious at Boyaca, the new REPUBLIC OF GRAND COLOMBIA was stabilized. But Spain was not yet willing to recognize it and still held on to the central Andes region; Bolivar thus continued to campaign in PANAMA (Colombian in 1821) and ECUADOR (Colombian in 1822).
Grand Colombia was declared a republic, with Simon Bolivar as president and Bogota as capital. It comprised of the entire territory of the former Spanish viceroyalty of New Granada, i.e. it included modern Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama. A constitution was passed in 1821.
The new republic was plagued by the old controversy between centralists and federalists. In 1826 there was a Venezuelan revolt. President Bolivar was out of the country campaigning, liberating Peru and Bolivia; he returned in 1827. Finding the administration hard to control, he had a new constitution passed in 1828 and ruled hard-handed.
Federalists soon criticized Bolivar as infringing on their autonomy. Bolivar resigned in 1830. The successor, JOSE DOMINGO CAICEDO, appointed by Bolivar, not elected, could not prevent Venezuela and Ecuador declaring their independence - Grand Colombia fell apart.

In 1827 the UNIVERSITY OF POPAYAN was founded.








EXTERNAL
FILES 		Links to Simon Bolivar biographies, from Looksmart
Country Study : Colombia, from Library of Congress
Colombian History, from the Univ. of the Andes
Articles from Infoplease : Colombia, New Granada
Biography of Simon Bolivar from Biblioteca Virtual de Simon Bolivar, La Paz, and from Simon Bolivar High School, Ecuador
Caudillism as Demonstrated by Bolivian Propaganda Coinage, from Chicago Coin Club, essay by George Lill III, 1986, referring to coins struck under Simon Bolivar
DOCUMENTS Flags of Gran Colombia, from FOTW
Simon Bolivar, Message to the Congress at Angostura, 1819, from Modern History Sourcebook
Coin : 1 Real 1829, from Coins from Famous People in History
REFERENCE John Gunther, Colombia : The Background of the Violencia, in : John Gunther, Inside South America, NY : Harper & Row (1964) 1967, pp.431-480



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on November 5th 2004

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