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Great Colombia (Gran Colombia in Spanish) is the name given to the Republic of Colombia of 1819-1831, which was a short-lived republic in South America consisting of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama.
Its territory corresponded more or less to the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, the Captaincy General of Venezuela and the Royal Audience of Quito.
Origin of the Name
The official name at the time was the Republic of Colombia; the word "Great" that precedes the name was not used by contemporaries, and is an addition by later historians in order to distinguish it from the present-day Republic of Colombia, so there never was a country named "Great Colombia".
The word "Colombia" comes from the name of Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón in Spanish, Cristoforo Colombo in Italian) and was conceived by the revolutionary Francisco de Miranda as a reference to the New World, especially to all American territories and colonies under Spanish and Portuguese rule.
Bolívar and the Federation
Simón Bolívar, the Liberator of Spanish South America and other revolutionaries in the First Venezuelan Republic occasionally used the term Colombia as a reference to all of Spanish America, until the proclamation of a republic under that name in 1819 at the Congress of Angostura.
It was initially conceived at that Congress as a Federal republic, made up of three departments with capitals in the cities of Bogotá (Department of Cundinamarca), Caracas (Department of Venezuela), and Quito (Department of Quito). In that year, not all the provinces of the former viceroyalty were free yet.
The constitution of the new republic was drafted in 1821 at the Congress of Cúcuta, establishing its capital in Bogotá. A great degree of centralisation was established here, as several convinced federalists now came to believe that it would be necessary in order to better manage a unified war effort, at least for the time being.
A new territorial division (Venezuela, Cundinamarca, and Quito were split into various smaller departments) was conceived. Bolívar was elected president and Francisco de Paula Santander vice president.
In the first years of existence, Great Colombia helped other provinces still at war with Spain to become independent - Panama came to the federation in 1821 and so did the remaining provinces of Quito and Venezuela.
The independence of Peru was consolidated later in 1824 through Great Colombia's aid. Bolívar and Santander were re-elected in 1826.
Federalists against Separatists
As the war against Spain came to an end, federalist and regionalist sentiments began to arise once again. Permanent calls for modifications of the political division (along with related economic and commercial disputes) during the existence of Great Colombia, as a result of local confrontations between the regions, led to local changes and compromises.
These changes never fully pleased contemporaries and little permanent consolidation was achieved, showing the instability of the state's structure.
Bolívar dreamt of uniting Latin America but was unable to achieve this during the struggle for independence. The Republic of Great Colombia was his initial attempt at creating a single Latin American state.
Other regional and Latin American politicians, however, objected to his idea, and Bolívar, disgruntled, resigned from the project in 1828 and from his presidency in early 1830.
Internal political strife between the different regions intensified after Bolívar's resignation and continued even as General Rafael Urdaneta temporarily took power in Bogotá, attempting to use his authority to ostensibly restore order and give the presidency back to Bolívar.
The federation finally dissolved during the rest of 1830 and was formally abolished in 1831, as Venezuela, Ecuador and New Granada came to exist as independent states.
Independent nations
The dissolution of Great Colombia characterized the failure of Bolívar's dream. The Department of Cundinamarca (as established in Angostura) became a new country, the Republic of New Granada. In 1863 New Granada changed its name officially to United States of Colombia, and in 1886 adopted its present day name: Republic of Colombia. Panama remained as a province of this country until 1903, when – with backing from the United States in exchange for allowing the US to build the Panama Canal – it became independent.
With the exception of Panama (which as mentioned only achieved independence later), the countries that were created have similar flags, reminiscent of the flag of Great Colombia:
| Colombia | Ecuador | Venezuela | Panama |
See United Provinces of Central America, Nordic countries, and Arab nationalism for more examples of regions whose nations possess similar flags because of historical connections.
See also
- United Provinces of Central America - another federal state on the American continent that underwent a similar fate.
- Peru-Bolivian Confederacy
External links
- Flags of The World, Gran Colombia
Former countries in South America | History of Colombia | History of Ecuador | History of Panama | History of Venezuela | South American wars of independence | 1819 establishments
كولومبيا الكبرى | Gran Colòmbia | Großkolumbien | Gran Colombia | Granda Kolumbio | Grande Colombie | רפובליקת קולומביה הגדולה | Groot-Colombia | 大コロンビア | Wielka Kolumbia | Storcolombia | 大哥伦比亚共和国
"Great Colombia"