What was Gran Colombia, Bolívar's republic?
Gran Colombia, Bolívar's republic
La Gran Colombia
17 December 1819–17 November 1831. On 17 December 1819 the Congress of Angostura passed the Fundamental Law that united Venezuela and New Granada in a single Republic of Colombia; the province…
Draft: not yet checked against its sources.
Where: The Spanish Caribbean, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama
What happened
On 17 December 1819 the Congress of Angostura passed the Fundamental Law that united Venezuela and New Granada in a single Republic of Colombia; the province of Quito joined after its liberation in 1822. The Congress of Cúcuta gave it a constitution in 1821, with Bolívar as president and Santander as vice-president. Historians call it Gran Colombia to distinguish it from today's Colombia, though it never had that name in law. It stretched from the Caribbean coast of Panama to the Amazon, but it was held together by Bolívar's prestige and by war. Once the war was over, regional leaders in Caracas and Quito resented rule from Bogotá; Venezuela and Ecuador separated in May 1830, Bolívar died in December, and the union was formally dissolved on 17 November 1831, when New Granada was created from the central provinces.
Say it
La Gran Colombia unió a Venezuela, Colombia y Ecuador, pero duró solo doce años.
Gran Colombia united Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, but lasted only twelve years.
Why it matters
Gran Colombia is the great might-have-been of Spanish America, a single state the size of Western Europe. Its break-up fixed the borders of three countries, and 'Bolivarian' unity remains a political dream, and slogan, two centuries later.
Read about it
Connected
- The independence of Spanish America (1808–1826)
- Bolívar writes the Jamaica Letter (6 September 1815)
- Bolívar writes the Jamaica Letter (6 September 1815)
- The Battle of Boyacá (7 August 1819)
- The Battle of Boyacá (7 August 1819)
- Ayacucho: the end of Spanish rule in South America (9 December 1824)
- Ayacucho: the end of Spanish rule in South America (9 December 1824)
Sources
- ¿Qué fue la Gran Colombia? — Señal Memoria (RTVC, Colombia)
- Así terminó la Gran Colombia — Señal Memoria (RTVC, Colombia)