History of Colombia

This article covers the history of Colombia .

Pre-Columbian era

When the Spanish conquerors reached South America at the end of the 15th century, they entered a continent that had been inhabited by humans for thousands of years. However, before the arrival of the Spanish in what is now Colombia, there was no large empire such as that of the Inca , which encompassed large parts of southern South America. The pre-Columbian cultures consisted of smaller and relatively independent tribes, corresponding to the geographical fragmentation of the country.

The epoch before this discovery by Christopher Columbus is called pre-Columbian . It is not to be confused with the pre-Columbian era. This term describes the time before the founding of Greater Colombia .

native people

The colonization of America was very likely from the north. The first settlers reached the double continent at least 18,000 years ago. They were nomads who slowly came to South America via Central America. In 1967 stone tools were found in the rocky outcrops of El Abra, to the east of Zipaquirá , dating back to 10,460 BC. To be dated ± 160 BC. Accordingly, the first humans must have reached what is now Colombia before this date. More recent finds in 1972 come from Pubenza in Cundinamarca . They have been dated older.

In the Sabana of Bogotá near Tequendama stone tools were found that are about 1000 years younger. Among the tools are arrow and lance tips, knives and scratching tools. They testify to an elaborate production and indicate specialized hunters. From the time between 7500 and 6500 BC Only a few objects were found. These consist for the most part of wood, only a few are made of stone. In addition, an increasing number of animal bone tools were found from this period. The first complete human skeletons are dated to around 5000 BC. BC and bear witness to a different physical stature than that of the Muisca , who later settled this region.

Agriculture (5000 BC - 1200 AD)

The first indications of plant production in what is now Colombia are in the area of the Montes de María , which are in the present-day departments of Bolívar, Sucre and Atlántico. In the Atlántico pots and other clay objects were found that date back to between 5000 and 4000 BC. To be dated. These first groups of people who dealt with agriculture partially dissolved. It is believed that they brought their knowledge of fishing and pottery to the later Zenú culture when they migrated to the north.

The discovery of agricultural settlements with pottery in the middle of the Amazon region (Arararcuara), which dates from the year 2700 BC, was astonishing. Come. The excavation site Zipacón 1 also indicates that plant production in the area from the Sabana de Bogotá until after 1320 BC. Was cultivated.

Indigenous peoples

San Agustin

The traces of the settlement around San Agustín go back to the 600 century BC. BC back. The heyday of the culture of San Augustin falls in the first centuries of our era. Most of the megalithic statues that can still be seen today , which resemble the figures on Easter Island , also date from this period . The builders of the statues lived in today's Huila Department and in the north of the Caquetá .

The construction techniques used are just as obscure as the origins of the first settlers. The thesis that the first settlers were members of the Teotihuacán and Oayaca cultures who moved to the San Augustin area by water or via Central America is largely rejected by experts.

Chibcha

The Chibcha settled mainly in the plateaus, in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the north of the country and in the cooler regions in the center of the country. The members of the Chibcha culture formed the numerically largest and most developed culture in today's Colombia . They had advanced knowledge of mathematics , used a calendar for their agricultural activities and religious festivals, and had hieroglyphic writing . Because they lived scattered, they did not form a united people. The most prominent groups within the Chibcha family were the Muisca and the Tayrona .

Capulí culture

South of Pasto , from 850 to 1500 in Colombia, the Capulí culture is tangible.

Arawak

The Arawaks inhabited the regions of the Amazon , Putumayo and Caquetá rivers . Their culture was advanced and they specialized in agriculture and processing of gold and cotton .

Further

The Aburra were one of the largest Indian tribes in Colombia until the 16th century.

Colonial times

After the discovery of Central America by Spanish seafarers , the first colonial bases on the Colombian Caribbean coast emerged with Santa Marta (founded in 1527) and Cartagena de Indias (founded in 1533) .

Greater Colombia

When the first Spanish explorers under Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada penetrated the Andean region in 1537 , the Chibcha were subjugated. The Spaniards built some settlements that replaced the former Indian trading centers, for example Santa Fe and Tunja (founded both in 1539). A little later a province was founded, from which the viceroyalty of New Granada developed.

Since the first attempts at independence in 1810

The first republic was founded nine years before Colombia's actual independence , and it lasted six years until the uprising that supported it was crushed by the Spaniards.

Colombia gained independence as part of Greater Colombia in 1819 after the Battle of Boyacá . Simón Bolívar became the first president. After Greater Colombia, which comprised the current states of Venezuela , Ecuador , Panama and Colombia , dissolved in 1831, Colombia became independent, although the name New Granada was retained until 1858 . From 1858 to 1863 the country was called the Granada Confederation until it was renamed Colombia in honor of Christopher Columbus . From 1863 to 1886 the official name of the state was " United States of Colombia ", since 1886 it has been called "Republic of Colombia". Today's Panama remained part of Colombia until 1903.

Border disputes after the Treaty of Salomón-Lozano culminated in 1933 in the Colombian-Peruvian War . This brief military confrontation, which Colombia won, killed around 200 soldiers on both sides (most of them died from jungle diseases) and did not result in a border shift. Colombia had secured the status quo ante.

La Violencia

Burning tram in front of the congress building during the 1948 riots known as Bogotazo

In 1948, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán , the most promising candidate for the upcoming presidential election, was murdered. He had made a name for himself as a lawyer and reported on massacres of the labor movement in Colombia. He was trusted to carry out a land reform and fight poverty among the rural population. In the lower class he enjoyed great popularity, but he was feared by the established liberals and especially the conservatives. On April 9, 1948, Gaitán was shot dead by a mentally confused assassin. Serious unrest broke out spontaneously; especially in Bogotá, the police and the military temporarily lost control ( Bogotazo ). The reaction of the state security organs and the gangs paid for by conservative politicians, the so-called pájaros and chulavitas, was all the more bloody . These operated mainly in rural areas, where they carried out numerous massacres of civilians.

The conflict that had raged since 1946 - La Violencia (literally "The Violence") - between conservative combat groups and liberal guerrilla groups reached its climax under the presidency of the radical conservative Laureano Gómez (1950-1953). After a military coup led by General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, the Violencia initially ebbed thanks to generous amnesty legislation. In this second phase of the conflict (1953–1957), however, increasingly radical groups made themselves felt which rejected Rojas' amnesty and operated under the influence of the Communist Party of Colombia . The guerrilla groups that emerged from the liberal peasant self-defense groups ( repúblicas independientes ) survived the rule of the general. In addition, those gangs that pursued exclusively economic motives also survived. For this reason, the Violencia was essentially limited to the Colombian highlands, in particular to zones of coffee cultivation ( Tolima , Valle del Cauca , Cauca , Boyacá , Antioquia and Viejo Caldas, which is partially identical to today's Departamento de Caldas ). In the coastal regions, however, there were hardly any massacres or displacement. In the eastern region of the Llanos, the powerful guerrilla force of the Llanos under Guadalupe Salcedo continued to rise.

In the third phase of Violencia (1958–1963), the now democratic state finally had to deal with the so-called “bandoleros”, i.e. marauding gangs. At least in the official version, these no longer pursued any political interests. Under the government of Alberto Lleras Camargo ( Frente Nacional ) there was also an amnesty that led to the dissolution of numerous guerrilla groups and conservative counter-guerrilla forces. Both the economically motivated bandoleros and the communist guerrillas under the influence of the Cuban Revolution (1959) continued to offer resistance. The bombing of the former república independiente Marquetalia in the Huila department in 1964 finally led to the founding of the still active guerrilla organization FARC . The "historical" Violencia came to an end and gave way to a new phase of different, closely interwoven violencias . More than 200,000 civilians were killed in the fighting between 1946 and 1953.

Military dictatorship (1953–1957)

Supported by a section of the political elite, General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla prevented the threatened collapse of the country in June 1953 by means of one of the few coups in the history of Colombia - compared to other Latin American countries. Rojas established a military dictatorship for four years . Most of the liberal and conservative fighting groups disbanded as a result of amnesty legislation. However, many of its former members were murdered in the years that followed. This experience encouraged the communist groups not to give up their weapons.

National Front (1958–1974)

The military dictatorship was ended in 1957 after a general strike. On the initiative of the former Conservative President Laureano Gomez (1950–1953) and the former Liberal President Alberto Lleras Camargo (1945–1946, 1958–1962), the government was established from 1958 by the National Front , an amalgamation of the liberal and conservative parties. After the members of the Partido Liberal and the Partido Conservador ("los godos") had fought each other since their foundation, a peaceful agreement on government and administrative matters has now been reached by both parties for the first time. The president came every four years alternately from the ranks of the liberals and the conservatives and the legislature and the public organs were divided equally regardless of the respective election result.

The presidents of the Frente Nacional were: Alberto Lleras Camargo (Partido liberal) 1958–1962, Guillermo León Valencia (Partido conservador) 1962–1966, Carlos Lleras Restrepo (Partido liberal) 1966–1970 and Misael Pastrana Borrero (Partido conservador) 1970–1974 .

Carlos Lleras Restrepo was the most important president of the Frente Nacional, although some of his reforms, such as land reform, were failures with far-reaching effects.

Since the middle of the 20th century

Colombia is part of the Andean Community , which was founded in 1969 and has built up a free trade area between the member states since 1995 .

An armed conflict in Colombia has been going on for decades . After another wave of violence and terror, President Álvaro Uribe Vélez declared a state of emergency for 90 days on August 12, 2002.

The demobilization process started by Uribe in 2003 with the paramilitaries threatened to fail. One reason for this was the disappearance of the founder of the paramilitary, Carlos Castaño , and another the demand by the paramilitary not to be punished and extradited to the United States for their actions, including drug trafficking . By April 2006, 30,000 actual or alleged members of the AUC paramilitary had been disarmed.

A confiscated computer belonging to the former commanding officer Jorge 40 contains information about plans to hire farmers to pretend to be former paramilitaries and to fake demobilization. The number of paramilitaries actually demobilized can therefore not be given with certainty.

Despite the demobilization of many paramilitaries, groups of this kind continue to operate in large parts of the country. Some paramilitary units have even been re-established since the beginning of the demobilization process. B. the Aguilas Negras (Spanish black eagle ).

literature

Thomas Fischer: 40 years of FARC in Colombia. From rural self-defense to terror . In: Sozial.Geschichte 20: 1 (2005), pp. 77–99.
Hans-Joachim König: Small history of Colombia. CH Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-56804-6 .
Marco Palacios: Between Legitimacy and Violence: A History of Colombia, 1875-2002. Duke University Press, Durham 2006, ISBN 0-8223-3767-3 .
Gonzalo Sánchez: Bandoleros, gamonales y campesinos. El caso de la Violencia en Colombia. El Áncora, Bogotá 1983.

Web links

Commons : History of Colombia - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

↑ MUSEO PREHISTÓRICO EN PUBENZA eltiempo.com, accessed January 18, 2018 (Spanish)
↑ Frente Nacional. Quetzal, March 2008, accessed December 26, 2008 .

[1] MUSEO PREHISTÓRICO EN PUBENZA eltiempo.com, accessed January 18, 2018 (Spanish)

[2] Frente Nacional. Quetzal, March 2008, accessed December 26, 2008 .