sábado, 16 de mayo de 2009
Republic of Colombia
President: Alvaro Uribe (2002)
Land area: 401,042 sq mi (1,038,699 sq km); total area: 439,736 sq mi (1,138,910 sq km)
Population (2008 est.): 45,013,674 (growth rate: 1.4%); birth rate: 19.8/1000; infant mortality rate: 19.5/1000; life expectancy: 72.5; density per sq km: 43
Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Santafé de Bogotá, 7,594,000 (metro. area), 7,185,889 (city proper)
Other large cities: Cali, 2,283,200; Medellín, 1,957,800; Barranquilla, 1,330,400; Cartagena, 901,500
Monetary unit: Colombian Peso
National name: República de Colombia
When the first spaniards arrive to what is now Colombia, the largest and widespread culture was the Chibchas. They were concentrated mainly in the highland basins and valleys of the Cordillera Oriental.
The first Spanish settelment was established in 1510 on the coast of the Gulf of Uraba (Caribbean Sea) but was abandoned 
after a few years. Santa Marta and Cartagena (founded in 1525 and 1533, respectively) were the earliest permanent settlements. Bogota was founded in 1538, followed by more than twenty other settlements by the middle of the sixteenth century. About the same time, spaniards moving northward from Peru reached southern Colombia and founded Pasto and Popayan. Spanish settlement grew and expanded during the seventeenth century, stimulated by the sources of gold and silver. Gradually, an increasing number of sttlers turned to agriculture. Large estates were established using the Indians and later Africans for forced labor.
Colombia was part of the territory known as the Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada (established in 1740), which also extended over present-day Panama, Venezuela, and Ecuador. The population of Colombia was estimated at aproximately 800,000 in 1770. It is believed to have crossed the 1-million mark early in the nineteenth century.
In 1811 the populationin parts of Colombia rose up against Spanish colonial rule. A period of armed struggle followed. "Greater Colombia" whose independence was declared in 1819, extended over the former Viceroyalty. It disolved in 1830, when Venezuela and Ecuador declared their independence. Colombia and Panama became the Republic of New Granada. Political and economic rivarly between the different social groups plunged the country in a long period of internal instablility with intermittent civil wars and dictatorships. This continued into the twentieth century. In an attempt to overcome the regional conflict and dissension, the country was given a new Constitution and, in 1863, turned in a Federation of nine states called the United States of Colombia.
In 1886 a new Constitution abolished the Federation and divided Colombia into departments with some local authonomy. In 1903 Panama withdrew from Colombia and declared its independence.
