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The Republic of Colombia is a country in north-western South America. It is bound to the north and north-west by the Caribbean Sea, to the east by Venezuela and Brazil, to the south by Ecuador and Peru, and to the west by Panama and the Pacific Ocean.

History

Spanish explorers arrived in the area around 1500, at which time they encountered many Chibchan and 'Karib' or caribe peoples whom they assimilated or killed through warfare, disease, exploitation, and conquest. They soon established settlements that eventually grew into the provinces which were part of the Captaincy General of New Granada. As it became a Viceroyalty in 1717, some other provinces of northwestern South America came under its jurisdiction. An independence movement sprang up around 1810, led by Simon Bolivar and Francisco de Paula Santander, that finally succeeded in 1819 when the territory of the Viceroyalty of New Granada became the Republic of Gran Colombia.

Internal political and territorial divisions led to the secession of Venezuela and Quito (today's Ecuador) in 1830 and the remaining Department of Cundinamarca was renamed New Granada until 1856 when it became the Granadine Confederation. In 1863 it became the United States of Colombia, until 1886 when it finally became the Republic of Colombia. Internal divisions remained, occasionally igniting very bloody civil wars and contributing to the US-sponsored secession of Panama in 1903.

The most bloody of these wars occured in the late 1940s and early 1950s, known as La Violencia (the violence). It claimed the lives of at least 180,000 Colombians. Its cause was mainly tensions between partisan groups, and a revolt toward the governance of the Roman Catholic Church and the social and economic elite. In recent decades the country has been plagued by the effects of the influential drug trade and by guerrilla insurgents such as FARC and illegal counter-insurgency paramilitary groups such as AUC, which along with other minor factions have been engaged in a bloody internal conflict. The different irregular groups often resort to kidnapping and drug smuggling to fund their causes, tend to operate in large areas of the remote rural countryside and can sometimes disrupt communications and travel between different regions.

Travel Category: Main Travel Page » South America » Colombia

Useful travel links and resources for Colombia by our editors. Find quality travel links about Colombia's hotels, tours, cruises, car rentals and vacation packages in Colombia.