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The Colony in Colombia

By Albeiro Rodas - Pictures from Wikipedia Commons and their authors

A map of the Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717.

The Colony in Colombia was inaugurated with the 1550 creation of the Royal Audience of Santa Fe. The cultural identities of what we can defined as Colombians today can be traced during the time, where the aborigine elements, African components and Spaniard influence met together. Religion was dominated by Roman Catholicism, however the original beliefs of Indo-Americans and Africans were to play an important role in the development of a Colombian religiosity. The political relations between Spain and the Colony like the law systems, the administration of public affairs, the property and exploitation of resources, the social division by castes, were the seed of the future Colombian nation. 

Beginning

After the Spaniards defeated the last leaders of the Muisca Confederation (Zaguipa and Aquiminzape) between 1538 and 1541, the Muiscas started a rebellion in 1542, but it was too late and the Spaniards were already at the command of their conquests. 

The conquerors became the most important class in the Americas and many of their descendants were the same that expelled paradoxically the Spaniards during the 18th century. Evidently, for Spain all the American colonies were not a single thing. Many differences were to be promoted along the colonial time. At the beginning the same conquers were involved in civil wars disputing territories and rights. The conquers became powerful and rich and the relations with the Mother Land were not peaceful at all. Several laws states in Spain to rule the colony were not followed or they were applied with conditions, like the laws to protect the aboriginal population.  

Characteristics 

Some of the characteristics of the colony in Colombia:

Commerce was made with exclusivity with Spain and other relations with the other colonies were coordinated only from Spain. This element would be very important to understand the protective economy of Colombia during the 20th century. After the independence, Colombia would continue with a kind of economy based in the Colonial scheme in what professor Mario Alfonso González Infante of UNAD-Colombia in his work "Regional Planification and Development" (2005), called the Theory of the Internal Colonialism. The new nation, cut from its original master, Spain, would look for other master (France, England and after USA) to continue with the same colonial economic system. 

The Caribbean Coast became the main entrance to the Colony from Spain, while the Pacific coasts were practically ignored by the Spaniards. The same as the Amazon Forest, the Spaniards did not have the right body defenses against virus like malaria and other tropical epidemics. Those lands were described very often as "unhealthy", as they are still described today and still almost abandoned.

The Spaniards founded the colonial capital on the head city of the Zipa, Bacatá, renamed as "Santa Fe de Bogotá". The Musica Culture was valued by the Spaniards as the most civilized culture, while the rest of tribes were looked as savages. After the Independence, that sense would endure where Bogotá was considered the real center of civilization, while the rest of the nations was seen as almost empty. That would create a sense of centralism and marginalization of other regions. If a region is very far from Bogotá, it means that such region is very poor.

Benkos Bioho, a man from West Africa who was kidnapped to be a slave in Colombia, escaped to found the Cimarrones Movement, Africans who lived in freedom in America. The Spaniards could not defeat them. Palenque de San Basilio, near Cartagena de Indias, is one of the towns founded by free African during the colonial times..

"Indios" became a derogative word as to be savage. The natives were down in the social pyramid. Racism was very important and people were valued by the color of their skin.

It was a Colony which economy was supported by slavery work.

To be born in Spain was a certificate of status. The children of the conquerors who were born in American soil did not enjoy the same privileges. This element would be very important to encourage the leadership of the War of Independence by the descendants of the same conquerors.   

Venezuela and Ecuador kept their own identity as colonies and the three colonies (Colombia with Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador) were united in what was called the Viceroyalty of New Granada.

El Nuevo Reino de Granada

In 1550 was created the Royal Audience of Santa Fe de Bogotá, belonging to the Viceroyalty of Peru. That administrative organization was not really a colony, but was considered under the administration of the king, who forbade to slave the aborigines. The Laws of Burgos of 1512 ruled on the incorporation of the aborigines to the  

In 1564 was created the Presidency of the New Kingdom of Granada and there were African rebellions. In 1717 was created the Viceroyalty of New Granada and there were rebellion of farmers known as Comuneros. This was the time of the Botanic Expedition, one of the most important scientist expeditions of Colombia.

• GONZALES INFANTE, Mario Alonso. Planificación y desarrollo regional. Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia, UNAD, Facultad de Ciencias Administrativas, Bogotá, 2005. 

This article is under a Creative Commons license. You can copy and distribute this article giving credit to the author - 2008

The Lower the Latitude, the Better my Attitude!  Friday, July 04, 2008   Site dedicated to the Colombian people!

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