Colombia: Difference between revisions
→History: Finally added more Colombia lore up until 1919
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The Colombian Revolution started in 1836 with a series of liberal revolts in Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla and Maracaibo. In March of 1838 the [[Colombian Revolutionary Congress]] organized a militia and occupied the city of Medellín. Over the year, the Colombian highlands erupted into armed revolt under the revolutionary congress; in November of 1839 the revolutionary congress decides on a platform of abolition of slavery which helped to spread the revolution to the Caribbean and Pacific coastal lowlands. By the end of the year, the revolutionary congress was in control of most of Venezuela, Trinidad, the Colombian Pacific coast and the Colombian highlands with Spanish royalist forces being limited to the Atlantic coasts and the Ecuadorian highlands. In 1841 fighting slowed down in Ecuador with both sides unable to advance on the other. Additionally international pressure started to turn in favor of the Colombian rebels with the Dutch and French empires refusing to stop trading the rebels. In April of 1841, the Spanish started to actively shoot down Dutch merchant ships trying to land in New Granada which led to the Dutch empire actively arming the Colombian rebels. In October of 1842 Spanish forces retreated from their last strongholds in Barranquilla and Cartagena and in December Spanish and Colombian diplomatic signed the Treaty of Medellín (1842) in which the Spanish recognized the independence of New Granada but Spanish sovereignty and control over Ecuador was recognized (with the region being reorganized under the authority of the viceroy of Peru).
=== Republic of Colombia ===
==== First Colombian-Peruvian War ====
Since independence, the Republic of Colombia long claimed the the territory of the ''Real Audiencia of Quito'' as an occupied province and made various gestures throughout the the mid 19th century of wanting to reclaim the territory. In 1875 the viceroy of Peru, of which the Quito territory was administered under declared independence from Spain and with this the government of Colombia saw an opening.
Throughout the 1880's and 1890's the Colombian Liberals remained in control of federal government through creating and exploiting a political machine based on the spoils system in the coastal cities of Cundinamarca and Venezuela. After a small border skirmish on the Peruvian-Colombian border left two Colombian soldiers dead, the out of power Conservatives made a ploy to whip up Nationalist fervor and retake the Quito territory and hopefully regain political control from the Liberals. In the Colombian election of 1889, the Conservatives won a major political victory and after a few months of tension declared war on Peru in January of 1890.
The Colombian army wasn't the most modernized at the start of the war but the country itself was economically prosperous and as such was able to import most of the armaments they needed from Europe. In contrast the Kingdom of Peru was in a state of disarray after the Peruvian-Spanish war (which Spain reinvaded Peru briefly after commerce disputes) with factions of generals not coordinating with each other, frequent supply shortages and an overall unclear war plan. The war itself only lasted 10 months with the Colombians rapidly overwhelming the Peruvian defense of Quito which was due in no small part to internal issues within Peru. After the war for nearly 8 years the Peruvian government refused to acknowledge Colombian sovereignty over the Quito territory.
The aftermath of the war lead to great boons for the Republic of Colombia, not only did they gain a new province, they modernized their military with contemporary European arms and strategies and built stronger economic ties to nations such as France, the British, Genoa (who loaned the nation money during the war) and Venice. The Colombia Conservatives were able to use the victory in the war as a way to justify their continued rule and were able to stay in power for an unbroken 15 years.
==== Race to the Pacific and the Panama Canal ====
Colombia is one of the three main shareholders of the modern-day Panama Canal Commission, along with [[Mexico]] and Genoa. Since the mid-19th century, the governments of Colombia, Mexico, and Genoa had plans of a joint-effort canal project in the Isthmus of Panamá. The project had used Genoa (through Panama) as the banking base for its financial aspects, and had a several engineers from Genoa involved. At the same time, the Dutch nations were building a separate canal in [[Boschland]], Central America. However, the Panama Canal was completed a few months before the Dutch canal did.
While the Panama Canal itself was a jointly owned venture, Colombia owned the majority of land near the canal (besides for a small historic trading fort owned by Genoa, which during this period started to grow into a major metropolitan area) which allowed the nation to profit heavily from the canal and it's construction.
==== Italian Immigration to Colombia ====
From the 1890's to the 1920's Colombia saw a major boom in foreign direct investment, greater exploitation of Colombian natural resources and the discovery of large oil deposits, as well as a mid sized industrial expansion centered around mineral and resource refining. Additionally, in 1899 new cultivars of Coffee were introduced to Colombia, which along with wise long term planning by the ''Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia'' led to a massive growth in the Colombian Coffee industry with the nation quickly making a name for itself as one the premier coffee growing countries.
All these changes led to a massive labor deficient and a new for foreign workers which was mostly filled through a massive immigration wave from the Italian states after the 1903 Latial Famine and the 1908 Venetian Invasion of the Papal States. Additionally, thousands of Sicilian immigrants left towards Colombia in the early 1900's to escape poverty and the corrupt semi-serfdom based economic system of the Kingdom of Sicily. While these immigrants left a major positive cultural mark on the Republic of Colombia, one major issue that arose in this period was the creation of the long-standing Colombia Mafia's dominated by organizations with ties to the Cosa Nostra.
==== Second Colombian-Peruvian War ====
The European Economic Crisis in the 1920's hit most of South America hard because of their reliance on European markets for their natural resources and agricultural goods. Though there were a few industries that actually grew in this period, notably rubber production, and as such rubber producing regions were critically important to the economies of nations that controlled them.
In 1917 Peru suffering from widespread unemployment and economic troubles stemming from the Economic Crisis in Europe entered into secret talks with the Portuguese speaking Republic of Equador and decided to wage a joint war on Colombia in order to split and annex the rubber producing Colombian Amazon territory. At the time Colombia was suffering from it's own economic troubles as well as a series of strike waves across the nation. On July, 10th 1917 a surprise attack on Colombian airfields started the war with Colombia on the backfoot. Throughout 1917 Colombia lost ground in the Amazon as well as in the much sought over Quito province. By 1918 though Colombia was able to stop the Peruvian-Equadorian advances and mobilize it's new industrial center as well as securing nominal British support (who were worried of the precedent the war would set; themselves owning rubber producing land in Guiana). By the end of the year, Colombia was able to retake Quito province and at that point the war became a drawn out excursion mostly fought in the Amazon. In May 1919, Equador suffering a manpower shortage sued for peace and in that following July Peru signed an armistice with Colombia. On November 5th 1919, Colombia, Equador and Peru signed the Treaty of Leonabelle (mediated by the United Kingdom), in which Peru relinquished all claims to Quito and the borders of the Amazon were agreed upon with Colombian claims and land occupied during the war being recognized as sovereign.
The aftermath of the war saw Colombia becoming ingratiated with Britain and British influence in Colombian politics and economic growing to unprecedented levels. Additionally, the war led to a reignition of the Colombian economy and growth of large Anglo-Colombian corporate firms operating in the nation.
== Government and politics ==
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