Colombian War of Independence
The Colombian Declaration of Independence occurred on July 20, 1810 when the Junta de Santa Fe was formed in Santa Fe de Bogota, the capital of the Spanish colonial Viceroyalty of New Granada, to govern the territory autonomously from Spain. The event inspired similar independence movements across Latin America, and triggered an almost decade-long rebellion culminating in the founding of the Republic of Colombia, which spanned present-day Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela, along with parts of northern Peru and northwestern Brazil.[note 1]
Although Gran Colombia would ultimately dissolve in 1831, it was for a time among the most powerful countries in the Western Hemisphere, and played an influential role in shaping the political development of other newly sovereign Latin American states. The modern nation-state of Colombia recognizes the event as its
Political background
Spain was ruled by a typical enlightened absolutist monarch, promoting culture and Christianity, and allowing some expression of the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, in the country and its colonies, while at the same time maintaining strong political control. [clarification needed] However, the Spanish colonies in the Americas were advised to trade with other countries and their colonies, such as Great Britain and British North America, and the French Empire and New France. Spain was their only source of goods and merchandise, although it was unable to fulfill the trade demands of its colonies. Furthermore, Charles III's support for the independence of the United States generated new taxes, causing unrest in Spain's colonies in the Americas, such as the Revolt of the Comuneros (New Granada) and the Rebellion of Túpac Amaru II. Another major tension was the policy of excluding Criollos, or locally born whites, from public administration.
Charles IV (reigned 1788–1808) was not very interested in exercising political power, leaving such duties to his ministers, specially the disliked Manuel Godoy. Charles IV was more interested in pursuing the arts and science and gave little importance to the American colonies.
The development that precipitated the events of July 20, 1810, was the crisis of the
Eventually an emergency government in the form of a
Memorandum of Offences
The Supreme Central Junta ordered the election of one representative from each of the main cities of the Spanish American viceroyalties by their In addition the cabildos were to draft instructions for the representative to present to the Supreme Central Junta.
The Memorandum of Offenses (or Memorandum of Grievances) was drafted by Camilo Torres Tenor in his capacity as legal advisor to the Santa Fe de Bogotá cabildo. In it he criticized the Spanish Monarchy's policy of excluding Criollos from high posts in the Americas and alleging their rights to govern in their homelands as "the offspring of the conquistadores". Furthermore, he proposed equality between Spanish Americans and Spaniards as the basis for maintaining the unity of the Spanish Monarchy:
- "[There are no] other means to consolidate the union between America and Spain [but] the just and competent representation of its people, without any difference among its subjects that they do not have because of their laws, their customs, their origins, and their rights. Equality! The sacred right of equality. Justice is founded upon that principle and upon granting everyone that which is his. […] [T]he true fraternal union between European Spaniards and Americans… can never exist except upon the basis of justice and equality. America and Spain are two integral and constituent parts of the Spanish Monarchy… Anyone who believes otherwise does not love his patria… Therefore, to exclude the Americans from such representation, in addition to being the greatest injustice, would arouse distrust and jealousy, and would forever alienate their desires for such a union…"[5]
Torres defended the right of the Viceroyalty of New Granada to establish a junta given the political circumstances. Although the draft expressed many of common sentiments of Criollos at the time and probably was discussed by prominent members of the capital's society, it was never adopted by the cabildo. It would be published for the first time only in 1832.[6][7]
The First Juntas
As the military situation in Spain deteriorated, many Spanish Americans desired to establish their own juntas, despite their formal declarations of loyalty to the Supreme Central Junta. A movement to set up a junta in neighboring
More importantly to events in New Granada, in the neighboring
Formation of the Independent Junta of Santa Fé de Bogotá
In mid-1810 news arrived that the Supreme Central Junta had dissolved itself in favor of a
The next incident happened in
On May 22 in
Flower vase incident
First, on the morning of July 20, 1810, Joaquín Camacho went to the residence of the Viceroy Antonio José Amar y Borbón, requesting response on an application for the establishment of a governing board in Bogota, the viceregal capital, in similar lines to those already established in other cities. The refusal of the Viceroy to grant the request, coupled with his arrogance, made the group of dissatisfied Criollos decide to execute their plan to provoke a revolt, which would have as trigger the loan of a vase.
Criollos Luis Rubio and Pantaleón Sanz de Santamaría then went to visit Spanish businessman José González Llorente to borrow a vase, to use it at a welcoming dinner for the visiting Royal commissioner Antonio Villavicencio, also a Criollo. As expected (and hoped), Llorente refused to lend the vase with a haughty attitude, because he would not lend any object to Criollos, and certainly not to celebrate another Criollo.
As they had planned the day before, Francisco José de Caldas now used Llorente's refusal, placing heavy emphasis on his disparaging remarks towards Criollos, to inflame the hundreds of people, who had gathered to welcome Villavicencio, against the Spaniards.[10]
This prompted a turbulent response from the people, who tried to attack Llorente. The mayor of Santa Fe de Bogota,
Five days later, July 26, the Junta declared that its ties to the Seville Regency Council were finally cut, therefore the Junta officially declared the independence of what is now Colombia from Spanish rule and the rule of the Regency Council. Bogota would be the first city of the colony to break its ties with Spain, followed by more provincial capitals in the coming months.
Cartagena's Declaration of Independence
One of the most defining moments in the history of Columbian independence occurs in Cartagena in the year 1811. When Bogota created a junta in 1810, elite creole men in Cartagena created their own the following year after expelling the Spanish Governor Francisco De Montes. Cartagena, Colombia. On November 11, 1811, the junta comprised the document known as "Act of Independence" to justify the expulsion of the Spanish governor. The declaration, filled with enlightenment ideas such as the right of all men to vote regardless of ethnicity, was the first of its kind in Columbia and is regarded as the event that kickstarted the Latin American Independence Wars. The event is still celebrated in Cartagena as their independence week. [11]
Foolish Fatherland (1810-1815)
The First five years of independence is known as the period of the Foolish Fatherland (la Patria Boba), which was marked by chaos, internal instability and even Civil war on the one hand, and on the other hand by armed conflicts with the area's that had remained loyal to Spain.
Each province, and even some cities, had set up its own autonomous junta in 1810, and quickly discussions arose how to work together. Two parties emerged, which were constantly at odds : the federalists and the centralists. Eventually two states were founded, the Federalist First Republic of New Granada and the Centralist Free and Independent State of Cundinamarca, that fought each other in a Civil war between 1812 and 1814. This prolonged period of instability eventually favored the Spanish reconquest in 1815.
The north and the south of present-day Colombia remained under Royalist control and several battles were fought to bring these area's under Patriot control, with limited success.
The
Nariño's Southern Campaign (December 1813-May 1814) was initially successful, but in May 1814, Antonio Nariño suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Ejidos de Pasto and was taken prisoner.
And in neighbouring Venezuela, Simon Bolivar succeeded in creating the Second Republic of Venezuela (1813-1814) after his Admirable Campaign, but this Republic was destroyed in 1814 by llanero troops, which had remained loyal to Spain.
Spanish Reconquest (1815-1819)
Shortly after his restoration to the Spanish throne in December 1813, King Ferdinand VII decided to send a military force to reconquer the Spanish Empire in America, which had fallen into the hands of nationalist forces.
The military expedition of 1815, the strongest ever sent to America until then, included approximately sixty ships and 10,000 men. Colonel Pablo Morillo, a veteran of the Spanish war against France, was placed at the head of what would lead to the reconquest of the northern colonies, putting an end, after five years, to the de facto independence of Colombia .
The
The reconquest completed, a campaign of terror began during which many Colombian patriots were executed for treason. Others, like Francisco de Paula Santander, retreated to the eastern plains, near the border with Venezuela, to try to reorganize political and military forces to face the new adversary.
Liberation of New Granada (1819-1824)
In May 1819,
On receiving the news of the deafeat, viceroy
In 1821, Cartagena and the entire Caribbean coast is taken and finally in 1822-24 during the Pasto Campaign, the Southern provinces and also present-day Ecuador is liberated from the Spanish.
See also
Notes
- ^ At the time, the state was known as Colombia; the term Gran Colombia is used historiographically to distinguish it from the current Republic of Colombia, which is also the official name of the former state.
References
- ^ http://necrometrics.com/wars19c.htm | “Statistics of Wars, Oppressions and Atrocities of the Nineteenth Century“
- ^ http://remilitari.com/guias/victimario6.htm | In Spanish “De re Militari: muertos en Guerras, Dictaduras y Genocidios. Capítulo VI”
- ^ Silvio Arturo Zavala (1971). Revista de historia de América. Números 69-70. Ciudad de México: Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia, pp. 303. "Para el primero, de 1400000 habs. que la futura Colombia tendría en 1809 (entre ellos 78000 negros esclavos), (...) mortaldad que él mismo señala a tal guerra (unos 400 000 muertos para la Gran Colombia, entre ellos, 250 000 venezolanos)."
- Royal Audiencia of Charcas (Upper Peru) were considered by this decree to be parts of the Viceroyalties of New Granada and Peru, respectively.
- ISBN 0-521-62673-0.
- ^ Proceso histórico del 20 de Julio de 1810 – Documentos. Publicaciones conmemorativas del Sesquicentenario de la Independencia Nacional. Bogotá: Banco de la República. 1960. Archived from the original on January 6, 2010. Retrieved September 12, 2009.
- ISBN 0-520-08289-3.
- ISBN 0-300-11062-6.
- ^ Regarding the anniversary of July 20, 1810, it is important to bring up relevant opinions and judgment of its historical character which, after all is said and done, are being dogmatically consecrated by "law" or "decree." In an unpublished letter to the Mayor of Coromoro, dated in San Gil on January 13, 1841, General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera answered an invitation to celebrate July 20 by stating: “Mr. Municipal Chief: To answer your kind letter, I must tell you, that I have never recognized as a magistrate, as a public or private man the national anniversary or revolutionary event which took place in Bogotá on July 20, 1810. If the first pronouncement made in the ancient New Kingdom of Granada has to be celebrated as a memorable anniversary, it corresponds to the one which occurred in Quito in 1809. But if we limit ourselves to what is the territory of Colombia today, the deposition of the Governor of Cartagena, Brigadier Montes, and the establishment of a provisional government in that city on May 22, 1810, which had great political influence in the entire viceroyalty—and was followed by Pamplona on July 4, 1821 and by Socorro on July 10, 1830—should be celebrated. The Legislature of the State of Cartagena was the first one with the character of public representation and officially proclaimed the independence from Spain on November 11, 1811. Mr. Municipal Chief, the public men who still live and are among the founders of the Republic must rectify the facts which we have witnessed so that history cannot be adulterated. Thus, I will conclude manifesting that I will not contribute to celebrate a holiday which does not commemorate the main event of our political generation or our independence. T. C. de Mosquera."[citation needed]
- ^ Colombia Mania
- ^ "Un Once de Noviembre - Cartagena's Declaration of Independence • Cartagena Explorer". November 9, 2020. Retrieved April 10, 2024.
External links
- Media related to Colombian Declaration of Independence at Wikimedia Commons