Libro

The Spanish Alonso de Ojeda (pictured, right), led the explorers who came to the Guajira Peninsula in 1499, which is the first contact of Europeans with what is now Colombia. Eleven years later the Spanish founded Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien, the first colony on the American continent, and then, after consolidating its dominance in coastal areas and founded Santa Marta (1525) and Cartagena(1533), initiate the exploration of the interior, where they founded Popayan (1536) and Bogota (1538). The Laws of Burgos of 1513 tried in vain to avoid the ill-treatment of Indians after being enslaved by the conquerors, were forced to evangelization. The situation produced numerous indigenous uprisings prevented the pacification of the territory. The division, the encomienda and the mita miningand urban institutions were forced Indians to pay tribute and forced labor. At the same time, the African slave trade was introduced through the port of Cartagena de Indias in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Colonial institutions were installed in 1550, where stands the Royal Audience of Santa Fe de Bogota, which included the territories of the provinces of Santa Marta, RioSan Juan, Popayan and Cartagena de Indias Guiana. Although the provinces of Caracas, Cumana, Guayana and Maracaibo depended on the Royal Court, on several occasions, alternated this function, especially in the judiciary, with the Royal Audience of Santo Domingo. In the eighteenth century New Granada viceroyalty stands as the capital city of Santa Fe, being made by the Hearing Santa Fe, Panama andQuito, and some provinces in what became the Captaincy General of Venezuela.
Throughout the colonial times, the area was the target of attacks by pirates in the service of the British Crown, which was defeated in 1741, during the War of Jenkins's ear, after having carried out the siege of Cartagena de Indias. In 1781 came the uprising of the commoners, which was the first manifestation of theCreole identity, the insurgents marched through the capital to protest against new taxes to the Spanish and claim their share of national wealth.
After the French invasion of Spain in 1808, begins the independence of Spanish America, inspired by the Age of Enlightenment from Europe and the processes of independence of the United States and Haiti. Several complaints that led to the search for autonomywere built in major cities of New Granada in 1810, in a move initiated by Antonio Nariño, who was against Spanish centralism and which led the opposition against the viceroyalty. After the independence of Cartagena in November 1811, he formed two independent governments that ended in civil war, a period that was designated as the Patria Boba. The following year he proclaimed the United Provincesof New Granada, headed by Camilo Torres Tenorio. Despite the triumphs of the rebellion, the emergence of two different ideological currents among the liberators (federalism and centralism) gave rise to an internal clash between these two, which contributed to the reconquest of territory by Spanish, allowing restoration of the viceroyalty under the command of Juan de Samano, whose regime punishedthose who participated in the uprisings. This further radicalized the desire for independence among the population, coupled with diminished economic and military situation in Spain, favored the victory of the Liberation of New Granada campaign, led by Simon Bolivar (photo, left), who proclaimed the independence final in 1819. Realistic resistance was finally defeated in 1822 in what is now Colombiaand in 1823 around the Viceroyalty of time.
The Congress of Cucuta, 1821 adopted a constitution, whose main goal was to create the Republic of Colombia, now known as Gran Colombia. However the new republic composed a very unstable union between present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama mainly, culminating in the breakdown of Venezuela in 1829, followed by Ecuador, in 1830.
 From 1839...