Colombia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Colombia - Essay ExampleColombia, a country in northern South America, borders the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean and is find out between Panama and Venezuela. Encompassing more than one million square miles, Colombia is ranked currently as the 26th largest country in the world, slightly littler than twice the size of Texas (Central Intelligence Agency, 2011). Its climate is tropical along its coasts and plains, but in the Andes Mountains it is slightly cooler, and it has a population of 44,725,543 people as of July 2011 (Central Intelligence Agency, 2011). Its government, over every, is a republic with elected officials, with a judicial system that has numerous national and district courts as well as a court of appeals, along with a House of Representatives and a Congress in its legislative branch and a duly-elected President in its executive branch. Colombia was originally colonized under Spanish rule. The Spanish sailed along the north coast of Colombia as early as 1500, but their first permanent settlement, at Santa Marta, was not made until 1525. In 1549, the area was complete as a Spanish colony with the capital at Santa Fe de Bogota (Winslow). During the period before Spanish colonization, the area was inhabited by autochthonous peoples who were primitive hunters or nomadic farmers, and out of the various Indian groups that were there, the area was dominated by The Chibchas, who lived in the region of present-day city of Bogot (Winslow). Columbia truly had its first social movement in history in 1810, when on July 20th of that year the citizens of Bogota created the first representative council in defiance of Spanish authority and to attempt a try for their independence. Over the next three years, they fought for independence, which was proclaimed in 1813, and in 1819 the Republic of Greater Colombia was organise. Simon Bolivar was elected its first death chair and Francisco de Paula Santander, vice president. However, just like any other move ment, soon conflicts arose between the two leaders and their visions. From their views, two political parties grew and branched out, coming to dominate Colombian politics even today (Winslow). Bolivar managed only to keep authority until 1828, and then everything fell apart. In 1830, Venezuela and Ecuador became separate nations. Through the 19th century and into the 20th century, two political unrest and small, usually unremarkable social movements to combat the social unrest were popular. Strong parties developed along conservative and liberal lines the conservatives favored centralism and mesh by the church in government and education, and the liberals supported federalism, anticlericalism, and some measure of social legislation and fiscal reforms (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2007). The structure of Colombian society in the 1980s, which was ever so strongly influenced by traditions inherited from sixteenth-century Spain, was highly stratified, having well-defined class membership, pronounced status differences, and limited vertical social mobility. The urban sector was characterized by a more flexible social system, a growing middle class, and greater participation of the population in national politics. Rural society in all but a few regions was organized in rigidly hierarchical structures in which change of status was very difficult. Only in the coffee-growing departments of Caldas and Antioquia were there good segments of the population exhibiting the traits of a rural middle class (Colombia National Front). Various social movements existed in the 1960s and 1970s, and even well into the 1980s that eventually formed into armies. In 1964 the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group was born. It was followed by other groups, such as the National liberation Army (ELN) on January 7, 1965, the Popular Liberation Army (EPL) on July 1967, the Quintin Lame Movement (MAQL) in 1984 and the 19th of April Movement (M-19). (Colombia National Front ) Currently, there are still social movements in Colombia. Some groups cook up political statements their main