Before the conquest, on the territory of modern Colombia, there were 5 Indian proto-states headed by hereditary rulers. A relatively high level of development was achieved by the civilization of the Chibcha-Muisca, who were at the stage of transition from a primitive communal to an early class society. The coast of the country was explored… Read More »
Located on the northern coast of the South American continent, based on map by DigoPaul, Colombia is the second largest country in South America. The country borders on Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru and Ecuador, among others, and is home to the highest coastal mountain range on earth: the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Although for… Read More »
Vegetation. – Colombia includes two distinct main floristic districts: one western or Andean, limited to the bundle of the Cordillera, the other eastern or the savannahs of the upper Orinoco. In the western district, the vegetation is neatly arranged on the slopes of the mountain ranges in areas which, from the equatorial coastal formations, gradually… Read More »
Among the most prestigious musical institutions active in Colombia starting from the Thirties, there is the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional, founded by government decree in November 1936 in Bogotá and entrusted to the leadership of G. Espinosa (b.1905), who it made the most important musical institution for the musical life of the country in those years;… Read More »
Between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the century. 20 °, Colombian painting is characterized by the effort to acquire a certain technical mastery of anatomy, chiaroscuro, tone, perspective, as opposed to the inexperience of the religious production of the colonial era and of the post-independence secular painting of the first half… Read More »
The main communication routes are nowadays constituted by navigable rivers, which indeed form a magnificent network, calculated at over 5000 km., Of which 4200 already have regular steam navigation services. The main artery is the Magdalena, navigable for 1400 km. from the mouth (Bocas de Ceniza) to Neiva, crossed by vapors that fish up to… Read More »
After a positive experience of paintings that have as their subject the black man of the Pacific coast, in 1957 the German immigrant G. Wiedemann (1905-1969) arrives at abstract expressionism. Immediately afterwards and for a short time, the experimenter MA Cárdenas (b. 1934), who, having become a Dutch citizen with the name Michel Cardena, then… Read More »
Population. – Over a third of the total population (30.7 million residents in 1988) lives in the 4 major cities, a phenomenon common to South American countries, where the capital usually has a disproportionate demographic weight compared to the rest of the state, and the urban suburbs, poor, unhealthy and highly degraded, they occupy large… Read More »
The writer who has dominated the panorama of Colombian literature in recent decades is undoubtedly G. García Márquez, a presence that has considerably conditioned Latin American literature, creating a stereotype of content and forms in the many imitators. However, works such as El gran Burundún Burundá ha muerto (1952) by J. Zalamea (1905-1970) should not… Read More »
The literary life of Colombia begins with the history. Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada (died 1579), founder of Bogotá, was a man of letters, and his history of the conquest, although it has not reached us, benefited later historians: Juan de Castellanos left us a memory in his work, Historia del Nuevo Reino de Granada ;… Read More »
At the time of the discovery, a large part of the Andean region of Colombia was populated by Chibcha-speaking people who had reached a very high cultural level: such were the Tairona of the bay of S. Marta, the Quimbayas of the Valle del Cauca, the Muisca (or Chibcha) of the Bogotá plateau, and various… Read More »
Colombia is a state of South America. In the pre-Columbian age, Colombia, with the exception of the eastern and Atlantic lowlands, was inhabited by groups of the Chibcha linguistic family, possessing rather high-level cultures. The northern coast of Colombia was first discovered by the expedition of A. Vespucci and A. de Hojeda (1499), then by R.… Read More »
At the transition between the 20th and 21st sec. the socio-political situation of Colombia continued to present features of serious instability. The presidency of the leader of the Partido Social Conservador A. Pastrana Arango, although inaugurated in 1998 with a series of negotiations with the two most important guerrilla groups – the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas… Read More »
Since the end of 1992 Colombia has again plunged into a spiral of generalized violence. Drug traffickers with their private armies and their militias, left-wing guerrilla groups, some of which have been active for over thirty years, but with ideological connotations by now faded and often even willing to fight in the pay of drug… Read More »
Colombia is a state of South America. It borders to the NW with Panama, to the SW with Ecuador, to the South with Peru, to the SE with Brazil, to the East and NE with Venezuela ; it has a total of 5240 km of land borders and 2900 km of coastline (1600 km on… Read More »
The northern coast of Colombia was briefly discovered (Colombia de la Vela) by the expedition of Alonso de Hojeda led by Amerigo Vespucci (1499) and recognized by Rodrigo de Bastidas in 1501 in all its extension from Río Hacha to the isthmus of Panama. In 1502 the occupation began by the aforementioned Hojeda who founded… Read More »
The intricate distribution of ethnic groups and linguistic borders is contrasted by the diffusion of a fairly uniform and very interesting type of culture, to whose knowledge, prior to the beautiful explorations of Koch-Grünberg, Italian missionaries had contributed (P. Machetti, P. . Coppi) and the travels of Count E. Stradelli. From this culture deviate somewhat,… Read More »
Livestock breeding. – Livestock farming has the potential for great development, as it has vast areas of land that are very suitable for it (Atlantic lowlands, Magdalena valleys and its main tributaries, eastern Colombia). The Colombian livestock patrimony in 1927 was made up as follows: 978,000 horses; donkeys, 157,000; mules, 346,000; cattle 6,727,000; sheep, 771,000;… Read More »
Colonial art manifested itself in the new kingdom with vigor only in the two great vice-kingdoms; neither in Santa Fe, nor in Popayán, nor in Tunja were great palaces erected like that of Cortés in the city of Mexico or that of Torre-Tagle in Lima. However, some Spanish-type stately homes remain (of the Inquisition in… Read More »
1905, the year in which the French operator Félix Mesguish was commissioned by the President of the Republic R. Reyes to resume some public ceremonies, marks the official birth of cinema in Colombia In 1912 the first cinemas opened, and from 1915 the production began to develop, thanks to two filmmakers of Italian origin, the… Read More »
In the pre-Columbian age, Colombia, with the exception of the eastern and Atlantic lowlands, was inhabited by groups of the Chibcha linguistic family, possessing rather high-level cultures. The northern coast of Colombia was first discovered by the expedition of A. Vespucci and A. de Hojeda (1499), then by R. de Bastidas (1502). Hojeda in 1508… Read More »
Colombian architecture, like all South American architecture, can be divided into three large, very differentiated periods: Colonial viceregal (16th-18th century); Independence and national organization (1810-1920); Modernity (since 1920). For the first period see what has been said in this Encyclopedia (X, p. 798). The architecture of the second period, which occupies the entire century. 19th,… Read More »
Demography and economic geography State located in the northwestern tip of South America. Colombia (48,929,706 residents, According to an estimate by UNDESA, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, of 2014), affected by high growth rates for decades, is going through a phase of demographic transition, as shown by the constant decline in population… Read More »
Population. – Since the last census dates back to 1964, we must refer to an estimate from 1972 which made it reach about 23 million residents divided according to the following table. In the decade 1963-1972 the average annual growth coefficient of the population was 3.2%, the birth rate is around 31-32 ‰, the death… Read More »
Population. – At the census of May 9, 1951, the population was 11,548,172, which, according to an estimate, in 1959 would have risen to 13,800,000 (12 per km 2). Economic conditions. – The Colombia continues to occupy, among all the countries of the world, the second place (after Brazil) in the production of coffee; this,… Read More »
According to new assessments, the area of the Colombia is 1,139,155 sq km. divided into the various administrative divisions according to the measure shown in the attached table. The total population of the republic from 7,850,600 residents (1928) rose, according to the 1938 census, to 8,701,816 residents, showing an absolute increase of 851,216 units with… Read More »
The figure of the total population of the republic of the 1928 census has been corrected, by later determinations, in 7.380.000 residents An estimate in January 1935 brings this population up to 8,442,600 residents, And one in June 1937, to 8,847,000 residents The table opposite shows the population of the various administrative divisions in 1935.… Read More »
The name of Colombia was given in 1819 by Simón Bolívar, in honor of the great Genoese, to the republic formed by the union of the territories of Venezuela, Ecuador and New Grenade, which last, the Spanish viceroyalty, included most of the territories of present-day Colombia. Venezuela in 1829 and Ecuador in 1830 separated themselves… Read More »
If Bolívar’s opponents could believe that they had eliminated the troubles of Colombian life, with the elimination of their great opponent, the reality was nevertheless different. As already mentioned, the economic and financial situation was far from good. The disorder in the administration, the difficulty of forcing the major landowners to pay taxes regularly were,… Read More »
But on the end of the first decade of the century. XIX, the movement resumed; and, after some riots in Cartagena and Socorro, on July 20, 1810, an uprising took place in Bogotá. The people flocked to the square asking that a Cabildo abierto be summoned. Viceroy Amar tried to resist; but fearing greater evils,… Read More »