Colombia: Portrait of a Developing Country Term Paper by Top Papers

The paper relates that the Republic of Colombia, like many other South American countries, has been deeply influenced by its contact with Spanish colonialism. The paper explains that Colombia was first invaded by the Spanish in 1499, and shortly afterwards became part of what Spain called New Granada, a colonial holding also consisting of Venezuela and Ecuador. The paper relates that New Granada became independent from the Spanish in 1819 and this was only the beginning of an ongoing period of confusion and weakness for the Colombian state. The paper notes that over the next 67 years, until 1886, what was once New Granada dissolved into the individual states of Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador. The paper adds that the Colombia of 1886 also included Panama, which seceded in 1903, the year in which Colombia took on its modern form.