COLOMBIA LA GRANDE Y LA PROYECCIÓN CONTINENTAL DEL PROCESO DE INDEPENDENCIA

Abstract

A fundamental actor of Spanish-American independence was the original Republic of Colombia, also known among historians under the name of Gran Colombia. It was a remarkable country, which organized and led the independence struggles in the north and center of South America, although it had a really ephemeral existence, which hardly extended between 1819 and 1830, year in which it was defi nitively extinguished, due to centrifugal forces that operated in its bosom and that ultimately drove its dissolution. However, during its brief existence, Colombia played a transcen den tal role in American and universal history, organizing, coordinating and supporting the emancipatory efforts arising in its territory or in other nearby territories, promoting the republican model of gover n ment and the democratic political system, and stimulating the unity and integration of the new countries that emerged in Latin America. In its historical record are the liberation of the current republics of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, as well as the encouragement of the independence of Panama and the Republic of Fernandina, in Florida, immediately drowned by a US military invasion. Also included in it are some projects and efforts aimed at the liberation of Cuba and Puerto Rico, finally frustrated by the action of other powers.