Colombian Revolution

COLOMBIAN REVOLUTION

BY OLIVIA CORTES

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French Occupation in Spain:​When Napoleon and his French troops occupied Spain in 1808, they captured king Ferdinand VII, and created instability in the country and its colonies. Given Spain’s situation, many Colombians started finding themselves with the desire of liberation from their colonisers. This event is important in the incubation stage because it was a cause for the rebel movement that slowly snowballed into the wars of independence.

Tax Raise (Lucha de Beltrán): When the Spanish decided to raise taxes in Colombia, it didn’t take long to outrage the populace. The Lucha de Beltrán was the consequence of this raise in taxes. It started with Manuela Beltrán, a young woman that lived off of the production of tobacco and could do what very few people knew how to in that time: how to read. She decided that everyone deserved to know what was happening and read the edict in the main plaza for everyone to hear. This resulted in a public uprising that led to the formation of a large rebel group of 20,000 men - The Commoners. This event contributes to the incubation stage because it shows how Colombian anger has continued growing, and how they have started to unite under one common enemy.

THE INCUBATION STAGE

SPANISH RECONQUEST

EL FLORERO DE LLORENTE

ACT OF INDEPENDECE

ADDITION OF BOLÍVAR AND SANTANDER

THE SYMPTOMATIC STAGE

SIMÓN BOLÍVAR

THE BATTLE OF BOYACÁ

FRNACISCO DE PAULA SANTANDER

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THE CRISIS STAGE

Division of Gran Colombia: After the independence of Gran Colombia, Simón Bolívar wanted to unite the Spanish-speaking part of South America under one nation. Unfortunately, after trying and trying this could just not work. One of the main reasons was that each country identified itself differently, and wanted to be completely independent. As a result, Gran Colombia got separated into the countries that are now Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. We can see that this is something that changed after the revolution because before, these countries were all connected as one, but once they got their independence, they divided.

La Violencia and the War of a Thousand Days: Colombia had encountered many challenges in the convalescence stage. The toughest ones were probably the civil wars that had been caused by conflicts between two political groups: the liberal party and the conservative party. These wars were called La Violencia (1946-57) and the War of a Thousand Days (1899-1903). Fortunetely, after many violent years, in 1957 a compromise was finally made. The declaration of sitges was written, stating that the liberal and conservative parties would govern jointly. This is a change because now we can observe that instead of excluding their differences and fighting alongside one another with a common goal, they were fighting against each other.

THE CONVALESCENCE STAGE

CITATIONS

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SOURCES

Francisco de Paula Santander: "was born April 2, 1792 in Rosario, New Granada. After he left law school in 1810, he decided to join the patriot army" (Britannica) and was soon rising in the ranks. Until in 1819, he became Simón Bolívar's brigadier general and played a very important role in the Battle of Boyacá. After the revolution, he was elected vice president of Gran Colombia, which today includes the countries of Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama and Colombia. This event is connected to causes in my revolution by the fact that Francisco de Paula Santander decided to leave law school the same year in which two important events in the symptomatic stage occurred: “El Florero de Llorente” and “El Acto de la Independencia”, hinting that they could have probably been the reason that Santander decided to leave school and start looking for ways to contribute to this movement.

Spanish reconquest: King Ferdinand VII had managed to recover the Spanish throne and quickly started attempting to re-conquer Colombia. But this time, they went through much more trouble. This cause is connected to one in the incubation stage where we can see that King Ferdinand VII was captured by the French troops led by Napoleon. His brother, Joseph Bonaparte replaced Ferdinand and was put in charge of Spain. Nevertheless, in 1808 Ferdinand VII was freed and back in control of the Spanish crown.

The Addition of Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Paula Santander: After these significant events, two important leaders named Francisco de Paula Santander and Simón Bolívar decided to join the independence movement. They would guide the Colombian revolution in what they hoped was the right direction, the direction of independence. This event is related to the symptomatic stage because it was the final event that made way for the transition from symptomatic stage, to crisis stage.

La Batalla de Boyacá: Occurred on August 7, 1819 in the location of La Casa de Teja, not far from the Capital, Bogotá. The main leaders of this event were Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Paula Santander. They had formed one big army of 2,500 people and devised a plan that consisted of surprising the royalists (the Spanish forces) by crossing the eastern Andes mountain range, where they knew they weren’t expecting them. After the surprise attack, they divided the Spanish into two large groups, separated by a river, the river Boyacá. The group of royalists farthest from the river were taken out rather quickly. The group closest to the river was forced to cross it, where the image to the left, illustrates the final moments of battle on the famous and historic Puente de Boyacá. (Royalists and patriots were two big groups in the Colombian revolution. The royalists were Spanish forces while the patriots were Colombian forces.)

“Florero de Llorente”: “El Florero de Llorente” was an event that occured in the year 1810. The leader was Creole leader, Antonio Morales. His objective was to make the Colombian populace go against Spanish vase seller, José Gonzáles Llorente because he was supposedly talking badly about Criollos. Colombians or more specifically, Criollos, had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to ignite an uprising against the Spanish, and for Antonio Morales, this opportunity, even though it was really not a very big deal, was the perfect excuse. This event belongs to the symptomatic stage because Colombia did not begin to declare independence until 1811, meaning that this was a step forward, but there was still a way to go until reaching the goal of independence.

Simón Bolívar: "was born July 24, 1783 in Caracas Venezuela" (Britannica). He was a very important leader in the Colombian revolution, especially in the crisis stage. He had been traveling to Europe for many years, even before he started working as an independence leader. He was very well educated and his elevated knowledge was a key aspect to his success, as it helped him come up with smart strategies on the battlefield. He was a very important politician and general and most importantly, the reason he is a part of the crisis stage; he led the Colombian army into battle on the 7th of august 1819. Finally, after achieving the independence of Colombia, he decided to not stop there; he liberated and became the president of six countries that today are Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama and Bolivia.

Act of Independence: After the event of El Florero de Llorente, Creole leaders decided that it was time to write an edict of their own. And so, they got together and formed the people's tribune, where they wrote the Act of Independence for the new kingdom of Granada, the 20th of July 1810. This event is part of the symptomatic stage because, as we can see, the act of independence was the result of criollos working together instead of against each other and creating this significant milestone towards their goal.

La Violencia

The Thousand Days War