History of Columbia

 The first explorer to enter the Colombian territory was Alonso de Ojeda, who had entered from Cabo de la vela in 1499. The Spanish had made many attempts to settle on the western coast of Colombia, however, their first settlement was not established in Santa Marta until 1625. In 1533, Pedro de Heredia founded Cartagena- the principal trade center of Columbia. Three years later, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, lead an expedition to the interior and won the region of New Granada for Spain. “In 1536 Jiménez de Quesada set out in search of a path to Peru. During the course of his journey, he encountered the Muisca in the Sabana de Bogotá and in 1538 founded the city of Santa Fe de Bogotá (present-day Bogotá)--the eventual power center for the colony of New Granada (History of Columbia). 

Unlike many other Latin American countries, Columbia was not plagued with military takeovers of the government. As stated by San José Sate University, “In the early 1850s a liberal constitution was adopted which separated church and state and gave substantial autonomy to the subregional political units and limited the power of the central government. There was a military takeover of the PL-dominated government in 1854 and later a civil war in which the Liberals won. The Liberal Party controlled the government which later enacted a new constitution that placed more restrictions on the power of the central government”.