Before the Spanish conquest, around one third of Colombia’s indigenous population were Chibcha. Geographic and climatic conditions limited the development of the Chibcha and other cultures. The conquest of the Colombian coastline began in 1525 when Rodrigo de Bastidas founded Santa Marta on the north coast. By the end of 1539, all but one of the major inland colonial cities had been founded, as well as the most important communications centers along the routes connecting them. All of the conquerors had organized local governments in accordance with the terms of their contracts with the crown. The indigenous population declined through the introduction of European diseases and the economic demands made upon them. Slavery was introduced during the conquest and became common in the mining areas of the Chocó, western Antioquia, and in the agricultural regions. 

 

The Viceroyalty of New Granada, which included present-day Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, and Ecuador, was created in 1717. In the next decades the crown introduced political and economic measures to reorganize and strengthen the empire by greater centralization of authority, improved administration and communication. Colombia’s population grew, trade increased, and prosperity touched the colonial subjects. 

 

Then profound anxiety over the fate of the empire and conflicting courses of action attempted by colonial and peninsular subjects over control of government during the captivity of the Spanish King Ferdinand VII led to strife in New Granada and to declarations of independence. In 1810 the subordinated jurisdictions in New Granada threw out their Spanish officials, except in Santa Marta, Ríohacha, and what are now Panama and Ecuador. The uprising in Bogotá on July 20, 1810, is commemorated as Independence Day in Colombia.

 

Starting in 1840, politics in Colombia centered on competition between the Liberal and Conservative parties. The Liberals were associated with anticlericalism, federalism, and free trade, while the Conservatives advocated for a strong central government, supported protectionism, and allied themselves with the Roman Catholic Church. There were many disputes between the two parties and one of which was La Violencia which was a ten-year civil war from 1948 to 1958, that was mainly fought in the countryside in which almost 200,000 died.

 

In 2018, Ivan Duque won the election against Gustavo Petro, but then Petro ran again in 2022 and won. The population of Colombia is descended from three main ethnic groups, Amerindian, African, and Caucasian. The most recent census in 2005 shows the population consisted percentage-wise of 49 Spanish-Amerindian, 36 Caucasians, 10.5 Afro-Colombians, and 3.5 Amerindians. An estimated 6 percent of the Caucasian population are of Middle Eastern descent. Afro-Colombians first arrived in the 1520’s as slaves brought in by the Spanish to work in agriculture and later in mining. Slave revolts took place throughout the 16th to 19th centuries until slavery was finally abolished in 1851. 

 

Today, most of the population are Roman Catholics and Protestants. 99 percent of the people speak Spanish but there are indigenous languages spoken too. Colombians work in agriculture (14.64 percent),  industry (20.33 percent), and of the people work in services (65.03 percent).