Gran Colombia

Gran Colombia (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈɡɾaŋ koˈlombja] ^ⓘ, "Great Colombia"), also known as Greater Colombia and officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish: República de Colombia), was the Colombian state that encompassed much of northern South America and parts of Central America from 1819 to 1831. It included present-day Colombia, mainland Ecuador (i.e., excluding the Galápagos Islands), Panama, and Venezuela, parts of northern Peru, northwestern Brazil, and claimed the Essequibo region. The terms Gran Colombia and Greater Colombia are used historiographically to distinguish it from the current Republic of Colombia, which is also the official name of the former state.

International recognition of the legitimacy of the Gran Colombian state ran afoul of European opposition to the independence of states in the Americas. Austria, France, and the Russian Empire only recognized independence in the Americas if the new states accepted monarchs from European royal houses. In addition, Colombia and the international powers disagreed over the extension of the Colombian territory and its boundaries.

Gran Colombia was proclaimed through the Fundamental Law of the Republic of Colombia, issued during the Congress of Angostura (1819), but did not come into being until the Congress of Cúcuta (1821) promulgated the Constitution of Cúcuta. It was constituted as a unitary centralist state. Its existence was marked by a struggle between those who supported a centralized government with a strong presidency and those who supported a decentralized, federal form of government. At the same time, another political division emerged between those who supported the Constitution of Cúcuta and two groups who sought to do away with the Constitution, either in favor of breaking up the country into smaller republics or maintaining the union but creating an even stronger presidency. The faction that favored constitutional rule coalesced around Vice-President Francisco de Paula Santander, while those who supported the creation of a stronger presidency were led by President Simón Bolívar. They had united in their fight against Spanish rule, but by 1825, their public differences contributed to political instability.

Gran Colombia was dissolved in 1831 due to the political differences that existed between supporters of federalism and centralism, as well as regional tensions among the peoples that made up the republic. It broke into the successor states of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela; Panama was separated from Colombia in 1903. Since Gran Colombia's territory corresponded more or less to the original jurisdiction of the former Viceroyalty of New Granada, it also claimed the southeastern part of the Mosquito Shore, as well as most of Esequiba.