The Pre-Columbian cultures lived in various areas in the Andean region and on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Along with the most exceptional were the Tayrona, Sinú, Muisca, Quimbaya, Tierradentro and San Agustín. All of whom lived in organized, agriculturally based communities. A lot of the tribes produced skillful goldwork and pottery, and a few left behind burial chambers and rock paintings that have aided anthropologists place together their cultures.

Colonial History:

Alonso de Ojeda, a companion of Christopher Columbus, landed on the Guajira Peninsula in 1499. The riches of the local Indians broadcasted the myth of El Dorado, and the shores of present-day Colombia grew to be the mark of various voyages. At first the Indians endured the arrival of the Spaniards but rebelled after the colonists attempted to enslave them and seize their lands. Soon, a great portion of what became Colombia had been conquered by the Spanish, and a number of towns, including Cartagena (founded in 1533), were flourishing. In 1544, the country was included into the viceroyalty of Peru, where it stayed until 1739 when it became a part of New Granada (containing the territories of what are today Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama).

The Struggle for Independence: 

 The struggle for independence was, as in all Spanish-American possessions, precipitated by the Napoleonic invasion of Spain. The revolution was, however, foreshadowed by the rising of the comuneros. Well-known among the first revolutionary leaders was Antonio Nariño, who took part in the uprising at Bogota on July 20, 1810. The revolution was to last nine years before the victory of Simon Bolivar at Boyaca (1819) secured the independence of Greater Colombia (Span., Gran Colombia). The new state Bolivar formed included what is now Venezuela, Panama, and (after 1822) Ecuador, as well as Colombia. Cucuta was chosen as capital. While Bolivar, who had been named president, headed campaigns in Ecuador and Peru, the vice president, Francisco de Paula Santander, managed the new nation. Political sectors soon crystallized. Santander supported a union of federal sovereign states, while Bolivar championed a centralized republic.

Independence:

 A new constitution in 1858 created a confederation of nine states called Granadina. Three years later (1861) under Mosquera, the country's name was changed to the United States of New Granada and in 1863 to the United States of Colombia. The antifederalist revolution of 1885 led one year later, during the presidency of Nuñez, to the construction of the republic of Colombia and enactment of a conservative constitution. In 1899, five years after Nuñez's death, civil war of unprecedented violence broke out and raged for three years. As many as 100,000 people were killed before the Conservatives emerged victorious. Another humiliation occurred when, after the United States had acquired the right to complete the Panama Canal (although the agreement was later rejected by the Colombian congress), the republic of Panama declared and, aided by the United States, attained its independence from Colombia (1903).

During the semidictatorial administration (1904-9) of Reyes, internal order was repaired and the country's trade and productivity were vigorously expanded. Reyes, nevertheless, had to resign because of discontent over his handling of the Panama issue. Soon afterward Colombia recognized (1914) Panama 's independence in exchange for rights in the Canal Zone and the payment of an indemnity from the United States .

For the next four decades political life remained somewhat calm, although there was economic and social unrest in the 1920s and 1930s. Colombia settled (1917) its boundary disputes with Ecuador , and in 1934 a border clash with Peru over the town of Leticia was settled by the League of Nations in Colombia 's favor. Under the leadership of the liberals Olaya Herrera (1930-34), Alfonso Lopez (1934-38), and Eduardo Santos (1938-42), wide-ranging reforms were enacted. Colombia participated in World War II on the Allied side. During the war years, internal divisions worsened. The Liberals split and in the 1946 elections presented two candidates, enabling the Conservatives to win.

Modern History:

In 1948, while an Inter-American Conference was being held in Bogota , the leftist Liberal leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, under whom the party had reunited, was assassinated, precipitating violent riots and acts of vandalism. The death of Gaitan aggravated the hostility between social groups and threw the country into a decade of civil strife, martial law, and violent rule that cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Political violence turned into sheer criminality (la violencia), particularly in rural areas. An archconservative dictator, Laureano Gomez, took power in 1950, when the Liberals put forward no candidate. In 1953, Gomez was overthrown by a coup led by Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, the head of the armed forces. Repressive actions continued, fiscal reforms were unsuccessful, the country was pushed into debt, and Rojas Pinilla became caught up in scandalously corrupt schemes.

A military junta, backed by Liberals and Conservatives alike, ousted Rojas Pinilla in 1957. The following year Alberto Lleras Camargo became president, elected under the National Front coalition agreement. The National Front presidential candidate of 1970, Misael Pastrana Borrero, won very narrowly over Rojas Pinilla, who returned to politics as the champion of the underprivileged. Colombia 's economy began to recover from the setbacks of the early 1970s as economic diversification and incentives to lure foreign capital into the country were initiated. However, a high inflation rate continued to impede economic growth. In 1974 the Liberal party candidate Alfonso Lopez Michelsen won the first presidential election following the end of the National Front.

Throughout the 1970s and 80s, Colombia 's illegal drug trade grew steadily, as the drug cartels amassed huge amounts of money, weapons, and influence. The 1970s also saw the growth of such leftist guerrilla groups as the May 19th Movement (M-19), the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the National Liberation Army (ELN). The violence continued, and many journalists and government officials were killed.

In 1986, Virgilio Barco Vargas, of the Liberal party, was elected president; he was succeeded in 1990 by Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, also a Liberal. In 1990 a Constitutional Assembly, which included members of the M-19 group, was elected to draft a new constitution; the document, which came into force on July 5, 1991 , included protection for human rights and established citizens' rights to social security and health care. Liberal Ernesto Samper Pizano was elected president in 1994 and, though he appeared to make efforts to combat drug trafficking, he was accused of having accepted money from the Cali cocaine cartel for his election campaign. He was cleared of all charges (1996) by the Congress, but his administration was marked by charges of corruption and mismanagement.

The notorious Medellin drug cartel was broken in 1993, and the Cali cartel was later undermined by arrests of key leaders. Drug traffickers continue to have significant wealth and power, however, and FARC and the ELN remain active, perpetuating a condition of instability. Conservative Andres Pastrana Arango, a former mayor of Bogota and son of Misael Pastrana, was elected president in 1998. He pledged to work with both leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary leaders in an attempt to end more than 30 years of conflict in the country.

In Nov., 1998, Pastrana ceded an area the size of Switzerland in S central Colombia to FARC's control as a goodwill gesture, but the rebels negotiated with the government only fitfully, continued to mount attacks, expanded coca production, and essentially established a parallel government in the region under their control. The government's energies also were diverted by a severe recession in 1999 and a major earthquake that hit W Colombia early in 1999, leaving over a thousand people dead. Ongoing negotiations with the rebels in 2000 and 2001 were marred by rebel attacks and kidnappings and fighting between rebels and paramilitaries for control of coca-growing areas in Colombia . As a result, popular disenchantment with Pastrana increased, even as he moved forward with his Plan Colombia, a $7 billion social aid and antidrug program that included $1.3 billion in largely military aid from the United States .

In Feb., 2002, after FARC hijacked a airplane and kidnapped a senator, Pastrana ordered the military to attack rebel positions and reassert control over the rebel zone. FARC withdrew into the jungle and began attacks against the power grid, telecommunications facilities, and other aspects of Colombia 's infrastructure, in an attempt to disrupt the lives of the largely urban population while avoiding a direct conflict with the military. In May, a hard-line rightist candidate, Alvaro Uribe Velez, who promised to crack down on the leftist rebels, won the presidential election. Uribe, a former governor and senator who ran as an independent, declared a limited state of emergency, broadening the government's police powers, as part of his campaign against the rebels.