If you don’t want to fly in the dark when visiting Colombia, it might be a good idea to know a bit about its complicated history. So here are some of the essentials of Colombia history.
The one essential thing to know to understand Colombia?
The Civil War of 1946. That kickstarted the rise of guerillas and paramilitary groups. Those got involved with the drug cartels, to finance their fighting. And all those factors sent the country into a spiral of violence that lasted several decades, until a peace treaty with the FARC in 2016.
Alright. But what are the Colombians really made of?
Good question. Before the Spanish arrived, not much is known of the tribes that were living here. There was immigration from the north, but most of them were en route to other destinations. The bigger cities (Tierradentro, Ciudad Perdida) were already abandoned around 1500. So the answer is: we don’t really know.
The inevitable question: how much damage did the Spanish cause during their conquest?
Well, the country is named after Columbus, though he never visited the place. Cartagena was the first biggest city to be founded by the Spaniards in 1533, before they conquered the interior. As their domination of the countries (also Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador) became more oppressive, resistance grew as well. After numerous attempts, insurgents led by Simon Bolivar coming from Venezuela beat the Spaniards in 1819 and liberated the countries.
And they were happy ever after?
Good joke. Bolivar’s vision of a Greater Colombia unravelled within ten years, when Ecuador and Venezuela declared independence. Bolivar himself died in 1830 of tuberculosis.
As in Ecuador, two opposing political forces (Conservatives and Liberals) came to the fore. It resulted in several civil wars, giving the Americans the chance to help a resistance movement in Panama and build a canal there. Panama, until then a Colombian province, became independent in 1921.
But then peace?!
Dream on. In 1946 the bloodiest civil war (La Violencia) broke out, killing 200’000 people. In 1957 the Liberals and Conservatives signed a 16-year peace treatment (called Front National), sharing government duties and forbidding any other political parties. That, and the continued tensions between landowners and indigenous groups, led to several leftist splinter groups (guerilla organizations such as the FARC and the ELN). The landowners in return founded and funded paramilitary groups.
That sent the country into a spiral of violence, kidnappings, and drug production on both sides to pay for all the fighting. Caught in between were many civilians and campesinos (farmers). According to estimates 5% of the population was forcefully displaced (when not murdered, as paramilitaries liked to execute campesinos for suspected sympathies to guerillas). To complicate matters, both sides also aligned themselves with the drug cartels of the 80s and 90s, with Pablo Escobar being the most well-known leader.
The government was overpowered and sidelined, until Alvaro Uribe was elected president in 2002. He doubled funding of the military, and bit by bit started to hurt guerillas. Murder rates fell, but also at the cost of horrible human rights scandals. Several congressmen were arrested for links with paramilitaries. And the Falsos Positivos-scandal, where soldiers killed innocent young men and claimed they were FARC rebels to claim a killing bonus, still cuts deep divisions in society.
Surprisingly, FARC offered peace and talks started in 2012. The peace agreement was narrowly rejected by the Colombian people in 2016, but in a slightly modified version ratified by Congress.
All good?
Not entirely, but it’s much better now. Conflict with the ELN is still ongoing, and parts of the country are still controlled by paramilitaries. The cocaine production is also still too lucrative, and moved to remote areas along the Pacific coast. So some regions are still difficult to reach and not safe to travel to, especially on that coast.
But murder rates have plummeted in the big cities. Especially Medellin has undergone a remarkable metamorphosis. Endemic problems still remain though, especially corruption (according to NGOs Colombia is one of the most corrupt in the world) and the extreme inequalities between rich and poor.