Colombia (Lonely Planet, 5th Edition) - Jens Porup [16]
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The CIA World Factbook website (www.cia.gov) has a breakdown of Colombian government, economy and population issues to keep you in the know.
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TIMELINE
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10,000 BC Some early arrivals create little stone chips at the site of El Abra in modern-day Bogotá – the earliest known evidence of human habitation in modern-day Colombia.
5500 BC Early groups of pre-Muisca begin moving to present-day Colombia, where they eventually become the biggest indigenous group between the Inca and Maya by the time of Columbus.
11th century AD The Tayrona begin building their largest city, the legendary Ciudad Perdida (or Lost City), in lush rainforest, which would be ‘discovered’ only in 1975.
1400 The San Agustín culture – the northernmost extension of the Inca, some believe – perhaps foresee shiny-hatted explorers from the east, and leave behind hundreds of stone figures.
1500 On his second journey to the New World, Alonso de Ojeda lands at Cabo de la Vela – and a scientist onboard surprises the crew by discovering the place isn’t actually Asia.
1537–38 Disobedient conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada twice founds a new settlement, Santa Fe de Bogotá. First, without permission from the Crown, in 1537 – then, after asking if it’s OK, in 1538.
1564 The Spanish Crown establishes the Real Audiencia del Nuevo Reino de Granada in Bogotá, subject to the viceroyalty of Peru in Lima.
1717 Bogotá becomes capital of the viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, an area that encompasses present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama.
1808 Napoleon defeats Spanish King Ferdinand VII and installs his brother on the Spanish throne, sending a glimmer of possibility for independence-minded thinkers across South America.
1819 Simón Bolívar – crossing Los Llanos with an army of Venezuelans and Nueva Granadans from present-day Colombia – defeats the Spanish army at Boyacá and the Republic of Gran Colombia is founded.
1830 After a rocky start, Gran Colombia splits into Colombia (including modern-day Panama), Ecuador and Venezuela; Bolívar sends himself into exile, then dies in Santa Marta.
1886 Colombia elects Dr Rafael Núñez, who helps ease tension between state and church with new ‘regeneration’ policies outlined in a constitution that will stay in place for over a century.
1899 The three-year Thousand Days War between Liberals and Conservatives erupts around the country, providing a key backdrop for Gabriel García Márquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude.
1903 Long cut off from the rest of Colombia, Panama secedes from the country – with a lot of sneaky meddling from a canal-focused US to aid the process.
1948 Likely Liberal presidential candidate, populist leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, is murdered leaving his office, setting off Bogotá and the country into bloody riots – the culprits are never identified.
1964 Funded by the US, the Colombian military drops napalm on a guerrilla-held area, giving rise to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC); the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) and M-19 follow.
1974 The National Front ends, and newly elected president Alfonso López Michelsen taxes the rich, and launches the first major counterinsurgency against all three main guerrilla groups.
1981 Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel battles M-19 and the cartel’s hitmen join with other paramilitary groups; meanwhile homosexuality is declared legal by the government in Bogotá.
1982 Pablo Escobar is elected to the Colombian Congress; President Belisario Betancur grants amnesty to guerrilla groups and frees hundreds of prisoners; Colombia drops out of the contest to hold the World Cup.
1983 Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla is assassinated for supporting an extradition treaty with the US.
1985