Gran Colombia (1819-1830)

On December 17, 1819, two months after the victory of the Battle of Boyaca, a congress
met in the Venezuelan city of Angostura, where joined Venezuela with the territories that
made up the Viceroyalty of New Granada (Quito , Panama and new Granada) and thus
proclaimed a new nation under the name of Republic of Colombia. The idea of creating
this great country, emerged from Simon Bolivar, who aspired to organize a nation, big
enough to compete economically with the European powers and maintain its
independence through a powerful military force. At the Congress of Angostura, Bolivar
was elected president and Francisco Antonio Zea, vice president. Each department also
had a vice president Francisco de Paula Santander, Cundinamarca and Juan Roscio,
of Venezuela. Quito was pending, since it was still held by the Spanish. Now it is
necessary to explain that although the Angostura Congress gave this great nation the
name Republic of Colombia, since the late nineteenth century has been called Gran
Colombia to differentiate it from our nation today.
The Constitution of Cucuta
In 1821 it settled a Constituent Congress in the city of Cucuta, which aimed to provide
the first constitution of the country. For approval it discussed whether to take a centralist
or federalist.
The centralist: headed by Jose Manuel Restrepo and Vicente Azuero, among others,
they advocated building a nation under the direction of a central, single government.
The Federalists: led by Jose Ignacio de Marquez, defended the idea of organizing the
country through confederation, establishing provincial governments that the central
government had no more choice.
After several discussions, Congress adopted the centralist system. In addition,
confirmed Bolivar as president and named Santander as vice president, he divided the
power in the executive, legislative and judicial branches, recognized freedom of speech
and religion, granted the right to vote to men over 21 years, appointed Bogota as the
capital of the country from where the rest of the territory rule, liquidated monasteries
with fewer than eight religious freedom and gave newborns of slaves through the socalled freedom of wombs children.