July 20 – Independence Day in Colombia

nPostednon July 20, 2014

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n Onnthis date in 1810, people in Colombia responded to the politicalntroubles of their colonial master, Spain, by setting up their ownnlocal government.
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nTonset the stage, Europe was dealing with steady encroachment bynNapoleon Bonaparte and periodic outbreak of wars between nations. ThenFrench Emperor had forced the King of Spain (Ferdinand VII) to givenup the throne to Napoleon’s brother, Joseph Bonaparte. As you mightnexpect, many Spaniards resisted the new king’s rule, and an emergencynalternative government called the Supreme Central Junta was formed bynsome of the most powerful Spaniards.

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nMostnof Spain’s colonies in South and Central America made formalndeclarations of loyalty to Spain’s Supreme Central Junta and tonFerdinand VII—thereby setting themselves up as NOT being loyal tonKing Joseph. Also, movements within the various colonies startedncreating their own juntas. In 1808 and 1809, local independentngovernments were set up in what is now Bolivia, Peru, and Venezuela.nThe viceroys—the representatives of King Joseph who were supposednto rule in the colonies—often tried to put down these rebellions,nbut because of the instability in Spain and all of Europe, they hadnonly limited support from the mother country.

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nThenpeople in Colombia who wanted to oust the Spanish viceroy made a plannthat involved one patriot asking a merchant to borrow a flower vase—anrequest that they were sure would be refused—and another patriotnwould ask the viceroy for an open town meeting to discussnindependence—again, a request that would certainly be rejected. Inguess the merchant and viceroy played right into the patriots’ hands,nbecause apparently they not only refused the requests, they did so inna very haughty, rude way. n

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nThenpatriots were able to run through the streets of Bogota (the capitalncity of Colombia) telling everybody about the rude rejections ofnthese proposals, and soon enough mobs of people started protestingnSpanish arrogance. n

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nInknow I would want independence if someone turned down my request forna flower vase in a rude way!

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nUndernpressure of a rioting populace, the Spanish viceroy agreed to allow anlimited independence…which later became full and permanentnindependence. n

nColombians celebrate their independence with parades and speeches and parties.

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nLearnnabout Colombia

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nColombian is famous for its coffee and for singer-songwriter, dancer, recordn producer, choreographer, and model Shakira. Shakira isn’t just a popn legend; she works to build schools and community centers in then poorest neighborhoods of Colombia, and she works to convince othern Latin American leaders to invest in education for little kids.

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nYoun have probably figured out that Colombia was named after Christophern Columbus (whose name in Italian is Cristoforon Colombo,n and in Spanish is Cristobaln Colon).n Back when it was a colony, the territory (and Ecuador, Panama,n Venezuela, and part of Brazil) was called New Granada (Grenada isn the name of an important city in Spain).

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nColombian is one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries. (I didn’t realizen that the U.S. is also one!) The nation has Amazon rainforest,n tropical grasslands, seacoasts on the Pacific Ocean and on then Caribbean Sea, and highlands of Andes Mountains. It is consideredn the second most biodiverse country in the world, and is #1 in then number of species per square mile or kilometer.

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nColombian has the most species of butterflies, orchids, and amphibians of anyn other nation in the world. It has more species of birds than all ofn Europe and North America combined! (So…yeah…MEGAdiverse!)

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nColombian is the leading source of emeralds in the world. Like, the MEGAn leading source – because 70 to 90% of the world’s emeralds comen from that relatively small nation!

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